9 Ways to Make Exercise Fit into Your Schedule

Finding time to exercise in today's busy world almost seems like impossibility! It's hard enough to manage the house, your spouse and kids, go to work, and take care of whatever else needs taken care of...and you are expected to find the time for a workout?

You run around with a cell phone to your ear and a laptop at your side. You meet a multitude of daily deadlines, answering phone calls, corresponding with clients, and you still manage to make time to get the kids to soccer practice and pick up the dry cleaning on your way home.

You have made everyone and everything else your priority. It's now time to take care of you and your needs! The key will be for you to make exercise a priority and plan for it!

Whether you are active or sedentary, there are hours that you likely set aside for leisure time. You can spend three hours a night watching television, or playing games on the computer, so you do have time for exercise! If you spend three hours daily simply doing nothing to try to wind down, you have more than 20 hours a week available for finding other activities which will have the same effect of winding down, but will have the added benefits of heart health or social interaction.

If you spent only 30 minutes, three times a week, that is an hour and a half out of your week. Remember, when you exercise consistently, you'll have something that's truly beneficial to you.

So rule number one: Make an appointment with yourself. In this case, you set aside 30 minutes into your schedule for you, making a 30-minute meeting with yourself the priority. You can be your own boss, if you need to, so that you give this meeting the status it deserves!

Sell yourself on the benefit of regular exercise. Those who are irregular in setting aside time to exercise sometimes feel that the benefit of exercise comes at a greater cost than the 30-minute activity itself. Isn't it worth getting up a half hour earlier, however, if 30 minutes on a treadmill before you get into the shower for work will increase your metabolism and give you a mental boost?

Incorporate exercise into your normal routine. Park your car at the far end of the parking lot and walk the rest of the way to wherever you are going. Instead of taking the elevator up to the third floor, find the stairs. If you take mass transit, get off a stop or two earlier and walk the few extra blocks. If you normally use a rolling backpack, switch a couple of days a week to a well-fitting type to carry to enhance the exercise benefit. Even these little things add up to increase your daily activity.

Rethink your routines.Set a routine based on working out first. Ensure that you have completed your exercise routine, and then follow it up with your favorite television show. The exercise will become the habit, and part of your routine.

Get your family and friends involved. Shorten your lunch hour and spend half the time taking a brisk walk with a co-worker. Plan a daily bike ride with your children. Find an old copy of a Richard Simmon's exercise tape and have fun exercising and laughing to the old music.

Become accountable. Sometimes we all need someone to become an accountability partner. Make sure that this partner is someone who understands your goals, and who is keen to how you might sabotage yourself. Perhaps this person is a friend, a co-worker, or a family member. Remember, family and friends need to be supportive, but also tough enough to stand up to you and your excuses. Often times, they know us too well, so consider choosing someone at your local YMCA with similar goals, where you can become one another's exercise partners. Set a routine of checking in with one another several times a week to discuss successes and challenges. Though your partner needs to be understanding, you must also schedule a make-up period if you miss out on your time.

Reward yourself. When you follow your plan for a month, treat yourself to a massage, a low-fat cooking class, or a new workout video, a pair of new workout pants, or something else exercise-related that will help you continue on your path to health and well-being.

Be adaptable. There will always be the time when things don't go as you plan. If you are at the YMCA and your favorite treadmill is not available, see if there is an exercise class scheduled for that hour. If the swim lanes are full, try out the stair-stepper until the pool is less occupied. Being willing to adapt your routine will add variety to your plan, and you may just find something you also like to do.

Don't "should on" yourself. We live daily with a lot of "shoulds"-some are certainly imposed on us by others, but more often we "should on" ourselves without anyone else's help. Be flexible enough to learn the balance between commitment and obsession. If you don't follow your routine exactly, it's okay! What is important is that you begin to develop a healthy attitude about exercise, and make it a part of your lifestyle. It's only one thing that you do for yourself; it's not the only thing you do.