A few weeks ago a friend from college posted that she was considering a gym membership. I, of course, threw CrossFit's hat in the ring. I always have what my sister calls my "elevator speech" ready whenever I nudge that door open, but this time I was a little taken aback by the response I received.
I'm used to defending the intensity of CrossFit - "yes it's intense, but totally scalable to your ability level", the risk of injury - "there's risk in any sport and a good coach will teach you to move safely first", and the cost - "yes it's more expensive than Gold's or Planet Fitness but you get a personal trainer/group experience all in one and you don't have to worry about what to do for each workout and have you ever had anyone (or a group of people) cheer you on and push you to run one more mile on the treadmill at those gyms?" I share my own story of doing CrossFit at 350 pounds and how my Dad (and many others) have done CrossFit into their late 50s and beyond. I tell them about adaptive athletes doing WODs from wheelchairs and on prosthetic legs and how even kids and pregnant women can do some form of CrossFit.
In this case the question threw me a little because it had never come up in a CrossFit conversation before and had never factored into my decision to start working out.
"How do you find the time for CrossFit?"
My initial thought was: What?? It's only an hour... You don't have one free hour in your day?!
I realize that I'm in a rare minority of people who don't really have any sort of responsibility, outside of work, or anyone to answer to. I'm not married, I don't have kids or pets, I rarely have to take work home with me... From 7:30-5:00 Monday through Friday my time belongs to the federal government, but the other 15 hours in the day are completely mine. If actually got the 8 hours of sleep I'm supposed to, that would leave me 7 hours of free time each day.
I've had many jobs in my life, and I realized recently that this year I will have been a part of the workforce for half of my life. I've been working for nearly 16 years in some capacity, and looking back (save the years when I was in high school juggling school, band, softball, volleyball, track, and a part-time job - but not all at the same time), I've always had a good amount of free time that I have failed to make good use of.
I realized that during my internship I often had to work 10-12 hour days covering evening activities at the hospital, but I was still managing to average 5-6 hours of TV a night and even more on the weekends. My life was working, eating, sleeping, and watching TV.
Something that I'm really glad I realized from the beginning was that I couldn't just start doing CrossFit and hope that everything would get better. I understood that everything had to change. My diet, my sleep habits, and how I spent my free time. I couldn't keep eating fast food every day because I was now working out. My evenings weren't about food and TV, they revolved around my CrossFit class and getting food as soon as I got home after (which I usually had to spend 20 minutes -1 hour cooking.) I still had time to watch maybe 1 show before bed, if I wanted to get as much sleep as possible, but there weren't enough hours in the day to keep watching all the shows I used to watch.
When something had to give, it wasn't hard to choose CrossFit over TV shows. If you had asked me 3 years ago if I would be planning my life around when my workouts were and that I would have fallen at least two seasons behind on probably 10-15 shows that used to be "can't miss" parts of my day? I would have called shenanigans. I'm even starting to get into hiking on the weekends instead of sleeping or laying around watching TV.
So, how do I make time for CrossFit? Not a problem. It's time I schedule for myself and it's important to me, so I don't find it difficult to arrange my life with CrossFit in the center. Sure my apartment isn't always ready for company to drop by, and I don't do my dishes every day... But that's what rest days are for - doing all the rest of the stuff that isn't work, sleep, or CrossFit. Right?
My advice for anyone who feels like they can't fit exercise in their life is to take a look at how you're spending all the time that isn't work or sleep. Do you spend hours at the bars/clubs? Do you spend hours on the internet and social media every day? Are you going on marathon shopping trips every weekend? Do you watch 6 hours of TV each night? If getting fitter is an important goal, you have to make time for it. If you can figure out all the things that are keeping you from that goal, diverting your attention, and sucking up all your free time - and then elimate them... Think how much time you would have for healthier pursuits that are going to move you forward, not hold you back.
