Introduction

If you’re out of shape and want to finally get fit and lean, then chances are that deep down, you secretly know what you have to start doing: eating clean and working out.

But equally as important are your mindset, setting a clear goal, and planning.

Without good preparations, you risk falling back into your old habits. In this article I’ll tell you about what helped me to start and stay on track of my fitness journey.

Let’s get started!

Focus your mind

The first thing you need to do is to decide if you're serious about starting this journey or not.

Because if you're not, then I hate to break it to you, but then simply don't bother.

However, if you really want to make a change this time and improve yourself physically, then deep down inside you'll have this desire for change and the willingness to do whatever it takes to start that change. If you are determined to start the change in your lifestyle, then you'll just know and feel it.

This first realisation is very important and should not be taken lightly. Only you know deep down how you feel and whether you are really tired of eating unhealthy and being out of shape. Only you know if you´ve had enough of being overweight and ashamed of the way how your body looks.

No one else can ever make a good statement about that, except you, and you only.

So think carefully for yourself first and ask yourself the following question:

To what extent are you dissatisfied with your physical performance? Have you really had enough of it and do you really, really (...really?) want to do something about it?

Please take a a good moment, preferably a few days, to really think about this. Nobody else can do that for you, because this step is really one that you have to make!

Make a promise to yourself and write it down

If you've thought about your willingness to change and you've decided that this time you really want to turn your life around for the better regarding exercise and fitness in general... then it's time to make a promise to yourself.

Promise yourself that you will give it your all. Promise yourself that every day you will perform the necessary work required to achieve your goal. Promise yourself that you will not cheat yourself and that you will keep the agreements you make with yourself.

Write this promise down.

If you don't have this mindset, your plan is bound to fail sooner or later, and you risk falling back into old habits after you found succes, making all the hard work you put in during your fitness journey all for nothing.

Trust me, there comes a point when life takes over for a moment and you get derailed from your plan. As a matter of fact, it’s not a question whether that situation will occur to you or not, because it will… it’s just a matter of when will that happen.

And in those difficult times, you have to be able to get back on track ASAP!

You have to be able to continue from the point where you were halted.

Hence, the importance of making a promise to yourself.

So now that you've made a promise to yourself, you can set a goal that you want to achieve.

Set a clear goal

Before you have achieved your desires, you must first know exactly what it is that you desire.

If you don't know what your goal is, you‘ll end up feeling lost and doing random exercises or workouts, without having a solid plan. In these circumstances, the chance of failure is a lot higher than if you do something for a very specific end goal.

So you have to set a good goal that you want to achieve, but setting a good goal is not as easy as it seems.

If you can't immediately set a clear goal for yourself, ask yourself where you want to be. Ask yourself:

Consider why you are dissatisfied with your physical attributes or the way your body feels or looks. Be as specific as possible about this. Ask yourself questions like:

• Why am I dissatisfied with my physical characteristics?
• Which physical property(s) am I dissatisfied with?

(for example, do you have difficulty climbing stairs or do you quickly become short of breath when you have to walk a bit? Do certain pants and clothing that you would like to wear no longer fit? Do you want to be able to perform a 100m sprint in less than 11 seconds? etc.)

You may also be dissatisfied with the way your body looks (and you're not alone, since being overweight is a common problem and many are dissatisfied with the way their bodies look).

Many want to have a 'nice' body, but what is a beautiful body? Is a nice body one that does not have any visible fat rolls? Or is a body considered to be nice if and only if diamond-cut 6-pack abs can be seen clearly?

The definition of a ‘nice body’ differs from person to person. Some people define a nice body as one that is lean and toned, but others are happy if they just lose a few pounds so their old jeans will fit again.

The point is, and this is especially the case if you desire to have a more aesthetically pleasing physique, you must formulate your goal as *precisely* as possible.

The more precise your goal is, the more specific your plan can be, and thus, the greater your chance of success will become!

Evaluate your available time

After you've come up with a clear and specific goal, it's time to make a plan. But before you can actually create a relevant plan, you need to know how much time you have available.

I challenge you to sit down and map out for yourself what your average weekly schedule looks like. Think about this carefully and make notes on paper if necessary.

You need to have an overview of the amount of time you spend on obligations. You need to have insight into which moments or days you are the busiest, and which days you have more spare time available. The better you know what your week looks like, the more accurately you can plan, and the greater the chance of success!

So think about your obligations such as work/study, your daily commute, how you spend your time doing householding activities and doing groceries.

If you have a family, you also need to account for the time that you're required to be available for your family. The same goes for your friends and your social circle in general.

Resting and relaxing

Also, keep in mind that you can't be busy every hour of the day. Otherwise, you'll feel constantly rushed and that will take its toll at some point.

You need to have moments wherein you do absolutely nothing productive or mentally tasking at all. Simply watching TV after dinner can also be useful for that.

The main takeaway is that your brain needs rest. There must be times when you can find your rest.

I've noticed in my life, that after work and after eating, I need some time to recover from the stress of daily life. I found out that after a stressful day at work, I need about 30 to 45 minutes when I do nothing and aimlessly browse the internet on my phone, just to mentally recover from the stress. After this short relaxation, I have the mental energy again to change clothes and start my workout.

So reserve time for these relaxation moments if you have a busy schedule.

Track your time

After you have made a list of the activities that recur daily and/or weekly, you can check how much time you spend doing them. I do this by checking when I started the activity and when that activity is completed. Then I calculate how many hours it took.

