Making Time to Add Fitness Into Your Daily Life

When do you find time?

How can anyone find time to workout with full- time jobs, errands, swimming & piano lessons for the kids, the costumes to design for the school play, a house to clean and still get some sleep?

Squeezing in a jog or a yoga class during the week is a constant struggle for many.

Luckily, there are ways to fit in some physical activity in your jam-packed life.

Schedule time for yourself: If exercising has become a goal and priority of yours, then make time in your schedule for it. Mark in your planner three or four times a week you want to set aside for just yourself and hit the gym or track.

After a few weeks, you will be in the habit of going to the gym. Exercising will become part of your routine like brushing your teeth in the morning.

Wake up early: A way to make more time in your day is to wake up earlier. Instead of hitting the snooze button five times, wake up the first time the alarm goes off and go for a jog. You will find yourself having more energy throughout your day when exercising becomes part of your daily routine.

The buddy system: Having a friend to exercise with will help motivate you. You will not want to let your workout buddy down by canceling your workout because you wanted to sleep a little longer or couldn’t get away from your soaps.

Stairs are your new friend: Say good-bye to elevators and escalators!   Using the stairs instead can help burn many more calories than pressing that button to the fifth floor or riding the escalator at the mall.

You don’t have to give up TV time: Instead of giving up your Desperate Housewives fix, spend the time during the commercial breaks to get in some jumping jacks or while watching the news you can do a number of different abdominal workouts, push-ups or stretches.

Take the Break out of lunch and coffee breaks: At work, instead of taking that extra-long lunch or coffee break with co-workers, go for a walk instead. You won’t be too exhausted or sweaty when you come back to work, and you will feel better about burning those extra calories instead of having that doughnut on your break.

Add more to errands and chores: There are numerous times during the day that you probably find yourself just standing around. You stand in line at the store, waiting for the bus, or at the stove sauteing. Well, use that time to burn calories and tone your muscles.

While in line at the store, you can stand with your feet together and lift both your heels up and down working your calf muscles. Raising your legs to the side can help work your outer thighs as well. Also, you can pick something out of your grocery cart and do bicep curls with it.

At home, you can do jumping-jacks or run in place while you wait for the water to boil on the stove.

The kitchen table chair is a wonderful way to help tone your arms. While you are waiting for your dinner to heat up, place a chair behind you and squat down in front of it. Place your palms on the seat of the chair with your fingers facing away from you and push yourself up and down. This will help strengthen your triceps.

Turn it up! Before making dinner or cleaning the house, turn on your favorite upbeat music!  You’ll be surprised how much fun it is to dance your way through chores.  Get the kids out on the kitchen dance floor with you!  The chicken won’t be the only thing “shakin’ and bakin'”!

Park further away: Those prime spots are now the ones on the far side of the parking lot!  Taking those few extra steps in and out to your car will help cram in some more exercise and fresh air.

Your schedule is unique and everyday is different.  There is no one, easy way to fit activity into your day.  Find what best suits your lifestyle, family, career and social life and it will soon become part of your daily routine.