Motivation - school - work = hard

teknosprite

Has anyone/is anyone working full time mon thru fri and takin evening classes mon-Thursday and still managing to find time and energy to exercise? I'm in my final year of law school. Law school made me overweight (I gained bout 45 lbs since starting) ( I know I made me overweight but I'll blame it on school;) I've finally gotten the motivation to be healthier and much more active. I've been doing so for about 2.5 weeks and I start classes next Monday. So I'll be working 8-4 on mon, wed, fri, going straight to school and then finishing at 7:30. I will be working 7-3 on tues thuds and then straight to class, also finishing around 730. I'm pretty sure I will be too exhausted on tues/Thursday ( I am not a get up early kind of person!!) so I'm going to try for after school on mon/wed then 2 days outta fri, sat, sun. My gym is my school gym.

I've been doing really well I'm just afraid I will lose strength, motivation, time when school starts. I will have tons of reading/research to do also which = sitting on my butt.

I'm going to have to be really dedicated and hold myself to a schedule to make sure I don't give up on exercising and eating right.

How have others dealt with this stuff? Also how have you all dealt with sticking to healthy eating with a messed up schedule because of school?

leahraskie

You could try working out while reading your books, might be a little hard if the topic is difficult, but students do that here all the time.

Getting done with classes or work around 7:30 is probably the hardest, once I got done with classes I walked home and was like I want to eat everything, so take some snacks to class so you don't turn into that lol.

jess1jane

That does sound tiring... I never had such long days as that, but working out doesn't have to be more than twenty minutes a day. Just have to get your heart rate up. I would try to squeeze in twenty minutes as many days a week as you can. Power through the exhaustion, you will feel so much better after your workout, even if you are more tired. Maybe do it right before bed and it will help you pass out right away. It is a matter of making yourself stick to a routine. At the beginning of the day, decide if you will workout or if you need a rest day. Be honest with yourself. Then, if you decide to work out, DO IT! That is always my biggest problem, is once I take a rest day, I take multiple rest days and it gets harder to start working out again. That may not be true with everyone, but beware of not sticking to a routine. I have lied to myself a lot to get out of working out, and I always felt bad about myself afterwards. Believe working out makes you feel good about yourself.

bangbangchoochootrain

That sounds really tough! Here are some random suggestions:

On my longest days last year (Class from 8:30-4:30, work in between, then club from 7-9 or 10) I would sometimes hop on the reclining stationary bike and read. It never gets my heart rate as high as when I just focus on working out, but every little bit helps. Some days I would really just feel like taking a nap, but I'd go to the gym anyway and become re-energized by some strange black magic. Plus, and athough I didn't do this last year, make a category of how much time you spend doing "nothing in particular". I spend a lot of time on tumblr, and even on these forums, which could, if need be, be cut into for exercise. If you have netflix bring it with you to the gym instead of sitting on your bed/couch.

Also you may want to try working out during a lunch break at work if you have time. The ladies in the office where I work started to walk around a nearby lake during lunch. If you have a place similar to that where you can just be on your feet for those 30 minutes that could also help.

If that doesn't work, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking further away, all of those little movements add up.

Finally, and of course this is worse case scenario, if it IS too much, all you really need to lose weight is a caloric deficit. So you may just have to be a little stricter with your meals.

jess1jane

^^ agree with above post. Every little bit helps. Just be aware of what you are eating and how much time you spend doing something when you could be getting a little bit of exercise in.