“I’m too busy with work right now!” “I already made plans today!” “I’ve had a long day. I will wake up early and go tomorrow!” … we all know you won’t wake up and go. It is so easy to tell yourself the many excuses that keep you away from doing exercise, and its even easier to lose time procrastinating.

The trick to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is making habits and creating routines. Find times in your week where your schedule allows for exercise and commit to them. It is very easy to avoid that free hour you could have used at the gym. Realistically we don’t find the time in our schedules for all the reasons stated in the first place. That’s why Xen-Do isn’t just a great place to train but with our class timetables it’s done the hard part for you. Every week you put your class in your calendar, now, it’s no longer about finding the motivation to go but keeping to your schedule. It’s not like in the gym where you have to plan your session, the Senseis are ready and waiting for you, they have a lesson plan perfect to keep you fit! See exercise as appointments or norms, much like you would going to work or having dinner, or even seeing friends. If you see it as an optional extra, it will stay just that.

Word of warning: beware of biting off more than you can chew. This is one of the biggest reasons people give up on their latest plans of becoming a champion. Starting out with the intention of working out for three hours a day is very honourable, but you are fooling nobody and least of all yourself. We see it all the time here at Xen-Do and it is why we advise to all our beginners to start out coming just twice a week at most. There is no point overexerting yourself to just feel sore and rubbish for the next 3 days.

And talking of biting off more than you can chew, this rule applies to dieting too. Don’t start a diet that is going to leave you constantly hungry and malnourished because at some point the killer instinct will kick in and you will gorge on a feast fit for a king with not a salad in sight! Remember, moderation is your friend when it comes to longevity.