Do you ever feel like work becomes SO busy that it becomes impossible to work on your fitness and health goals?  Does the stress of deadlines and responsibilities make it feel like you don’t have any time for, well, you?  Does not feeling like you’re able to ever stay consistent with your fitness or nutrition plans?

If you’ve ever answered a resounding ‘YES!’ to any of these questions then read on.  This article is going to be your jam!

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Stress, weight gain and lack of fitness are the exact reasons your health will start to decline during your 30’s and 40’s and continue until it’s too late.  It sucks.  

Our stress gets jacked up (along with other responsibilities) and at the same time we have less time to do things and lack the energy to boot.  From here, we lose strength, gain fat and our health declines.

We know we need to eat more veggies and less pizza.  We know we need to plan more time to take care of ourselves.  But the universe likes to kick us when we’re down and it becomes hella hard to stay consistent with any semblance of a fitness plan.

We get it.  We see it all the time.  That’s why we designed our Jumpstart Program at First Guess Fitness to help people just like you-who feel stuck, who don’t know what to do, and have just about given up.

But you need to know this one thing: You can ABSOLUTELY get unstuck.

Oh, and you can build a better body you can be proud of.  And it doesn’t have to suck.  And you can do it all in an hour or two per week.

Seriously.

Get ready to learn:

1. Why most fitness programs you’ve tried might be holding you back, and
2. What you can do to start to look and feel hot AF-and live your best life!

Before we start dropping the knowledge bombs though, I wanted to let you know that we’d love to help you and have you hang out with us at AMP!

We’ve created an extraordinary community of wonderful humans like yourself who want an awesome place to nail their fitness goals on their journey.  We’re here to coach you towards success, help you learn and ensure that you’re having the most fun possible (while doing fitness stuff of course!).

Since we’re a small boutique studio, we’re able to keep our focus on our members to ensure everyone is getting in the best shape of their life and feeling great and making sustainable change.  We’re a bunch of super fitness nerds who are continuing to get better ourselves to keep making our approach more effective.

Want to learn more?  We’d love to see how we can help.

We’d love to help you get started and guide you through the toughest parts of getting started and start making some permanent improvements to your health, strength and hotness!

K.  That’s the end of our shameless plug.  It wouldn’t be fair of us to NOT offer help.

Now for the fun stuff.  Are you ready to start making progress today?  Here’s how to overcome the two biggest roadblocks that are standing in your way of becoming the strongest, healthiest and happiest version of yourself…

Problem #1: You’re busy AF

If you’re like me, you’ve noticed some interesting things start to happen as you enter your 30’s and beyond (if you’re still in your 20’s…just wait young whippersnapper):

• It get’s more difficult to crush sleep and you wake up already tired.  WTF?
• Our sexual prowess begins it’s decline. #hormones
• We become more aware of our joints… and how they feel cranky from time to time.
• Eating becomes our favorite past time.  Who doesn’t love to eat?
• We don’t destroy a 30 rack like in college…but we DO drink fine wine and micro brews more frequently.  A glass a night becomes a pretty normal habit.

It’s not all bad, however, and good shit happens too:

• We find a good career we like and is challenging.
• More income! (Yay!)
• We’ve built lasting relationships with other awesome humans!
• We build a family and babies sometimes happen.
• We become wiser and more learn-ed. #GrowthMindset

While all of our journeys are different and we are all unique snowflakes, some things remain constant no matter who you are.  For most people, getting older usually means:

• We have more responsibilities in the home.
• Stress builds up from work, home and life stuff.
• We lose the time (and sometimes the drive) to take care of ourselves.

We start to accumulate other things, too.  That $20 gym membership we never use, that cookbook Aunt Frannie gave us for Christmas that hasn’t left the shelf, and a few extra pounds we don’t particularly enjoy putting on.

We all want to lose fat and feel comfortable on the beach in a Speedo or two piece… but ain’t nobody got time for that.  We keep telling ourselves ‘Today’s the day!’.   How many times have you said you’ll get started on Monday?  

And then never do.  F&%k Mondays.  

After sitting down with hundreds of people, this is what I’ve come to understand:

Once people become so stressed out with work and family obligations they start to believe that it’s impossible to “really commit” to a fitness and/or nutrition plan.  That they just don’t have the time or energy.

Sound familiar?

But what if you didn’t have to dedicate a huge portion of your life to getting in shape?

What most of us do when we feel busy and stressed:

• Get crushed by our busy schedule and completely neglect our health and fitness.
• Set impossible fitness goals and wish for a miracle.
• Try all the fad diets, quick fixes, and supplements…and then realize it’s all a scam.
• Continue on a path of becoming fatter and beating yourself up for not doing anything about it.

What you can do to be successful:

• Be a minimalist.  It’s PERFECT for those with busy lives!
• Focus on the one BIG ROCK in your nutrition and fix that (ignoring everything else).

Embrace fitness minimalism

Fact: You DON’T have to spend hours in the gym to get in better shape.

It’s always good to have options (aka plan A, B, C, and D) such as a:

• quickie gym workout
• basic at-home workout
• bodyweight anywhere/anytime workout
• super quick workout (10min or less)
• something for funsies

Your plan should allow for modifications (one of our rules at AMP is everything is optional!) to allow you to challenge yourself based on how you’re feeling that day.  We still believe that doing something is better than doing nothing.  Especially when you’re stressed out.

