Time is a precious commodity. When you have about a million different things that you want to get done and not a lot of time to get them all done, you need to learn to be efficient; especially when time is money. As soon as that babysitter shows up, it’s go-time!
Freedom only lasts a few hours, which seems to me to be a mere blink of the eye. So as to not get too carried away in frolicking/daydreaming/meandering without a stroller, I prepare myself for the tasks ahead when I am alone and working out for me is a must if for only one reason… it’s my therapy. It helps bring mommy back to neutral. It recharges the battery and makes me feel happy. But it’s got to be quick because there ain’t a chance in hell I’m wasting any extra minutes in the gym when I have other things to get done. And I can’t, as I have learned, keep taking ‘working out’ off my To-do List because I need. I really neeeeeed it!
So here is a cardio workout I did the other day. It was 40 minutes long but… BUT… I only exerted myself for 20 of those minutes! The other 20 I still kept burning calories by avoiding just one thing… sitting. (Again with the sitting… I know, I’m getting annoying.)
Here’s the burn breakdown:
Ran for 20 minutes, burned 180 cal (I did interval running which is my favorite. It’s a fast past followed by a slower ‘recovery’ pace.) This wasn’t an easy run mind you, I pushed myself, getting my heart rate up to its max so as to get the most out of the least amount of time.
Then I walked/stood/avoided sitting for the next 20 minutes and burned an additional 120 cal. (I came home, put laundry away, tidied up the house, cooed at the baby… whatever I could so as to not sit.)
Total burn was 300 cal for 20 minutes of hard work and 20 minutes of not sitting… and I’m sure I was still burning more than usual for another 15 to 20 minutes after the last 20 minutes and I felt great, mentally and physically.
As a benchmark, I put on my heart rate monitor just to get an idea of how much I burn when I haven’t just exercised and that was 44 cal for 20 minutes. So you see, there is truth to thinking that even after you’re done working out, your body is still working and burning calories at a higher rate than if you skipped the workout altogether.
So for 20 minutes work, it’s totally worth it! Remember that when ‘working out’ is the first thing you want to remove from your To-do List.
