I really tried to work exercise into my evening routine. I really, really did. But my evenings just don’t work for exercise. There’s laundry, dinner, getting kids ready for the next day and a host of other things that just don’t jive with exercise.
 

Since I have an incredibly flexible workplace, I considered asking if I could leave work several hours early every day so I could exercise and then make up the missed work hours from home in the evening. I was pretty close to asking for permission to do that when I came to my senses: I’d be trading evening exercise hours for evening work hours, which seemed even worse. I can skip exercise if I don’t feel like doing it… not really an option with work. Plus, I wanted the flexibility to go grocery shopping if I needed to or run errands or whatever. I didn’t want to be tied down at home for two hours in the evening doing work.

Each night for the past month I’ve folded laundry or relaxed or cleaned or went to bed early or actually did some crafting. Anything but exercise. I couldn’t even bring myself to preview the exercise video I bought. Something else was always a priority — mainly my sanity.
 

The biggest obstacle is that I really want to exercise in the morning. Basically, if I don’t do it first thing, it won’t happen. I’ve said that time and again. It sets the tone for my day in so many ways. But with my commute and having to get up so early to get to work by 8 a.m. I just didn’t have the motivation to get up at 4:30 a.m. to exercise. It’s important to me, but not that important.
 

Driving to work this morning, I made a big decision. Just like that, this fabulous idea came to me that would allow me to finally fit exercise into my schedule.
 

“I’ve been thinking about adjusting my schedule,” I said to my boss, J, this morning. “I need to exercise and I need to do it first thing in the morning. I haven’t thought this all the way through yet, but what I’d like to do is come in at 9 a.m. so I can exercise before work and still leave at 4:30 p.m. and make up the extra hour from home in the evenings.”
 

“That sounds fine,” she said. “Let’s try it and see how it goes.”
 

We had a fabulous discussion about the importance of exercise and how it’s about “me time”. With this new schedule, I won’t have to get up any earlier than I am now and will finally be able to again reap all the benefits that come with daily rejuvenation.

It's about me time.