New to exercise. Need a bit of advice.

Maybe if you bought some heavy dumbbells you could take those when you go places and plan to find spots wherever you are to use them. I think the above poster has a good point that you will have to carve out the time to do workouts.

When you are reading for your classes courses anyways, you could be on the treadmill or stationary bike doing that. There goes your cardio. Now you only have to find the time to dedicate to your strentgh training. I think with some careful attention to your schedule focusing a lot on where you shave off commute minutes by eating wherever you happen to be and combining tasks that can happen at the same time you might find ways to get a workout in.

Fond Childhood memories in 3.......2..........1....
When I was a girl my mother would drop me and my much younger sister off at dance classes. While sis did her tap or ballet I did homework at the back of the room where the mom's sit to watch their girls. In between her class and mine I worked with her on her homework right there. When it was time for my class little sis had free play with another classmates kid sister who's mom was waiting for her during my class where I could still see her. This gave my mom the time to go attend an exercise class of her own. I was a fairly responsible and organized girl so it may not work with every kid but I certainly know we had the support of the dance teacher and the other mom's so it worked out. All this was happening 3 evenings a week after full days of school and working for all of us. It can be done but you have to prioritize, eat conveniently and you will get a groove that works for you and your needs. It can be done. By the time I was dating in high school my mom was so hot I was embarrassed when my first boyfriends jaw dropped upon seeing her and hearing him exclaim..."THAT's your mom!" :noway:

I am super new to this but, I also have a full time job, and numerous family commitments, including a toddler son. I'm not really qualified to advise anyone at this point but, I can tell you what I'm doing. I work 8 hours a day (not including overtime), so, my schedule may be different from yours but, I will get to work about 15 minutes early whenever possible and walk 10 minutes at a moderate to brisk pace. Then I get two 15 minute breaks in which I walk 10 minutes each and a 30 minute break that I will walk 20-25 minutes. So, at the end of the day I have walked 40-55 minutes that day. I will also take a step stool and do steps for a couple minutes at a time during slow days (usually 2 days a week). I will do about 10-15 total of those throughout the day. Often times I will drag my family out to the walking path in our area on my days off for some family time and we will walk 45-60 minutes and have a ball! I also have a great "game" where I will chase the baby around the living room, he has so much fun and I get a pretty decent work out. Recently, my husband and I have started doing a 30-45 minute routine at night about an hour before we go to bed (although, that may keep some people up), some days we do strenth exercises that I've researched online (arms, legs and core) and other days we do Tae bo or Zumba (today, we are going to try tai chi :happy: ). The key I've found is to include your family in your journey and to take advantage of those dull, boring times by filling them with movement. Good Luck! You're doing great!

If you are very short on time, you might try an upper body - lower body split. That way you can do weight training on back-to-back days. And obviously working half the body is quicker than doing the full body workout.

I do about 30-35 minutes of lifting for each, but you can shave that back some and still be doing well compared to zero, of course Choose the big muscles and skip the smaller ones since you'll have to skip a bit. Like don't worry about calves, you know? Good luck!

edit: oh, and lift heavy with a low rep range. That's quicker than high reps anyway. I love that part And it's quicker to do other body parts instead of really resting between sets. Do it circuit-style for the quickest bang for the buck.

Congrats Melanie! Exercise will change your life!! Have you ever heard of the workout program T25? Only take 25 minutes a day at home!

While I agree with what you said about commitment I do have to say that time isn't something I have. I have 3 kids: 9, 8, and 3 (one of which requires weekly doctor apts and pharmacy visits), I have 5 classes that total about 20-25 hours per week between class and homework (also a 4.0 GPA to maintain and a 45 min drive to and from work/school each day 5 days a week), I have a job that totals 20 hours a week, I have a home to tend to, laundry to do, dinner to cook, dishes to wash, bills to pay, and all of the normal activities that 3 kids come with. I have no problem with commiting to anything. What I have a problem with is time. I do not have the resources to make time for EVERYTHING that I need to do. I do the most important things and squeeze in the lesser important as I have time. I can't slack on school, work, or kids so I lined up what MY priorities were and went from there. Which is why I was asking about 15-20 min routines. I'm not trying to be rude, but this is why I've haven't posted on these forums in years. Everyone is so quick to judge. I'm not trying to work miracles and lose weight by sitting on the couch and eating chips. I'm making steps in the right direction. I never said I wanted a buff bod with 15-20 min routines, just that I'd like to start there and build on it as I can. It's taken me close to 3 years to lose this much weight so I assume I'm not going to see overnight results. Thank you all for your input.

I can certainly relate to your dilemma. I don't have kids, but I teach at a boarding school. The job is 7 days a week, with 12 hour days being the easy ones, 16 normal, and 20's hit a couple of times a week, and you have to do all of your grading and prep work outside of that. In addition, I run a small organic farm - 2 1/2 acres of vegetables, 10 alpacas, a llama, ~180,000 honeybees, peach, almond, nectarine, and pear trees, 1/4 acres of raspberries, plus we make soap, lip balm, and various other body care products.

But here's the thing: if you want to work out more, you'll prioritize it over something else. For example, you mentioned the 4.0 GPA you "have" to maintain. Really? What would change if you "slipped" a bit, and only had a 3.8 GPA. At most schools, you would still be able to graduate cum laude. If the payoff for that shift of priorities is better health, is it worth it? If yes, you'll make the time. If no, then you won't. But only you can make that decision - and you have to make it based on your own expectations, priorities, and code of conduct. Don't worry about the judgements of others - they don't live your life, they don't have your expectations and priorities, or live by your personal code of conduct. But do be honest with yourself. A personal tale:

I used the "no time" excuse to keep from doing many health-related things: working out and sleeping chief among them. Then one day after I hit a wall (figuratively), I decided, "screw it! I'm going to sleep." I started sleeping at least 5 hours per night, even if it meant not preparing to teach class. You know what happened? I actually started teaching better! I was able to perform better "winging it" with less preparation than attempting to execute a "great" plan well prepared, but so tired my brain wouldn't function efficiently.

Then, through a conflagration of life events (including getting a new orthopedist who gave me different advice about my knee), this January I started running without a predator chasing me for the first time since high school. It took time I had previously allocated to other things - mostly the farm. But it lowered my resting heart rate, lowered my blood pressure, was key to my weight loss so far, and has helped strengthen my knee so it actually hurts less now. Ironically enough, the farm has done better because even though I'm spending less time working on it, I'm working faster and more efficiently because I'm more fit. I'm also teaching better, because that time I have running is finally the time I have to myself where no one can interrupt me and I can recharge myself (I'm an INFJ, so as much as I like interacting with people, it drains me. I need time alone to recharge). And now I'm attempting my first half marathon this Saturday. I didn't have the time. Now I do, and I'm no less busy. Busy people will expand what they're doing to fill whatever time there is. So you'll always be just as busy - no more, no less.

People always ask my wife and I how we do it all. Our answer is that we don't. We don't do a lot of the things most people do. We don't own a TV. We don't clean the house regularly (this time a year it really shows and it's embarrassing, but we've prioritized elsewhere and deal with it). I haven't washed a car in decade. I haven't mowed the lawn in 5 weeks (of course, my PR for lawn mowing is 7 1/2 hours, which has been hard to find during this part of the school year + harvest time). It looks like you're in about the same place. You can't do it all. So, something needs to slip