Kids, work, sports, the dog, the cat a goldfish and you want me to exercise?
So this is a super common barrier I get when working with people, their lives are so jam-packed and I am asking them to take up more time. And I completely understand but unfortunately as we live our busy lives running after the kids or cleaning the house we put our health on the back-burner until it eventually catches up with us. I often remind people that if they don’t manage their health, get sick or don’t monitor health conditions, how much less time will you spend with your family?
The answer is a lot.
The other factor that comes into our lives is that we forget that our kids learn from us all the time. If you don't make time to exercise or implement healthy habits in your kids they will suffer for it later. The number of overweight children has doubled in recent years with a quarter being classified as obese. Studies have shown there is a correlation between children’s and parents’ weight with 44% of obese children having at least one obese parent. Although many factors do come into this, it's about preventing what we do have control over, and this starts with making healthy choices.
So how do we exercise when we are super busy?
Firstly, what I always say is to do a time analysis on your day. Work out how much time you need to be spending on what you are doing, and what you could afford to give up - like a time budget. If you are grocery shopping multiple times a week, get it delivered or cut the trips down. Find ways to carpool the kids to sports or arrange shared pickups. Include the kids in the activity when you are done for the day, take the kids down to the park, kick a ball around and encourage them to enjoy being active. A lot of gyms now offer child minding services so take advantage of them.
For your work life, try to get to the gym before work for 30 minutes to 1 hour, or organize a longer lunch break and go for a walk then. There are always solutions if you are serious and committed enough.
And on this note, I cannot emphasize enough how making your health a priority will make you feel. You will feel better for it and be able to implement those positive changes throughout your whole life. If you are struggling to work out when to do things, or activities to include the children in, contact us for a consult, we come to you and we can work through these barriers together.
Reilly JJ, Armstrong J, Dorosty AR, et al.
Early life risk factors for obesity in childhood: cohort study.
BMJ. 2005;330(7504):1357.
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