As I lay here at 5:45 a.m., having been awakened by a giant black and white cat sleeping on my head, I contemplate the greatest struggle of all working parents: lack of time.
Because, unlike before babies, we don't have a few hours in the evening to put to our own purposes. We leave the job we have to have (and sometimes love to do) and go to the job we (or a least I) always wanted, that of parent. Evenings belong to our children, now. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
But it does pose challenge to the working parent to squeeze in exercise around a 40 hour work week, and morning and evening child care. And, ironically, the birth of a child focuses the mind on the fact that you are mortal, and thus need the exercise to keep your health so that you can keep on parenting.
I coupled motivation with time in this blog post because they are really the same thing. If you are motivated to exercise, you will find the time to do it. I've often heard that you can tell what people value by looking at where they spend their time and treasure. If you value your health, you will find a way to spend your time on it.
And, health, by the way, appears to me to be the best motivator for exercise, not jeans size or appearance. No. No, no matter what people say about wanting to be size X, that motivation tends to fade in the face of a really yummy cookie. But fear of death is another thing. When I talk to people, they want to exercise (and lose weight) chiefly to maintain or improve their health because they don't want to die just yet. Personally, a marginally high blood pressure when I was in my early 30s caused me to finally buy running shoes (quit my law firm job) and lose weight. It wasn't the big clothes I was wearing. It was the biggish numbers on the blood pressure cuff and my sincere hope to see my age become a big number that did it for me.
So if you have the motivation, how do you find the time? Well, there are no easy answers. Lots of people I know get up really early to do it. Others join a gym near the office and do it over lunch (but I would need a shower after and that eats up time in the middle of the day). I'll tell you what I do: I try to exercise on both days of the weekend and then a couple of days during the week. For the weekday sessions that either means getting up early or taking off leave to do it. But, even though my leave balance is really low, it's worth it to me to protect my health. Where you spend your time and treasure....
Speaking of time, exercise, and motivation, since it's 6:05 a.m., and I'm obviously not going back to sleep, might as well get a quick run in.
Morning, friends!
