You may be surprised to hear this, but what if I told you that the time you spend in the gym each week is actually the smallest window of opportunity for you to change your body composition than everything else?
Yes, without making the most of your training time and providing your body with the stimulus to change, you won't yield the best results you can, but...
3 hours total training per week only equates to 1.7% of the 168 hours you have available Monday-Sunday.
Let's do some quick maths
A 40 hour work week including commuting could be another 25% or so.
If you manage to actually sleep 8 hours per night, every night of the week, that would account for another 33%.
Of course there may be other commitments that take up chunks of time here and there, but these are the main ones. So rounding these numbers up, that gives us roughly 60%.
What else could you do with the other 40% of your time to help get you closer to your goals and improve your health?
With exercise being such a small percentage of most people's week, what I try to get across to my clients is that the greatest change will most likely occur from improving lifestyle habits outside of their weekly training sessions.
Where can time be prioritised for cooking and prepping food if need be?
When can the food shop get done and can a shopping list get done beforehand?
What extra activity can be done and when to improve mobility, joint health and expend more calories?
Can sleep be improved to aid better recovery?
When can time be taken off from running a business to de-stress and have some "me or us time"?
If childcare has been arranged, can an extra training session get done? Or can childcare be arranged?
Social occasions are coming up, how can they best be managed around these lifestyle changes?
It is no mistake that the most successful people in any field are generally the most organised and prioritise time for what they want to achieve over and around the rest of their lifestyle and commitments.
We all have the same 168 hours in a week, but it's what you do with your own that will ultimately dictate whether you succeed or fail in achieving your goals - fitness, business/work, relationships/family etc.
Are you reacting to your daily environment or are you being proactive?