I'll have to stay lumpy, because I don't have 40 minutes a day five days a week for cardio, and I don't have the additionaly time for strength training three days a week.  

How can you ever have time, if you don't make time?

Something I've tried this year that seems to be working is... I eliminated my lunch habits. Instead of going out and eating lunch, I spend the full hour in the gym. When I started that, I managed to shed about 10 very difficult pounds off my mid-section.

It was a much needed victory, for I had hit a plateu.

Everyone has time to workout... but not everyone has the desire to make the time.

Apparently this workout is for folks who do it for a living, or have no job or need for one.

People are full of excuses. The average American watches something like 3 hours of television each day...surely that time could be used to work out! Better yet...buy a workout tape and you can still watch your TV!

I always tell myself, if President Bush can find time to work out every morning with his busy schedule (whatever your thoughts are on his actual schedule, he is certainly a busy man), then I really have no excuse at all.

Can't find 40 minutes???  Turn off the TV and get outside.  If you have a small child, get a jogging/biking stroller.  Older child, then have them bike while you jog.  You can do a set of 25 pushups and 25 crunches in 2-3 minutes.  Do this 5 times in a day and you have your strength training.  

If you can't find this little bit of time, then why would you worry about how you will look at the beach?  You don't have time to go!

Above the age of 48 or so....the workout is no longer an option. You must make time for it or decay rather quickly in the next five to ten years. Our bodies crave movement...it is a lazy mind that doesn't.  The tide of age is relentless and you must swim against it with healthy exercise. No excuses...no choice if you care about ageing wisely.

I am a single mom who works two jobs and I still find time to work out. You make time for what you really want to do. Like the article said...excercise is cumulative so I get up half an hour early and do a 20 minute, 1 mile in home walk which I also do at lunch. In the evening after I get home from my second job, I do a 30 minute, 2 mile in home walk. I have added hand weights so I can get some upper body in while I'm walking and manage to do some ab work as well. I take the dog for a quick 20 minute walk between jobs and on the weekends. If I can find time to work out anybody can IF they really want to.

you don't need a child - a dog works just as well.  i feel guilty if i don't take him for a three mile hike everyday.  and i have a tv mounted above my treadmill so i can keep up on my shows and workout!

If you had time to read the Fitness List and send in your comments you had time to do a few planks and push ups .  Stop whining and make some changes.  

I agree with most of the comments. It is not about having the time but making the time. I used to use the excuse of no time, with good reason too, I work full time, attend school full time and am married with 3 children. Now that I am working out and eating healthier I have more energy and feel better about the lifestyle I am teaching my children.

Ugh. I can't believe I sat up for this. I'm going to go back to lying on my floor, eating chocolate ice cream and watching TV.

Laughing at all the people yelling at the person about time...When you have multiple children, 4 of them in sports, all different, and then have to get home and get them in bed, after a 10 hour day at work, yes you may have time to do a workout, but your body is so depleted forget about it. By 10 pm when my oldest gets to sleep, I have done 15 hours of non stop activity, from work to home to baseball, to soccer, then to T-ball then to dance, then over to play with the youngest at the playground, while big sister is playing softball.

Please, do not preach about making time. Obviously you all do not have multiple children, or even any kids. OH MY take your dog for a walk, please if that is all I had to take care of was a dog, which I have one of those as well, then I had better get my butt out and do some work, there is no excuse.

How about some tips where someone who has like 15 minutes between going from one place to another that they can pass on doing the 3rd load of dishes and do something for themselves.

For those who can get this kind of time to work out, good on ya, but for the average person this is a joke!

Ms. Timeless... obviously you're a busy woman. You make sacrifices for your family, and that's totally understandable. But I'll bet if you were really determined, you could find something in your busy work day that you could get rid of to "pencil in" some time for yourself. With four kids, I would hope their father is around to take some of the load off you. If so, talk to him about it. :)

This is a great article and very timely for me.  I have lost 30 pounds by just walking three or four  times a week and eliminating all sugar from my diet.  With two very young children and a full-time job, it was easy to find the time once I became disgusted enough with how I looked and felt and made the committment to myself and my family to get in shape.  Now, I am looking forward to adding the suggested ab exercises and wear a bikini this summer for the first time in ages.  I feel less like I am dieting and more like I have made a life change.  If I can do it, anyone can.

