Shortcuts, Gimmicks - stop kidding yourself

Pretty sure by now the majority of you have all seen the "Magical Skinny Pill" or the "Secret that The Rock or anyone large seems to use" and these wonderful weight loss powders that are available everywhere now too. If weight loss or muscle building was that easy don't you think that everybody would be doing it????
Let's be honest, not everyone can spend countless hours at the gym or can change your meals at the drop of the hat as we have children, we have responsibilities and time is precious. It is great that you want to drop the extra weight or centimetres or add some muscle but it isn't something that you can say today and instantly start doing tomorrow. You REALLY need to plan ahead and if that pushes things back a few weeks etc while you get yourself and your life ready then it will be worth it.
One thing that I do hear a lot is that people don't have time, I have 3 children who I take to kindy and school everyday as well as picking them up and taking them to their after school activities so I can relate. What I suggest you do is sit down with a piece of paper and write down what hours you are awake from (such as 05.00 to 23.00) and for those hours break it up into 15 minute blocks (05.00, 05.15, 05.30 etc etc) and then block out the sections of time that you have commitments for each day of the week such as school drop offs and pick ups, work hours etc etc. Then plan for 6 meals a day, breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and something later so there is more time blocked off. Now let's have a look at it and see what time periods you have left over and go from there with allocating time for a walk, jog or treadmill run or even a rowing machine or exercise bike as with kids I know it is difficult to leave the house with them in tow and if you are planning on a run you don't want to stress out with them with you. You may surprise yourself with time periods that you do have free where you can do some crunches, squats etc all of which can help as the picture in this post is correct - There are NO Shortcuts as there is work involved.