No Time to Work Out? How Busy Women Over 40 Make Time

Nikkiey: I'm just going to say it: you don't have a time problem. You have a priority problem. And before the police come for me, I know you're busy. I know you may have kids. You have a career. You have work demands. You have a husband. You have a house. You're exhausted. And I think we have this fantasy that eventually we're going to enter this magical season where everything is just calm. Guys, that's never going to happen. We say we have no time, but somehow we just binged an entire series on Netflix. You watch three episodes on Netflix one night, and within the weekend, you're done with the whole series.

What's going on, everybody? Hey, you guys. Welcome back to another episode with your host, Nikkiey Stott. On these episodes, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident.

Okay, so with today's episode, I'm probably going to step on some toes, but I think some of you guys need to hear this. And I'm going to preface this: as I lean in with you on this episode, I'm saying all of this with so much love, because it's the truth. And at the end of the day, sometimes you have to get out of your own way. Okay?

So I'm just going to say you don't have a time problem. You have a priority problem. And before the police come for me, I know you're busy. I know you may have kids. You have a career. You have work demands. You have a husband. You have a house. Maybe you're taking care of your parents. You're driving your kids to sports. Maybe you're running a business. You're exhausted. So I'm not sitting here pretending that everybody has unlimited free time.

And I also don't really like the "everybody has the same 24 hours" line, because technically, sure, we do. But we absolutely do not have the same responsibilities inside those 24 hours. So that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that most of us have more control over our time than we are willing to admit.

So when you tell me for six months that you don't have the time to work out, or you don't have the time to meal prep, or you don't have the time to walk, or you don't have the time to get your workout in, or you don't have enough time to eat that protein, at some point we need to stop talking about time. We need to start talking about your priorities, because eventually your calendar is going to expose what actually matters to you.

Why do I think we say "I don't have enough time"? I think we say it because it feels better than saying "it's not a priority for me right now." Those two sentences hit very differently. They feel very different, right? "I don't have time to work out." Okay. Now, instead of that, say "working out isn't a priority for me right now." You feel that difference? One is an excuse. It's blocking the truth. But it's also blocking you from taking responsibility and ownership for your life.

If you're saying "I don't have time to meal prep," what you're really saying is "prepping food that supports my goals just isn't a priority for me right now." Or "I don't have time to walk and get my 8,000 steps in." What you're really saying is "getting in my movement just isn't a priority for me right now."

And I'm not saying all this to come down on you. I'm saying it to expose the truth. Because there may genuinely be a season where the things I'm talking about right now aren't your highest priority. And that's okay, right? Maybe your family does need you. Or you're going through a really difficult time. Maybe you lost a job, or you lost a family member, or work is absolutely insane. It's chaotic, and all of your kids are playing sports. Maybe there is a season where maintaining is the win for you.

But what I'm saying here is: own that. Because when you say "I just don't have enough time," not only is it an excuse, but you are also making yourself feel so powerless in that moment. Instead, what you can say is "I'm just not prioritizing this right now." And now you have a choice. I'd rather you have ownership over the narrative that's playing in your mind than make excuses and cover up the truth of what is actually happening in your world. Does that make sense?

Women in general need to take more responsibility and more ownership. Because when you do that, you're bringing awareness and light to the actual situation. And you can't hide from that truth, because it's already been exposed. If you keep running with the excuse of "I just don't have enough time to do this," soon enough you're going to believe that narrative, and it's going to become so true to you. In two years, you're going to look back and say, "Well, I'm in the same exact position now." And guess what? You're still going to have to start making time for the goals you want to achieve.

What I think happens to a lot of women is this: you wake up, and you immediately start taking care of everybody else. Your kids need something. Emails start flying in. Work needs something. Someone calls you. Your friend is having a breakdown. There's dinner you have to make. There's another meeting. And so your workout becomes "okay, I'll just do that later." Or the walk you're supposed to do. Your goals keep losing to what feels urgent. That walk you're supposed to get to? "Maybe I'll just do it later." Right?

