Anyone who has ever worked with me personally or in my group training knows I am about accountability. So one of the things I am having my clients do this month is to make a huge effort to make fitness a priority. To do this, I am asking all of them to put their workouts down as an appointment in their calendar.

Why would I ask them to do this?

Simple. I deal with powerful and busy people. And they are constantly being pulled in different 20 directions.

• Board meetings
• Carpool
• After school activities
• Family obligations
• Business trips, etc.

What often gets left off? Exercise.

If you schedule exercise into your week at the beginning of each month, you will see that you are less likely to miss your training.

Think I am nuts? Let me give you an example.

I have one client that changes the way she fills in her Blackberry calendar. Instead of “exercise” or “training”, she writes “MENTAL HEALTH THERAPY”.

In this woman’s world if she does not get her workout in she feels sluggish, out of sorts, and is normally cranky (her words) if she misses a workout.

She tells the story of how someone was looking over her shoulder one day. The nosy mom said “Why don’t we schedule a breakfast meeting for our book club?”

My client said, “Sure when would you like to meet?” As the busybody woman looked at my client’s Blackberry calendar, she was shocked to see that this woman needed therapy 5 days a week. She must have thought she was truly out of her mind and clearly stayed away from scheduling the meeting anywhere around the appointment.

This worked wonders in two ways: 1) She was able to get her workout in and 2) Now she even had time to get cleaned up after her training. Nice!

I have had other clients use similar tactics when scheduling their workouts:

Cardiologist – This reminds him that he has heart issues and if he misses his appointment, he will spend his time in a waiting room instead of a weight room.

Blind Date – One of my clients was a young single woman who had just lost 70 lbs. She used this as a motivator to keep her from putting the weight back on so that she would never need to go on another blind date again.

Plastic Surgeon – This was another client’s way of saying she always wanted to look vibrant. She was deathly afraid of needles and never wanted to go under the knife for surgery. A little vain, but it works for her!

Accountant – Some people consider me an accountant. I keep them accountable and it is easy to say I need to meet with my accountant and people would never think of making you miss an appointment with the tax man.

Got a good one for me?

I would love to hear about it! I am sure there are tons more out there. Post your comments below and and tell me your code words or secrets for exercise.

For now, get your calendar or planner and schedule in your workouts for this month. AND don’t miss any of them. I promise you will thank me for it at the end of the month.