One of the key principles to achieving goals, becoming good at something, or learning a new skill is simply to start doing that thing or task first. You can’t work out if you don’t go to the gym, you can’t eat right if you’re never prepared to cook or pack your meals and you constantly have to buy fast food. You can’t have a successful business if you aren’t even in business. See what I mean? Today’s topic is about how we go about “doing” these things that we need to do to get to our goals.

A weight lifting plan ripped right off some genetic freak’s youtube channel may seem like a cool thing to do. It seems hardcore and legit, and any number of other bullshit phrases we use now days to convince ourselves to do/try stupid things, but once the terrible, brutal reality of this plan sinks in and your legs are so sore that you cant even sit down to take a shit, then we will see how hardcore it really is. Once we take a whole week off to recover, we can come back again and hit this stupid workout with some new vigor…..and repeat the cycle again. Before you know it a month has passed and you have only hit the gym 3 times in that month. Hardcore or not that doesn’t sound productive to me.

Now lets look at the sensible scenario, lets so you can only hit the gym 30 minutes a day. You’re busy, family, kids, work release, what ever, but you’re so busy that you can only get in the gym 30 minutes a day. You want week ends to yourself so you only hit the gym during the week, 5 days a week, 30 minutes each time. This seems quite easy to you and after a few weeks of floundering you have put together a plan that works with your time frame and now you’re starting to see some progress. Next thing you know 6 months has gone by and your lifts are thru the roof, you’re ripped, strong, and excited to hit the gym every day. By making it manageable you have also made it consistent, which is one of the most important things in the fitness and strength world.

Let’s ignore the fact that it’s only 30 minutes a day and instead lets look at the bigger picture. 30 minutes a day 5 times  week is 2.5 hours in the gym a week, 10 hours a month, 120 hours a year. See how that is adding up? With well chosen exercises lot’s of progress can be made in just 30 minutes a day.

I’m going to switch gears here a little and show you a little bit of how I make things manageable for myself. This time I’m going to talk about my food, and meal prep. Right now i’m using Mark Rippetoe’s Texas Method and Monday is my hardest day of the week, five sets of five on bench press, squats, and the deadlift. My nutrition is crucial on a day like this and if i do not eat right during the day my energy is dramatically reduced by the time i get to the gym around 6 or 7pm. So how do I prepare for this? Easy, I spent 4 hours today (Sunday) cooking all my food for my gym days. I need lots of carbs on this program so I chose some easy carbs to make in bulk, pasta, rice and potatoes. For less then 20 bucks you can get a 3 month’s supply of each of these carb sources. To fuel muscle growth I need protein, I prefer protein from animal sources so I made 3 pounds of ground beef, 5 pounds of chicken breasts, 6 or 8 eggs and a pound of Italian sausage. I also cooked up a bunch of broccoli to go with my lunch and dinner meals. Right now here is what my three major meals each day consists of:

Breakfast-homemade hot pockets stuffed with eggs, sausage and cheese

Lunch- one cup of rice or pasta, one or two cups of broccoli, and two chicken breasts

Dinner- ground beef with green chilies and jalapenos, 2 cups of broccoli or mixed vegetable, and one whole potato, cooked and seasoned.

Right there are my major meals for each of my major workout days. They may not be the most tasty meals ever but right now they are made, packaged and ready to go for the rest of the week-manageable. They were also made with the cheapest, and easiest to prepare in bulk ingredients. See how all this works?

Mornings are tough for me so I have something that I can microwave and eat on the drive to work and it still has the protein, carbs and fats I need. I only have to pack my lunch in a container, so that’s one container to carry to work, it reheats fine and doesn’t take long to eat and gives me the carbs to get me thru work. Dinner happens after the gym and I have the most time to prepare it so I can season the potatoes any way I wish or prepare them any way I want. I can forget the potatoes and instead have my burger meat on a bun for my carbs, or I can just heat all of it up and just throw it all in one big bowl.I’ve easily tailored each meal to make it easier to manage for the different parts of my day. I’ve also bulk cooked items that can all be combined with each other or with other items to create a number of different dishes should I get tired of the same stuff each day. Manageable

With a little planning and some wise use of my time I have now made it manageable to eat properly on ever major workout day this week. This is a starting point, if I find myself feeling weak by the evening I can add more carbs. If I’m losing too much weight I can add more protein/meat sources, or if i’m gaining too much I can take out some carbs. Rather then strive for the perfect diet I first created “A” diet, it’s not perfect but it can be improved. Or I could have done nothing and then I’d have to buy crap food to eat on the way to work, be late, then buy some junk for lunch, spend more money, not get enough vegetables, then buy more junk after my workout and spend even more money and still not get enough vegetables or protein. Make it manageable first, then make it perfect. The same goes for your workouts, and even other areas of your life. A little wise planning and effort can take you a very long way.