This is why you don't exercise

One of the biggest mistakes I see mamas making when it comes to getting in their training and daily movement is NOT treating it like a non-negotiable.

Days, weeks, months, years and DECADES will go by with you  barely exercising because the truth is, YOU HAVE NO TIME!

There is LITERALLY always something that needs your energy and attention.
Kids.

Laundry.
Pets.
Meal prep.
Shopping.
School events.
Showering.
That special work project your boss assigned you.
Homeschool lesson prep.
Community yard sale.
Church picnic.
Your best friend’s life crisis.
Your parent’s health condition.

Your life is FULL. 

The only way that you will cultivate a routine fitness, exercise, training or movement practice is if you say NO to something else and you CARVE out that time.

And I know that this is not easy, but it is simple. 

Your first step?
Make a realistic commitment to an achievable goal and make it happen as best you can.
If you’re reading this right now, then there is a pretty dang good chance you have pelvic floor, gut health, strength or fat loss-related goals, maybe ALL OF THE ABOVE.

Listen to me.

There is no one program that is going to make it all happen.
There is nothing wrong with you or your body.

You just have to make a choice.
Are you going to make it happen no matter how ugly it looks, how inconvenient it is, how uncomfortable you feel?
Or are you going to keep waiting?

And remember, your choice isn’t going to look like anyone else’s!

You may find it frustrating that the ONLY way you can get in a workout is to:
-let your toddler watch a screen

-leave the dishes in the kitchen

-wake up mega early

-skip laundry

-give up your work lunch break

While your Instagram friend Susie, seems to be able to manage a Pinterest caliber organized home, and incorporate her children into a yoga routine that keeps her 24/7 long and lean.

Stop wasting time looking around and comparing your path to other people’s.

Look at your own schedule, your own needs, your own body, your own goals, set your intention and GO AFTER IT as persistently and imperfectly as you can.

No one else is going to do it for you, but let me tell you something, YOU CAN DO IT!
Not because it’s easy.

Not because you have extra time.
But because you’re strong ass woman with grit and determination. 

I see you.

xoxo,

Sarah

Need a movement and training program to get you started?
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Sarah Smith is a former athletic coach, personal trainer, level two Russian Kettlebell Instructor, postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil Science and Agricultural. 

She works online and in her garage gym in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University. She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, confident and capable in their bodies-even when struggling with pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions. 

She is a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog. She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move-in a non-creepy way.

Three Strategies To Help YOU FINALLY get consistent in exercise ** PLUS free workouts!

**Scroll down if you want to skip the TIPS and just get the workout!

All summer my husband and I have been traveling with our 3 boys around New England for the past month and have managed to train with kettlebells 3-4 days per week.

With a family of 5 moving around from place to place on vacation, being consistent with training could be almost impossible except that we had THREE simple strategies for getting out workouts in.

These particular strategies not only worked for us on this vacation, but they are my GO-TO strategies for both myself and my clients to stay consistent in our training EVEN when our full and busy lives make it difficult, so here they are:

1. Simplicity

2. Flexibility

3. Accountability

Let’s talk about them.

Simplicity:
WE kept our workouts MAJORLY simple on this trip for two primary reasons,

1. We only had space in our car and ease of transport for two kettlebells (12 K and 16K) and two resistance bands. IF we had brought much more than that, the equipment would have become a burden, nuisance to have around PLUS it would have been too cumbersome to lug to the beach, or pull out in the AirBNB yard to get our sweat sesh on. 

This was the case for us on this trip, but this may be the case for you right now!
If you don't have room in your home, the stroller, your car or your home office for lots of equipment, don’t worry. Being consistent with just a few pieces of equipment can build your body and physique AND help you to truly master exercise.
In Kettlebells For Cool Kids-my 12 week kettlebell program we only use TWO pieces of equipment!!

And
2. When you’re traveling and managing a family of 5, you simply don’t have the bandwidth for COMPLICATED workouts.

We found that it was FAR easier to be consistent in our training by keeping our training sessions to 3-4 compound (utilizing multiple muscle groups and joints) movements only.
If we wanted to add a few in more at the end, like a finisher, we had that option, but when we met out in the yard or at the beach to train, we knew that we were simply going to do a 3-4 exercises at a set number of reps and then move on with our day!
The weights were relatively light, so we kept the pace up and worked as hard as we could, resting as needed.

Flexibility:

I tell my clients this all of the time, but it was especially important on a family vacation, the only way to be CONSISTENT in your TRAINING is to be FLEXIBLE around what it looks like, where and when it takes place and how perfect it is.
On the days that we trained, we had a plan as to what we would do, but if we simply gave up when things weren’t going to plan (breakfast ran late, getting to the beach took longer, we forgot a piece of equipment, the kids needed us, etc….) then we would NEVER have honored our commitment to workout 3 times a week this month.
And so when things when awry, we just went with it.
We improvised with bodyweight exercises.
We accepted interruptions, even embraced them, “Sure kids we’ll play with you, let’s sprint down the beach to those rocks!?”

We just kept going as best we could and knew that whatever we managed to make happen was better than NOTHING!

That #persistenceoverperfection mindset, man, it is the BEST way to get things done and keep us coming back!

Accountability: 

Feeling like our commitment matters is helpful.

On this particular trip, Jeremiah (hubs) and I were accountable to each other in the way that my Kettlebells For Cool Kids are accountable to their fellow cool kids, my clients are accountable to me and you can be accountable to your friend, partners, coach, neighbor, or online community.

