How did you fit in exercise? (Full time work/school)

Put another vote down in the "get up early" box. I work full time 730-4 (45 minute commute) and spending evenings playing taxi for 2 kids. I'm usually up and out for a run by 5:45 am. Sometimes even earlier than that.

I am sensing a common theme here, lots of busy people sacrificing some sleep to get up early to work out. I did it 20 years ago as a single mom, working full time and going to school and I do it now, married mom with one crazy job, but 3 crazy kids. I wish I had been consistent throughout all the years in between...But it is hard. Getting out of bed when it's dark or cold. The first few days (weeks) are incredibly hard, but like anything...the more you do it, the better you get at it.

What works for me:
I wear my work out clothes to bed.
I keep my sneakers right outside my bedroom door.
I wake up, brush my teeth, wash my face and GO...

And really, it's a great way to start your day on a healthy note. The days I work out in the morning I am a lot less likely to eat crap.

Good luck, I know it's hard. But it is so important.

I get up at 4:45 to fit in the gym. I work full time 8-5 and have school M-Th from 6-8 or 6-10 (Depends on the class) so I am out of the house for 17 hours at a stretch. Planning out clothes and preparing/rationing out food ahead of time is helpful. I have a coldpack bag that goes in the freezer and I load it up with half my day's worth of calories so I always have something to eat.

Once you get into the habit of getting up early, getting dressed and running out the door to work out it becomes second nature. It's definitely hard, especially when I don't get enough sleep the night before.

I would go for walks on my lunch break find a gym close to my job and exercise on my lunch break and eat at my desk on a good morning I would wake up and do some form of exercise.

I work 3 jobs, one desk job(full time) one warehousing and janitorial (part-time).. They are all M-f my day typically begins at 5am and don’t typically get home until 11pm. I also have 4 children that need “Dad” time. Thankfully Tuesdays and Thursdays I’m home by 7pm. I don’t have a lot of “me” time, this is my solution. I stopped driving to work.

On M-W-F I bike to all jobs mileage ends up being 9.41 miles a day. On Tuesday and Thursday I walk which ends up being 7.9 miles between two jobs. The Saturday mornings I sleep in until 6am and go for a 10 mile ride and typically home before the family wakes up. The rest of the time is devoted to my family. So far in the 30 days I’ve been doing this I have lost 25lbs. I decided to walk two days a week because my knees were hurting badly from biking.

The other thing that has really helped me out is my wife pre packs my meals every day. I Put them in my backpack along with my work clothes and all I have to do is worry about waking up on time. ( some days are better than others) I do have a gym membership but I haven’t been using it because of my lack of time. The other plus side of not driving is money saved on gas. I am happy with the results from cardio so far and one day when I don’t have three jobs maybe I can make better use of that gym membership.

I go early in the morning while my kids are asleep. Set the alarm and walk out the door. That way I have all evening with them after work. That's what works best for me.

My exercise time IS my me time. It's the most me my time could possibly be, because I'm focusing on me. Finding an exercise you enjoy doing is probably the best thing you can do. That aside, try to find something you can do that couples with another activity you like, like riding the elliptical while watching Netflix, or listening to a book on tape while jogging.

Other things that can help: make sure you're being as efficient as possible with work and school. Plan grocery lists in advance so that you can hit up the store on your way home all at once, instead of making multiple trips or having to go to store after you've already made it home. Record your lectures (if allowed) and play them back when you're working out. Plan your outfits the night before for everything you will need the following day. Get workout clothing/gear (water bottle/gym bag/sneakers) that you would actually want to use.

Never stay up late playing on your phone/computer/tv the night before a morning workout. You're less likely to commit to a workout if you're short on sleep.

I wake up 1 hour early, do the treadmill, jog/walk for 1/2 hour, then i use my hands weights and do sit-ups for the remaining 1/2 hours. Once at work, on our break of course, a co-worker and I run up the stairs and then on our lunch hour a few of us either go for a jog or fast pace walk depending on the weather. You can do it, you just have to put your mind to it and find what works for you and do it, no excesses Good luck, if you want add me as a friend i will cheer you on and push as much as i can.

Don't short sleep just to exercise.

You might have to do a detailed look at your schedule to find time. If your aerobic exercise is walking or running, you might be able to squeeze in short exercise sessions between classes (running instead of walking to your next class?), or use half your lunch break at work. It used to be thought that exercise needed to be continuous but lately report say 10 minutes here and there adds up the same as one continuous session.