Everything that doesn't feel important right now gets pushed off to the side. Your meal prep? "Maybe I'll just do that on Sunday." Then later comes, but you're exhausted, so you don't do it. The next day, the same thing happens. The next week, the same thing happens. Then six months have gone by, and you keep saying, "Dang, I don't know where that time went." I know where it goes. It goes to whatever screams the loudest: your responsibilities, work, people, friends, kids, dinner.

When you say "I don't have enough time," those things are the most important, because you're placing them above your own health. And this is the thing: your health usually doesn't scream. Well, not yet, actually. And that's the problem. Your workout isn't sending you an urgent email saying, "Hey, girl, are we following up on this?" Your future health isn't calling you saying, "Hey, can we get that 30 minutes on your calendar today?"

You know what I mean? You keep pushing it off because everything else feels so urgent. But urgent and important are not the same thing. Just let that sit. If it's not on fire, it's not urgent. That's how I would say it. And if you only take care of your health when nothing else needs you, you're never going to take care of your health.

Because something will always need you. You get what I'm saying? Something will always need you. Your kids will always need you until they're 20 years old, or for some of you guys, if they're still living at your house at 30. Work will always need you. Something will always need you.

So I would say you've got to stop waiting for life to calm down. I think this is a big one. People say, "I'll get serious when work slows down." Now that summer's done, the kids are going back to school, so "I'll start after the kids go back to school." Or "I'll start after vacation." And the next one is the holidays, guys. Once the kids start school, it's like, "Okay, now the holidays are around the corner." We're getting into that sweet spot where people say, "I'm just going to wait until January." There are projects for work, the holidays end, and then something else is going to start. That's just life.

And I think we have this fantasy that eventually we're going to enter this magical season where everything is just calm. Guys, that's never going to happen. Where work is easy and nobody needs us, and we're sleeping eight hours, and the kids are doing their own thing, and your schedule is wide open, and you wake up excited to train every morning. I wouldn't build my health around waiting for that season.

You need to learn how to take care of yourself inside your actual life. Not this imaginary "when things are better," "when things have calmed down," "when the kids go back to school," "when work is less demanding." Learn how to take care of yourself inside your busy life. Because the goal isn't to become really good at your health and fitness when everything is perfect. The goal is to create habits that survive when life is lifing. You get what I'm saying? You tracking with me here? Because you're going to find time for what matters.

And this is where I'm going to lean in and push you guys a little bit. Because we say we have no time, but somehow we just binged an entire series on Netflix. You watch three episodes on Netflix one night, and within the weekend, you're done with the whole series. Yet somehow we say we have no time. Or you spent 47 minutes scrolling on Instagram. I challenge you guys to check your screen time and see where your time is really going. Or you checked your phone 96 times a day. You've got time to go to Target and walk around for an hour. I'm guilty of this. Time to answer emails that probably could have waited until tomorrow, right? But somehow there weren't 30 or 45 minutes for you.

And you can do all those things. I'm human. I scroll. I just binged a whole Netflix series over the weekend. So when I say these things, I'm human. I've been there with you. This is also just the normalcy of human behavior nowadays. But let's stop pretending there was zero time available. That's what I'm trying to get at here. Because there is time. That's the truth. There's time. You're just choosing to use it somewhere else. And once you can admit that, you can change it. Once you bring it to your awareness, you're aware of it. The truth is always going to set you free, guys. You can change it, right?

Quick break. If you're finding this episode helpful so far, it would mean a lot if you could hit pause for just a second, leave a quick rating or a review, or share it with someone who could benefit from it. Your support helps more women discover these tools to build muscle, lose fat, and feel confident. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey with me.

Let me lean into the screen time for a second, because that's a challenge. After this episode, open up your phone and look at your screen time. Actually look at it. Because I think some of you are going to feel what I'm saying here. You might tell me that you don't have 30 minutes to train, and then your phone says you spent two hours and 14 minutes on social media yesterday.

Okay. Now listen, I'm not saying take all of those two hours away. But can we find the 45 minutes? Can we find the hour to focus on you? Yeah, probably. Can we take a 20-minute walk while listening to a podcast instead of sitting on the couch and scrolling? Yeah, probably. Could you order groceries instead of spending an hour wandering through the grocery store? Yeah. Technology is pretty crazy nowadays. The apps and resources we have at our fingertips are pretty amazing.

