Before we get started - a quick announcement:

Going forward, I'll be shifting the frequency of these newsletters from daily to a bi-weekly schedule, sent out every Monday and Thursday. This week will be the transition, with newsletters going out on Tuesday and Thursday. But starting next week, you can expect new issues landing in your inbox every Monday and Thursday.

Why the change? A couple reasons:

1. Quality over quantity: We all know that more isn't always better. By reducing the frequency, I can focus on delivering higher quality, more insightful content for you twice a week.

2. Avoiding burnout: Crafting fresh, original content every single day can be demanding. This new schedule allows me to maintain consistency without sacrificing the quality I hope you’ve come to expect.

Now that that’s out of the way:

Quote of the Day

Alright, let’s get started:

Finding Time for Fitness

A good friend of mine, and reader of project100, reached out asking me to cover the topic of "how to find time to work out."

For context, my friend is currently in medical school and, between working at the hospital, attending classes, studying for exams, prioritizing family, friends, and other hobbies, he can't seem to find the time to exercise. So today's newsletter will focus on my experiences with making time for fitness and working out.

Eight years ago, I remember countless nights sitting in my room, on my phone in bed, finding myself on fitness YouTube or Instagram, looking at pictures of fitness influencers whose physiques I aspired to have. They were the goal at the top of the mountain. I would watch them post their pictures, share their workouts, and what I started noticing was the level of intensity they all seemed to preach as the reason for their impressive looks.

As the years went on, I've noticed that many social media fitness influencers share this idea that "you must work out like ___ to look like me" or "you must eat like " or "you must ," etc. The one I want to focus on first was this notion that to achieve their level of fitness, "you must work out for X many hours every day."

And so, young and naive, I did just that. If you remember from this previous post, I talked about the crazy expectations I had when I first started my journey. I thought that if I wasn't in the gym for at least 3 hours a day, then I would never look like all those chiseled hunks I aspired to resemble online. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that:

1. At almost 270 lbs (and honestly, at any weight since then), you can't expect to work out that much and still maintain intensity.

2. We have other things in life we want to achieve...I don't want to spend my entire day in the gym, in a fitness class, or exercising.

Excuse my french, but the expectation that you must live in the gym or dedicate an insane amount of time there to look good is, respectfully, bullshit.

Here's the truth: You don't need to train like a professional athlete to be healthy and fit. You don't need to spend every day in the gym, and you don't need to commit more hours than you're comfortable with.

What you need to do is find the amount of time and dedication that works for you and your lifestyle. Trying to follow those extreme routines is a surefire way to burn out and give up altogether. Take my many failed attempts and retries as proof of that. The key is finding a sustainable approach that fits your life.

The way I did this was by breaking down the problem and becoming comfortable with two core concepts:

Time in the Gym ≠ Results.

Let's get one thing out of the way immediately: Like with most things in our lives, the amount of time you spend in the gym does not immediately guarantee that you will get the results you want.

• More time in the library doesn't necessarily mean better test scores.

• More time in bed doesn't always lead to better sleep.

• More time with a book open doesn't ensure better comprehension of the material.

More time doing anything does not implicitly imply that your outcome will be better.

After I finally got over the hurdle of thinking "I must be in the gym all day to look good" and started finding the time and cadence that worked best for me and my lifestyle, I found that I was more intentional and worked harder in those smaller chunks of time. To my surprise, this resulted in much better outcomes than when I was damn near living in the gym before.

I heard Denzel Washington once say:

And that is exactly the lesson I learned:

What matters is not the amount of time you spend in the gym, but rather how intentional and focused you are, and the quality of your time in the gym. Spending hours upon hours mindlessly going through the motions is far less effective than dedicating shorter, more intense periods of effort and concentration. During my workout chunks, I found these strategies helped me stay focused and maintain intensity:

• No phone distractions. My phone stayed on "Do Not Disturb," only used for tracking workouts or changing music. Avoid social media, texting, or anything that breaks your focus.

• Come prepared. No more winging it. Have a plan for what you'll do, how long, and what you achieved last time.

• Push to failure. Leave it all in the gym. You should feel exhausted after each set, like you have nothing left to give.

• Optimal rest periods. For me, 1:30 between sets was the sweet spot, but this can vary. Generally, you want just enough rest to tackle the next set with equal intensity while still pushing to failure. Don't rest so little that you can barely do the workout, but also don't wait so long that you feel fully recovered and lose that training mindset. (This tends to happen when you get distracted on your phone!)

• Use a workout tracker. Having a log of your workouts helps ensure progressive overload over time and lets you objectively see your improvements. (Which helps with motivation as well!)

• Incorporate supersets/circuits. Combining exercises with minimal rest keeps your heart rate elevated and allows you to pack more work into a shorter window.

"I Can't Find the Time to Work Out" Is No Longer an Excuse

Building on the previous point, I firmly believe that you can always find time to work out, especially now that we're on the same page that you don't need countless hours to make progress.

At the end of the day, we're all dealt the same 24 hours. It's up to us to prioritize how we spend that time in a way that aligns with our goals and values. If health and fitness are truly important to you, you can and will find windows of opportunity to get it done.

The key is being realistic about your current schedule and responsibilities, and finding ways to fit in workouts where it makes the most sense. For a significant portion of my weight loss journey, I was in college. While juggling classes, studying, homework, group projects, spending time with friends, internships, and relationships, I had to find creative ways to prioritize my health.

My university was also on a quarter system, which meant every 10 weeks, my class schedule would change, along with my homework, study times, internships, and everything else. I quickly realized that I needed to stop trying to force unsustainable 1-2 hour workout routines and instead, get creative with shorter and more focused bursts of activity wherever I could.

Rather than letting my busy schedule deter me from working out, I started finding ways to strategically fit fitness into my day:

• I utilized commutes as opportunities to burn extra calories. I biked and walked everywhere I could. If I had 5 extra minutes before class, I would take a longer route that required more walking or biking.

• When arriving at lecture halls, school buildings, or the library, I made it a point to take the stairs instead of the elevator.

• During long study sessions (you know, those intense cram sessions where you don't leave your seat for hours trying to learn 10 weeks' worth of material before a final? 😄), instead of sedentary breaks, I would get up and do laps around or up and down the library floors, using the same time more actively. I followed this same tactic with internship lunch breaks.

• On days with back-to-back classes, I woke up earlier to knock out my workout first thing in the morning.

• I planned gym sessions strategically between other commitments, choosing times when I could go straight from my last class or activity to the gym.

• I stayed prepared by packing my gym bag the night before. Those extra 5 minutes saved me from having to commute home or getting lazy after arriving home and seeing my bed.

• Instead of mindless caffeine consumption, I used it strategically to enhance my energy and focus during workouts.

Thank you for joining me on today's newsletter. I hope you found value from it and learned something that can help propel you forward on your own journey.