Eliminate the opportunity for excuses! Pack the night before!

If you didn’t have your gym bag ready and packed the night before, you really had no “real” intentions of going to the gym. Be honest, that’s the truth and you know it. As bad or as much as you wanted to be able to go to the gym, there was no plan of action to get there. Wanting something badly doesn’t create change… you have to actually “do” what it takes to get there!!!

Think of it like this, your job and your financial security is important to you, right? If you had a job interview and you really wanted that position, you would already have your clothes picked out, resume in hand, ideas of possible answers to certain questions and you’d make sure that you have plenty of time to get there. The same thing applies with your workouts. If it’s really a priority, you will make sure it happens. Your clothes need to be packed the night before and you need to know what you are doing for a workout way before you just “show up”. What good are your clothes being packed with intentions of going to the gym, but not having any clue what you are going to do for a workout?

How many times have you told yourself you’ll pack your gym bag in the morning and then some how you just “run out of time?” All of the sudden your priorities shift and you are not concerned about packing your gym bag, you are just trying to get your usual routine together and leave soon enough to get to work on time. Once at work you either a) justify the fact that you can’t go to the gym today because you didn’t have time or you forgot to pack your stuff or b) you tell yourself that you will come home after work and grab your gym stuff. DON’T FOOL YOURELF !!!! As much as you would like to be able to, you know you’re not going to the gym once you come home from work. At home there are too many distractions and responsibilities; laundry, dishes, dinner, kids homework, email, family, etc. Let’s not forget the biggest time stealer of all… your TV! Once you sit down on that sofa to “relax” from your day, you know you’re not getting up. Another day of no exercise gone and lost all because you didn’t take 2 minutes the night before to plan ahead and pack. Yes that’s right… all it takes is 2 minutes.

Packing my gym bag before I go to bed is part of my nightly routine. It has become so routine that it is like brushing my teeth… I can’t go to bed until I know that it’s done. I toss in a pair of shoes, followed by some socks, a sports bra, a tank top and shorts. Done! My IPod is fully charged every night and gets plugged in next to my phone so that I have no chance of forgetting it. (I disconnect it in the morning when I disconnect my phone).

I wake up at 4am every morning and leave my house by 5:15. My work day is busy just like yours, but I still make the time to take time for my workouts. I take my lunch break at the gym for some morning cardio, and then after work I go back to the gym to hit the weights. Every single night, my gym bag is packed. I never leave in the mornings without it. It sits at my front door so that so that I can’t miss it on my way out. It has become so routine that if I ever left the house without my bag on my shoulder… something would just not feel right.

My gym bag always has its own set of toiletries that I never take out or shuffle between my bag and my bathroom. I’m never transitioning stuff from my bathroom to the gym bag because I never want to make it a possible opportunity to forget something. These are the items that I always keep in my gym bag; deodorant, lotion, face wash, face lotion, shampoo, conditioner, hair spray, body wash, body spray, a razor, hair ties, tooth brush, toothpaste, a hair brush, heart rate monitor, a shaker bottle and a few bags of protein powder. (I never want to be hungry or without food….but this is whole separate topic!) By keeping these items with me at all times, I have eliminated any and all excuses and inconveniences for not being able to work out.

You can do it too! You just have to make it a priority in your life! Take charge of your life and be proactive about your time! Everyone starts somewhere! I didn’t get this good about routinely packing my gym bag overnight! I found the one right way only after I tried 600 other ways that didn’t work! Being prepared and planning ahead is the only thing that works!

To get you started with a workout plan at the gym, scroll down and use my leg work out that I just did for myself last week. I promise you that if you are doing it properly and lifting to your full potential and resting appropriately, this should be all you need for your leg day!

If you are still having a tough time getting to the gym, get a workout partner. Making yourself accountable to someone else helps. It that still doesn’t work, hire me!

Karra’s Leg work out:
Leg press- 20x 15x, 12x 10x superset with 8 box jumps on a 3 foot step
Stiff leg dead lift 20x, 15x, 15x, 12x superset with 8 box jumps
Lunges with smith machine 15x,12x 10x
Seated ham string curl 15x, 15x, 12x superset with walking lunges with heavy dumbbells