Like a healthy diet, regular exercise is something that your bariatric surgeon will strongly encourage after weight loss surgery. Unfortunately, you may feel that you don’t have time to spare for daily workouts after bariatric surgery, and this can make it seem impossible to get fit.
However hard it seems to find time for exercise, this is something you have to try and do most days. If you get into a habit of skipping workouts, then you’ll find it much harder to reach your weight loss goals. Using simple strategies to increase the amount of exercise you get each week can quickly make exercising daily much more manageable.
You can help yourself find more time for fitness by:
Structuring Your Entire Day
Most of us make vague plans for what we’ll do throughout the day, relying more on a loose mental checklist than a meticulous, minute-by-minute schedule. If you find that exercise often gets lost in the mess of different tasks in your mind, it may be time to take a closer look at exactly how you’re spending time.
Start by going through a day as normal, writing down what you do and how long you do it. Look for times of day in which you tend to waste time, or inessential activities that can be eliminated—you can continue this for several days if it helps you see patterns of behavior.
Do you spend two hours each night watching TV? Do you hit the snooze button three times every morning? Do you spend an unnecessary amount of time chatting online or on the phone? If so, you have time to exercise—you just aren’t using it for that purpose. Consider where your priorities lie and how much more valuable it may be to spend time on your workouts.
Adding Exercise to Other Tasks
From household chores to leisure time, there are plenty of daily habits that would benefit from a bit more activity. If your dog needs to go outside to do his business, don’t just let him wander the yard—take him on a walk. If you spend your free time each weekend playing board games or watching movies with your family, maybe it’s time to suggest an afternoon at the park instead.
Don’t just search for free time—think of how you can make every single task more physically engaging. Can you walk or bike to the market, bank or office instead of driving? Can you go for a walk on your lunch break instead of browsing the web at your desk? Can you push harder through your chores, scrubbing away not only grime, but calories as well?
We all have time for exercise, but it isn’t always easy to see where it will fit. Think a little harder about how you spend each day and you may find that exercise is far easier to make a priority than you imagined.
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