New to exercise. Need a bit of advice.

chadgard

Thank you for replying! Yes, some things do slip. I'm a healthy eater and with my schedule I am active which is why I can slip on heavy exercise. My 4.0 is paying for college which is why it can't slip. Other things can. I didn't ever say I wanted a crazy, lengthy, immediate results routine. Which is why I regret posting this thread. I just want to do more with the time I have. It is my life and I have prioritized it. I don't see the problem with asking what the best things to do are in the amount of time I have. Maybe if I had ridiculous expectations or asked how long I should be doin something it'd be different. I just get frustrated with people sometimes.

Within that framework, really, anything you do is going to be better than nothing. I'd probably look at something that can give you multiple benefits on the time. For example, running for me. It was a huge surprise that I actually enjoy it, of course, but I do. So, when I go for a run, I get several benefits: improved cardio health, higher calorie burn (= more ice cream!), strengthening and protecting my knee, mental recharge derived from uninterrupted "me" time (obviously I'm not a "group" runner...), from the same chunk of time. On my thursday runs, my schedule works out so that I'm running around the country block, so to speak - starting/stopping at our farm, rather than the fitness center at school, so I also lump picking up the mail in there to (we have a 3/4 mile driveway, so it's slightly significant).

So, for you, whether it's weight lifting, biking, swimming, running, a video program, or whatever, look for something that you enjoy and can give you some "value added" benefit as well. Maybe you could combine biking and grocery shopping, for example. And, of course, if you can schedule your workout to precede a time when you would normally shower anyway, you save the time an extra shower would take up. But whatever you do, make it something you enjoy. And maybe that means a few weeks of experimentation...