Working In Weight Loss Workouts

Let’s say you go to work for about eight hours a day and spend eight hours a night sleeping. Then there’s the time it takes to travel to and from work, the time it takes to cook and eat meals and the time you set aside for all of life’s other important responsibilities, like doing chores and running errands.

All told, you may spend about 20 hours each day doing things you absolutely have to do. This still leaves you with four hours every day that are yours to use as you see fit. After weight loss surgery, using this time to stay active can be a valuable step in improving your health and staying focused on weight loss.

You don’t need to (and shouldn’t) work out for four hours every day, but many people feel that they’re simply too busy to exercise, and looking at your time differently can help you see that this isn’t true. You only need to spend 30 minutes of that excess daily time on your workout, so figuring out where this free time fits in your fitness routine can help you develop a work out schedule that works.

However, the rest of that spare time, and even the 20 hours you spend busy with other tasks, can be an opportunity to stay active as well. Sure, a 30-minute daily workout is great, but it will help even more to burn calories and engage your body at every opportunity throughout the day. Even if your schedule is busier than the one outlined above, you can start squeezing more exercise into your daily life by:

• Staying active in spare time. Have a day off or a few extra hours to yourself? Get up and stay active. Take the kids to the park, not the movie theater. Go for a walk as you catch up with friends over the phone. Lift weights while you watch TV instead of sitting idly on the couch.
• Leaving the car at home. The grocery store up the street is just as easy to get to by bike or on foot. You can turn short errands into exercise by making the way you travel more active. If you live close enough to your workplace, this can also apply to your commute.
• Charging up your chores. Time spent on household tasks is never wasted, but you can increase their productivity by adding a little exercise. Mowing the lawn can be an excellent workout by trading the riding mower for a push-reel version. Scrubbing the bathroom will burn more calories if you put some elbow grease into it, or challenge yourself to finish faster.

When we tell ourselves we don’t have time to exercise after Lap Band surgery, it’s often a problem of perspective. We become so overwhelmed by our busy lives that we fail to see a place where exercise can easily fit. To help yourself get the weight loss workouts you need, take a closer look at your schedule and think about how much time you really have to build your fitness level, both inside and outside the gym.