We are so funny as human beings, we have excuses for everything. Excuses to do things or not do things, excuses for why we did something the way we did, or not. There is always something. It's no different in the realm of fitness-- there are a million excuses for why people don't reach any of their fitness goals.
Today, I'm going to talk about the # 1 excuse there is for not having fitness in your life. See if you can fill in the blank: " I don't have __________ to exercise/meal plan/cook healthy food." That's right, it's TIME. Not having time really isn't a real excuse. There is always time, we just choose how to spend it. I'll say it again....WE CHOOSE how to spend our time each day.
How many minutes a day are you on the computer checking Facebook, blogs that you follow (like this one :) ), Pinterest, email, and on and on?? How much are you on your phone while waiting during your child's activities? How much TV are you watching each evening? These are all addictive time-wasters and we are all experts at wasting time. It would be interesting to do a "time journal" like you would do a food journal to track what/how often you eat but it would be how you truly spend your time each day. It may be an eye opener and just what you need to realize that you DO indeed have time, but you just need to utilize it better.
I did a paper on "time scarcity" in my college master's program. This was back in 2000 and it was already a problem. Time scarcity is the perception that we don't have enough time to do everything in our day, so we multitask as much as possible and go at the the speed of light all day, every day. What I found is that we actually have much more leisure time than people did one hundred years ago. Of course we do- we have all of this technology that allows us to do things so much easier and faster than our ancestors. We have convenience items where they didn't. We fill our time with the wrong things---we over-schedule ourselves with things that aren't really our priorities. What happens is that our society works more to have more and then you have more, but don't have time to enjoy it because you have to work more to pay for it. We over-schedule our kids and they don't get to just be kids anymore. How exhausting!
Here's an example of time scarcity that you might see at the gym:
There's a woman on the elliptical and she is watching TV, reading a magazine, listening to her iPod, checking the email on her phone, and even answering a phone call (although the gym doesn't allow talking on the phone in the fitness center). It's good to have distraction during a workout, but that is multi-tasking out of control!
Where am I going with all of this? I want you to analyze how you use your time and find a way to fit in exercise, meal planning, and cleaner nutrition. Plug it into the areas where you would normally be surfing the net or checking your phone. Multitask and plan your meals while you sit at your child's sports practice. Prepare healthy snacks in the evening for the next day. Pack your gym bag before you go to bed. Realize that you can get a great workout in just 20 minutes. No excuses not to do that.
One more thing- we may move through our days so fast that our heads spin, but we sit through most of that. Sit to drive to this activity or that school drop off, sit through work or meetings, sit to drive home, sit to eat meals, sit to watch tv/computer, sit and visit, etc. Get up and move around!
There IS time. Slow down and enjoy your life or you'll miss it.
