Finding Time to PT

By Emily Barba

Hopefully this month’s edition of my PT column finds you motivated to start making physical fitness a bigger priority in your busy days. I also hope you have considered the importance of taking care of your physical hearts so you are better equipped to love and nurture your family. This month our theme is joy. What better way to celebrate all the joy in your life than by being grateful for the ability to walk, to run, to dance. God has given each of us 24 hours every single day and it is up to us to be good stewards of our time. I’m going to devote this month’s article to helping you find ways to carve out more time to exercise.

Now, I’m putting on my Drill Sergeant’s cover, so please don’t be offended if I step on your toes in this area. But one of the biggest time killers and wasters for a lot of people is the television. I once read a statistic somewhere that said that the average American will have spent SIX YEARS of his/her life watching TV. How pathetic! Imagine what you and your family could accomplish in six years. Let that sink in, and then think about the fact that if you watch even 30 minutes a day, that’s honestly 30 minutes, you could be spending living a more abundant life. I challenge you to turn off the TV and go for a family walk, or ride bikes with your kids. If you really can’t “live” without a particular show, at least walk or jog in place, or step up and down on a step while you watch. My point…if you have time to watch TV, you have time to exercise. No more excuses.

Ditto when it comes to the computer. While they are extremely helpful, and a great outlet for connecting with people all over the world, they can also suck you in and cause more time wastage. This whole blogging universe is pretty amazing and this newsletter is even part of the bigger homeschooling “bloggosphere”. But, again our time is so precious and our lives so short. An idea for finding PT time is to cut your computer time in half and spend 30 minutes doing yoga or an aerobics tape in your living room. 

One of the more obvious time killers is just lack of scheduling. As the principal and teacher of your home school, you set the schedule. If you fail to plan for exercise, you are planning to fail and not accomplish that goal. It might mean you have to wake up at 5:00 am and workout before the kids get up. Finding time might also mean you and the children start or finish your school day with physical education (aka “exercise”). You might have to squeeze it in during your preschooler’s nap. Do you have an older child who could care for his younger siblings while you go for a jog in the evening? The key is going to be making a commitment to improving your health at least 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes each bout.

I realize that every family has unique circumstances; from the number of kids we have, to whether or not our husband’s are even home at the moment. Those of you who do have deployed spouses are going to have to be a bit more creative with your time. You might try and find another homeschooling Mom to co-op with for some exercise time. If your spouse does happen to be around, enlist him to be your “coach” and make a plan together. Maybe you two can trade off mornings: you workout MWF morning at 5:00 am, and he gets TTH. Or maybe on “crock-pot nights” you can get in a quick workout before the family sits down to dinner. It can be done!

With these few thoughts, I hope I’ve at least got you thinking about some possible changes that could be made to fit exercise into your busy lives. With the summer months up ahead take advantage of the warm weather and longer days and get outside with your kids. I’m sure most of you have seen the acrostic for JOY: Jesus, Others, You. I’d like to use that in relation with finding time. Jesus should give us our inner strength in which to love and care for Others. Once you’ve taken time to fellowship with Him, and have taken care of the needs of those who depend on you it is vital to take care of You. Now that we’re carving out the time, next month I’ll start giving you some tips on how to do that. 

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