Michelle,  you have motivated me.  My problem is starting--starting over.  Once I'm in a groove, I feel good.  I am not in a groove now and I dread starting up again--it's just so hard in the beginning.  Any advice or encouragement???

This IS a good article, but I don't have the required time to add to my schedual either. I go to school full time and work full time. I have no children, but between school and work, I rarely have time to do anything other than study or homework. I have "penciled" in some time, but it's around twenty minutes, not the fourty minutes recominded (sp?). Yes, I am married, and yes my husband does help with the chores and such, but he works longer than I do.

I will say that adding just some mixture of workouts to my day has helped, although rather slowly. But I come from a house with a father in the military and a mother who worked and raised her kids, and let me tell you, she had no time to even sleep. That was when she's do chores or prepair our lunches.  

You can always find time.  I have a toddler I have to get ready and drop off at daycare before I can go to work each day, which means I have to prepare sippy cups & snacks.  In addition, I pack a cooler so I always have healthy food on hand at work.  I stopped wasting my time with things like 60 minute walks (nothing wrong with them, it just wasn't changing my body and it sucked time so I ditched it as primary exercise).  I get up at 4:30 every weekday and do strength training or circuit training.  It doesn't take much time to do lots of push ups, body weight squats, lunges, tricep dips, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, crunches, planks, jump rope.  I'm no expert, but spending a shorter amount of time really pushing myself to the point of wheezing has been more effective than lengthy cardio.  Seriously, I do 20-30 minutes a day and I'm starting to finally lose the last of the baby weight.

Ms. Timeless ... I agree that you sound busy, but with all those sports and no time at home I would come up with something like working out while my child is at practice. The problem them is to not be so proud to say "I can't do that because everyone will be watching". To that you can just say at least I'm making an effort wherever I can to take care of my own health.

Ms. T : life is about choices - you can choose to exercise if you want to and not if you don't. Unfortunately, we have learned that human physiology dictates that you must get that heart rate up for a certain period of time. If you don't devote that amount of time, then no "tip" will work.  Our bodies were designed, and evolved, to be physically active. If you ignore that reality, then you've made your choice.  

I also have a comment for Ms. Timeless and agree with Curtis - work out at the ball field.  Instead of taking the youngest to the playground, put them on their bike and have them ride along while you jog (or walk/wog).  And if your kids' sports schedules are like mine, you have to be at the ball field/hockey rink/gym 30 minutes to an hour before games - perfect time for a workout - jog, pushups, situps, lunges, tricep dips, calf raises - its amazing what you can do with absolutely no equipment.  And if your kids' activities are at a rec center, get a membership! You may also want to invite other moms/dads to join you.

Ms Timeless...I raised three children without the help of their father (he was too busy sleeping away the evenings and weekends). I decided to walk while the kids were practicing or warming up for the game. Trust me, at over 200 lbs you don't like to have people watching you, but I decided my health and well being was more important than the embarrassment. It didn't take long before other moms were walking with me!

From a time management seminar I attended years ago: "I don't have the time" is a coverup for "I'm not willing to schedule the time" which equates to "It's not a high enough priority for me."

If it's important enough to you, you WILL find a way to make the time available.

Truth of the matter is, once I bit the bullet and got going and made the time to work out every other day, I began to have more energy and more alertness with which to tackle everything else in my schedule. The investment actually had a payoff!

All you goofs complaining about time should put down the Fritos, skip one sitcom, and do some exercise in the meantime.  All that compaining is taking time away from your workouts.

I agree with most people that you can always find the time to fit in a work out.  If your day is literally jammed pack, with absolutely no time to work out then you need to cut something out if you really want to get healthier.  Also, sometimes "I don't have enough time" really means "I don't have enough energy".  The way to get more energy is first to get enough sleep (really I mean it, 8hrs a day really helps) and second try to wake up early enough so you can workout before the stresses of the day wear you out.

