The number one excuse people give for not exercising is not having enough time. But if someone were to offer you $100,000.00 cash if you exercised every day for a month, I’d be willing to bet that you’d suddenly have plenty of time to get active. Our time is valuable, and the hard truth is that we allocate our time to the things that really mean the most to us. A great way to discover what is truly important to us is to look at what we spend our time doing. Why is it that our “me” time always seems to be so low on the list? Taking care of our personal health should be priority #1!
Getting into the habit of exercising can be a daunting task. I mentioned in one of my first blog posts that one way to make exercising a habit is by setting realistic goals that you know you can accomplish. You don’t need to spend 3 hours at the gym every day, instead, for a start, try 20 minutes a day. This way, when you reach those small goals, you can reward yourself and keep going.
So with our busy lives and hectic schedules, it’s hard to make time to exercise because we usually lean toward the easiest option, and it’s always easier not to go. We make excuses for ourselves. I’m sure we’ve all said at one time or another, “Oh, I’ll just go tomorrow” or “I’m just too tired.” But if you go and exercise, even though you’re tired, you may find that you have more energy afterward.
If you’re really stretched for time, there are still ways that you can squeeze in a few minutes of exercise throughout the day. There are a lot of activities that we all do every day that could easily be done while exercising, like watching TV while you’re on the treadmill, going on a walk during lunch, or walking to work.
In the end, the real trick to making your health and fitness a major priority is to find your motivation, make a realistic plan that you know you can follow, and stick to your goals—one step at a time.