I was chatting with my sister yesterday and she said, “I’m finding it hard to sneak in my exercise on weekdays.” She has an eight-month-old baby, just returned to full-time work, and her husband works full-time as well. In other words, their days are packed. Not to mention it gets dark in Victoria, BC at about 4:15pm right now.
I was on the peloton and juiced up on endurance and caffiene and shot back saying: “there is no sneaking it in – it has to be built in.”
There are lots of ways to do this, but in our house we rely on what we call the master schedule.
Every Sunday night, after the kids are in bed, we sit down and map out the week. We add in everything that matters: runs, gym sessions, classes, kids’ extracurriculars, appointments, anything big coming up. There’s even a section for the meal plan.
It sounds simple, but this one routine makes the entire week run more smoothly. It increases the chances we’ll actually get our workouts done, and it dramatically reduces the amount of mid-day and mid-week negotiating and scrambling. No more texting, “Hey, can I get a run in when you get home from work?” or trying to juggle plans in real time.
When the structure is already in place, we just follow it. And that makes it far more realistic to fit in the things that matter—exercise included—without feeling like we’re fighting the week at every turn.
