Like many middle-aged lawyers, I weigh more than I should. I try to exercise and eat right but don't always succeed. I remember hearing sometime back that you should exercise for 30 minutes three times per week to be in good health. However, now a study in the Journal of Internal Medicine has raised the bar. According to the study, in order to lose weight and keep it off, you should exercise 50 to 60 minutes a day, five times a week. That adds up to 275 minutes a week of exercise.
I am able to do the most exercising during the summer when I don't have to worry about soccer practice or the kids' homework. In a perfect week, I will spend 33 minutes on the eliptical trainer at the gym five days a week, work out with a trainer for an hour twice a week and run on the treadmill for an hour once a week. That adds up to 345 minutes of exercise a week. How often do I have a perfect week? Never. If I am at the office till 1:00 a.m., it is very unlikely that I will get up at 6:30 a.m. to go to the gym. If I am having to deal with computer problems that come up late in the afternoon, I may have to cancel my training session.
During the school year, things get worse. In order to get to the gym and get my daughter to school, I have to be up by 5:55 a.m. A lot of days, the extra 30 minutes of sleep is the only thing that keeps me going. During soccer season, I only train once a week so that I can help with my other daughter's soccer practice on Thursday nights. During some weeks, the only exercise I get is one training session a week and the time that I spend refereeing on the weekend (which involves a lot of short bursts of activity rather than sustained exercise).
However, it gets worse. According to another study that I read, the less sleep you get, the harder it is to lose weight. Thus, if the only way you can find the time to exercise enough is to cut back on sleep, then the two forces counteract each other. It seems like the only way to get enough exercise and enough sleep is to have a non-stressful job and no child-related responsibilities.
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2 comments:
The reasonable solution is this:
Have competitive exercise event for a youth sport. Then you give up the idea of saving the planet through ligation and become a full-time exercise guru getting sponsorship from the likes of Full Throttle or GNC.
I am always annoyed by media displays of these buff, six-packed celebs. Well, golly gee Beaver. .if I didn't have to work or could afford a nanny to watch my kids. . I might have money to eat better and time to work with my personal trainer (at my house) 5 times a week!
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