No Time to Exercise!
Getting started on fitness can be hard. “I don’t know how”, “I don’t have time”, “I can’t afford it”. None of these excuses is true. That’s all they are – excuses! We all know we need to get a certain amount of exercise. That’s a no-brainer. It screams at us from web sites, posters and magazine articles. And we know we “ought” to do it. After all, our families need us and they need us to be healthy. Think how much more pleasant life is when you’re fit and can do things for yourself, instead of being dependent on others unnecessarily.Let’s attack the “I don’t know how” first. If you can walk, you already know how you can get fit – walk more. Walking is a great exercise and also low impact. What about the “I don’t have time”. Can you find 10 minutes to surf the net, watch TV or read the back of a sauce bottle? That 10 minutes can be used to help you get fit. The latest recommendations are for 30 minutes exercise a day – that’s just 3 sessions of 10 minutes. If you can’t fit in 3 sessions, start off with just one 10 minute session. Every little helps. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. And finally, “I can’t afford it”. Want to do some weights? Use a can of food in each hand. You can do bicep curls and shoulder presses with those. Even boxers do some exercises without any equipment at all – and look at how fit they are. Here are some other suggestions to knock those “don’t know how”, “no time”, and “can’t afford it” excuses on the head.
If your home or office has stairs, use them, or use them more often. Give yourself a reward every time you climb the stairs. It can be a tick on a chart, with a penny for each tick at the end of the week. Use the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator when travelling. Use the upstairs bathroom instead of the ground floor cloakroom when you “need to go”. Just climbing the stairs a few extra times a day will help improve your fitness very quickly.
When driving, park your car further away from where you’re going. At the mall or supermarket you usually get a trolley to cart your goods, so it isn’t as if you have to carry really heavy stuff. Park further away from your office and walk in. In many towns, the outer car parks are cheaper than ones in the centre of town. You could save money too.
If your job is office based, try and make sure you get up and down more often. Talk to colleagues instead of sending emails. Go fetch your paper and office needs instead of getting someone else to fetch them. Walk to the bathroom more often.
Starting out on fitness improvement is not difficult – it just takes the decision to get started. Don’t worry that you’re not doing as much as someone else, just get started and build it up gradually.
Do you REALLY need a new kitchen?
Your old kitchen looking new!
Could you possibly be upset with your kitchen/diner always looking mucky, messy, filthy, maybe even looking like a hazardous area? It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend money and time on ripping it all out and starting again. After all, if you keep to the same habits, it won’t be long before your new kitchen will look just like the old one. Add a few small new habits on a regular basis to your day and you might find your old kitchen looks like new.
If you have a dishwasher – empty any clean dishes out of it and put them away. This should take no longer than 5 minutes. Now, if there are any dirty dishes lying around, stack them in the dishwasher and start it going. Again, this should take no longer than 5 minutes. Just by itself, putting away the clean dishes and stacking dirty ones in the dishwasher will help make your kitchen look cleaner and tidier. And it will do a lot for the hygiene too.If you don’t have a dishwasher, then wash your dirty dishes and RINSE them under the cold tap and leave them to dry for a few minutes. By rinsing them, it cuts out having to use a towel to dry them. While they are drying, run a fresh bowl of hot sudsy water and put the next lot of dishes in to soak. If you still have more dirty dishes, stack them neatly beside the sink. Put away the clean dishes, then wash the next lot and rinse those and leave to dry. Keep moving those clean dishes into the cupboards, putting the next lot of dirty dishes in to soak and stacking the next lot of dirty dishes beside the sink. This clears your table and working surfaces quickly and helps make the kitchen look cleaner and tidier. Depending on how many dishes are lying around, it might take 15 – 30 minutes to do this the first time but if you make this a regular habit, the dishes will get clean and tidied away in a very short time.
Once your table is clear of dirty dishes, see if you can clear it of anything else. Can you put condiments (salt, pepper, etc) away? Is there any milk left out, or anything else that needs to go back in your fridge? Have you table mats out that could be wiped and stacked? Are there any old magazines or newspapers that could be dumped or recycled?
Once the dirty dishes are off your counters, give your counters a wipe to remove any crumbs.
Once all your dishes are washed and either put away or draining after being rinsed, wipe out your sink. You may want to clean it a couple of times a week, but clear and rinsed is a great start. If any food particles have got stuck in the outlet, clear those. It only takes a few seconds and it helps the water drain away faster.
Put your dish towels tea towels, etc in the wash and put out fresh ones.
A clean kitchen can be easy to achieve with a few quick regular habits that become like second nature once you have practised them for a few days. Look at your kitchen with fresh eyes. It may not be a new kitchen you need but a few new small habits that will make your kitchen look like new and keep your family healthy.
Taking time to exercise is NOT selfish!
Would you love to do some exercise
but feel selfish trying to find the time? Well, just like the airline safety videos say in the oxygen mask video, “Help yourself first”.
