Fitting Workouts into a Full-time Schedule

Yesterday I got a text from my best friend Nicole that read:


"Ms. Blogger :-) do you know of any good fitness challenges? Preferably ones that wouldn't take a lot of time each day"


She is a teacher in Tampa, FL and she is gone to work every day from about 6:45 am to 4:45 pm but she has church stuff some evenings and she has a boyfriend with whom she rendez-vous most nights. She feels like she doesn't have any time but she wants to find an easy way to stay active.

Nicole, Joyce and I being active together.

This is a tough question for most people. Those of us who work 9-5, or longer, often feel that a workout just can't be squeezed into our day. And, if it can, it's sometimes even harder to motivate ourselves to want to do it. The only sound advice that I have on this subject is that you have to truly want to fit a workout in and you will make it happen. For a short time, it will feel like an obligation. But then it will become part of your routine and you'll begin to feel like your day, or week, is incomplete without it.

I know that it's easier said than done but, for anyone who is frustrated by their inactivity but feels they don't have time for exercise, here is what I say:

This is my sample plan for Nicole to start with, based on the weeknights that I know she has regular commitments:

Some days it won't work and you can't beat yourself up about that. You have to accept it, enjoy whatever got in the way of your workout, and make it a priority the next time. According to my training plan, I was supposed to do my tempo runs every Tuesday but I've made Tuesday Hot Yoga a tradition so I have pretty permanently moved those to Monday nights. No harm in that.

Today, my schedule calls for five miles. But I was invited to dinner with friends tonight so I ran my five miles last night in the rain and did a quick ab workout this morning. Fifteen minutes of abs wasn't the best cross training I could do but I know that I did well the rest of the week and that life will go on.

I asked Josh to photograph me post run and then I couldn't take my eyes of a P90X commercial.

Be flexible and have fun. Soon, your workouts will be second nature and, just like you wouldn't skip lunch, you won't skip your daily sweat.