by Pari
Okay. I admit it. Sometimes my decisions verge on lunacy. The latest of these is to participate in an 8-week fitness challenge through the University of New Mexico. That decision, at least, is wise. I’ve been stressed at work and forcing myself to exercise daily for a strategic length of time is bound to be helpful.
Where it gets wacky is what I decided immediately after signing up for the program. I’ve committed to exercising 90 minutes a day. That’s the maximum the program will let a participant record in a single day. I know it doesn’t sound like much during the 15 hours or so I’m awake, but in reality, it requires a lot of planning.
My life is already full. Work takes about 9-11 hours most days. Every other week I get to be a full-time mom in addition to the outside job. And I don’t think I mentioned that I’ve got two small freelance PR gigs right now. I also do try to fit in at least a small amount of creative writing daily.
As always, I’m not complaining here; I’m just showing you the challenge of trying to fit in that extra 1.5 hours to work out. My weekday routine seems to be to roll out of bed between 5:00 – 5:15 a.m. and hit the elliptical machine in my living room. I bought myself an Aeropilates machine and that lives in my dining room. Between the two, I’ve managed to get 1 hour in before driving the kids to school and going to work.
During the day, I take a break every once in a while to walk up and down the 2 or 3 flights of stairs (depending on which door I enter) to get to my office. I walk at lunch. And there’s a twice-weekly yoga class that I’m hoping to attend.
Why am I telling you all of this? Well . . . I’ve just made it through my first week. On average, I’ve been exercising more than 100 minutes a day. Barring illness, I expect to be able to keep this pace through May 11 when the program ends. After that, I hope to be in enough of a habit that I can commit to 1hr/daily — no matter what.
I guess my point today is this: A few months ago, I couldn’t even manage 20 minutes of exercise on a consistent basis. Now I’m exceeding that mightily.
It’s a matter of priorities.
The same goes for writing or anything else that you know is important to you.
No excuses. Just find a way to do it.
Question:
What is something you’ve decided is essential to your emotional, creative or physical wellbeing and how do you regularly integrate it into your life?