How To Find The Time To Work Out

This will probably be your biggest challenge, to finding the time to work out. The reason is simple. With life swirling around you and having to deal with your job, your kids, your spouse, your parents (are you apart of the sandwich generation too?) you feel that there is never enough time for yourself. But I have news for you. The decisions you make about your health are the most important decisions you will ever make in your life. And if you don’t believe me, consider this. If you hit the lottery tomorrow, but couldn’t enjoy the money because you were confined to a wheelchair, had severe asthma or any other ailment? What good would it do you? You need to be healthy for your family, but most importantly you need to be healthy for yourself. So you must make the time. So here are some ideas that will get you going in the right direction when it comes to finding the time: 1) Plan Your Day. To me, nothing is more important when it comes to finding the time to work out. Just before I go to bed I make sure that I know exactly what I am doing the next day, and so should you. You know when you go to work, when you have to drop off and pick up the kids, and do all of your running around. As you are planning that, you can plan 30 minutes a day somewhere to exercise. It doesn’t even have to be a straight 30-minute timeslot. Three 10-minute workouts block could be enough. But plan your day. 2) Go to the gym (WITH A PARTNER) before or after work. The key, of course, is with a partner. When someone else is relying on you to get there, you are more likely to go. 3) Your lunch hour. Many workplaces have or encourage a ‘walking club’ where workers will band together to do exercise during the course of the day. And if you don’t have one at your job, start one. All it takes is a few committed people and laid out course showing the distance you are going to travel. This is a great way to create the time to work out. 4) Skip one TV show a night. If you turned off the ‘idiot box’ for just one show per night you have your 30-minutes right there. 5) Have a dog? Walk the dog at least twice a day. Dog walkers have been shown to be in better overall health than the rest of the population. And you have to walk the dog anyway so you have already created the time to work out. 6) Get up earlier. The day has a habit of catching up with us. So if you can get your workout in first thing in the morning (I am up by 5:30am to be at the gym by 6am) in all likelihood it will not be the thing that gets skipped. 7) Walk/bike to work. With the advent of bike lanes on highways, this is becoming more and more popular. It will promote your health, save you money on transportation costs and help the environment. It isn’t possible for everyone but if you work within 20-30 minutes walking or biking distance from your house it should be considered, at least on the days when it isn’t raining or snowing. 8) Use a pedometer and keep track of how many steps you take. Aim for 10,000 steps a day. 9) Make sure to use the weekends. Life tends to slow down for all of us (even if it is just a little) over the weekends. And being that most people commit to 3-5 days of exercise a week, you have two of those days right there. This way you only need to find the time to work out one day during the week. 10) When you’ve dropped the kids off at practice. Ok, it’s 5pm and you just pulled up in the minivan and off loaded the kids for soccer practice. What do you do? Stand around and talk with the other parents? Not anymore. Your kids will be busy running around for the hour so you should doing the same thing. A power walk around the soccer field for an hour will burn hundreds of calories and if you move quick enough with your pedometer (see #8) you could bang out ½ of those 10,000 steps right there. 11) If you have child care issues, gyms these days have child care so that your children will be safe and attended to while you exercise. 12) Think about how to get your kids involved in your workout. Just one example would be to play soccer with the kids in the backyard on your cardio day. The running back and forth will benefit both you and your kids at the same time. When playtime becomes workout time you have created the time to work out. 13) Consider Calisthenics and resistance bands. Calisthenics are bodyweight workouts, and you can do pushups, sit-ups and bodyweight squats anywhere. The only equipment that you need is yourself. Resistance bands are very light and you can take them anywhere with you. I have a friend that is a delivery driver and he does his exercises in the back of the truck with resistance bands during his lunch hour. And looking for a great cardio workout you can do anywhere with no equipment? Try jumping jacks. 14) Get more out of social activities. Whether it is dancing or hiking, think of ways you can turn your social time into healthy time. 15) Get a Blue-Ray and involve the family. Whether it is Yoga, aerobics, kickboxing or anything else you want, by turning off the TV and putting on an exercise video that can involve the family you will all get the benefits of the workout.