Why Fitting Exercise Into a Busy Schedule is Important

Fitting exercise into a busy schedule is essential because staying active is crucial for both physical and mental health. Exercise helps improve energy levels, reduce stress, and improve cognitive function, which is essential for productivity. Moreover, it helps to maintain a healthy weight and keep your body and its systems working properly, which is key for preventing chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. In a nutshell, instead of thinking, “I don’t have time to fit exercise into my busy schedule,” we should be thinking, “I don’t have time NOT to fit exercise into my schedule.”

Common Barriers to Exercise for Busy People

As busy people, we often neglect our physical health because we put other responsibilities first. In many cases, we assume that we’ll just fit exercise in, but then find that’s easier said than done. This perceived lack of time is one of the most common barriers to regular exercise.

Others include fatigue at the end of a busy day and often at the beginning of it. If we didn’t get enough sleep the night before, it can be extremely difficult to muster the energy needed to do a workout. Another barrier that I often hear about is a lack of motivation. It’s simply easier to put other things first if we don’t have goals or outcomes that we’re working toward, or if we don’t have someone holding us accountable.

Tips for Fitting Exercise Into a Busy Schedule

To help address these actual or perceived barriers to fitting exercise into a busy schedule, I’m bringing out 13 of my favorite tips for helping turn my clients’ health around. Feel free to file them away to pull out if one strategy isn’t working and you need something else.

Exercise first thing in the morning

You can start to work in some movement before you even get out of bed. Tightening and releasing your quads, flexing and pointing your feet, and doing a few circles with your ankles can help ease the stiffness that many of us feel as we take the first few steps of the day.

Once you are out of bed, I highly recommend getting your main exercise session in first thing. This makes sure that no matter what else happens with your day, you’ve already it’s already done. You can also work exercise into your routine for getting ready for the day. Some examples include dropping down and doing some push-ups or core exercises while you’re waiting for the shower to warm up as well as doing squats while you’re brushing your teeth.

Schedule exercise into your day

Put it into your calendar or planner and treat your time to exercise just like any other appointment that you wouldn’t miss.

Break up your workout

Splitting movement into 5-10-minute chunks throughout the day is a great way to get in exercise. To remind you, set an alarm on your phone, watch, or movement tracker for 10-minute breaks throughout the day. Then, this is key, don’t ignore it when it goes off!

Exercise during your lunch break

This can work very well for people who get a set amount of time for lunch. Just keep exercise clothes and shoes in your car or desk so you don’t have to worry about trying to remember them every day.

Move during your kids’ activities

Unless your child is actually playing in a game or otherwise performing, there are very few reasons why you need to sit and watch an entire practice. They need their space, and you need your time to take care of yourself.

Look for ways to work movement in at work

This can be taking the stairs instead of the elevator; if walking to work isn’t an option, park 10-15 minutes away and walk the rest of the way; exercise, stretch, or at least pace around your office during meetings or calls; and use a standing desk or treadmill desk. (Full disclosure: when I really have to concentrate, standing while working doesn’t click for me, but when I’m doing tasks that don’t take a lot of thought, it’s a welcome break from sitting.)

Dance while fixing dinner

That’s right – crank the music up and move while you’re chopping, stirring, or waiting for something in the oven!

Make exercise part of the time that you spend with your significant other or friends

This way you don’t have to make a choice between doing something healthy for yourself and being with those that you love.

Use a free online workout

These can be done at your own pace and split into smaller, separate sessions if needed.

Do workouts that combine cardio and strength training

If you can’t get in both a cardio session and strength training on a regular basis, having full-body workouts that include both is an effective option that makes efficient use of your time.

Exercise while watching TV in the evening

While I am a big advocate of allowing your body and brain time to wind down at the end of the day, before you totally veg out, get in some movement while getting caught up on your favorite show.

Wear a tracker

Let’s face it, most of us tend to overestimate the amount of movement that we get in throughout the day if we’re not doing a focused exercise session. Wearing a tracker gives you an accurate accounting and often motivates you to reach your exercise goals.