Rather than solely focusing on my own self and my own commitment, I also wanted to show up and train to support Jeremiah, my partner in crime.
I mean when it’s 92 degrees, sunny and you’d love to just lay around and drink coffee or nap and chill at the beach, knowing that your bud is willing to train with you and also wants to honor their own commitments can make all the difference.

At the end of the day, diet and exercise culture has trained us to think it’s OK to give up on our commitments to ourselves because many of us have DECADES of experience trying crash diet and exercise programs, that we quit because let’s face it, they suck and are impossible to stay with.

But the truth is COMMITMENTS matter.
It takes time and help to BREAK the habit of quitting and giving up on the promises that we make to ourselves.

Effective and smart programming shouldn’t MAKE you feel like you want to quit.
It should be adaptable to your real life, BUT you also have to be tenacious and determined to show up and do what you said you were going to do.

I have personally seen that for myself and my clients, the accountability piece is HUGELY important.
We are FAR less likely to break a promise ourselves or put our goals on the back burner because they are inconvenient, uncomfortable and or too much work IF we know someone is watching.

PLUS when we partner with someone else in our commitment, on those days when we truthfully don’t feel like working for ourselves, we can often muster the strength to show up for someone else.

This summer on days when we needed the SIMPLEST of workouts that would pack a PUNCH, workout WHOLE BODY and leave us feeling like we had WORKED OUT HARD-you know all that burny, sore good feelings we did the following workout:

In any order, complete the following (it takes about 30-45 minutes, depending on how much rest you take and you should rest as needed!:

100 KB swings **(beginners sub KB deadlifts)

100 pushups **(beginners sub 50 incline pushups)

100 weighted squats **(beginners sub bodyweight)

If you’ve NEVER learned how to do a kettlebell deadlift, proper pushup or squat, get
Kettlebells For Cool Kids™!

Sarah Smith is a former athletic coach, personal trainer, level two Russian Kettlebell Instructor, postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil Science and Agricultural. 

She works online and in her garage gym in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University. She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, confident and capable in their bodies-even when struggling with pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions. 

She is a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog. She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move-in a non-creepy way.

Trick # 3 ....

Everyday that you try to exercise there will be a million other things that you could, should, and want to do.

Guest bed buried in laundry today...and many days.

The fear of being interrupted, the inconvenience of actually getting dressed in workout clothes (don't forget Trick # 1!), a work call you have to make, that laundry you need to fold these things stop us in our tracks.
They give legitimacy to our procrastination.
Our lives are demanding, so we put off working-out until later...and later...and later....months, years can go by and those hindrances are still there in one form or another and we're still not exercising.

Exercise is never going to be super convenient.
I'm going to teach you how to be as efficient and low-tech as possible to help you make it happen AND get results.
Even with that help, you will have to create space in your home, your life, and your mind.

Maybe you want to be healthy and you want to do it in a way that is realistic for your life.
Or you already know the excuses and the legitimate reasons you have for not exercising, but you also know that you need to make it happen, and you're not exactly sure how to do it.

If this is you, here's my advice,

JUST START!

Or just "staht", as we say in my middle class New England family.

When I'm tired, crunched for time and I have lists upon lists of things that I need to accomplish I say to myself, "Just start the workout and see where it takes you," and 7 out of 10 times, I finished it and felt better for having exercised.
Other times, maybe I got 5, 10 minutes in before being interrupted by life, but it was better than nothing AND by just starting that mini-workout, it was easier to "just start" the next time I needed to. 

How did I start doing this?

 Six months after having my first baby, I started attentinding a workout class with other moms who supported one another in fitness, motherhood, and life.
I knew it was good for me, and I felt bad when I missed a class, but sometimes with a new baby and the exhaustion, I just couldn't imagine myself getting there and THEN working out for an hour.

So I started trying to just get there.
I gave myself the permission to do it as IMPERFECTLY as necessary, to stop if I needed to...and sometimes I even left early.
Having that freedom made me feel in control of the process, this was also the beginnings of my cultivation of a #persistenceoverperfection of #pop mindset!!

No one was forcing me to workout, I made the choice and some days I chose to stop because I needed the rest.
I needed to be gentle.
Oddly enough, this gave me the power to start the workouts and more often than not, push through to the end.
After that, I used this same approach for attending other exercise classes, getting to the gym, and I found that my attendance was even better than it had ever been.

Maybe for you, it's not about workouts. You're not even there yet. You're not sure how to "just start" because you don't even know how to work out. For you, it's more like taking that first step towards living better?

If that's the case then I am happy to tell you, you're already doing it.
By reading this post, you're seeking, researching what to do next.
Keep it up.
Keep researching.
Find people online (like myself) and in person that inspire you to make good choices, to learn what good choices look like in your life. These folks will help you be accountable to the commitment you wish to make.

Start using the mantra, #persistenceoverperfection!!

Every baby step you take towards creating habits of wellness in your life, the closer you get to looking and feeling better and the easier it becomes to live your live health-full life.

Sarah Smith is a personal trainer, level two Russian Kettlebell Instructor, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Agricultural Science.
She works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina. 
Sarah specializes in helping women online and in-person feel strong, confident and capable in their bodies!
She is a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog. She loves soil, coffee and not folding laundry. Come follow her on Instagram or Facebook.