Can we prep two proteins on a Sunday instead of binging an episode or two of Netflix? That can wait until nighttime, right? So it's not about doing more. A lot of the time, it's about looking at what you're already doing and asking yourself, "Does this actually deserve the amount of time I'm giving it?"

Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with the body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, WarriorBabe is here for you. At WarriorBabe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle, and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results, and results that last. Don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit WarriorBabe.com/apply today to start your transformation. That's WarriorBabe.com/apply.

All right, let's get back to the show. Because this is where you're going to see that your priorities aren't what you say they are. And that might sting a little bit. Your priorities are what your behavior repeatedly shows.

So you can tell me, "My health is really important to me." Okay, cool. But show me. Guys, if you're ever in my circle of friends, or we meet in person and we're talking about this, it doesn't matter what words you say. It matters what your actions and behaviors are, because those are going to demonstrate what actually matters to you most, and also how you follow through on things, right?

You can tell me that your health is really important to you. You can say that. Okay, awesome. Show me. I'm not asking for seven workouts a week, but let me see your calendar. Show me your bedtime routine. Show me the ways you're making sure that workout gets done. Show me the decisions you make every day when your day gets busy. Show me what your nutrition looks like on a weekly basis.

Because we love the idea of having priorities. Family is my priority. Health is my priority. My marriage is my priority. My faith is my priority. My career is my priority. Okay, cool. Awesome. But if everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. And your choices have to reflect the things you say matter to you. You get what I'm saying? What is a priority to you shows in your actions and behaviors. So if your health is truly a priority, I want to see what that actually looks like on a daily basis. Because right now you're making everybody else the priority. You have time cut out for those things.

There's this woman who inspires me every single day. She has four kids. She is building a business. When I ask her when we can hang out, she gives me time blocks in the week. She's the one setting these time blocks and boundaries around the responsibilities she has every day, because she has a million other things going on, right?

And this is another trap. Women think that if they can't do the entire thing with that perfection mentality, there's no point in doing anything. If you don't have an hour to work out, cool. Try 30 minutes. If you can't get 10,000 steps in, do seven. If you can't meal prep for an entire week, just cook protein for the next three days. If you can't train five days, don't. You don't have to overburden yourself by trying to stack everything that comes with your health into your schedule. If you think you have to get to all of them, you're never going to do even one of them. You don't have to be perfect. There's so much space between those things.

The all-or-nothing mentality destroys your consistency. It's not the perfect plan or nothing. There is an in-between, and that's where a lot of successful women learn to operate: inside that space. You don't have to be perfect, but you have to keep the promises you made to yourself when you set the goal of prioritizing your health, whatever that looks like for the week. If your coach has programmed five workouts but you can only get four done, then get four done. If you only did 10K steps five out of seven days of the week, that's okay. You still did it the majority of the time. You get what I'm saying?

This is something I think every woman needs. You have your ideal, right? You have this image or goal you're trying to reach. But you also have your minimum. Your ideal week might be four strength training sessions. It might be tracking your steps every day, 10K. You have your meals prepped. You have protein at every meal. You have eight hours of sleep. Great. But when your kids get sick, or work explodes, or travel happens, what's the minimum standard?

This is the middle ground I want you guys to look at. Maybe it's three strength training sessions. Maybe it's 7K steps, like I said. Maybe it's protein three times a day rather than getting protein in at every single meal, and doing your best with everything else. That is still consistency. I need everybody to understand that. Because consistency doesn't mean doing the exact same amount every single day of your life. Consistency means you keep finding a way to stay connected to the behaviors that matter, even when the amount has to change.

And I think that's where a lot of women get stuck. The second they can't execute the ideal plan, they abandon the plan entirely. I'd rather see you give 75% in a difficult week than 0% because you couldn't give me 100%. Again, are you tracking with me here?

