Most people know how important exercise is to a healthy lifestyle. By exercising regularly, you can lose excess weight, tone muscles and defeat depression. However, if you work 40 or more hours a week, finding time to exercise can be challenging. If you want to exercise more regularly, the first thing you have to do is make room in your schedule. No matter how many hours you work, you can find time to exercise daily.
Often, finding time to exercise is a matter of re-prioritizing the things you do when you aren’t working. Many people come home from work and immediately turn on the television or grab a beer out of the fridge. While it’s important to relax after work, you probably could use some of your down time more productively. For example, instead of watching TV from your favorite easy chair, you could walk in place or use an exercise machine during commercials or even during your favorite show.
Even if you don’t want to give up your relaxation time, you need to make the decision that you want to exercise daily and stick to it. Whether it means getting up half an hour earlier so that you can hit the gym, cutting out some TV time in the evening or exercising during your lunch hour, you can find the time to exercise if you are willing to sacrifice some of the time you spend doing other things.
In addition to finding time to exercise, you might need to rearrange your meal schedule. Many people rush out the door without eating breakfast and grab fast food for lunch. These unhealthy habits can defeat your fitness program before you’ve even begun it. Along with making exercise a priority in your life, you need to make healthy eating a priority. Breakfast is particularly important because eating in the morning stabilizes your metabolism for the rest of the day. If you don’t eat breakfast, you are more likely to overeat throughout the day and won’t do your best work in the morning because your body lacks vitamins and nutrients.
You may not have time to eat a full breakfast every morning, but that shouldn’t stop you from having breakfast. Instead of grabbing a donut from the break room when you get to work, try baking muffins the night before and eating one as you head out the door. Fruit bars are also a good, nutritious way to start the day if you don’t have a lot of time. If you can spare a few minutes, you might also want to try instant oatmeal or cold cereal.
In addition to eating breakfast, make sure you eat a healthy lunch. Most fast food is loaded with fat and calories. Also, fast food is more expensive than you may realize; eating out can easily cost you $20 or more per week. So you should pack a more nutritious lunch instead of stopping by your favorite hamburger place. Salads and fruit are good lunch choices. You can also pack a sandwich. Along with your lunch, pack a bunch of grapes or a couple of pieces of string cheese to have as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack if your energy starts to dip.
If you think you don’t have time to work out, then you need to spend a few minutes rearranging your calendar. As the tips above illustrate, you can always make time to work out; it’s a matter of deciding how important it is to you. Taking a few minutes each day to take care of your health will leave you feeling happier and make you a more productive worker.