Weightlifting only needs to be done once a week, so if you can block out a couple of hours one day a week to do both upper and lower body on the same day, you're okay. Aerobic exercises (walk, run, swim, dance...) need be at least 3 times per week.

That said, for some people getting up an hour earlier to get the exercise *done* before anything else is the best way to keep their psychology on track and actually do the exercise. Thing is, you have to go to bed an hour earlier so that your sleep duration is preserved. Sleep deprivation has been shown to cause over-eating.

add: if you work out in a gym, most these days have TV monitors set up with cable or satellite TV and you can choose your channel while on treadmills or spin-bikes. Bring headphones and you can get your exercise done *while* watching that "me time" show that used to glue you to the couch.

I worked full-time, part-time, and went to school full-time not too long ago. I had a couple of different plans of attack.

-I would wake up early, get a good 30 minute workout in, shower, and then off to work.
-I would workout on my lunch break, which was 1 hour. It was enough time that I could workout, shower, and get back to my desk in under 1 hour.
-I would go to work, leave work and go straight to school. The school I attended had a gym. I would use their gym for 30-60 mins, shower, and go to class. I often ate my dinner sitting in class.
-On the weekends, I planned workouts around my obligations. If I knew I had Saturday morning class, I would make sure that I had a workout planned at the school gym or at the gym on my way home. I would not go home before the workout because then I wouldn't get the motivation to leave the house again.

I made sure I scheduled 60-90 minutes every Sunday evening to meal prep for the week to make things easier. Having food ready to go made eating right easier.

I've come to the conclusion that a person will do something if they really really want it. Not judging, but maybe you don't want to work out bad enough. Just being honest.

Work full-time and have two small children under 3. Getting up earlier would just mean they would get up earlier, so I do 15- to 20-minute HIIT workouts three times a week while dinner is cooking and add as many steps as I can during my work day and weekends as I can.

If you want something done, give it to the busiest person you know.

Truth.

At my busiest (working, full-time school/Ph.D. program, two little kids, traveling, and volunteering), I found that the answer was to workout before the world woke up. It was a trade off for sleep, but it gave me so much energy that the extra hour and a half of would-be sleep couldn't compete with the impact of a solid workout. I found that the most efficient exercise in terms of burning calories and achieving high level of fitness was running. (No commute to open front door and head outside for a run!) However, when I would have loads of reading to do, I'd opt for using a gym treadmill and I'd set the incline on the max setting and use a walking pace of 3.5 so that I could read as I "climbed a mountain." (<--huge calorie burn!) Easy strength add-ins like push-ups after the run or chair dips made it possible to maintain strength without going to the gym.

Efficiency has always been key for me - I try to limit commute time or simply take advantage of circumstances that would otherwise be dead air time. For example, to this day, the service manager at Honda knows that I always go running when I bring my car in for an oil change! If my tires need replaced at Costco, yep - I use the 40 minutes for a run. If I get my hair colored, I use the time to read research for work. These little plug-ins have always allowed me to free up time for exercise or simply to plug in exercise time into what otherwise might be wasted time.

My biggest and best secret to daily exercise is making it a first thing in the morning priority. Not only does it not get eliminated (given it's placement at the front end of life) but it ends up working as fuel for the day.

If you do have interest in having a gym membership, consider choosing a gym that has lots of locations so that you can flexibly fit in your workout based on where you have to be on any given day.

Since you mention being a full-time student, it is worth addressing the fact that you likely have a school rec center. Consider structuring your class schedule to fit a midday workout in the mix. University gyms are usually very decent and are also a great place to unwind midday. Owning a gym bag may sound like a silly suggestion, but if you always take your running shoes and a workout outfit with you, you are really likely to make it happen on the fly! Be prepared.

Last little tip would be to always take your meals with you! You will be eating healthier, saving time and saving money. Those 30 minutes that are saved by not ordering food or waiting for service might just be the 30 minutes that you spend on the university track doing repeat miles or walking around the block outside your place of employment (or climbing stairs in the stairwell) during your lunch hour!

You make time for it somewhere when it becomes important to you. Yeah, sometimes it will suck and you won't want to do it, but you won't reap the benefits unless and until you start putting the time in. Everyone else has posted a lot of ideas on what works for them, of course you have to fit it in where it best works for you.