Time constraints on exercise

x1v16

I've been feeling a little guilty lately. I know my health is important, but the fact that exercising limits the time I can spend with my girlfriend's kids bothers me. Here is a layout of my day:
7-8pm - visit with girlfriend's kids
8pm - kids get put to bed
8-10pm - visit with girlfriend
10pm to 10:45pm - drive to work
10:45pm to 7 am - Work
7am to 7:45 am - Drive home
7:45 am - 8:20 am - take kids to school

After the kids are at school I know I need to exercise but if I go to the gym I won't be home for 2 hours. If I go to bed at 10:20 am it might take me 40mins to an hour to get to sleep, then I always need 8 hours sleep, so I basically get up, changed, showered and over to my gilfriend's by 8pm. The kids are being put to bed by that time. I only go to the gym once every 2-3 days but the fact that it's making me lose an hour here and there with them is bothering me. When I don't work I see them more but I still feel bad. I can forsee possible solutions such as:

1. Exercise for 45 mins so I get to bed by 9:45am Problem - Gym membership is based on number of visits so I really like to make the visits longer rather than shorter.

2. Exercise with the kids Problem - By the time I see them it is 7pm, so it is dark outside. To make matter worse it is winter and I live in Canada so it should be between -10 C and 0C most of the time.

3. Exercise at home Problem - My exercise bike makes my butt and other lower extremities hurt because the bike seat is really uncomfortable.

Anyway.....I guess the most plausibe solution given my financial situation, dedication to lose weight, and time constraints would be a month membership so I exercise for 45 minutes a day instead of 90 minutes every 2-3 days that doesn't leave my time for the kids.

Anyone have any other suggestions? When I do the gym I do low intensity cardio for 90 mins which completely exhausts me and often tires me out for the following day. I weigh about 257 and am not in the best shape.

hsnider29

Could you possibly skip the visiting 3 nights a week to go to the gym? Do you have to take the kids to school? Honestly, if I worked crazy hours I wouldn't give up time with my kids to exercise. How about heading straight to the gym after work for an hour?

x1v16

fix post

x1v16

My girlfriend REALLY thinks my taking the kids to school is important. I've tried getting out of that so I can exercise in the morning and be over for 7pm but her vehicle is unreliable and the heat is broken so she really hates driving them to school now.

As far as missing the kids for 2-3 days a week, that is what I've been doing but when I hear the kids miss me it makes me sad and feel guilty.

tricksee

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?!!!

Losing weight or building muscle???

if you want to shift the LBS then the gym isn't even necessary!!! sort the diet out and you're golden!!! weight will fall off your *kitten*!!

it did for me!!!

if you love the gym then USE IT AS ANOTHER AVENUE for weightloss but dont see it as the "be all and end all" of your journey!!

you want to spend MORE TIME IN THE GYM?? are you kidding me??

spend more time with your damn kids and do a light 20-30 mins workout when they're asleep!! - you're still going to see ALL KINDS OF RESULTS!!!

what is this **** about you NEED 8 hours sleep?? total rubbish man!! stupidest *kitten* ive heard in my life!!! get 7 1/2 hours and use the other 1/2 every morning to do pressups- push ups and squats!!

waking up never killed anybody!!!!!!

just eat right and be a fat burning beast for 30mins each morning and you're look like george f*ckin clooney!!!

714rah714

Excuses, excuses, excuses

BigGuy47

I spend between 45min to an hour exercising 6 days a week.
No gym membership.
Mon, Wed, Fri - Resistance training (mostly body weight & some dumbbell work)
Tue, Thurs, Sat - Walking (outside or on the treadmill depending on the weather)
Sun - rest day

18 months ago I started out at nearly 310 lbs., my current weight is 190 lbs. When I first started, exercise beat the heck out of me because I was so out of shape. Starting out I did short walks every day (half mile) and stayed on track with my diet. I slowly ramped up my exercise over the course of a year to build up to a regular routine.

I understand the desire to preserve as much quality time with the family as possible. I don't have to commute back and forth to a gym - that saves me about 45min each day.

Diet is critical for weight loss. Exercise will give you the fitness and energy needed to keep up with the kiddos.

usafbeach

There are a finite number of hours in a day/week. How you spend them is your choice. You make time for what's important to you.

travel_kat

Do you not get any breaks at work eg: lunch? 30 mins 5 times a week rather than 90mins 3 times a week?

x1v16

I know how much sleep I need. Trust me, I've tried getting 7 hours of sleep for 10 years because who honestly wants to sleep an extra hour instead of something they enjoy? The results were my sleeping in for school, sleeping in for work, sleeping in for visits to my girlfriend. If I don't consistantly get 8 hours of sleep unfortunately I seem to have no control over myself when my alarms go off. I turn them off, go back to bed. Didn't matter if I had an exam worth 30% of my grade, my brain just wasn't functioning enough to realize that laying back in bed was going to result in horrible results.

Everyone needs different amounts of sleep, I think it pretty arrogant to assume what works for you must work for me. One of the biggest reasons people eat is they are overtired. I realize 8 hours might seem like a lot to you, but trust me when I say it really is something that if I start cutting 30 minutes here and there it takes a bite out of my *kitten* after a while.

Lupercalia

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?!!!

