Geh..

[Yi Min]

I am having so much trouble staying on track with having a new and healthy life style. There are a lot of distractions and I feel like I have to keep "Starting over".

I try to go to bed early so that I get up early to jump on my tredmill. But, I end up staying up late and doing a ton of homework. Then I find it difficult to wake up early enough to fit in a work out, a shower, and the time to get ready for school and work. So then I tell myself I will work out after I am finished with homework, but I never finish early enough.

I feel like I am in an endless circle of viciousness. I only get enough time to work out on the weekends.

Has anyone else had this problem. If so, how did you overcome not finding time?  

[Short_N_Evil]

I know exactly what you are talking about. I am having the exact same problem. I have motivation its just all the other stuff getting in the way. I especially understand the starting over thing. However I don't know how to work around it.  

[dangerousfish]

I've read that the "starting over" mentality means you think you're on a short diet and not on a lifelong change.

I used to exercise in a gap between my morning and afternoon classes or right after I came home from school. I was warmed up, worked, cooled down in under an hour. I lifted weights right before bed every other day and that took about a half hour. Cycle through bicep curls, tricep extensions, chest presses, and chest flys doing 12 reps/set x 3 sets of each eventually I moved past this and moved up to serious lifting but as a beginner that was great stuff. I would do bicycle crunches and standard crunches some nights starting out with 10 good crunches per set x 3 eventually I moved up to 30 good crunches per set. Squats with a broom stick some nights I would do 100 (oww, the legs).

Some things I would do during the day to work in activity: jumping jacks, seriously they're awesome. I would get up from the computer or homework and just start doing jumping jacks until I got tired or 3 minutes, which ever came first. Just getting down and doing my crunches whenever. Jogging in place - awesome.

10 minute cardio/abs I learned from some fitness guru, forget her name, Joyce something. jog in place for 1 minutes and then get down on the floor and cycle through 10 reps x 2 sets of standard crunch, bicycle crunch, and reverse crunch get back up and jog another minute and repeat all this for 10 minutes. It will get your heart rate up. Word.

Remember they say that while at 1/2 hour continuously is best (45 for those of us trying to lose) they also say any snatches of working out you can grab throughout the day is good - especially when it adds up to 30 minutes or more.

Oh! Another good one! pushups off a counter or the wall (the counter will be more challenging) or tricep dips off a table or couch (hands on the firm edge, not the cushion).

Of course working out all depends on your baseline, if you need a hard intense workout to lose since you are already at an advanced workout level then it gets harder. My cardio was still under an hour at my more fit (probably intermediate, I would say) but weights take me almost that same time now too everything got ramped up so the cardio is more intense in the same period of time but I do more different muscle exercises and that takes up more time than when I could see results with lighter weights at 12 reps.

I learned this my freshman year in a lame seminar class I took. Make a grid with all hours of the day down the side and each day of the week on top and start writing in what exactly you do for each of those hours (or parts of hours). I was surprised at how much time I "wasted". Of course you sound like your schedule is pretty jam packed.

Try your best!  

[Divash]

Try walking home from school, if it's at least half a mile and less than three miles. That's a workout, right there. If not, come home and have a piece of fruit, then do your workout first, then the homework. Just twenty or thirty minutes of workout will help revive your mind and help you focus more, so you'll get your homework finished more easily.

Also, you get some free time at school. In most states in the US, and I believe most or all provinces of Canada, it's required that everyone take at least one 'free' period for lunch. So, why not work out then? And finally, take a PE class at school. There, see, that's a whole hour of working out DURING school, and you won't have to sacrifice homework time for it.