Your recommended weekly workout schedule includes 5 days of cardio and three days of strength training. Well.. the last time I checked there are still 7 days in a week and 5 days + 3 days = 8 days... now remains the one rest day. Everyone gets a day to  rest. It even says so in the Bible. So Ms. Timeless I'll make a deal with you... if you can figure out how to turn a 7 days week into a 9 day week (to allow a day for rest!!!, I'll do your workout and be better off for it.

I wasted (literally)20 years with all the excuses listed above. My commute to work is too long, I like to eat what I want and deserve it since I work so hard, I'm married so who cares if I have great abs. I've used them all. Over the last 5 months I said enough! I now get up at 5:00 a.m. everyday and go to the gym. Yes I'm lucky to have a gym where I work. But I used to LOVE to sleep. Now I love fitting into my cloths and getting compliments about the 30 lbs. I've lost this year. It's all about saying I will do it instead of how can I do it.

No time to exercise?  I used to think that and I had some GREAT excuses. I work full-time, I have 4 kids ranging in age from 2 years to 12 years, a husband in college and I also am working on my master's degree part-time.

Those were GREAT reasons not to exercise. But, I MADE the time...in 6 months, I dropped 58 lbs and lowered my cholesterol by 50 pts. If I can do it, YOU can too!

I wasted (literally)20 years with all the excuses listed above. My commute to work is too long, I like to eat what I want and deserve it since I work so hard, I'm married so who cares if I have great abs. I've used them all. Over the last 5 months I said enough! I now get up at 5:00 a.m. everyday and go to the gym. Yes I'm lucky to have a gym where I work. But I used to LOVE to sleep. Now I love fitting into my cloths and getting compliments about the 30 lbs. I've lost this year. It's all about saying I will do it instead of how can I do it.

I have to say I agree with most of what has been said here.  "No time" is just an excuse.  I was in fitness magazine shape up until the last 5 years.  I always found time to work out - even if that meant pushups in the subway station (I always brought disposable gloves), crunches in my office, calf raises wherever.  And I walked or biked whenever possible.  Now I'm 50 years old, overweight and out of shape and still trying to convince myself it's not my fault as I have "no time" to get in shape.

You can find the time! I started working out 19 months ago. My employer has a fitness center on site, I work out an hour a day, every work day. I get here at 5:30AM. I work an average of 9 hrs/day. This is on top of 2 hrs+ total round trip commute time thru the heart of Denver (37 miles each way). It means I get up at 4:15AM & I don't get home until 6:30  I've lost 40 lbs & 7 inches from my waist since 1/06 and kept it off! It is now routine and I look forward to it! It gives me the energy to get thru the work day.

When it comes to losing weight, everyone is different - no one has the same schedules, works the same hours, not everyone is a super athlete or able to completely cut something out of their diet. The way I see it, if one diet/excercise routine worked for everyone, no one would be dieting.  What I have found is that there are three keys to losing weight - moderation, honesty, and awareness.  

I think what most people are addressing on this board in regard to Ms. T is honesty (is she honest that she can't find time to work out?), but actually, being a mother of so many children, I don't doubt it's quite difficult for her to find time to excercise.  At the same time, I don't think it is impossible for her to find a few minutes in the day for it.

The bottom line is that if you are semi educated, and honest with yourself, you likely know the things in your lifestyle that could use improvement and will cause you to lose weight.  The thing is, if you make just minor daily lifestyle changes (like eating a well balanced meal for lunch instead of a daily chicken parm hero;), you would be surprised at how this minor change will impact not only the scale, but potentially serve as the basis to improving your whole lifestyle over time.

Just how you go about this is different for everyone.  I find it annoying that you always read articles and books telling you you MUST NOT excercise less than 5 times a week, or you MUST NOT eat certain foods.  Call me rebellious, but I hate to be told what to do or restricted to anything. (I realize, however, that for some people, this is doable and works - but not for me!).  So instead, I focus on finding things in my lifestyle I CAN modify slightly and find reasonable to stick to.  The thing is, for everyone, the things they CAN modify slightly in their life are different.  And this is the real reason why if you are willing to be honest with yourself, there still will never be one universal bible on staying fit or losing weight.