Losing weight or building muscle???

if you want to shift the LBS then the gym isn't even necessary!!! sort the diet out and you're golden!!! weight will fall off your *kitten*!!

it did for me!!!

if you love the gym then USE IT AS ANOTHER AVENUE for weightloss but dont see it as the "be all and end all" of your journey!!

you want to spend MORE TIME IN THE GYM?? are you kidding me??

spend more time with your damn kids and do a light 20-30 mins workout when they're asleep!! - you're still going to see ALL KINDS OF RESULTS!!!

what is this **** about you NEED 8 hours sleep?? total rubbish man!! stupidest *kitten* ive heard in my life!!! get 7 1/2 hours and use the other 1/2 every morning to do pressups- push ups and squats!!

waking up never killed anybody!!!!!!

just eat right and be a fat burning beast for 30mins each morning and you're look like george f*ckin clooney!!!

I agree with most of this ^^^ post. Diet is really the big determinant of fat loss. Exercise is secondary and really quite distant at that. That said, I wouldn't discourage anyone from exercising! I think you could re-jig your workouts and spend a lot less time exercising and not need a gym membership. Bodyweight exercises (as mentioned above) are fantastic for building strength, and if you want to get metabolic, you can certainly do that as well with bodyweight ex and in a very small space at home. No equipment necessary other than perhaps an interval timer (you can find free ones online that work great).

If you want to invest in a bit of equipment, I keep kettlebells at home because they don't take up much floorspace and I can get an amazing strength building workout with them. Dumbbells are another option. Even though I have KBs at home, I still incorporate a bunch of bodyweight exercises into my routine.

I've lost almost all this weight without using cardio machines--just strength training at the gym with a barbell, kettlebell training at home, and walking places for transportation purposes. Make sure your diet is tight first and foremost.

tadpole242

Working nights is a killer on the body so you need your sleep, but does the hotel you work at have a gym? Do you get a lunch break? use the gym at work 5 night a week, 30 minutes hard work at the gym on each night shift, and eat your lunch at your desk when it's really quiet.
Walk about the building when you get a chance, take the stair if you have them, take every opportunity to do something to help burn off a few more calories.

vtmoon

wake up earlier or sleep later to fit in that exercise time? in the end we always make time for what we perceive as important to us. When you really want to exercise you will figure it out, for now enjoy the other things you care about more and don't feel bad dieting will help you lose the fat for now and you can work on your fitness later when it gets a better priority in your routine.

Donna_Houghton

Why not buy an exercise DVD? Or even do a search on YouTube for some fitness videos? Some are quite good.

Ask for your girlfriends support - perhaps she'll do the DVD's with you say 3 times a week?

Fitting in excercise is tough but the benefits outweigh giving up on finding work out time. Go For It!!!

ChristineDiet

I hear you and it is difficult but you have to make time for you and adjust things to suit you and your lifestyle better. I work Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, sometimes 7am-7pm. i have 3 children and by the time they get to bed it's between 8-9pm, I'm then shattered and hungry.

My suggestions:

scrap the gym membership.
get yourself some dumbbells and barbells with adjustable weights
Find a programme that suits you, perhaps Les Mills or Body Revolution (I'm doing body Revolution at the moment and it's 30 mins 6 times a week).
Buy a wii or some other kind of console and play games with the kids; active games, like tennis but actually get up and move, don't play armchair tennis! I have the Just Dance games and I get a good sweat on, my two youngest do it with me and they are 3 and 10!
Can you walk the kids to school? Or if it's too far then drive part of the way and walk the rest, leave earlier to do so, or after you have dropped them off then go for a brisk walk/jog/run for 20-30 mins.
Instead of working out for 2-3 hours concentrate on breaking it up and doing 30 mins of Hiit and 30 mins of weights - you can then split it up so it's not all done at once.
Plus you say you need 8 hours sleep, perhaps you could give up one of those hours, if your doing HiiT you'll probably have more energy from that and find that you don't need as much sleep, but I would do that when you've woken up, not before you go to bed.

Good luck - if you really want it, you'll find the time. x

loopingcaterpillar

what about doing a dance/fitness dvd with your girlfriend in the evening? quality time, fun workout.

AuntieMC

First, kudos to you for wanting to make both the kids and the exercise a priority!

1. Before 9:45 a.m. -- Gyms are fun, but you might want to consider doing your exercise at home. If the kids are already gone to school, and you have 45 minutes available for exercise, you could do a lot of different things at home. There are exercise DVDs for all kinds of purposes -- in home walking, strength training, yoga, dancing, all kinds of stuff, all kinds of levels. Google exercise DVDs at amazon.com for some ideas.

Another at-home exercise idea is to look for free uTube exercise videos. Or, find some on TV if you have cable. Or Netflicks.

Or make up your own exercise routine at home! Perhaps you could get some resistance bands or some weights. Or you could do something as simple as callenstenics or running in place! There is a book out there called Convict Conditioning that uses no special equipment at all.

2. Exercise with kids -- Some of the same indoor exercise activites would work with kids indoors, too. If you can afford it, perhaps you could get a WiiFit? Play Simon Says and make doing a certain number of various exercises a game. Put on some music and dance, dance, dance! Get a Zumba DVD!

3. Exercise at home -- oops, I already talked about this in item one, under the gym, because it makes more sense to me to work out at home than to drive to a gym, when time is at a premium! It doesn't have to be on a stationary bike. If that isn't working for you, sell it, and get something else, if you like, such as the exercise DVDs!

I am actually new to exercise, myself, but I have heard that if you can work out for a whole hour, you aren't working hard enough! Now, I think that is for building muscle. So, shorter, more intense workouts build muscle, or so I have been told. For general activity level, to burn calories, any kind of exercise will do. Bet there's something you could do on your lunch hour! And maybe just walk a little faster about your daily activites, or park a little farther away. There are lots of little ways to incorporate extra activity during your day.

And look at the time you have set aside to be with your girlfriend. I'll bet SHE could use some exercise, too! How about an indoor dance party for two a few times a week?

Good luck to you!