Keeping My Body Fit and Healthy with BODi

Have You Done Your 2008 Time Budget?

Budgets are on everyone’s minds these days and balancing one presents significant challenges for most of us. But what about your time budget? Unlike financial budgets, everyone on earth has the same amount to work with and that is 24 hours. You may be blessed to have a lot of free time, so your time budget doesn’t have to be so tight, but if you are like me, I don’t have a moment to waste.

Here’s a case study of a day in my life, and it is probably much like a day in your life, with but a few exceptions. I start my day between 4:00 and 4:30 so that I have time to work before my two girls wake up. By 6:30, I have gotten in some good work time as well as washed baby bottles, emptied the dishwasher and fed the dog, rabbit and tortoise. I have to get into the bathroom to shower by 6:45 so that I don’t wake up baby Grace who is still asleep in the crib and so that I am back out in time to watch Good Morning America while I work.

The girls are both up by 8:00 or so and I have eaten a bowl of cereal by then, too. At 9:30 on Monday and Wednesday (the other days are a little less rushed), I get Grace ready for her Mighty Mites fitness class and we leave in order to get there by 10:00 so that Grace can spend 45:00 in Mighty Mites play before her class actually starts. This is when I fit in my workout – 10:00 to 10:45 – and it is the only time during the whole day when I can actually do something for my physical wellbeing, which, as you know by now, is very important to me and to all of us.

We are home by 11:30, I shower again, work for 45:00 and then make lunch. I then work until 4:00 at which time Grace and I make our daily trip to Whole Foods (I am an ardent environmentalist and know that doesn’t sound good, but I only drive about 4 miles total a day and it is good from a mental health perspective to get out of the office and be around adults a little!).

The rest of the day is spent making and eating dinner, giving the girls baths, feeding the dog and rabbit again and giving the girls snacks before bed. I may have time to answer some emails or write a blog, but the main focus is on family.

How do you budget your time? Do you think that you don’t have time to do a workout? Do you think that you need an hour or more and can’t possibly think of when you could find that much time in your day. Believe me, I know first hand what it is like to have day after day that is just packed with seemingly not a minute to spare, but I make the most out of the 30:00 or 40:00 that I can find to work out and my fitness level is a testament to how well I utilize a very limited amount of time.

Make sure that you read the five articles in the post, Week Five Articles, and you will gain some valuable insights into time management and fitting a workout into your schedule.

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