How do you find the time for exercise?

BluffMeAllIn

I'd like to start exercising again, I was doing well in the first week of my new health changes until a nightly workout got me so sore I could barely move for two days and havn't been able to get back into it since (this was about 6-7 weeks ago now).

There are just not enough hours in the day, and I am so NOT a morning person to be able to get up early and work out. I typically throw myself into bed around 12-1Am and am up at 7:30am at the latest to get ready and out the door for work.

I get home from work around 5:30pm and then I start getting supper situated and usually finish up cooking/eating around 7pm....then its time to take the pooch out for his nightly round (about 20-30min usually, which is some movement but sometimes much of it is spent just standing and not moving lol).

By this time I'm exhausted and just come back and sit on the computer for pretty much the rest of the evening, to take care of some forum duities I have as a guide (it's a poker forum) and do a little playing and before I know it it's midnight and so its time to get to bed and do it all again.

How on earth am I suppose to get possibly an hour's workout into this, not to mention our apartment is so couped up that I have to shift around a couch and chair to make room to workout.......feels like I'll probably never get back into it.

Maybe someone has some suggestions for me?

Cheers.

Tedebearduff

Stop playing on your computer? problem solved....

Stop making excuses for everything too.... Let's be real here you said you went and it hurt guess what that pain is your body rebuilding it's self. Those pains go away over time and eventually you miss them!!

Seriously stop making excuses... you can wake up and early and go to the gym before work! I know your not a morning person... that's because your wasting your life on your computer at night!. Go to bed earlier and wake up early, eventually you adjust to it.

petefromguelph

The first problem is affirming "I am so not a morning person". Time to become one, think of the desired goal, and let that kick your a** out of bed. If being in shape and exercising was easy, everyone would do it. Its supposed to be hard. Makes you appreciate the reward more. Start telling yourself "I am going to get up early and feel great" (even if it sounds like BS to you at the time). Your body will react in time.

Once you start to get results, it gets easier. Trust me.

jacksonpt

BluffMeAllIn wrote: »

I am so NOT a morning person to be able to get up early and work out.

That's just an excuse.

BluffMeAllIn wrote: »

By this time I'm exhausted

Another excuse.

BluffMeAllIn wrote: »

not to mention our apartment is so couped up that I have to shift around a couch and chair to make room to workout

Yet another excuse.



You'll make time if it's truly important to you. And if it's not, you won't.

Everyone has different priorities. If your priorities are sleep and poker, then that's fine... but own your priorities... don't whine about not having enough time. No one has enough time to do EVERYTHING they want to do, so we make time to do what's more important and sacrifice what isn't.

You need to decide what's more important, then own that decision.

Cobourg

Im not a morning person either. I go to the gym straight from work. I get changed at work before a leave so I am already committed to going. Yes I hate the gym but it is necessary just like eating. The computer is not something you have to do the gym is. You dog will wait until you get home to go out mine does. Sometimes I make dinner in the slow cooker sometimes we eat around 7:00 - 8:00 but everyone survives. Make yourself a priority and stop with the excuses.

lacroyx

I don't find time to exercise. I make time.

FatFreeFrolicking

Excuses excuses excuses.

If you are exhausted by 7 pm, why the hell are you staying up until 12 or 1 am? That's your first problem. Stop staying up late so you can wake up earlier.

If you are not too exhausted to play on the computer for 5 hours, then you aren't too exhausted to workout for 30 minutes-1 hour. Exercise gives you energy, by the way.

You don't need to workout in your apartment. You can go for a walk or jog outside. Or join a gym. Some memberships are as cheap as $10 a month.

ETA: Your schedule is not that busy. You are simply choosing to spend the time you do have to play poker. Another suggestion is to actually take your dog for a walk for 20-30 minutes after dinner- instead of standing around while he does his business.

DvlDwnInGA

When you make it a priority you will stop trying to find time in the day to do it, and you will make time to do it. It is not a priority for you right now, and until you make it a priority you will always find an excuse to not do it.

JoRocka

No one has any more magical hours in the day. Everyone gets the same amount of time.

It's a priority and it gets done- or it's not and you don't do it.

plain and simple.

Otherwise the only person you're lying to is yourself with your excuses.

