Motivation and Time

One of the biggest excuses a lot of people make to rationalize their lack of exercise is time.  You can talk to someone and talk about working out and if they're not on the bandwagon, they often reply along the lines of "I would love to get back in shape, but I just don't have the time."

In theory that seems true for a lot of people, but in reality a lot of the people that say they don't have time to do one thing or another are not putting aside time to do those activities.  This is where motivation plays a part, and it is really hard to motivate some people to get fit, or eat healthy, especially when we have the quick fixes and fast food surrounding us.
Today in this world everyone has a mindset that if something cannot be finished quickly, then it isn't worth a bother, too much growing up with all the convenience of fast food, instant cross-world communication, instant *put product here*.

If you really want to see how much time of the day you actually have to be productive, make a list.  Lists are important, and I'm starting to learn the power of them every day, because a list builds a plan (It's weird for me to suggest a list, I'm a natural born procrastinator who does things on the fly most of the time but real life is taking its toll).
Let me give you a simple example of a list to start with, something that calculates out my average day, lets start with the most important time to your health in a 24-hour period.

1. 8 hours of sleep
2. 8 hour job (You get a lunch break, pack a couple of turkey sandwiches on whole wheat bread.)
3. 2 hours total commute (includes to and from, currently totally at 18 hours accounted for)
4. Laundry?  Dishes?  Sit around and watch TV?  We've got 6 hours left over, lets add some stuff that fits in the above time-frames.
5. 1 hour to eat+cook home cooked breakfast (Trying to stay away from quick fixes in this list, lets consume up some time)
6. 1 hour to eat + cook dinner, if it's a baked good, there is time for other productivity in there during downtime.
7. How about spending 1 hour doing some cardio or simple strength training at home, or out for an hour walk, or kick it up to a jog?
8. Use your last 3 hours to relax, make a list for the next days adventures.

So maybe my schedule looks nothing like yours, I'd love for you to tell me that you do not have enough time to get in 30-45 minutes of exercise a day 4-6 days a week and show me a list of your average daily schedule to back it up.

People aren't motivated, I myself used the excuse of time as a reason to not exercise, but when seeing my sisters life and schedule, and that she had time to get her workouts in, I decided that there is something wrong with my perception of time.

I needed to figure out why I didn't have an hour a day(6 days a week) to spend making myself healthier, but my sister who has 4 children to take care of and a full time CPA job with only minimal time for her husband to take over the kids (Full time night manager at his own job) could find time to get an hour in.  If she can find the time to do an hour, damned if I couldn't.

Find motivation and make room for a healthy lifestyle, you have the time.

Now to move on to my accountability for the past couple of days:

Friday was supposed to be legs and back for me, I wasn't motivated and was exhausted (I can make a million excuses, none of them make me feel better for skipping a workout).  I told myself I'd do it Saturday and do Kenpo X with it - I skipped out on both and I'm unimpressed with myself, but I'm ready and fired up for this week.  This is my rest and recovery week, which means I get a couple days of Yoga, some Core Synergistics and I believe some more Kenpo.  Hopefully by this coming Monday I can afford a set of Powerblocks (adjustable dumbbells), because I lended out all of my weights to a friend who I've convinced to try P90X out himself.

Time to push play with Yoga.  =)