The reason they say that is because you can’t help anyone else (child, spouse, parent, friend, etc) if you collapse from lack of oxygen. Exercise is exactly the same, you need to set yourself first for a while to get the time for exercise. And if you find it difficult to get the time for exercise because of all the other things you have to do, then think about how those others will manage, or not manage if you become ill from lack of exercise! You NEED to put your exercise needs into your regular routine. If you have a calendar, block out a small amount of time each day or a larger amount of time 3 days a week for your exercise. Current recommendations are for 30 minutes exercise each day but it doesn’t all have to be done at once. Can you spare 10 minutes, three times a day? That adds up to your 30 minutes a day. If you are just starting out on exercise and cannot afford 30 minutes a day, then start off with just 10 minutes a day. After all, even 10 minutes is better than none at all, especially when done regularly. Exercise doesn’t necessarily mean going to the gym, or for a 10 mile hike. Exercise is just moving your body or putting a little more effort into it. There are some really easy peasy ways to add extra exercise into your daily routine.
Try these
Use the stairs. If your work or railway station or housing accommodation has a lift or elevator or escalator – use the stairs instead. If you can’t manage the whole way up, just use the stairs for part of your journey. One person liked to go to the canteen each day and that was on the 6th floor of the work building. She couldn’t face the thought of climbing 6 flights of stairs, so she told herself that she only needed to do 1 flight of stairs and she could take the elevator from the first floor. After a while, she used the stairs to the second floor every time but each time, she told herself she only had to walk 1 flight. After reaching the top of the first flight, she rested and told herself, “Just 1 more flight” and made it up the 2nd flight. Eventually she walked the whole way to the 6th floor, every day and some other colleagues started doing that too, along with her.
If you travel to work by car, park further away from the entrance. Or if you are using the car to shop at a big supermarket, or mall, park further away from the entrance. You’ll not only get the benefit of the extra exercise, you’ll keep your car safer too. Everyone else fights to park near the entrance and that’s where bumps and knocks happen.
Rearrange your office space so you have to get up and down from your seat more often. Thin people are often thought of as “fidgety”, “never still”, “always on the go”. Copy them, keep yourself moving, except when you are consciously resting. This gives you exercise without even having to use time. Use some of the items around you as “weights”. Even a can of beans can act as a small weight for bicep curls or shoulder lifts. Think that’s not enough? Too light? Get yourself a small glass of water and hold it out at arm’s length. How long can you hold it there? Twenty minutes? Two hours? After a while, your arm will feel extremely tired, even from a small glass of water. And if you haven’t been doing any exercise at all, even a small amount is better than none. Even boxers, who use their arms a great deal, do arm exercises that don’t use any weights and they certainly have well toned arms.
Start small. You may know that you need to set aside a good bit of time for exercise but feel you just can’t manage it. If so, start small. Build in 10 minutes of planned exercise a day. Work at it regularly to develop the habit, then add to that, a little at a time. Also, build exercise into your ordinary daily life, by making yourself walk a little further or do a bit more exercise to get where you want to go. It ALL adds up.
Why new grannies should (almost) NEVER nurse the baby:10 tips to do instead.
These tips will help you to help the new parent(s) and you can also use them if you are helping out a neighbour or a friend or are even doing voluntary work helping new single parents. It’s most likely that you are a Granny helping your precious daughter or daughter in law with your new grandchild, so I am going to refer to the new parent as PD (precious daughter / daughter in law) and the new baby as PG (precious grandchild).
- No matter the state of the house, do not criticise anything. You are there to help, not point out mistakes or shortcomings. Keep your lips buttoned, unless you are praising something.
- You are there to support PD. You are NOT there to look after PG. Unless your health or your disability totally prevents you from physically helping with the housework or PD is ill – let PD look after the baby. They need to bond and right now is the best time. Nursing PG in order to let PD “get on with the housework” is SELFISH. PD needs rest, to feed and change the baby and to bond with PG. You will have plenty of time in the future to get to know your new grandchild and you may be needed to nurse the baby for a short while anyway, while PD uses the loo or gets dressed.
- When you first go into the house, check whether PD needs water or a cup of tea or coffee and something to eat. The first priority is to make sure PD is healthy and nourished.
- The next most important task is to check whether something is available for the day’s main meal. It may need to come out of the freezer or it may need to be made. It may even need a phone call or a trip to the shop to get food in.
- The next most important task is the laundry. There is always laundry! Get a wash started in the machine. If you are there long enough, you may be able to get it into the dryer or out on the line or hung on airers before you leave. If you hang it out on the line, you will need to bring it in BEFORE you leave that day, because PD will either forget or not have time. If there is dry laundry hanging around, fold it and put it away. It is best not to take laundry to your own house, unless it is an emergency.
- Now you can get any dishes done, either in the sink or load the dishwasher. You may need to put dishes away or empty the dishwasher before you can wash more.
- Check whether the bed has been made and if not, make it.
- Check whether the bathroom needs cleaned. The main things are the sink and toilet and checking that there is enough loo roll / toilet paper.
- Empty any waste bins / trash cans.
- If you have any time and energy left, vacuum the stairs and landing and living room, or for the kitchen or hard floors, sweep and mop. You don’t have to do all of this every time you go. If this type of work is exhausting for you, or you have limited time, choose one area for each visit and do that. Choose a different area the next visit.
Motivation Thoughts Start here!
Hi and welcome to the motivation thoughts blog. I would like to thank the very helpful users on the Serif forums who gave me totally fantastic help in getting this blog created and went far and away above the call of duty and helpfulness to get me started. This blog is aimed at getting you to get up off your bac … / fra….. seat and do something – something that YOU WANT to do, even if your inner self is grumbling about it. Look out for posts on getting your study skills honed, on getting your exercise included in your routine, on getting your writing done, whether it’s your novel, your thesis or a school essay and how to get the house clean among other things!
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