SLHysell

Some answers are hard. This one isn't. You have plenty of time; you are simply choosing the hobby that keeps you sitting in a chair over a hobby that gets you up and moving. If you truly were exhausted, you couldn't stay awake to play poker on the computer. Life is all about choices. Lying to yourself is not going to help you reach your goals. Find time, make time. It's there. Your schedule seems much lighter than mine and I get 10 to 15 miles running in a week and three visits to the gym. And I stay up playing video games almost each night. AND I have two children that I spend a lot of time with. The time is there. You must choose to use it.

brianpperkins

When exercise becomes important to you, you'll prioritize it. Right now, excuses and computer games are obviously higher priorities.

JenniDaisy

Everyone is busy.
Me for example: I get up at 5.45am; Leave the house at 6.30; work at 7am; leave work at 3ish; Home by latest 3.45; dump my stuff; let the cat out; get changed into workout gear; check post, close curtains, other getting in the house stuff; Go for a run at 4.15ish for about half an hour; put dinner on/get stuff out for dinner depending on what I'm cooking; Shower at about 5pm; showered and dressed by 5.30pm; finish sorting dinner, sit down to eat by 6pm; Eat, watch tv, sort my clothes and lunch for work the next day, tidy, internet, general free time untill 8; 2 hours of studying; bed at 10.

Obviously weekends are slightly different, but the reason I can manage all that is because I know where I need to be at any given time.
It's not easy, I'm not naturally organised, But I am an adult and I know that sometimes I have to do stuff if I'm tired or don't want to.

Make it happen.

Abstraktimus

You've got this dude, don't let excuses get in the way of your goals. You have everything you need to throw yourself into this! Waking up in the morning if you hate it, won't work long term. It may for some people but for others, it will just deter you from working out. Take a little time at the end of your day or at the beginning, if it's not to work out then 30 minutes earlier to walk the dog so you don't have to do it later on in the evening.

Just try and mix about your schedule so you find the time that suits you, maybe come off the computer an hour earlier, have dinner a little later; It shouldn't be a chore, it should fit into YOUR lifestyle as you'd like. You can do this mate!

MissHolidayGolightly

Regular exercise should give you more energy overall, making you less tired all the time. You seem to have a normal job where you leave at 730 and come home at 530. That leaves several hours in the evening to get a workout in.

Need2Exerc1se

It sounds like you have plenty of time to exercise. It's motivation that you lack. If you want it, you'll do it. Either decide you want to improve your fitness, or don't. It's all your choice.

Follow_me

You don't 'find ' time. You have to make time. It's all about priorities.

Capt_Apollo

like others have said, you have different priorities at the moment, and thats okay. if you found 30 minutes to get moving and went to bed earlier, you'd find that you'll probably stop feeling so exhausted.

start by doing working in some exercises WHILE you are on the computer. every 20 minutes you do 5-10 reps of a body weight exercise, such as push ups, lunges, squats, etc etc.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

When you want to make the time you will. Until then there will always be a reason not to do it handy.

yopeeps025

When I was not able to go to the gym I used to flip my bed up on it's side to make room to lay down some mats to do P90X everyday.

You rather play poker then workout. Priorities for some are interesting. I guess if I was getting paid for it I would still buy some weights to hit while I am on the computer. That just me though. If I go a week without lifting weights I get really stressed out.

shano25

A few suggestions:

Try cooking dinner using a slow cooker or cooking meals on the weekend and freezing them. This will cut down on the time you spend on dinner.

Incorporate exercise into walking the dog. If you're going to be standing around, do squats or lunges or jumping jacks or any exercise that you can do outside.

Use the stairs at work or in your apartment if you can/don't already.

What you'll find is if you make these small changes and start to incorporate exercise wherever you can, you'll start to feel good about exercising and want to find a way you can build up to the hour workout.

I get what you mean about not being a morning person. I wasn't either but due to having kids and having to get them to school on time each morning, I changed. It's hard but you can do it. I don't recommend waking up early for a workout right now though because you won't get enough sleep if you're going to bed around midnight. But you can change it. I used to go to bed at 1am and now I'm in bed at 10pm/asleep by 11 and I wake up two hours earlier than I used to.

What kind of workouts are you looking to do? Why not try some of the "challenges" you find online - like squats, plank, etc. These are exercises you can do with little space. I workout in an apartment as well, I understand the space issues.

Ok, one more thing. If a workout leaves you sore, don't give up. Don't overdo it for the first week or two, ease into it. And if you are sore, spend the next few days doing yoga and stretching. Then get back to workouts.