When I was in college, I went to the gym six days per week, two hours at a time. Sometimes longer, depending on which friends and cute girls were there.

I remember thinking, “I’m so busy!” And regularly using that as an excuse for why I didn’t get things done.

Now, at 28, I see how naive I was. I can also recognize that 38-year-old me will be looking back in ten years saying the same thing to me now.

“Enjoy your child-free sleep…”

But my point is that as we get older⏤and responsibilities inevitably pile up⏤we have to use a flexible approach if we want to reach our fitness goals and maintain them long-term.

We can’t have the same expectations of who we were 10 years ago, five years ago, or, hell, even one year ago. A lot can change, and quickly.

And one of the first things to fall to the wayside when life gets busy?

The glue that holds everything else together: our health and fitness.

“When things settle down, then I’ll…”

This is one of the biggest limiting beliefs I hear people throw around when justifying why they haven’t taken their fat loss goals more seriously yet.

• “I’m moving in a few weeks.”
• “I’m going on vacation soon.”
• “Work is just crazy right now.”
• “The moon is in retrograde.”

All common retorts. (Well, maybe not the last one, unless you live in Austin, TX like I do.)

And, look, I’m not here to tell you you just need to “Work Harder!” or judge you in any way.

Life is messy.

All I’m saying is getting in-shape WHILE dealing with the messiness of life is a skill. It can be learned.

I’d even say it’s one of the most important things you can learn if you want to lose weight and keep it off for life (without being miserable).

The reality is your life will never settle down.

There’s always going to be something preventing this from being the “better time.”

Again, I understand there are legit excuses.

But if you want to make these weight loss changes long-term, which I’m assuming you do, you need to learn how to navigate during these “non-perfect” times.

Because if you can only follow your plan when things are perfect, you’ll slide backwards once life inevitably becomes more chaotic.

Just like the parents who magically “figure it out” when they have no other choice, you can do the same.

There are a couple ways I’d recommend to make following your fitness plan easier when life gets busy.

Four, actually.

4 Ways To Make Your Fitness Plan Easier When Life Gets Harder

1. Start with your values and why this is important to you.

“Fat loss” is not a value, it’s a goal.

It’s also not very motivating. You know that eating a salad is the right choice for fat loss, but since it doesn’t give you abs immediately, it’s harder to follow through if you don’t love salads.

So, as the saying goes, start with why. (This may require some internal digging.)

• “I want to lose weight so I can live a healthy life for my children.”
• “I want to lose weight to prove to myself I can do hard things.”
• “I want to lose weight so I can feel more confident in clothes while on dates.”

Finding your soul mate is much more motivating than seeing an arbitrary number on the scale.

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2. Lower expectations, but keep momentum forward.

You’ve already acknowledged things are hectic in your life. Piling on unrealistic goals or “forcing” extreme discipline are a recipe for disaster, and a waste of time (think “75 Hard” or going keto).

Go for the easy wins. And think addition, not subtraction.We want to focus on what you can do, not can’t do.

• Add more water throughout your day
• Add more protein to each meal
• Add more fruit to breakfast every morning
• Add one greens smoothie every night
• Add a walk after lunch each day

You don’t need the perfect plan. You need consistent action.

Oh, and don’t judge yourself when you mess up. Because it will happen.

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3. Find your Minimum Effective Dose (MED).

You don’t need the perfect plan, but any type of structure will help.

This is where I encourage finding your MED with both your diet and exercise regimen.

I talk about this in-depth on Day 2 of my Frictionless Fat Loss email course, but I’ll link the PDF “Task of the Day” for you below.

4. Outsource your accountability, thinking, and ACTION PLAN by hiring help.

Excuse me while I put on my sales hat for a second.

😃 → 🤠

That’s better.

Here’s the deal: I don’t know what you’re going through, but I know that I’ve likely worked with someone who’s gone through something similar.

Construction workers, project managers, directors, CEOs, students, teachers, nurses, stay-at-home mom’s, finance, government officials⏤I’ve worked with them all.

And they came to me basically saying one thing,

“I know I can do better than what I’m doing right now.”

I understand where they’re coming from. I’ve been going through the same thing in the past few years. Eventually, I found that middle ground where I had to balance my health and fitness with my other priorities.

But the things I needed to make that transition weren’t obvious. It turned out that I needed other people — coaches, mentors, fitness-industry friends, insiders — to help guide me to a sustainable way of training and eating.

If you’re someone who’s ambitious like my clients, and like me, this may be hard to accept. We like to figure out problems on our own. We know enough, right? All we have to do is just… do it!

But that’s just it: we’re not doing it. Because it seems like it’s only a matter of “buckling down.”

If we would just ________, THEN we’d see real results.

Like you, I thought the answer was more discipline and stronger willpower. I just needed to try harder.

But I was wrong.

I needed two things:

1. I needed to learn the skills required to get my ass in-shape, and keep my ass in-shape.

2. I needed the accountability. I was letting myself off the hook when things got hard.

But it started with accepting that I needed help.

So if this resonated, and you’re ready to stop putting this off to some magical “better time” that won’t arrive⏤I would love to work with you.​

I’ll teach you the skills required so that I’m the last coach you’ll ever need.

Summer is approaching quickly and my coaching spots are being taken just as fast.

​Claim your 1:1 coaching spot today.​

Or, if you want more details, just reply to this email and I’ll send them over.

No matter what you do, just do something.

You’ll be happier you did.

Enjoy your weekend,

-Matt

P.S. And if none of that works… consider kids?