Making Time for Fitness and Health with a Busy Life

The start of the year presents a busy time at work, school, or at home.  The fact is life stays busy the first few months of the year, which is also the time when millions of Americans are vowing to continue with exercise on some regularity.  While exercise should not be considered a chore, it should be something that is fun, enjoyable, and refreshing, which is why it is important to continue with it through your busy schedule.  This will discuss some crucial tips for making time for health and fitness in your life.

Making Time for Fitness and Health with a Busy Life

Regardless of where you are in your health and fitness goals, it is important to continue or to start making fitness a major element.  Exercise is known to reduce anxiety, stress, improve blood pressure, and better manage weight.  Listed are some ways to make exercise and fitness a priority in 2015 regardless of how “busy” or “tired” you may feel.

• Start slow. Too often, individuals get big eyes and create large goals, especially in January.  If you are a beginner and wanting to lose weight, it is not wise to jump into Crossfit just because you heard it is the most effective way to lose weight and tone up.  One or two classes of this and you may ditch exercise altogether.  Start with a few small goals [1].  For example, if long distance running is your goal, aim to run on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday one mile each.  Record your time and take it slow so that you complete the entire one mile without stopping.  Once you are able to complete the run two times, up it by half a mile.  The key to making exercise and fitness a priority in a busy life is to start small.
• Fit it in your schedule. New technology in the fitness industry has allowed individuals to be more efficient.  One way in which individuals in the office have learned to be more efficient is through the use of walking workstations, or in some cases known as office treadmills.  What this has allowed is for individuals to work while walking at a very slow pace.  The idea is that if the typical individual uses about 200 calories three to four times per week while walking at work, an individual could lose or prevent 10 pounds of weight per year [2].  While it may appear distracting to be walking at 1.0 mile per hour while standing and walking, but this is hardly a noticeable work effort.  If walking is something that is a distraction, consider using a spin bike while working on your computer or while watching TV at home.  You may be amazed at the yearly results.  This is one great way of fitting exercise into your life, especially if you are unable to work out before or after your shift.
• Commit with a partner or personal trainer. The busy work schedule can be difficult to work around, but if you consider exercise as another “work” appointment and hit the gym with a co-worker prior to leaving for home, then you may be more likely to exercise.  This social commitment is a strong motivational factor and will help keep the mind focused in the benefits of exercise rather than in the negative aspects [3].  If you are unsure of how to approach a co-worker, then consider a personal trainer to be the motivating factor to help keep fitness a major priority in your life.
• Exercise before or after work. One of the hardest aspects of exercise is going home, changing, and leaving for the gym.  Once you are home from your work day, you set yourself up for high risk of not making the gym.  Consider hitting the gym on your way to work or on your way home from work.  The aerobic exercise and strength training you get in before work may prevent daily crashes and may even help prevent the second or third cup of coffee.  In addition, the after work exercise can help alleviate much needed stress and anxiety and can be a healthy way of coping from a hard day.

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