No Time

"Bowling is over for the summer, and I have that babysitting job," she sighed, pinching the roll of extra, flabby flesh that has begun to accumulate in her middle. "I weigh the same as always, but everything has sagged down to my stomach and hips and I have no time for exercise!"

That's a familiar lament. I've used it. Everyone I talk to who hates the way they look but hasn't yet made any change to their life to fix what they think is wrong usually uses a variation of "I just don't have time for exercise!"

Leave aside for the moment that if you don't get much exercise you need to reduce what you eat. We'll focus only on exercise and activity in this post.

It's as simple as setting priorities in our lives. She bowls. What is she doing with that time slot now that the bowling, er, "season" is over? She replied that she busies herself, so much to do.
She babysits a toddler two days a week. What does she do in that time slot on the other five days a week? Oh, she busies herself. So much to do. She has a dog, a five year old lab with a LOT of energy and she complains about how much attention the dog needs, but she can't take the dog for walks because the dog always pulls so hard on the leash. She's older, and can't take that kind of strain on her arms.

Hmmm.

Has she considered taking training classes with the dog? And then setting aside 45 minutes or an hour a day walking the dog, energetically? Drain the dog, work the dog, get exercise herself, and add the "upper body" strength training that comes with correctly working a dog on a lead?

Oh, so much to do, when would she have time for that?

I don't know, to be honest. I know what my days are like, and how I set my schedule, and because I consider exercise to be important to me -- as important as eating, in fact -- I put exercise into my schedule. I give up things that are a little less important. I watch very little television, for example. I "TiVO" my few programs that I like, then spend maybe an hour or an hour and a half watching some of the shows just before bed time. I probably spend a little less time fussing about the house, scrubbing it. I don't know what all I am skipping or missing, really. Clearly, it is less important to me.

I don't think, I know this is a key to weight management. She hasn't changed weight, but she's lost muscle mass and discovered fat accumulating in the places it likes to accumulate because she's not using her muscles much. She's set her priorities to exclude obvious places to get exercise. Whatever she is doing instead of bowling, or on days when she's not babysitting, it's more important to her than dropping the fat.

Oh, and she eats massive, fat- and calorie-laden meals, too. ;-)