Fitness: No time for exercise? Seize the moment!

“I can never find time to exercise,” is a common lamentation I hear from clients, friends and family. I too have a hard time fitting my workouts into my busy schedule, but I’ve learned a few tricks that help me keep down the number of blank days on my workout calendar. So your first tip is to actually keep a workout calendar – print out a blank calendar for the month and record your completed workouts on it. Just looking at a few blank squares is sometimes all the motivation you need to get out there and do something active! But how to find the time to fill those squares? Here are a few ideas:

• Pre-plan your workout week. Sit down on Sunday night and look at your calendar for the week ahead. Where do you have blocks of time that can be set aside – right now! – for exercise? Put it on your calendar – it’s the most surefire way to see that you make time for exercise.

• Actively seek out “Activity Opportunities” each day. Turn your lunch break into a lunch walk. Hold a “walking meeting” with that colleague or employee of yours. Stash a resistance band under your desk, stand up and do some curls or tricep extensions every half hour or so. Sit on a stability ball instead of a chair – your back will thank you!

• Combine exercise with work or errands. I have a friend who jogs to meetings and to run errands. Obviously, if you need to be wearing business attire at your meeting or if you’ll be returning with a bag of groceries, this won’t work. But if you need to drop your car off for an oil change, if you need to buy stamps at the post office, if your dog needs grooming – pick a place within a mile or two of home and get there (or back) on foot. This afternoon, I finished up with a client at 4:30 in a part of town that I knew would be bogged down in rush-hour traffic. I didn’t need to be home until 6:00, so I took the opportunity to go for a 30-minute jog along scenic White Bear Lake. I felt energized and refreshed, and when I jumped back in the car traffic had thinned out and my commute home took me about 15 minutes less than it would have. Net time cost: 15 minutes – what a deal!

• Be ready to exercise at any moment. Keep a set of workout clothes and an old pair of running or walking shoes in your car. If you find yourself someplace needing to kill time, you’ll be ready. If you have a corporate job downtown, keep a pair of walking shoes at the office and hit the streets or the skyways whenever you have 15 or 20 minutes to spare. (If you have clients visiting from out of state, hold a “walking meeting” with them in the skyways. Out-of-towners are always interested and impressed by the skyways for some reason!) Work out at the gym after work to avoid rush hour.

You can probably think of some ways to “seize the moment” yourself. I’d love to hear them. Leave me a comment. But first, get off the computer and go move your body!