Nothing But Time

Friday night after swimming, I came home to find Michael making his amazing hamburgers. Mine was the sad  one without cheese (he’s eating dairy). But luckily, I’ve discovered that avocado works great as a substitute. You don’t even miss the cheese! I bring up dinner because we tried the gluten free buns with the burgers. I wasn’t expecting brilliance and they were fairly mediocre in my opinion.

We got the Udi’s Gluten Free buns and bagels at New Seasons last week (same grocery trip that we got the Omission gf beer and Toby’s tofu spread). I was perfectly content to just skip bread altogether, in fact I’ve been happy with using lettuce wraps in place of buns with burgers.

The tater tots were gf and df and I had pickles, too. On my burger: spinach, avocado, spicy mustard and mayo. The buns were dense and dry and lacking in flavor. I added a lot more mustard and mayo than I normally do because I could tell the buns were going to be dry. Michael didn’t dislike the buns and agreed with my assessment that they were “dense.” If faced with no bun or the gluten free buns, I’d probably stick to lettuce wraps…

Saturday I did my own little body pump workout at the gym. I was too late to attend the class but I did the moves I learned in the class and it felt really good! I was glad I was able to remember the majority of the workouts. While I was at the gym, I was thinking about a common problem that people have when they desire to lose weight. TIME.

So many people don’t even try to lose weight because they say they don’t have time. The reality is: NO ONE really HAS TIME, time is something that has to be made. We make time for our family. We make time for our friends. We make time to read or watch TV. So why don’t we make time for the gym?

My recommendation is this: sit down and actually write down your schedule. 7 days a week, 24 hours each day: spell it out. Add up how many hours are spent watching TV or surfing the web. How many hours a day are spent on pinterest? Are you actually creating any of the things you find on pinterest? Or is it just a time suck? (It’s a time suck for me, for sure!)

There is no judgment here, it’s just an observation. I’m definitely guilty of not spending my time as wisely as I should. Sometimes I am so mentally exhausted and burned out from the work week that by the time the weekend comes, I just want to sit in front of the TV for hours and shut off my brain. Not the healthiest, I know, but I also know I’m not alone. So why don’t we workout while we watch hours and hours of TV? Killing two birds with one stone!

We are all choosing to spend time on other things. What we should be doing is prioritizing, being accountable for how our time is spent. Another point I want to make is that every workout doesn’t have to be a hardcore, drenched in sweat, hour long gym experience. Sometimes just spending 20 minutes doing jumping jacks in front of the TV or going for a walk around the block is sufficient. Not all workouts need to burn 1000 calories. So don’t set yourself up for disappointment expecting that every time. Some workouts just burn less (like yoga) but are just as beneficial as the intense ones. You may find that exercising just a little bit will make you feel so much better that you’ll crave it and exercise will become a regular part of your schedule. It worked for me!

What are your thoughts? How is your time spent?