After I've done this for all activities for a whole day, I know how much time I have available that day to spend on fitness and exercise.

Re-evaluate your life regularly

If you know what your daily rhythm looks like weekly, then it's also important to evaluate your activities every once in a while. Regularly evaluate the time you spend on your obligations, and be especially wary if a situation changes in your life, for example, if you are being laid off from work or if you are expecting some other life event, such as a divorce.

Evaluations and forward-thinking help you to recognize and anticipate any bottlenecks in your time allocation and planning.

Personally, I evaluate my planning and time commitments every 3 to 4 weeks to adjust my planning if necessary. If a situation arises in which a major change is about to occur, such as moving to a different city or changing jobs, then I will keep track of my time spent in great detail during that period. I make sure I'll be on top of it by logging my time as much as possible. That way I can get the most out of my time so that events in my daily life have a minimal effect on my fitness and workout plans.

After you have checked the above for yourself, you should now know exactly how much time per week you spend on obligations in your daily life, and how much time you have available to exercise and change your life.

Now you can start with the fun part, making a plan so you can start your fitness journey!

Make a plan

Creating your fitness plan is the most fun part of preparing to exercise when you're out of shape. How extensive your fitness plan will be, depends on the time you have available, which you hopefully know by now (if not, scroll back quickly to the text about evaluating your available time).

Your fitness plan should contain 2 components:

• Your workout plan.
• Your nutrition plan.

Your workout plan

Your workout plan should include how many times a week you need to exercise and which muscle groups you want to exercise per workout, among many other workout parameters that you should track.

You should take into account the time available versus the time required for a workout.

Why track your workouts in the first place?I'm a strong advocate of tracking your workouts, no matter what type of exercise you're doing! Because the more you track, the better you can evaluate your progress.

Click there to learn more about why you should track your progress.

If you're serious about your workouts, expect to spend about 60 minutes per workout.

But there are also some other activities related to working out in general, such as driving to the gym (and driving back home), changing clothes, showering, etc.

So you end up spending more time doing a workout than just the 60 minutes that it will take to do the required exercises for a muscle group.

In addition, expect to work out at least 3 times a week for the best and fastest results.

Of course, you can find enough people on the internet who argue that 1 or 2 days should do the trick, but if you are serious about your fitness journey then at least 3 times a week is really the minimum (and if you can do a workout 4 times a week, then that's even better). I tell you this from my own personal experiences. I found out that 2 days a week doing full body workouts is sufficient to maintain your strength and muscle mass, but that at least 3 times a week is required for my body to make a change regarding losing excess body fat or gaining lean muscle mass.

(For example, I have promised myself that no matter what, I will work out at least 4 days a week. On average, you can find me working out 5 to 7 days a week.)

But planning your workouts is only one part of your total plan. The other part is thinking about your nutrition and planning that accordingly, as you can read below.

Your nutrition plan

As for your nutrition, keep in mind that you should take it just as seriously (maybe even more seriously) as your workouts.

If you're out of shape then it's likely that you'll have some unwanted body fat.

If you want to lose this excess body fat, you have to consume less energy than your body requires, and for that, you need to know exactlywhat and how much you’re eating.

At the same time, you want to get enough vitamins, fats (yes, fats are necessary for proper your body to function well), and building materials for your body.

You must therefore eat enough of the right foods to get enough nutrients, especially if you're in a caloric deficit when trying to lose excess body fat.

For the above reasons, having a nutrition plan is essential!

This nutrition plan includes what and how much you should eat. It indicates how much of each nutrient you get and how many calories per day you consume.

An often neglected aspect of a nutrition plan is that you also have to take into account the time you have to set aside for following your nutrition plan.

You have to prepare and cook your food, you have to weigh your food, you have to do groceries, and you have to wash your dishes. All of these activities require time and planning.

In other words:

Personally, I do 1 large meal prep every week, which I plan on Sunday. I spend about 2 hours cooking rice (or another carbohydrate-rich dish) and meat/fish/chicken for the entire week. Then, I divide these into containers that I can freeze so that I only have to heat up my meal every day.

This saves me a lot of time and more importantly, because of the convenience, the temptation to snack and eat a cheat meal is a lot smaller! That's why I recommend you do it.

Start and commit to your plan

At first, you'll be excited and looking forward to your next workout, but after a few months, you'll need to be careful not to slack off on your commitment to your plan.

Every day, remember the promise you made to yourself and do the required things to achieve your goal.

Do you have a tough day and you really don't feel like doing your workout for that day? Then force yourself to still do that workout, very lightly if necessary.

Heck, you know what I do when I'm really exhausted and have absolutely no energy? Then I still go to the gym and do everything so lightly and so slowly that it is of little or no use (or so it seems, but this is desception, as I’ll explain below).

The thing is, by still going to the gym, I make sure I stay committed to my fitness plan.

Conclusion

Without the proper mindset and inner desire to change your sedentary life, it’ll be hard to get fit and lean when you’re out of shape.

If you're tired of being out of shape and you really want to change for the better, you need to have a clear goal and a plan to achieve that goal.

Your plan depends on how much time you have available, and the older we get, the busier we become.

To design a great plan to get in shape, find out what your daily commitments and obligations are and figure out how much time you have available to commit to working out.

What is your biggest hurdle to start exercising? Let me know in the comments below!