One of the biggest excuses for why we don’t exercise is
time. But let’s just take a second to
break that down. Starting with that fact
that each day has 24 hours, a 1-hour workout is ONLY 4% of our day. Let’s not forget about sleep though…so let’s
say that 8 of those hours are spent sleeping (probably an over-estimation for
the majority of us), that leaves us with 16 awake-hours every day. Of those 16 hours a 1-hour workout only
brings us up to 6% of our day. What’s
the excuse now?
I know it is easy to say and hard to do, but make exercise a
priority everyday and eventually it will just become part of your routine. In fact, you’ll get to the point that when
you miss a workout you’ll notice it and wish you had done one.
Let’s get away from scheduled exercise though now. If you look at those same numbers from
another perspective, we have 94% of our day that we can make more active. This ultimately means cutting down on our
daily sedentary time. Use the stairs,
purposely park your car further, walk the dog (or your neighbours dog…), take
frequent breaks at work to stand up and move, decrease screen time (TV,
computer, video games, etc), and less time on the computer (both at work and at
home). All of these are simple ways in
which we can make our everyday lives at little less sedentary and a little less
active. And trust me, the little things
make a big difference overtime.
To finish off I’ll provide you with an example of why small
changes make big difference. Say you
increase the active time in your life and burn just 100kcal more per day then
usual (100kcal is burnt with 20 minutes of walking). One pound of fat is equal
to 3500 calories; therefore over a year you would see 10lbs loss. And that’s not even factoring in structured
exercise! Be warned however, this can
easily go in reverse, adding 100kcal a day to your diet can lead to that same
amount of weight gain in a year.
“Don’t make excuses, make things happen, make changes.” – Doug Hall
