When it comes to finding time to actually get into exercising on a regular basis, it can feel as though you’re facing an impossible task. Our lives are simply too busy, these days. Or are they? It turns out that the majority of people actually have more than enough time to fit at least a half hour of daily exercise into their routine. The key is to stop wasting a lot of time with some seriously bad habits. There are a lot of time killers that affect nearly all of us.

Why Make Time for Exercise?

Many of us don’t realize how important it truly is to make time for exercise. Though it may have been a minor – often dreaded – requirement in our lives when we were younger and forced to endure gym class, the emphasis on keeping up physical activity seems to droop into adulthood.  It’s something people do if they enjoy that kind of thing.  However, for those of us who think we don’t like exercise, it’s unimportant enough that we can simply choose not to do it.

Unfortunately, this is not at all the case.  Whether we think we like a good workout or not, it is highly important to make time for exercise and to actually do it.  Moving around isn’t just done for fat burning or for keeping up a certain physical appearance – though it can contribute in those categories.  It’s a vital component of a healthy body.

Benefits of Regular Physical Activity

Even without a gym membership, if you make time for exercise on most days, you’ll help to prevent:

• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Metabolic syndrome
• Type 2 diabetes
• Depression
• Anxiety
• High blood pressure
• Arthritis
• Many forms of cancer
• And even falls

Exercising regularly helps your entire cardiovascular system.  It improves your energy levels and enhances your immune system.  It supports your mental health, lubricates and strengthens your joints, supports your bone mass and helps preserve or even build your strength and balance. When you’re fit, your body runs more efficiently, functions better and makes tasks easier to accomplish.  Whether it’s walking somewhere, lifting something, or even just bending to pick up an item you dropped, a physically fit body will accomplish these goals smoothly and easily. An unfit body presents strain, making life just that much harder in everything you do.

How to Overcome What’s Standing in Your Way

By becoming aware of the bad habits standing in your way, you can clear them out of your life and give yourself the extra minutes that you require to keep up a healthy activity level. Have a look at the following list of habits that are likely wasting a lot of time in your life. Get rid of as many of them as you can and suddenly, you’ll have freed up more than enough time for exercise every day.

• Using the “snooze” button on your alarm clock. Every time you use that button, you lose 9 or 10 more minutes of your day, and studies have shown that this time does not provide you with any more rest. In fact, using the snooze button can cause you to feel more fatigued than you would if you simply got up when your alarm clock went off the first time, which makes you slower and gives you even less free time in the day! Stop snoozing to get more time for exercise!
• Trying on multiple outfits in the morning. Every outfit that you try on takes at least three more minutes out of your day. Instead of trying on one outfit after the next, just stick with the first thing that you chose and save the second one for tomorrow!
• Waiting in line at a coffee shop. The average customer at a coffee shop spends 7 minutes from the time that they join the line to the time that they actually leave with their purchase. Instead, get yourself a travel mug and a coffee maker and brew your own while you’re in the shower or getting dressed. If you like a fancy coffee, consider a single serve coffeemaker that will create flavored options, cappuccinos and lattes.
• Binge watching TV shows. It’s alright to watch an episode of an entertaining show while you relax in the evening but stick to just one. Adding a second will lose another 45 minutes (for a full-length show, commercials not included) out of your day. That, alone, could buy you all the time you need to make time for exercise.

Make Time for Exercise Regularly

Instead of thinking of workouts as something to do on occasion, make time for exercise on a regular basis.  Start your day with a brisk walk or make it the first thing you do when you get home after work.  Find a time and stick to it, no matter what.  Tell yourself it is just as important as any other task in your day, because it is.