This week is a guest post from a fitness and health writer, Peter Minkoff.

Staying fit is not a challenge for all the people who have extremely busy schedules, but for everyone who doesn’t feel like working out, as well. Well, you might be a part of the first group, or perhaps the second one. If you’re a member of the both, then you’re in a bit of trouble. However, staying fit is extremely important for reasons all of us know, and truth be told, you definitely want to get fit, don’t you? So, if you’re working at a nine-to-five job and stay longer hours, or perhaps your working hours are totally complicated and you have no idea how or when to work out, scroll down through these tips and we guarantee you’ll find your motivation.

1. Set yourself a goal

Setting a goal for yourself is definitely the first step, and perhaps the most important one. It might be that you want to lose a couple of pounds, or that belly around your fat, but even if you’re perfectly fit maybe your goal is to keep those body goals there for good. Bear in mind that setting unachievable goals might backfire, so training for 5 days a week if you haven’t trained in a while might not be a good idea. Try to allocate a couple of days a week for the working out sessions, and you have yourself a good goal that you should (work hard too) stick to.

2. Prep with a proper diet

Working out, staying fit and eating whatever comes to your mind definitely doesn’t go together. This is why you should pay attention to your diet, and avoiding junk food is a good start. First of all, you need to start preparing your meals in advance, and eat as healthily as you can – this means a lot of veggies and less carbs. Prepping your meals in advance will definitely result in eating (at least slightly) less unhealthy food. As snacks are concerned, give yourself a promise to cut down on all the crisps and junk snacks that you’ve been eating and focus on healthy snacks instead. If you do your research you will see that there are great things that you are supposed and able to eat, and if you choose healthy ingredients you can also make cookies that won’t do anything bad to your body.

3. Stay active

You might think “well, staying active is the main reason I opened this article in the first place”, but we’re not talking about staying active in the gym, but during the day. Yes, there are ways to stay active at your job as well. For example, if your office is on the fourth floor, taking the steps instead of the elevator is great exercise. Moreover, if your job is in walking distance from your apartment, you might want to walk there thus staying active. If you have some free time in your office, lock the door and do a couple of exercises. It might not help your figure a lot to do exercises in your suit or work uniform, but it’s definitely going to keep you active.

4. Schedule is important

So, the main problem in finding time for your workouts are your responsibilities. The first thing that you need to do is find a couple of available slots during the week when you will be able to hit the gym. If it’s not early in the morning, then you can opt for night sessions at the gym, as these have many benefits as well. Finding three days during the week, when you can spend two hours at the gym (prep and showering included), shouldn’t be a difficult task if you have motivation. Say no to going to drinks every other day with your friends, and focus on the training instead.

5. Find motivation

And, finally – finding motivation. Boy, this is difficult, isn’t it? There is a number of ways to motivate yourself to go back to the gym. Have a photo of yourself when you were the fittest and place it somewhere you will be able to see. Anything visual that reminds you that you need to practice is paramount and can definitely be helpful in finding the lost motivation.

To conclude – it’s not impossible to find time to work out as you certainly don’t work 24/7. Bear in mind that baby steps are good, so even if you don’t find time to work out three times a week, you can start by doing so twice or once per week until it becomes quite a normal thing for you. Trust us, you’ll definitely want to work out more later on and thus achieve your goal.

Peter a fitness and health writer at The Beard Mag magazine. Follow Peter on Twitter for more tips.