Are you Time Poor?

How many of you have used the excuse ‘I have no time to exercise’?

I’m putting my hand up for that because I have done it before, and if I’m being honest with myself I have used that excuse recently. Having no time is the number one reason why people don’t exercise or they start but don’t continue for very long. Those of you that have spoken to me around the centre or read my articles know my wife gave birth to our daughter 6 months ago – since then I used the ‘no time’ excuse because I just wanted to get home and see the family. There is nothing wrong with that, making family time is very important, but I was losing all the results I had built up and I just wasn’t feeling good about myself.

Now I’m back into exercise and starting to feel energised again. I made the time to train and you can do it too, it’s all about prioritising what’s important to you and making time for your health and wellbeing. Ultimately if you are healthy and feeling good you are likely to be a better parent, partner and person in general. So, stop the excuses!

One of the best ways to improve your time management is by chunking your time. Plan out your week and schedule chunks or blocks of time to exercise, but the trick is you need to make sure you stick to them. Generally we find it easy to plan our work time and work commitments, but don’t forget to add in family time, exercise and time for yourself. When you chunk your time and stick to it – you’ll find you will have a much more balanced week, you won’t feel caught up in everything and most importantly you’ll get to spend valuable time with your family and be looking after your health.

Another strategy is to schedule / chunk some “spare” time, so that in case you genuinely were not able to exercise in the scheduled time because family or work commitments got out of control during the week you can make up the missed exercise in your “spare” time. The truth is none of us have much spare time, but if you block/chunk spare time you will be able to fit in all your weekly needs without too much stress. The spare time can be used for exercise, family or even added work commitments to help you try and maintain a healthy work - life balance.

Tristan Simmons
Healthy Living Director - Mill Park Leisure