In my day job, I am a Health Educator. It's an extremely non-glamorous, socially isolating gig. The office and cubicle environment is not exactly what I went to graduate school for. That being said, I get the opportunity to talk to a lot of different types of personalities every day with a range of different motivations to practice weight management with exercise, nutrition, or both. I hear a lot of different reasons as to why one of my members don't get enough exercise. Some of them are legit, some are crap. Perhaps the biggest reason I get is time, more specifically, the lack of time.
I used to believe that time was a legitimate reason for not exercising. In today's world, one thing we lack is time. Especially as parents. Between a 40 hour / week job, getting the kids from after school care, taking them to whatever extracurricular activity they have going on, making dinner, helping them with their homework, getting them to bed, and finally having some down time before you put yourself to bed, that's a full day. And if you are a single parent, it makes it even harder. I completely realize this crazy schedule is not conducive to your exercise goals. But what I've learned is that if you really commit to your goals and your health, you can find the time.
Recently I have begun working out in the evenings after dinner. I have the privilege of having a wife help me out with my 2 children after dinner, which helps a lot. We generally eat dinner about 6 - 6:30. I have found that if I allow myself to digest for about 90 minutes, I can go out and get a quick 30-40 minute workout around 8. It's not the most intense workout by any means but I am getting my workout in. It's amazing how much more energetic I feel and how much more work I am able to get done now. Again, if you want to achieve your goals bad enough, you will find time. I have found the time at 8:00 at night. I used to only get exercise on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday because of my time constraints with work on the other three days of the week. Now I'm getting some kind of activity every day. I feel amazing.
I realize this type of schedule doesn't work for everyone. Again, I have the privilege of having a wife help with the kids and allow me to have time to myself for a bit. For those without the luxury of this, you can still find time. Whether it's in your living room, before you get the kids, before your kids wake in the morning, whenever. You can find time. I no longer believe this to be a reason. If you want to achieve your health and fitness goals, you will find the time. You just have to start today.
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