Play with your kids or Grandkids

While children do need to have time when they play by themselves or with other friends if they are at the stage where you need to be close by to keep an eye on them most of the time, working in a vigorous game of tag will create memories and help to keep you healthy.

Bottom Line on Fitting Exercise Into a Busy Schedule

As we’ve seen here, fitting exercise into a busy schedule is possible, it just has to be a priority. Once you’ve determined it is, you can use these strategies to find efficient ways to work movement into your daily routine.

If working regular exercise into your busy schedule is a challenge, I’d love to talk with you about how we can work together to do that. While the tips that I’ve given here are tried and true strategies, everyone’s situation is different, and you may need a more individualized approach. If this is something that you’re interested in exploring, feel free to reach out to me at info@peppermint-tea.com.

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Have you ever had periods of time where you simply feel right? We’re talking both mentally and physically. You feel in balance, you feel strong, you feel… well. That’s what I call Real Health.

If you have felt that or you still do, this website is geared toward helping you maintain that incredible state of being. If you haven’t felt that in a long time or maybe ever or when you did, it was fleeting, helping you achieve your version of Real Health is what Peppermint Tea & Me is all about. That’s why we need to define what Real Health is as well as lay out some actionable first steps that you can take to achieve it.

Please Note that as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases made through some of the links included on this page. 

What is Real Health?

As you’ll be reminded frequently if you hang out in this space regularly, I believe that Real Health is achieved by recognizing that every part of us – mind, body and nutrition – is connected. Monique Class, MS, APRN, BC agrees. She’s a board-certified family nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist in holistic health at The Institute for Functional Medicine.

In a conversation about holistic health, Monique told me that “the mind, body and spirit (if you want to use that word), are all connected and are a unified whole. There’s bi-directional communication, meaning what happens to the body influences the mind and the emotions and what happens in the mind influences the body.”

This is understanding that when it comes to our health and overall wellbeing, causes and effects are not simply either physical or “mental.” Most of the time, they’re both. Melissa Grabau, PhD reminds us in her book, The Yoga of Food: Wellness From the Inside Out (affiliate link) that “How we feel day to day, our general health and energy levels, and our overall sense of safety and peace in our own flesh have an enormous impact on how we feel about ourselves and our capacity to function effectively in the world.”

Role of Nutrition

So, what does all of this have to do with nutrition? Everything! Julie McGregor, MD works with the Integrative Medical Clinic of North Carolina and is a board-certified internist and nephrologist trained in integrative medicine. She told me that, “Nutrition is a part of building up our physical cells, but it’s also an emotional choice and has a lot of overtones. What we choose to eat has to do with where we are emotionally and also then leads to an emotional response in our body.”

This connection can lead to a healthy, well-oiled machine when it comes to our body and our mind. Failure to recognize this relationship though can lead to us living a life that is less than our best or even worse, spiraling through physical or mental issues that we have more control over than we may think.

Common Barriers to Real Health

According to our experts, the most common barriers that many women run into when it comes to achieving Real Health can really be narrowed down to two primary areas.

1. Unhealthy relationship with food.

Both Monique and Julie say this is one of the primary issues they see when women especially don’t recognize how connected everything really is. Some of the primary reasons for this unhealthy relationship can include emotions, social or community expectations, or programming.

Monique gives the example of coming home at 8:00 p.m., going straight to the freezer, pulling out the ice cream and eating it until the whole container is gone. If you do that every night, it becomes a pattern. “We know physiologically that every time you do that pattern, you create wiring in the brain. It’s called neuroplasticity. So, neurons that fire together wire together. Every time you do something over and over again or choose a particular food over and over again, you get hardwired into the brain where that choice becomes automatic and not conscious.”

The same concept is true of emotions. If you reach for chocolate or something sweet every time you feel anxious or stressed or alcohol every time you feel angry, you’re hardwiring your brain to react to those emotions with food.

2. Lack of self-care.

Julie says this is a huge issue for women because we put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect in every aspect of our lives. To have perfect careers, to keep a perfect home, to be a perfect mom, to be perfect daughters and to be perfect friends.