Here, take a peek at something I wrote for an AMP member who was struggling to find time and consistency to work out.  It’s incredibly simple and it helped them nail their consistency weekly until they felt like they were back on track with the habit of exercise.

The best part?  It only took them less than an hour a week!

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Day 1

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15min

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A) Kettlebell Deadlift X 15

B) Push Up on Incline X 10

C) TRX Row X 10

1min rest; repeat x 5

Day 2

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10min

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Treadmill intervals:

– Walk for 1 min

– Jog for 1 min

repeat x 5

Day 3

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15min

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Bodyweight Squats x 10

Plank from Hands x :30

Jumping Jacks x 30

1min rest; repeat x 5

Day 4

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15min

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15 minutes of continuous exercise or play!  Try cycling, hiking, or just running around with some children (that should be enough cardio!)

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If you’re up for the challenge to make a little progress each week, it’s important to slowly make some upgrades.

You can add sets, repetitions, decrease rest or choose more challenging variations.  Nothing too crazy but a little bit here and there goes a long way towards your fitness #gainz.

Identify the weakest link in your nutrition game and focus on fixing that (ignore everything else)

We all know that nutrition is key to looking and feeling better and we know it’s best to follow some sort of plan.  We’ve found that the challenge for most people is

1. They don’t know where to start.  Or…
2. They try to do it all at once and fail miserably.

Both are extremely frustrating.  So instead of taking the shotgun approach (which just adds to stress) we recommend taking the same strategy we use with our coaching clients and AMP members:

Pick just ONE THING about the way you eat—the one you think will have the biggest impact—and just focus on that.  For now.

Stay focused on nailing that habit for 2 weeks and when you feel successful choose something else to focus on.  We want you to nail the simple things that build up over time.  Before you know it you’ll have nailed a whole bunch of new habits and the process of staying consistent will be a piece of cake.

The easiest way to figure out what that ‘one thing’ might be is to ask yourself this simple question:

“What’s the ‘one thing’ I could do right now to feel better about my nutrition?”

I promise that you already know exactly what to do.  If you’re stuck, here are a few to get you started:

Goal: Drink less booze.
Action: Instead of having two beers when you drink, have one beer.

Goal: Limit junk food consumption.
Action: Instead bringing home pizza every Friday night, stop by a grocery store and get a pre-made salad with chicken on it.

Goal: Make better choices when you eat out.
Action: Instead of getting the fries or starch, get the side salad. Or, instead of the muffin for breakfast, order scrambled egg wrap.

Remember, simple works.  The idea is to pick something that will not only have a significant impact on your body but something that you can be successful with.

If you still feel stuck and could use some help or if you know you need some extra accountability… that’s what we’re here for!  You can learn more about First Guess Fitness coaching here or

Problem #2: You KNOW what to do… but you struggle to be consistent.

This is perhaps one of the biggest struggles most people face.  In fact, we polled our Facebook group and consistency was the #1 challenge.  It won by a landslide.

And I’m sure that most of those who voted aren’t complete beginners.  Chances are they’ve tried all sorts of things already like:

• Training programs such as P90X, Insanity, etc.
• Fad diets like Atkins, Paleo, Low Carb, and many more.
• Using Fitbits, Apple Watches and other fitness apps.
• Spin classes, bootcamps, Orange Theory or Crossfit.

And these are all great options and work for so many people.  But not for everyone.  Then, eventually, even the best of intentions begin to fade.

You’re probably asking yourself why that is…

Well, they only help solve the short term problems like where to train or maybe even what do do.  We’re good at finding new things pretty much daily.  There’s an app for EVERYTHING.

But those short term solutions are just that.  Short term.

They don’t take into account that we are complex beings with complex lives.  We get busy.  New jobs, growing families, our goals change, we get stressed out and we just lose interest in things sometimes.  Those short term solutions just wont cut it when it comes to helping you stay consistent.

So what are you supposed to do?

What most humans do when they fail to be consistent.

• Pick another short term solution to follow.  And then another.  And another.

How you’re going to be successful:

• Make yourself accountable to a program.
• Make yourself accountable to a person.

Make yourself accountable to a program.

Ideally, one that doesn’t have a title like “30 Days to Ripped Abs” or “Shredded in 45”.  

You will want one that:

• Actually works.  That should be a ‘duh’ but you want to make sure it is tested and reviewed.
• Helps you stay consistent.  It MUST be customizable to YOUR life, not the other way around.
• Is incredibly fun!  If you don’t enjoy doing it chances are it won’t last too long.
• That provides you a clear goal to strive for.  It should be big and positive and make you feel GOOD.

These are non-negotiable and should be part of any program that will help you stay consistent long term.  Be careful though, since it’s easy to miss these big picture components.

In fact, we’ve found that many programs out there are designed to do the opposite.  They prey on our need for a quick fix. They also make you feel guilty for slacking or not being perfect.  Ain’t nobody got time for that kind of negativity in their lives.

So how do you know what to do?

Well, we’ve been doing this for a while and have figured a couple things out…

• You’re going to need a structured plan.  It should allow flexibility for you to move at your own speed and change it up when necessary.  
• You’re going to need something that is customizable to your goals, skill level, and how much time you’re able to commit.
• Bonus: It should be ridiculously fun.  That helps the medicine go down. 🙂