So we bought these stretchy work-at-home bands put out by Gold’s. It came with an instructional DVD – cool. We popped the DVD into my husband’s iMac, and all sat back watching it start playing like we were at the movie theater.  The credits came and went, and then came the oh-so-chipper aerobics and/or step-class instructor type woman – you know the kind. The ones with more energy stored in their pinky toenail than you have felt all month.  My mind trailed off, imagining that she leaps off her bed when the alarm sounds in the morning, and she sings “Walking on Sunshine” as she skips off to the bathroom. I manage to pull myself out of my weird little daydream to get back to watching this instructional video. With her stretchy bands and floor mat in place, she looks right at me and says, “If you’re too busy to work out, you’re too busy.”

I have been ‘too busy’ to exercise, because I work from home, because I run my own business, because I have more work than there are hours in the day, because there is housework to be done, food to be made and dishes to be washed – I am too busy.

The muscle in the corner of my mouth got a bit of a workout at Chippy Cheerleader, and as I thought about what she said, I couldn’t find a snide remark to fling at the screen – odd, for me. She’s right, you know, if you’re too busy to work out, you’re too freakin busy. I’m also too poor to get sick, and too busy to die because I don’t take care of my body.

“Too busy” means you have either taken on too much responsibility in your day-to-day life, or you are wasting time, somehow. Some of us may do both.

If you are too busy, think about the ‘empty’ moments in your day. Like empty calories, there are moments in our day that are wasted. For fear of sounding like Seven of Nine, I won’t say they are moments spent inefficiently, but those minutes you spend getting distracted by ‘yo mama’ jokes that caught your eye on yahoo answers, or that you spend futzing in the bathroom, or just taking up space because your brain just refuses to work are ‘empty’ minutes. Now take all those minutes and combine them into a little package of 10? 20? 30? 60? minutes, and treat yourself to some exercise time. Now, you’ll be faced with a different kind of schedule, because you are scheduling time for yourself, and you won’t have time to waste on those empty moments. You’re too busy! Follow?

For me, going to the gym to work out is pretty much out. It takes about a half hour to get ready, another half hour to get there, an hour to change, work out, cool down, change, and another half hour to get home – best case scenario. I can’t afford 2.5 hours. It’s easy to know what you can’t do, but what CAN you do? Find a time frame that works for you. Start slowly – I started at 20 minutes, and realized little by little that I could afford an hour, so now, I work out at home for an hour.

Why bother?

All this time manipulation is wasting my time! I don’t have time to think about time spent inefficiently. Why are you wasting my time with this blog entry?!?

I’ll tell you why -

Productivity.
Exercise makes me more productive while I’m working because it gives me the tools to sweat out all those cobwebs that bog me down during the work day.

Sanity.
Sanity is something I’ll take whenever and however I can get it.  Exercising gives me ‘quiet time’, or time to think, to come up with some quasi-brilliant ideas. Maybe it gives me time away from my desk, to find solutions to challenges we’re faced with on some project at work. Maybe I find inspiration to make my life more efficient, somehow… or maybe it just gives me some private time to get on the dance floor with Lady Gaga.

Energy.
Exercising helps me find my energy. There’s more energy in my body when it weighs a little less, and sweats a little more.

Life.
When I’m more productive and have more time to do the things I enjoy, have a little more grip on my sanity with some energy to spare at the end of the day, life is a better place for all involved. Exercise improves quality of life, guaranteed, or your money back.

Far be it from me to preach about taking time out for yourself, but I know that it IS possible, even though we feel we have no time. One of my life’s heroes works 2 jobs, for 14, 16 or 18 hours a day, but still finds time to run every morning.

If you’ve read this far, you can identify with some of the things I’ve written here.  The next time you find your schedule crammed from morning till night, remind yourself that if you don’t have time to exercise, you’re too busy – find a way to make time for yourself and for exercise.