In other words, you just have to find what works for you.

I'm not a fitness trainer or a diet guru or a nutritionist, I'm just someone who is reasonably educated, has tried to lose weight/become more fit and has faced all of the obstacles/issues I think people typically face, but meanwhile are never individually and explicity addressed in books.

If you are serious and would like some help/advice on how to make doable modifications in your diet/lifestyle/excercise (free of charge:) email me at goodliving200@yahoo.com and I will offer you some suggestions.

So Ms. Timeless is busy. Well guess what? We all are busy but there really is no excuse to not exercise if you really want it.  I made the commitment to get up at 5:00am every morning so I could get my butt out the door and to the gym, which incidently is the only time I really have due to work and family commitments the rest of the day.  I cycle to the train station (approx 25 mins. away) to get that first train into downtown, hit the gym at 6:30am and get to work by 9:00am.  My work out is over and done and it starts your day off on the right foot.  We all get busy as the day progresses so its easy to get caught up with the demands of work and home and then say, I'm too busy/tired to work out.  Well, if you want it bad enough, you can find the time.  Many commented that they get up early in the morning to work out.  Maybe that is what Ms. Timeless needs to do!  You don't need 45 to 60 mins. to reap the benefits. Even 20-30 minutes 3 times a week will do the trick.  If you want it bad enough, you can find the time. P.S. nothing wrong with exercising while your kids are at practice either!

Everyone needs to remember that you didn't become out of shape over night and don't expect instant results.  Give it a few months and you'll catch yourself in the mirror and appreciate the work that has gone in....and at that point you will begin to make time to workout.  Instead of making time for excuses.

Just making excuses. I work 9.5 hrs a day plus 1.5 hrs of drive time, 8 hrs of sleep and still have plenty of time to workout for an hr and relax for 3 and hr for dinner.

Umm...I work 20+ hours per day not including my commute and barely have enough time to sleep and bathe myself let alone find an hour plus per day to work out.  Most of my friends have the same hours. Welcome to making the rent in NYC without a trust fund.

Hold on here. The cardio 40 minutes a day five days a week plus strength training three times a week was to get a buff beach belly. If you don't want a buff beach belly but just want to get healthier, start with smaller steps;ANYTHING is better than nothing. Get up 10 minutes early and walk up and down your street, block, etc. Park in the parking spot the farthest from your building, store or mall; take the stairs instead of the escalator, etc., etc. Every little bit helps! Drink one less soda/sugar drink a day. I guarantee you once those endorphins kick in you will want to find minutes to excercise and not make more excuses not to.

For me, the easiest way to lose weight was just keeping track of food you eat.  Look around, there are sites that will help.  You can't lose weight if your diet isn't right.  I lost 40 pounds doing little to no extra exercise over what I had previously been doing.  Watching what I ate made all the difference.  I didn’t start exercising until I was almost in shape.  

One trick to save time with cardio that I didn't see mentioned here is to use interval training instead of the typical steady state methods promoted here. It has been shown to be more effective for fat loss and your body continues to burn more calories later. I do 3- 20 minute session in the morning and it got me pretty shreaded. Essentially you warm up at a slow pace for 5 minutes and then alternate between sprints and a moderate pace till the 18th minutes, cool down for the last two. I also do three sessions of circuit training  w/ weights after work on alternate days. More info is all over the web for interval techniques. Good luck all!

Fixing your diet is the best way to lose weight.  So why did this article have only a sentence fragment about diet, and then go on to describe some low-rent 'exersizes'?

Lift heavy weights, eat lean meat and whole grains and lots of veggies and fruits.  Count your calories.  This is the path to a good body.  It is difficult, no question.  It takes dedication and determination.

Wow Kristen...maybe you should move?  You lifestyle sounds like a ticket for a heart-attack.  No exersize, likely poor diet, sounds like you're stressed.

I'm so sick of hearing people complaining about having children and implying that their life is so much more difficult. You chose to have children. It's not our fault if you can't stop watching CSI Miami, NY or NCSI or some other crap and do your stupid situps!

