Having been a personal trainer in Red Deer, Alberta now for over 12 years I’ve heard a lot of excuses why people don’t exercise regularly, eat healthy and balanced meals, or don’t use a personal trainer regularly. Of all those excuses one of the most common is: I don’t have time.
I work too much to exercise!
People that tell me they don’t have time for something always make me chuckle, not so much because I think their foolish but because as humans we all fall back on the “not enough time” excuse to ease the guilt of not committing significant effort to change, let me explain. Let’s consider a typical week:
7 days X 24 hours = 168 hours
Sleep is incredibly important as is time to prepare food so let’s subtract 10 hours a day right off the top for ample sleep and time to prepare food.
168 hours – 70 hours = 98 hours
The typical work week for most of you is 40 hours, but let’s give you an additional 45min/day for travel to and from work. Let’s also make sure you have at least 2 hours a day for family time and recreation (far more than the actual typical average).
98 hours – 59 ¼ hours = 38 ¾ hours
So now you are sleeping well, you have more than ample time to ensure you are eating well, we’ve accounted for the time to get to and from work, and we have made time for your family or that all important TV show. Maybe we should also deduct some time for chores, paying bills and all those things that keep life on track, 2 hours a day should be quite generous.
38 ¾ hours – 14 hours = 24 ¾ hours
Ok, the bills are paid, the house is clean, the family is happy, you are sleeping more than you have in years, the boss is pleased (heck you might even have time for a little overtime) so let’s consider doing something for ourselves. A regular exercise program will guarantee a higher quality of life. You don’t need to exercise every day but let’s say for optimal results you decide to use an exercise program of some sort 3 days/week and 3 additional days you just perform some sort of cardiovascular activity. On 3 days with time to travel to and from the gym let’s give you 2 hours and the other 3 days 1 hour will be plenty of time, so a total of 13 hours.
24 ¾ hours – 13 hours = 11 ¾ hours
Making time to exercise can improve the rest of your day.
Now 13 hours may seem like a lot of exercise, and I would completely agree that is far more than what is actually needed to live a long healthy and fit lifestyle. By now of course you should see the visual point I am trying to make. With more than ample time (more than the majority of us actually use) we have plenty of time to accommodate a very healthy lifestyle. Even with time for recreation considered we still have more than ample extra time to even make our weekends pretty much obligation free from our routine. If you actually take the time to closely monitor the schedule of your day you will be amazed at how much time we all waste on a daily basis. From health, exercise to success, time management is a key factor in the lifestyle you live. Today use it to improve your health, tomorrow use a little of that extra time to educate yourself on time management. By applying the principles of time management to other areas of your life you will pretty much be guaranteed success in any of your aspirations.
Final word: 30 min/day set aside for exercise will burn an average number of calories equivalent to 18 ¼ pounds of fat. If you picked up a book for 20 minutes a day (learning about time management and other topics) you would complete enough study time nearly equivalent to 8 college credits a year.
