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As a personal trainer, I get the opportunity to talk with people from all walks of life about their health, fitness, and weight loss goals. Whether their goal is to lose weight, gain muscle, stick to a diet plan or program, improve their cardiovascular health, or simply to maintain their current fitness level they all have one common enemy……TIME.

For most of us, the number one challenge in the quest to stay in shape and/or lose weight is not exercising itself but being able to actually fit an exercise program into our busy schedules. Because of our busy lives, less than 5% of adults get 30 minutes of activity a day.

So how do you do it? How do you balance the demands of family, career, relationships, kids’ sports, monthly or weekly commitments and working out?

Even myself, as a personal trainer, sometimes can’t get in the workout I would like to have in my day. Between clients, teaching class, running my son from his practices/games, upkeeping the house and whatever else life throws at me, I’ve found five ways that will help fit a consistent workout plan or some kind of physical activity into an already hectic life.

Commit to a specific schedule

Don't try to willy nilly your workouts. Don’t tell yourself "I'll workout as soon as I get some time". Commit, commit, commit.

Take a good, hard look at your day to day. Can you fit 30 minutes of some type of activity in there? If the answer is yes, add it to that day and stick to it.

Now, can you fit it in two days? If that too is a yes, add it there also. See, now you have two days to get in some exercise twice a week.

Now you're probably asking, “what if I said no?” Then my question is, can you fit 10 minutes in, three times a day? Have 10 minutes at work during lunch. Take a walk. Waiting for kids to finish sports, use that time to walk. When my son was at his 2 1/2 hour football practice, I would take a walk around the track. Eventually I had a few other moms walk with me!

Believe me, if we look real hard, we can find that time.

And In order to be effective, you’ll want to exercise at least 3 days per week.

Utilize the weekend

Take advantage of the fact that it only takes 3-5 days per week to put together an effective, results-producing workout. One trick to help you pull it all off is to workout on the weekends. Although we’re busy with all the stuff we can’t do during the week we’re still more flexible and our time is more under our control.

Weekends are where we can get creative. In the winter months, head to the gym. There you’ll find all the equipment you’ll need. Gyms usually have a nice variety of classes too. At the gym where I work, I specifically teach HIIT classes, but you can also take yoga (which by the way is going to be my next certification so stay tuned), pilates, cycling, step, body works, just to name a few.

Another cold weather option is to try an online workout; there are so many apps or You-tube videos, it’s a can’t miss.

Summer time is the best for being outdoors, except for those of us here in Arizona. This is our winter. Get out to the parks, run, ride bikes and enjoy nature.

Keep your workouts a priority

One of the biggest mistakes we make, even if we have an exercise plan or workout scheduled, is when something comes up, its the workout that gets bumped.

Don’t get me wrong, things will occasionally come up that will cause you to reschedule your workout but for the most part, keep the workout as consistent as possible.

And in the event you couldn’t do your workout, reschedule with yourself to make it up on the next possible day that you are available to do so. If your own health, fitness, and efforts to lose weight are not a priority to you, they certainly won't be so to anyone else.

Recruit others to help with your goals

You don't have to go at this alone. Let the important people in your life know what you are up to. Your spouse, parents, children, co-workers, and close friends will often pitch in and help you meet your fitness or weight loss commitment.

You’ll be surprised once to take that first step to commit to working out, you’ll find someone who would also like to begin some type of workout but, like you, never found the time to start.

Don't beat yourself up

No matter who you are, there will be times in your workout program that you just aren't able to keep it up as you would like due to outside demands. Don't be too tough on yourself when that happens.

Remember that it is what you do consistently over a long period of time, not what you do in spurts, that truly counts.

No matter what goals you have for health, fitness, or weight loss, you CAN fit an effective exercise program into that hectic schedule and be amazingly successful at getting the exact results that you want!