(6)Six Ways to Make Time for Exercise

Here are six ways that you can make time for exercise and other fat-fighting habits without feeling the tiniest pang of guilt.

Give the TV a rest. If you are watching for a few hours a day, your television time could be the easiest spot to cut back. You don’t have to give up television for good. Just stick with your favorite shows and click off the tube when you realize that you are merely vegetating.

Get out of bed. You can create more time by getting up a few minutes earlier in the morning. Set your alarm a half-hour to an hour earlier, then get up and go for a walk.

Let your timesaving devices do the job. Do you wash your dishes before stickling them in the dishwasher? Look for ways to use such appliances so that you can shave a minute here and a minute there off your preparation and cleanup time in the kitchen. “It’s very important to look for where minutes can be shaved.”

Take a shorter shower. Sure it feels good to stand under that stream of hot water while you daydream about who knows what for 5 or 10 minutes. But do you have to? If you normally take a 15-minute shower, try reducing it to 10. Over the course of one week, that small change will give you a half-hour to spend exercising or planning healthy meals.

Say no to time-sappers. You might refuse altogether: “No, I can’t do that for you.” You might reschedule: “No, I can’t do that right now because I’m on my way to the gym. How about next week?” And you might compromise: “No, I can’t host the holiday dinner. But I could bake a couple of pies.”

Ask for help. Stop trying to be a domestic martyr. Free up some time for yourself by sharing the cores with your husband and kids. Even time spent on simple tasks like making the beds in the morning, clearing the table after dinner, or unloading the dishwasher can add up.