One of the most common excuses people give for not being able to lose weight is that they’re too busy. They claim they’re either too busy to exercise on a daily basis or too busy to prepare and eat healthy meals — or both.
Bull.
I had the same excuses when I attempted (and failed) to lose weight years ago when I was managing school and a social life. Fact is, I didn’t even begin to know the definition of a busy schedule until the last few months.
Daily Weekday Schedule
My day starts at 5:30 in the morning and ends at around 11 at night.
5:30 AM | Wake up
6:30 AM | Breakfast
7 – 8 AM | Commute to work
8 – 4:30 PM | Work, usually lunch at my desk
4:30 – 5:30 PM | Commute back home
6 PM | Prepare & cook dinner
7 – 8:45 PM | Spend time with the family, reply to e-mails, blog
8:45 – 9 PM | Drive to gym
9 – 10 PM | Workout
10:15 – 11 PM | Reply to e-mails, blog
I’m physically and mentally exhausted when I go to sleep at 11. I’m still tired when I wake up in the morning. This schedule is taking a toll on me and unfortunately, I don’t see how it’ll change any time soon.
344 Pounds is taking up a lot of my time. Any free time I get at home (which isn’t much) is spent on the blog. I don’t have the time to reply to comments or e-mails during the day, which is why I make most replies at night. With that being said, 344 Pounds is growing like wildfire and my subpar writing is being read by more and more people everyday.
I only find myself wanting to spend more time writing on it, not less. It’s obviously helping people with their goals and I absolutely love that fact.
More of a drain on my time and resources is work. While I love work, it takes up a lot of my life. I don’t want to say what I do (let’s keep work and play separate, shall we?), but just know it’s your typical Dunder Mifflin office job.
I wish I had solutions to remove the demands of life (for both of us), but I don’t. If you want to lose weight, you will sacrifice a part of your life to reach your goals. Personally, I sacrifice the very small and precious amount of time I do receive to spend with my family to go sit on a treadmill in a cold, empty gym.
It’s a sacrifice.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I believe you said you wouldn’t monetize this space, but maybe you should consider placing one or two nicely placed advertisements. I have no idea what type of traffic you’re seeing, but if it is continually increase and you’re devoted to keep posting, you might be able to make a living off of this thing.
Dooce.com blogs full time and supports a family of it. She has a handful of well placed, and clean (keyword here), advertisements in her layout.
…just something to consider if you’re really fed up with your job.
Whew! This almost sounded like an “I’m quitting the blog” post. I repeat: whew!
Definitely not qutting.
i agree that if the dream is to blog and spend more time with you daughter then you should look into how this blog can support you (besides the accountability). that also means that you should start to look into how this site will grow once the weight loss is over. maybe explore healthy cooking, product reviews, who knows what.
you work out pretty late, but especially in the summer, it might be worth saving that half hour commute and pounding the pavement once a week (with some snazzy reflective gear). what keeps me on the treadmill is a picture in my head of putting on my running shoes and going out the front door to run 3 miles. sure, people do that everyday, but it would be an achievement for me (and i ran a marathon a few years ago).
i love your site and think it would be great for you to have more time for it.
I, too, thought that was a goodbye post at first! Whew! Ads are completely acceptable. I think you should go for it. Maybe if you make enough, you could buy some gym equipment for you home and reclaim some of that traveling time. Is there such a thing as a laptop/treadmill? Then you could combine blogging and exercising and really save yourself some time!! ;)
T, you have the writing talent to do so much more than blog. Blogs have great value, but I think people would pay to read the printed, published ramblings of our beloved Tyler. I would.
My opinion? Do all those things you want to do. Life is waaaaay too short to do stuff you don’t love. Take your daughter to lunch everyday. (If not everyday start doing it twice a week.) She will LOVE this and remember it forever. You can work forever and you can blog and workout, but you will never get back time with your little girl. This is advice from a girl who never had quality time with her father.
As far as the job thing … do you at least have hilarious coworkers? That would make up for it. Hehe.
Thanks for the comment on my writing. I’m trying. I think you have a pretty nice writing style yourself. The growth of your blog is proof of that. :)
Oh, I’m flattered. I don’t think I’m a good writer. But on the other hand, I think I’m a really modest person in life.
I kid. I don’t have hilarious coworkers, no. I just have a job that I go to everyday and it takes up most of time. I only see one option to fix that problem, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Now that you’re more in shape maybe you could get a family activity together that’s exercise twice a week? Family bike ride, family hike, 3 mile walk around the neighborhood. Combine family and exercise time, wear out the kiddies for bed, enjoy the serotonin boost together and get a good night’s sleep half the working week?
You’re not sleeping enough, man. That little sleep is counterproductive to weight loss. :(
It’s not that I choose not to sleep JakiChan. If I could, I’d sleep 10 hours a night. It’s just the way life is right now and will be for a while.