Between commuting to work and home, uncertainty of how long I'll be at work on a given day and other errands, I just can't find time to exercise.

When it was staying light longer, I'd go home and get in a half hour bike ride. Then I hurt my elbow and wrist and that was too painful to do. This camper's elbow just isn't going away! (Oh, it was diagnosed as tennis elbow. I hate tennis and renamed it "camper's" elbow because I love camping. ).

There is a gym near work. However, it's expensive and lunch time is when it is most crowded. Some of the people in the building complain that they can't work out for more than 20 minutes because all the equipment is taken.

How can I make some "me" time without feeling guilty? This is another question. I was brought up with a mom who put herself (including healthwise and is now paying for it) last. I was last when my kids were at home. Now it's just the 2 of us and I feel guilty doing some of this stuff for me.

I guess you think I'm a mess. Maybe I am. I have to retrain my mind to put me first in some instances. I'm working on that. It's almost as hard as losing weight!

So, how do you do it? How do you put yourself first sometimes and how on earth do you people have time to spend an hour at a gym with all your other activities? (No, Meg, I'm not going to get a job there ).

I work sometimes 10-11 hours per day, run a household with 2 adults and pets. I care for my 87 YO mama 90% of the time (shopping/taxi/doctor)....

the best way I get my exercise in is to get up early (5AM) and do it at home....we have a good treadmill, I have a wt. bench, dumbbells and a rebounder....my pilates supreme is still under the bed until I re-arrange the extra bedroom.....the advantage is that you don't have to use time to get anywhere and change, you just have to self-motivate.

this is what works for me.....I have a gym membership (it's right in my office complex), but my workday often "runs away" with me and I can't get out of my office....

Ditto to marble I get up in the morning
i work full time have 4 growing kids play taxi to and from school and a wife and take care of my mother and my 15 yo brother ( so basically 5 kids)
and my oldest is 6 months pregnat so i have tried the night time thing but by the time im done working out dinner is not complete till 8 pm so i started forcing myself to get up early it's hard as **** when you change at first to train your body to get up but it works and i feel great all day
just my 2 cents
Michelle

If going to the gym is not an option, what about working out at home? There are some really good DVDs on the market. I can vouch for Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds. You might also try a band workout. There is a really good one on the exercise forum. Hang in there! Where there's a will, there is a way and it looks like you do have the will. Think outside of the box, and you'll find a lot of alternatives open to you.

Do you have a desk job?? I recently bought a balance ball and when I am on my computer I sit on it and it really works the core muscles, plus I use the resistance bands that came with it. If you stand at work what about ankle weights to add a little umph to every step. Also if you can take stairs instead of an elevator or park farther away from the doors. Umm I guess thats all I can think of right now. I hope it helps. And remember "ME" time helps with the "US" in our lives.

I finally decided that I was worth the time, and just as I devote much time to DH and the kiddos, I now have me time that I spend on the elliptical. If someone needs me, they know where to find me! I don't get off to answer the phone or anything like that either. If someone calls and needs to talk to me, one of the kiddos can bring me the cordless phone, and the caller can just listen to me huff and puff!

I managed to find the time and honestly the easiest way is to get up early and exercise. I cut an hour out of my sleep to exercise basically and I make sure I get to bed at a decent time. When I was single, I used to go after work but my day basically consisted of going to work, going home to eat dinner, then go to the gym, then go home and go to sleep.

I start at 5:00 in the morning, before everything else begins. By the time I get home from work most days, it's dark this time of year, and I'm too tired.

I found that once I really made a commitment to exercise, the time appeared. I didn't wait for it to appear--I just started at first by making the time, which meant I did not put off the exercise because there was something else to be done. There is ALWAYS something else to be done. But because I work more than full time (have my own business), I am limited in how much I can do even though I can vary my hours.

I walk in the morning for 45 minutes, go just under 2 miles. In the afternoon I go to the gym and use the machines (treadmill etc.) for at least half an hour, and do weight training every other day. This takes about an hour at most. Between those two, I don't have time for much more, but magically, I do have that much time. I made the time somehow, and surprise, nothing else seems to have suffered!

You could schedule your lunch hour at work for earlier or later, so you're not trying to go to the gym right at everyone else's lunchtime.

As for the guilt for making time for yourself--well, I hope you can get over that. What do you think you should be doing instead? Vacuuming? LOL! Does your husband worry when he's doing something for himself? Gosh, I would bet not . . .

Jay

i have myself scheduled to the point of damn near OCD proportions...
i get up every morning at 4am and run for 1hr and 15mins

then i make sure to make breakfast, sit down and eat it (none of this eating on the run) and i pack food for the rest of my day. depending on how long im working (sometimes 13hrs) i will pack all snacks, lunch and dinner with me.

if i am working my case management job, i work out of my car so i go for a mid-afternoon beach run and if i dont want to do that, i do an hour of weight lifting at a local gym instead.

after work, i come home and i have a list of exercises to do
push ups, tricep pushes, crunches, lunches, squats, etc.... that i have taped to the fridge. i do half of those, go for a run, come home, do the other half,

take a shower and hit the sheets.

but i also am living alone, have no kids, no relationship and am purposefully checking out of "regular" life for a while to get a handle on myself, my body and learn better self control.

*shrug*

thats my basic routine.

I get up how ever early I have to to get it in. There is very little that I will put as a priority over working out. I have 2 little ones and as long as they are safe during my workouts, keeping me healthy and happy is the best thing I can do for them. Not to mention being a good role model

The best part about am workouts is very little can "come up" to interfere.

You all are inspirational. No more excuses for me.

I made an appointment with myself to go to the gym by a certain time every day and used it to force myself to stop working in time to get there. It was a great tool for achieving some work/life balance, otherwise I would just keep working until late in the evening.

Now that working out is part of my daily routine, I don't need to do that anymore, but I have a pretty flexible work schedule. If I do have a really busy day planned, I will get up early to exercise, as others have mentioned doing. Every night before I go to bed, I figure out when I am going to exercise for the next day.

Once I get home, that's it. I'm home. No leaving for the gym for me. If I didn't have to shuttle kids around and all my other things, I'd try for the gym between work and home, but then we wouldn't get dinner until 8:00 PM. So that just isn't possible. What is possible is getting to bed by 9:00 PM or 10:00 PM and then getting up at 4:40 AM to work out. I used to get up at 4:40 AM just to get ready to take DD to school, but she drives now, so I get an hour of "me time." She thinks I'm totally off my rocker because I could sleep in, but I choose not to.

Well when you were going for that bike ride just because it was light, why can't you substitute the gym after work during the darker months? But you can always add in exercise even AT work. Park farther from work and walk more, farther from stores, etc. Look for excuses to use the stairs or to get up and move at work. Replace your chair at work with a body ball. Go out for a walk or run at lunch if the gym is too crowded. Get up just 15 minutes earlier and exercise in the morning, then 15 minutes before bed. Those two 15 minute slots won't really hurt your day enough that they'll be noticeable, yet it's 30 minutes of exercise a day. If you wear pantsuits, try strapping on some ankle weights and get through a work day like that!