Making Excuses

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  • shrinkingletters
    shrinkingletters Posts: 1,008 Member
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    I'm full of excuses, myself. You can't get my butt to wake up any earlier than I do already, and once I'm home, I'm starving (45 minute drive from work to home: I get home at 7 and my last snack is usually at 4:30 or 5), so all I wanna do is cook dinner and then crash.

    My solution is to find ways to exercise at work. At my old job, I only had a half hour lunch, so I would spend that time power walking or accessing the stairs in my building, and I would squeeze in a quick wrap or sandwich on my way back. If you have 15 minute breaks and a lunch, this is the way to go. Now that I have an hour lunch and my gym is down the block from my office, I rush my butt over there and get in a solid half hour work out before I have to rush back to work, where I usually scarf down a salad at my desk while I work. I have NO excuse to miss this. What else am I going to do on my lunch? Sit. Eat. Gossip. Maybe shop? Ultimately I'm saving$ and avoiding getting caught up in office gossip, at worst, and getting a solid workout in at best.

    Find any moment, I promise you have some. Tonight while my chicken marinates, I'll spend that 1/2 hr either walking or doing some kind of simple at-home workout.

    Ultimately it'll come down to when you feel sick and tired of your own excuses and evaluate what you really want, honestly.
  • allsturns
    allsturns Posts: 36 Member
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    So I got up earlier this morning and hit my first hurdle, couldn't find a video quickly and gave up that idea. I then downloaded the 7min workout app but found that really hard to follow as wasn't sure when I was meant to move onto the next rep 🤔 all was not lost however as I did manage a whole 5 mins on my stationary bike. Hey it's 5 mins more activity than I would have done right?!
    I'm a manager in an office so my work is very high stress and I'm already eating at my desk with no time to take a lunch break to get my work done. Sadly the option of riding or walking to work is out to as I have to drop and collect kids from the child minder so there's no additional time either side of my Day, my childcare costs are over £16k a year already
    I'll keep at this for a bit longer and maybe try watching the 7min app to see how it works as 7 mins sounds perfect for me 👍
    I think you are right though, it's the lack of any visual change that's getting to me mostly, 1400 calories sucks if you can't still fit into your clothes from a few months ago
  • kdbulger
    kdbulger Posts: 396 Member
    edited October 2018
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    Here is the thing - depending on the culture of your office, realistically taking 20-45 minutes three "lunch hours" a week is not going to seriously impact your work flow. Indeed, you might find you are MORE productive on the days you exercise. If you're not going to get in trouble or be looked down upon, I really encourage you to make the time FOR YOURSELF. Be an agent of change for you and for your colleagues that says it is okay to care for our bodies' needs during the day.

    Sincerely, a former HR employee who would never begrudge my employees their legally protected lunch breaks and who uses her lunch hours to exercise.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    If you had the same high pressure job when you smoked did you take smoke breaks?
    Maybe you could take "walk the stairs" breaks.

    Something to think about.... if someone you managed was having the same issue of being too time pressured to take a proper break would you intervene or let it continue with a possible detriment to their well being?

    BTW.
    A lot of people track measurements using a tape measure and take progress pictures, it's really hard to look in the mirror and see changes as they tend to be very incremental and subtle, especially early on.

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