Top 5 tips: Getting and staying in shape for busy business people
Two of the most common questions I hear from other business people when discussion turns into my obsession with health and fitness are:
- I wish I could…can you tell me how I can lose weight, get and stay in shape?
- How do you do so well in (time-consuming endurance) sports when you run a company at the same time?
Now I’ve heard the questions so many times that I thought it’s time to share some of the secrets. I’ll address the easier, the first question first, and leave the best kept secrets for a later post.
Here are my Getting in shape top 5 tips for busy business people. I’ve followed these for the last 8 years, while being busy with the business:
1. Schedule everything:I spend 10-20minutes every Sunday scheduling most of my workouts in detail, similar to any other appointments in my calendar. Like with most unscheduled tasks and todo’s, they fall between the cracks. On the other hands, with proper scheduling, I’ve managed to get my workouts in with 150+ annual travel days, changing cities, super early wake-ups and delayed flights.
2. Morning: Regardless of proper scheduling, plans change and unexpected things happen. In most professional environments, workout is not a good excuse to cut a meeting short or not meet your delivery deadline. I’ve found that early morning is the easiest time to be in full control of your own time – even with a 6.30 AM flight; I’ve had my share of 3.30AM workouts.
3. It’s the food, stupid! Actually, you can ignore the first two tips! One of the greatest misconceptions about weight control (if that’s your number #1 goal) is that you can eat whatever you want if you work out a lot, say 10+ hrs a week. Absolutely wrong. Number one factor in weight control is what you eat. I’ve gained weight (fat) countless times while working out 10+ hrs a week and especially when increasing training volume. Even worse, high-intensity workouts (that burn lots of calories and mainly glycogen) can easily turn into a fat weight gaining exercise. It’s a complicated story, but happens quite often.
4. Track it to improve it: If you can measure and track it, you can (and will) improve it. I might be over-obsessed about tracking, but the simplest and fastest way to getting fit (as a “too busy” business person) is to track two things on a notebook/calendar or spreadsheet:
(a) write down your daily workout, what you did and how long each day.
(b) most importantly, track everything you ate for at least 3 days. Repeat once a week or month especially if you don’t eat the same things over and over.
Read both logs through at least once a week and be embarrassed or excited!
Here’s my food log for last Monday:
5. Marathon in sprints: Commit to a new thing or goal for just a few days or week first. E.g., track your eating for 2 days and do a workout every morning for 7 days, even if just 20minutes at a time. It’s very easy to make and keep a commitment for a week. Wonder how ultra runners manage to mentally get through 100 miles?
Interestingly, if you read through #1 - #5 (ok, skip #3), the same principles apply very well in running a business and being very effective at what you do for living.
