5 Flips so you can Make Time for Exercise
If you’re trying to make time to exercise in an already full day, this is for you! It’s realistic and sane. It’s not about freeing up hours or dumping something else important to you – though that might be something you want to consider.
This post is just about finding a small block of time every day. Whether you use it for weight training (the ONE thing that will make everything else more likely to happen!), cardio, or yoga/Pilates… is up to you.
Make Time for Exercise Flip #1: Bag Your Breakfast
Not brown bag it, but have a little prep sesh on the weekend (while you’re doing #3?) and assemble 8-10 baggies full of your favorite smoothie ingredients.
Yes, you can freeze avocado, and your greens. Get it all in there except for the liquid. You’ll be set for the week. You can even pop my Better Than Pumpkin Pie Smoothie into a baggy and freeze it!
Here’s what I discovered making a smoothie in my own small kitchen. Back and forth from the refrigerator and freezer to the counter to get all the ingredients out, then add each to the blender, and then put them away took a lot more than the 10 seconds to blend it!
So this time-saver will give you back time and make a zero-excuses for skipping a high protein breakfast that will help your high-energy day.
Make Time for Exercise Flip #2: Rearrange Your Closet
This tip is for the organizer-bunny in you. I moved from a home I lived in for 20 years without thinking about how to organize my closets and dressers. One day I realized it was costing me a lot of time.
I’d just absentmindedly put things back into the same dresser drawers and split what had been in my walk-in closet between two closets in my bedroom. In the rush of unpacking I just got things put away and called good enough good enough.
Like my kitchen problem I was going from one closet to a dresser to another closet to collect tops, bottoms, and shoes.
Now instead I use one dresser for only workout wear. Tops in top drawers, pants and shorts in the next, and socks on the bottom. You can take it a step further and do the “outfits” if you want but I like to mix and match so like my method more. Instead of taking 3-5 minutes to assess what’s currently clean, I grab an outfit in a minute or less.
I did the same with my business clothes. Anything that I need to pull together for a speaking presentation is right there… underwear, dresses, blazers, pants, shoes – ready to wear or to pack.
I got rid of a lot of things I never wear just taking up space when I did this. Bonus!
Time savings every time I get dressed: 5 minutes
Make Time for Exercise Flip #3: Pre Dinners Ahead
This is no surprise! You already know planning ahead is what saves you because when you walk in the door needing it most after a busy, albeit stressful, day you don’t feel like cooking evening if you have the time.
Seriously, popping a couple dinners in the crockpot, stovetop and oven at the same time on a Sunday afternoon saves you way more then five minutes every day all week.
When you put them away, freeze or refrigerate in servings sizes according to lunch for you or meals for more people.
I like to choose 2-3 mains, 2-3 sides (soups, roasted veggies) or 2-3 one-pot meals every week. So simple and the prep sesh really takes minutes. I “cheat” with already-chopped onions, carrots, celery starters for soups when I’m tight on time. That cost is well worth it if I’m comparing it to leaving health to chance.
Are you on our Flipping 50 insider subscriber list? From time to time, especially this time of year, I share some of our favorite cookbooks – like the One-Pot meals that I use all the time! Psst… if you’ve got an awesome recipe that’s a Flipping 50-lifestyle fit (leaves out high food sensitivity items or that you’d like us to adapt) send it! I’d love to include your recipe in a new Flipping 50 community cookbook!
Make Time for Exercise Flip #4: Get An At-Home Exercise Plan
Face it, if you can change your shoes and be in your “gym” you’re a lot more likely to exercise than if it requires a commute to the gym. The equipment you want may be occupied, the pool may be too cold or lanes full, or traffic congested so by the time you get there you have less time than you want. Even if you love the gym (I do), a home exercise plan is a must for a busy woman! (I end up exercising at home 9/10 times in order to make it happen).
For a gym on a budget, get three set of dumbbells and an exercise ball. Then get a plan.
Work with a coach who will design a program based on your goals, your needs, your current status and your schedule or get a group programif you have no limiters and you are apparently healthy.
This flip potentially buys you more than 5 minutes if you’ve been commuting. But even if you were already exercising at home, you’ll save time (potentially in your procrastination) when you get a plan. Nearly 90% of women who find Flipping 50 tell me that they are exercising but randomly. They tell me they’ve been lifting weights for 10 years, but that it’s been three weeks since they did it.
Random exercise gets random results at best. If your goals are weight loss, weight gain (add lean muscle), increase strength, bone density, or a combination of goals, you want to match your program to your goals. Using a generic YouTube video you randomly stumble across that wasn’t created for YOU, is like expecting to find a dress you want to wear to your daughter’s wedding at Target. It’s exercise, even exercise for women in midlife, but it’s not a part of a whole progression created as a step from something that came before it and leading to a next step.
Make Time for Exercise Flip #5: Go to bed and get up 5 minutes earlier.
That’s it. A small 5-minute shift in your bedtime and wake time is all you need to complete your 25-minute savings. You get the same amount of sleep. If you need more? It will help you reap more rewards (fat loss and more lean muscle) from your exercise for sure! Start with exercise and you may improve the quality of your sleep enough to help you!
You can do a full body workout and hit those arms and abs all in 25 minutes. You can box your intervals in your living room if you don’t have a treadmill or can’t get outside. You don’t need to find hours, it’s about how you spend quality time exercising and having a plan.
Use each one of these and you’ll create more time and less chaos so you can find time to exercise… and do it in a hormone-balancing way: minutes not hours!