Kristen, did you say you work 20+ hours PER DAY and that DOESN'T include your commute?  That's too far fetched to even believe.  Nice try.

If you don't have time to exercise, why are you looking at this article?!
You expect to get a "beach bod" by not doing anything?!
You people with "no time" seem to have plenty of time to read the article and comment!

I have used every excuse in the book for the last 20 years as well and can tell you that time will never be found until you WANT to find it.  I had convinced myself that I could not lose weight, that all diets failed, and I did not have time to exercise.  When I really examined my life (not the easiest thing to do when you might not like what you find) I discovered that I had never really given diet and exercise a fair chance.  I started my plan back during the last week of March and have dropped THIRTY pounds.  I eat better, walk almost every night, and most importantly I eliminated processed sugar from my diet.  I also stopped eating what my children eat!!!

I did not think I would have the time for exercise either, but I get home from work, feed and bathe my two and four year old, get them to bed, and around 8-8:15pm I am out the door to walk over 2 miles.  When I get home I still have time for all the stuff I need to get done each night.  My husband is a great help, but we are working on our old house and that takes up a lot of his time.  

Basically, I had to decide that these changes and the possible results meant enough to me to alter my lifestyle.  I want to be around for my children and have the energy to keep up with them for a long time.  My best suggestion to someone who "cannot find the time" is to start with little things like parking as far away as you can at the mall or grocery store, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and by all means delete processed convenience foods from your diet and grab a piece of fruit instead.  

From one non-believer to another, best of luck.  Summer is here is Florida, and I am happy to go to the beach this year!!!

OK, here is the thing, most people these days are busy. Its about priorities. I also have a full time job and work part time 4-5 nights a week. think I want to spend my night off working out, not really. I'd like to have a social life. but whats the point of being able to go out if I look like a slob. therefore, heres some pointers for people who "don't have time" first, I work in an office building downtown, I frequently take the stairs - 16 flights - I can do that three times a day if i really want to. Take a walk on your lunch hour, to someplace other than McDonalds.  
Also, if you are too tired to work out, thats a pretty good indication that you need to work out. You will have much more energy once you have been in a routine for a while.

I was in such fabulous shape years ago that my gym suggested that I appear in bodybuilding expositions.  I let my body go to rack and ruin and found myself in my mid-fifties 50 pounds overweight and huffing for breath.  I rejoined a gym and have lost 20 pounds so far, regained my joy in working out and look forward to getting fit again AND staying fit.  However, let me tell you, getting fit in your fifties is a lot tougher than it was when I was younger.  So, my advice to those of you who are younger, MAKE THE TIME NOW!  It doesn't get any easier and the effects of being out of shape are magnified with age.

Instead of working out to get a flat stomach, you could just let it all hang out and be yourself. Just put your towel next to someone who's fatter at the beach like I always do!

Instead of working out to get a flat stomach, you could just let it all hang out and be yourself. Just put your towel next to someone who's fatter at the beach like I always do!

I started to notice my belly getting bigger...I'm 27 now and was once in good shape and skinny prior to the desk job.  My solution is I altered my diet.  I eat 1 1/2 caffeine pills for breakfast, 2 more for lunch (1 at 1:00pm and another at 3:00pm) and then I eat a big dinner right before I go to sleep at night at about 11:00pm....that way by the time I wake up in the morning, my stomach is still processing dinner and therefore it becomes breakfast (two birds with one stone!).  It's a great diet because now I don't have to exercise off the calories!  If you eat minimally, you only have to exercise minimally to work off the calories!  Take that doctors!!!

To Timeless, I have two kids and I find time to work out regularly.  Maybe you need to look at your schedule and take some time for yourself.  Maybe its OK for the kids to not have activities all the time that require you to transport them.  Maybe do some walking while the kids are playing t-ball or whatever, instead of sitting and waiting for them.  If you are that stretched, it's time to pull back.  It seems like you really love your kids, but if you don't get some exercise (a beach belly is not required) then you will be cheating they're kids out of a health grandmother/father.

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