Never miss a workout with these helpful tips...
It’s the New Year and you’ve made a resolution to stick with your fitness routine. But, for many, finding the time to work out can be a challenging task. Between work and family responsibilities, a daily trip to the gym can be tough. That doesn’t mean you still can’t get in a good workout, you just have to be a little creative when it comes to your exercise regimen.
- Make a Plan, Hold Yourself Accountable: The best way to make sure you will follow through with your plan is to write it down. Find a time that works best with your schedule and physically add it to your life; write it in your planner or enter it into your phone as a reminder. If your workout is a scheduled plan, you can't cancel. If you wouldn't cancel out on say a doctor's appointment, don't ditch your workout
- Set Your Alarm Early: Mornings can be rough with little ones. Pre-plan and prepare breakfast the night before. Wake up 30 minutes early and get a quick 20 to 30-minute strength workout done in your home. Or, go for a quick 2-3 mile run around your neighborhood if you have another adult home to get the kids ready. Even this quick workout will give you an energy boost that will make up for the lost 30-minutes of snooze time.
- Sneak in a Lunch Break Workout: Your lunch hour is your power hour. If you have time, go for a walk during lunch. This can rejuvenate you mentally and physically. When you return to work, have some raw vegetables and a protein shake or meal bar. You can decrease calories consumed AND burn some extra calories too! Keep some small healthy snacks on hand at your desk to make sure you’re not famished at the end of the work day.
- Take the Kids With You: Dust off that jogger stroller in the garage and bundle the kids up for a nice run or walk through the park! The kids will love going fast and being outside with you. Kids can help give you an extra burst of motivation and hearing your little one yell, “Go Mama Go,” helps too! If your kids are older and they have a sporting event at a recreational center or park, use the available resources! Many times their practices are an hour or longer. Use the first half of practice to get in a good half hour of training and then you still have time to watch the last part of practice.
- Multi-task on the Treadmill: Have a conference call you can’t miss? Need to send a few emails or return some phone calls? Grab your cell phone and a headset (if you have one) and get walking! Assuming you’re in a gym that has wifi, strive to walk whenever you’re on the phone. A note of caution: Talking and listening will tend to distract you from the fact that you’re exercising. That can be a good thing, or a dangerous thing. So always be sure to remain aware of your surroundings, traffic and so on. The goal is to squeeze exercise in wherever you can — safely.
- Make it a Date: Dinner and a movie is so cliché! Take your date/partner/love-interest to a cycling class or a ballroom dance lesson, go on a hike or a picnic, or kick a soccer ball around the park. Bonus: Research shows that shared activity builds attraction.
- Turn Your Commute into a Workout: Whenever possible, take the bus, train/metro, or ride your bike when traveling to work or running errands. If you can’t do it every day, shoot for once a week. People who take alternative transportation tend to get more exercise than daily car commuters.
- Be an Active Watcher: So, tonight the big game is on or your favorite show is returning. Instead of sitting on the couch with your favorite snack food, mix it up and exercise during commercials. Use bands, dumbells, or your own bodyweight and do a quick strength training circuit. Every commercial, do as many reps as you can. In a 60-minute episode, you can get in up to eighteen minutes of solid exercise!
- Night Time Workouts: After a full day of work, carpooling the kids around and finding time to make dinner, you’re exhausted. Fight the urge to hunker down in your favorite sweats and choose a workout to help you unwind! It can be on a treadmill, a bodyweight circuit, dumbells or bands. If you have a hard time settling down from a night time workout, do something calm like stretching or yoga.
Even when life gets busy, your #fitfam is here to help you stay on track! Thanks to these tips, finding the time to workout should be an easy task. Time to make this the best year yet!