However you operate, whether it's with a calendar, your phone, or an agenda book, if something matters to you, schedule it. Your dentist appointment goes on your calendar. Your work meetings go on your calendar. Soccer practices and soccer games go on your calendar. Your hair appointment goes on your calendar. Why isn't your workout on your calendar? Why is your workout this floating thing you just try to squeeze in whenever you've got time left over?

So put it somewhere. Put it on Monday. Put it at 7 a.m. Put down that you're working out. And it doesn't have to be the same time every single day, either. Mine doesn't look like that. Mine's 10 a.m., then 3 p.m., then 7 a.m., then noon. It changes throughout the week. As long as it's there four days of the week, you have three other days to move it around if you can't make the day you have programmed.

Let's say you train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, but something happens on Tuesday. So you push your workout to Wednesday. Or something happens on Friday, so you push your workout to Saturday. You have three other days of the week to move it around. Things happen, but you can move it.

And the thing I want you to think about is how often you cancel on yourself compared to how often you cancel on everybody else. You would never repeatedly no-show a meeting with your boss, right? You wouldn't repeatedly skip your kids' practices because you didn't feel like driving there. You wouldn't leave your kids at school at the end of the school day. You're going to go pick them up. But when it's something you promised yourself, it's "okay, I'll push it," and then it's gone. So I just want you to look at that. Sit with that. Bring it to light. Ruminate on it. Think about it. All of this deserves attention, right?

And I come back to the hard seasons, because I don't want you leaving this episode thinking, "Nikkiey thinks I'm making excuses because I'm overwhelmed." Sometimes life legitimately does kick your butt. There will be seasons where fitness takes a back seat. Like I said, grief, illness, new babies, difficult seasons, family emergencies, career changes. There are circumstances where survival genuinely is the priority. I get that. And in those seasons, I want you to give yourself grace.

But a hard week, or a hard three weeks, is different from a five-year pattern. That's where you have to be honest with yourself. That's where you have to bring the truth to light. Is this genuinely a season? Or have I been telling myself it's a season for three years? That's the difference. As I said earlier, if you keep telling yourself these things over and over again, you're going to keep believing them. And two or three years from now, you're going to be in the same exact position you were in then.

So this is what I want to leave you guys with. What do you actually want? Not what you think you should want. What matters enough to you that you're willing to make room for it?

Because when you look at it like this, every single goal you have has a cost. You want to build muscle? You're going to have to train. You want to change your body composition? You're going to have to pay attention to your nutrition. You want to feel better? Then you're going to have to go to bed instead of watching another episode. If you want those 8,000 steps, you're going to have to walk when you don't feel like walking. The reality is your goal is going to require something from you.

So instead of asking yourself, "Do I have the time?" ask yourself, "Is this important enough for me to make time?" That's a completely different question, right?

So all in all, yes, I understand. You're busy. I'm busy. We're all carrying things other people don't see or aren't privy to. And I'm never going to tell you that everybody's circumstances are the same. They're not. But I am going to challenge you when you continuously say, "I don't have time." Because sometimes that is true, and sometimes it's really just a comfortable excuse.

So look at your calendar. Look at your screen time. Look at what you're saying yes to. Look at what you're unwilling to say no to, right? Look at what gets your best energy every single day. And then ask yourself, "Does the way I'm spending my time actually match the body I want?" Because you don't need another hour magically added to your day. You might just need to get more protective over the hours you already have.

So stop waiting for life to calm down. Stop waiting until everything is handled. Stop waiting until that project is done and the kids are back in school, right? That is a real thing for a lot of women right now. And I'm telling you, there's a sweet spot. The kids are back in school. You have some time to yourself. The holidays are going to come. Build the habits right now. Get it under control right now. You have control over your time. You just have to bring truth and light to it. Make the walk fit. Make the workout fit. Make the food fit, right? Time is probably not the actual problem. Maybe it's time to look at your priorities and be honest with yourself, if this is something you've been saying over and over again.

All right, guys. I hope this episode helped you. I truly hope you take this with you: at the end of the day, take responsibility and ownership for your life where it is right now, and so many incredible things will unfold from that. Okay. Love you guys. I'll see you in the next episode. Peace out.

Hey, really quick before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all the difference in helping more women discover the tools they need to transform their fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much. Thank you.