We’ve all read the magazine articles and seen the news stories: Americans are increasingly obese, even to the point of obesity in children becoming a near-epidemic. This isn’t surprising considering our largely sedentary lives, but when you have to balance work and family and still find times to exercise thirty minutes a day, five days a week, it all gets a bit overwhelming.
The secret to finding time to work out is to combine formal exercise with micro-exercises, and common sense, to get that needed exercise in. Mix it all up with healthy food and enough sleep (because you can’t lose weight if you’re sleep deprived), and fitness, while not quite in the bag, is a lot simpler than you think.
Here are some ideas to help you find the time in your own schedule:
You may have fallen into the habit of eating at your desk and working through your lunch hour, instead of getting away from the office, but that’s one habit you need to break. You’re not getting paid for that hour, so make sure it’s your time. Many gyms offer classes during the common 12 – 1pm lunch hour, and some, like Calvary Baptist’s Family Life Center, which specializes in women’s health, offer half-hour circuit training workouts so you can have your exercise and still find time for a healthy lunch. Some major corporations even have on-campus fitness centers, so you can work up a sweat without having to waste travel time.
If there isn’t a gym near your place of work, or you prefer a more social lunch break, consider forming a walking club with friends or co-workers. Walk around the block a few times, then have lunch before you go back to your desk.
If you work from home, you can still use your lunch break for fitness – take the dog for a spin around noon. You can wave to your neighbors, see what everyone’s seasonal décor is, and up just enough sweat to feel good. Best of all? You can shower in your own bathroom when you return.
Special tip: Give yourself a reward. After a month of exercising every lunch hour, treat yourself to a facial or manicure during that period instead.
- Change the Way You Commute
This isn’t possible for everyone, but most of us can fit some kind of informal exercise in, during our commute to and from work. If you live close enough to walk or bike to work, save gas while you burn calories and leave the car at home. If you regularly use mass transit, consider walking to the next stop after your usual, or getting off one stop earlier. Perhaps you could bike to the parking lot for a community rail service, or bring your bike, and cycle from that one-further-stop to the office, if it’s a bit too far for foot power.
If driving is your only way to get to work, you can still make your commute count, by parking as far as possible from the building doors, forsaking the elevator for the stairs, and taking the long way to and from your desk.
For those of you without a commute, you can still sneak in some exercise. That flight of stairs that leads to your basement or attic office can double as a step-system. Just spend a few minutes at the top or bottom stepping up and down one step, before you take the whole flight.
It’s really easy to sleep through the snooze alarm and stay snuggled under the sheets until the last possible moment, but if you can make yourself get up just half an hour earlier every day for a month, and use the time to exercise, you’ll have formed a new, healthy habit (and you can still sleep in on weekends, if you like.)
Even better, you don’t have to leave your home. Pop in an aerobics or walk-at-home DVD, or get that treadmill or stationary bike out of the garage and put it in the bedroom, where you cannot avoid seeing it. Since you’re working out at home, you can pedal in your pj’s while watching the morning news, then shower when you’re done. (We advise exchanging the fuzzy slippers for real shoes, though.)
Let’s face it: the chances of going back out to the gym after you finally make it home, are pretty slim. Instead, go directly to your workout before you go home, or invite some of your colleagues to form a pick-up basketball or soccer game after hours. Skill levels aren’t important; activity and fun are.
As an alternative, you could book a tennis or badminton court and have a friend meet you, or agree to meet at the batting cages or driving range at your local leisure center or golf club. (The batting cage is also helpful in working through aggression if your day was particularly stressful.)
If connecting with your spouse is difficult, combine fitness and fun by meeting for a ballroom dance class after work. Dancing is actually an incredibly good workout, and helps improve posture and balance, too.
Many of you have to balance your kids’ schedules as well as your own, but the good news is that you can save a bit of planning by exercising with your kids. On school days, you can walk to school (or the bus stop) with younger kids, and meet them after school. With older kids, there are even more options, like turning family game night into family fitness night with trips to the local pool or park, the ice (or roller) skating rink, or even miniature golf (it’s better than nothing).
If you have very young children you can pop them in the stroller and take them with you when you walk the dog, or – if you’re dog-free – find a friend or neighbor who also has an infant, and take walks together.
Of course, the key to all of this is to pick one or more of these ideas, make a plan, and stick to it. Common wisdom says that it takes 21 days to form a habit. What habit could be healthier than finding time for fitness?
. All it takes is a few minutes of your time, their equipment and a good credit card number. Magazine ads touting the “before” and “after” belly effect of popping diet pills also offer quick fixes as long as you’re willing to pay for them.