“There’s a lot of pressure that we put on ourselves, and the one who ends up coming last is ourselves. So many of my female patients who are in their 50s or 60s come to me fatigued, worn out, completely depleted, having not concentrated on wellness for themselves. They were out trying to achieve perfection in every component of their lives for, you know, 50 or 60 years. Then, they just can’t keep going because there isn’t that attention of self-care or focus on wellness for oneself.”

She’s found that this often leads to obesity, depression, thyroid disorders and general physical unwellness that plagues us around the time of menopause. “This, coincidentally, is a lot of times when we’re retiring or when we’re empty nesters, or during these transitions when the adrenaline stops and the body is just feeling the effects of decades of neglect.”

First Steps Toward Achieving Real Health

To shift away from these barriers, there are several first steps that you can take to achieve Real Health.

1. Love yourself and be happy with yourself just as you are.

There may be things that you want to change, but Monique says that accepting and loving where you are right now has to come first. Then you can identify and become aware of the areas that you want to change in a healthy, realistic way.

2. Carve out time for self-care.

We may not be able to exercise for an hour every day, get a massage once a week or meditate for 30 minutes every morning, but there are plenty of things that we can do. It’s all part of making sure that we’re the best versions of ourselves now and that we don’t end up tired and depleted when we finally do feel like we have the time.

3. Become aware of the choices that you’re making.

According to Monique, this is critical for making any kind of change in your life. She suggests that as you reach for that ice cream every night, that you notice the behavior and check in with yourself and think about what you’re feeling, what you’re eating for, or what you’re hungry for. More times than not, you’ll find that you’re not hungry for the food, you’re looking for something else.

The first step, she says, isn’t taking that food or behavior away. You have to first recognize the behavior and then begin to figure out what you’re really hungry for or what you really need in that moment. At that point, you can substitute the behaviors that truly address those needs for the ones that aren’t serving you well.

4. Drink more water

You may think that you don’t like water, but your body does. In fact, the U.S. Geological Survey says our bodies are made up of up to 60% water, so we have to have it to survive. Since we want to do more than just survive, we want to thrive, Julie puts this step toward the top of the list for achieving Real Health and adopting an attitude of overall wellness.

5. Get better sleep.

Julie says this has to be a priority. I’m the first to acknowledge that this isn’t always as easy to do as it sounds, but there are things you can do to not only make sure that you’re getting the amount of sleep you need but that it’s quality sleep as well.

6. Move as much as you can.

Here are some ways that you can work movement into your day, whether you have 30 minutes at a time or 5-10 minutes here and there.

Real Health on a Budget

“That all sounds great, but even if I can find the time to take care of myself and to eat more healthy, nutritious food, I can’t afford it.” If that’s what you’re thinking, I’m here to ask you to be willing to think differently. Gym memberships are not a requirement for achieving Real Health and neither is having someone else to watch your kids while you focus on yourself.

Yes, whole, nutritious food is going to be more expensive than a 99-cent fast food burger, but in the long run, it evens out. Without health issues that could have been prevented with different lifestyle choices, you’ll likely save money in a number of ways. These include doctor’s visits and prescriptions as well as not missing work or losing opportunities among many others.

Real Health on a budget isn’t about an attitude of lack, it’s about an attitude of abundance. It’s being grateful for what you have and recognizing that healthy can be affordable. It’s also allocating your dollars in a way that supports your priorities rather than automatically spending money in ways that don’t serve you well. 

Mind + Body + Nutrition + On a Budget = Real Health

Julie sums it all up in a beautiful way. “How we exercise and what we choose for our physical wellbeing as far as movement and environment and choices about stretching or meditation, and our choices with our nutrition all affect how we think and our emotions. In turn, all of our emotions affect how we move, where we put our bodies and the choices we make for our physicality and our diet.”

Because of how entwined these factors are, Real Health looks different for everyone. Yes, the general steps outlined here are good places to start in achieving it, but Real Health is very individual. What it looks like for me probably won’t be the same for you. The goal for all of us though is to live in that place of personal wellness as much as possible and to draw on the strength and power that brings to live our best life possible.

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