Parents juggle a lot of demands, but they need to stay in peak health as well to keep up with the family, both mentally and physically.
If you read the countless studies about depression, exercise is one of the many paths a person can take to combat this debilitating illness. In the United States and According to the CDC-The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention-in 2017-2018, 42.4% of the adults 20 and over were overweight. That statistic is likely to be higher with more recent data because the trends of obesity continue to climb.
For many Americans, finding the time to exercise can be difficult if one considers the juggling act of balancing work outside the home, taking care of children, and in some instances taking care of aging parents. Time can be difficult to find as more and more daily chores accumulate in one’s life. Nevertheless, exercise should be at the top of anyone’s list and should be considered an activity one must do to promote healthy living among family members.
Choosing the right exercise and diet has to begin with our free will to become healthier, and to change the way we do things if we are unhealthy. Doctors, parents, spouses, or significant others cannot tell us to do something if we are not ready to do so. The decision has to be taken on our own.
For any parent that wants to lose weight, and want to do it guilt-free, it is very important to schedule a time where you can do the exercise at the same time every day to form a habit. Exercise can extend one’s life expectancy, and that’s worth the time, and the effort it takes to exercise.
Here are some ideas for the best time to exercise daily:
- Right after you drop your kids at school-This is especially convenient if you work from home or are taking some time off to raise your kids.
- Afternoons are very convenient for many people. During the summer months where the days are longer, walking outside after dinner can be a great time for any parent to jog or walk a mile or two.
- Early morning-Before your kids wake up and need to get them ready for school, twenty minutes of exercise will lift your mood and get you ready to start your day
- Late at night-After you send your kids to bed, you might want to relax after an arduous, hectic day. But, twenty minutes of exercise before bed will allow you to sleep better and lose weight.
- Before picking your children from school-Any time you have free before you need to pick up your children from school. You can exercise, and shower and be ready to pick them up and help them with homework before dinner time.
If you choose a time to exercise and it doesn’t work out very well, change it. You can change the days, the time and the exercise you want to do. But, if you start the exercise, try it for two weeks before quitting. It is a habit one is forming, and it takes time to stick to it.
For any parent, free time is never abundant. But exercising should be an activity that takes priority over other meaningless ones. Watching TV, checking Facebook, Twitter, or other social media platforms takes more time than we want to admit. Unfortunately, those activities bring us no health benefits, yet we continue to do them religiously.
Start exercising today, you will be a healthier person for yourself and your family.