Excuse me for being blunt. But, truth be told, almost 75% of the people who “claim “they have no time for exercise actually have it. And when they don’t’, they surely will have to make time for the doctor later in. It’s a common misconception that you have to dedicate hours and hours at the gym. WRONG. The Centers for disease Control recommends 150 minutes a week of physical activity, essentially 30 minutes a day. But the common misconception is that its 30 minutes consecutively. WRONG AGAIN. It can be broken up into small segments.
Are you still saying you have no time? Are you thinking about how you work all day , have to make meals , kids to take care of and you have to watch Grey’s Anatomy at 9 or how Family Feud starts at 7 and you can’t miss that. So let’s sit down and really look at your schedule daily. Write it down, including everything from a typical day , include community , wash up time etc. I‘ll wait ……

You have 7 – 8 hrs of sleep, Probably have a full time job that consumes 7-8 hours , kids , meal prep, commute to and from work. So being very generous here let’s say 20 hours of your day is accounted for. You still have 4 hours left, and don’t block out time for TV as busy time, because you certainly will end up missing your TV time with endless hours sitting in the waiting room of a doctor’s office if you don’t take care of yourself now. Or even better, you can do some exercise, while watching TV .

Okay so I’m done with the tough love. So how do we make the most of our time and get physically active? As I stated before, your exercise and physical activity can be broken up into small segments throughout the day. When you’re at work, do you really need an hour to eat? You could spend just 10- 20 minutes walking. Or in today’s society a lot of employers have workplace fitness facilities, why not even spend 10- 15 minutes there on your lunch!

Here is a little break down of things you can do with various amounts of time:

5 minutes: a couple sets of pushups, squats, walk up and down a flight of stairs a couple times, short walk

10 minutes: do a quick full body weight training sessions 1 set each major muscle group (chest back , legs ) 10- 15 repetitions , go for a walk , shoot some hoops if a park is near by

30 minutes: You can get a full workout it in a gym, go for a walk, quick bike ride

Just because you have kids doesn’t mean you have to put your physical activity needs aside . Here are some quick tips and ideas so both you and your kids can get ACTIVE :

Take them outside and play WITH THEM.. they get exercise , you get exercise everyone wins. Throw a ball around, play tag, hide and go seek . All time off your butt moving around counts!

While you’re at the playground with kids you can work out too. Rows using the swings, pushups off the slide, even use the swing to do knee tucks, not to mention running around chasing your kids!

There are many more things you can do , and I am sure while you were reading this a few ideas popped into your head. Just remember, the little things add up!! The bottom line here , make time for physical activity and exercise now , or you‘ll be forced to make time for the Doctors office later.