Recently I sent out a survey to women in the Lose Weight Biking Community asking what their biggest struggle is right now with getting on the bike.
SO many of them said that they are having the darndest time fitting in bike rides along with work.
I mean, I can most certainly relate. I teach full time and spend at least an hour a day in the car getting to and from my job.
Even women who work from home and don’t have a commute say that they are spending 8-10 hours a day in front of a computer and they just can’t fit in the time to ride.
Not to mention, most of us have plenty of commitments outside of our job that keep us off the bike. I know in my household we have to balance my son’s activities, dinner, and my husband’s bike rides/workout schedule too!
Riding is FUN. It feels great to hop on the bike and spin our legs. So, what’s a girl to do? How do we balance biking weight loss, work, and everything else? In this article I discuss 5 of my most helpful tips for fitting in bike rides around our busy work schedules.
Tip #1: Get Really Honest With Yourself About Your Work Schedule and Other Commitments.
How busy are you, really?
Do you actually not have the time to ride your bike? Are there literally not enough hours in the day?
Or is it more that you don’t feel like riding? That you don’t feel like you have the energy, inclination, or motivation to get on the bike after a long day at work?
Now, I am not asking these questions to point any fingers or to call you lazy. I would never!
That’s not what this is about. This is about YOU getting very honest with YOURSELF about what is keeping you off the bike.
It’s really easy to get bogged down in this story of having really long work hours and work keeping us from getting on the bike. And if that’s true for you then that’s great, you know exactly what you are up against!
But, if it is more that you just don’t want to get up early enough to ride, that you have time in the evening but prefer to ride in the morning, etc. you need to be really honest with yourself about this.
If you aren’t then you are going to find yourself continuing to make work an excuse for not riding as opposed to the true reason that you aren’t getting on the bike. And you will continue to, you guessed it, not get on the bike.
When my son was small I literally did not have time during the day to ride. From the hours of 6:00 am to 7:30 pm I was either working or tag teaming dinner, bathtime, and bedtime with my husband.
During those days I would ride at 8pm on the indoor trainer. Was that the best time for me to ride for me? NO! It was very much not. Would I have rather hopped on the bike outside in the afternoon? YES!
But, it was the only time I could get on the bike and get 30-60 min of uninterrupted time, so that’s what I did.
Tip #2: Realize that No Ride is Too Small, and You Can Move Any Way, Not Just On the Bike.
For the longest time I thought that if a ride was going to “count”, that it had to be very long or very hard.
In other words, if it was going to be a leisurely 20-30 min spin? It wasn’t going to actually do anything or burn enough calories, so why should I even bother?
Well, believe it or not COVID was what completely changed this mentality for me.
I was home all day every day with my husband and a five-year-old. Negotiating an hour or two solo on the bike was NOT happening.
So, I started going for bike rides around the neighborhood with my son. He was five, our neighborhood was hilly, and these rides were maybe 5-7 miles tops on a good day. This would have been something that I would have never considered a bike ride in the past.
Or, we would go for a hike in the conservation land by our house. Again, I would not consider this “enough” movement or “worth it” in the past, but it was what I could do with my son!
Finally, I would squeeze in maybe 20 minutes on the indoor trainer while my son watched some kind of “Go Noodle” on youtube. But it kept him engaged and active enough so I could ride harder for a little bit.
You see, all movement is movement. All of it counts. It makes us feel active. Movement makes us feel GOOD.
So, if you only have a short block of time, find something that you CAN do. It doesn’t have to be on the bike. You just need to MOVE. Stop thinking about all the big long rides you can’t do, and figure out what you CAN do.
I realized that I didn’t need to be riding my bike 20 miles a day to lose weight. In fact, I lost more weight with these short little workouts than I did when I was doing much bigger rides every day!
It was all about moving my body to feel good so that I would WANT to take care of it. This consistent movement, no matter how small, is what will keep you on your path to biking weight loss.
Tip #3: Plan Twice as Many Rides Each Week Than You Actually Want/Need
I know that this sounds a little bit nutty but here me out.
I always plan my rides weekly because I have to think about how many rides I want to to do that week, and when is reasonable to fit it in.
I find that it isn’t enough to just plan one time slot for each ride, I plan TWO. Notice I don’t say that I actually DO twice as many rides as I want/need. But I plan them.
When I am serious about getting rides in I need to plan a ride AND a backup ride.
In other words, if I want to do a ride on a Wednesday after work I will plan TWO different times in my schedule to make it happen.
This way I know that if one time fails I always have the other as a backup.
This is great if you plan a ride in the morning that you have to get up for and miss it. Sure it’s great to start the day with a ride, but what if you sleep through the alarm?
Make sure you set aside a time later in the day where you can complete the ride. Sure it might not be your preferred time, or an optimal time. Maybe it won’t be as long or as hard as you originally planned.
But, if you at least have a back up time for each ride then you are so much more likely to do something rather than nothing in that time slot.
Tip #4: Make it Social: Ride With Friends and Family
So this seems kind of like a no brainer, but if you make a plan to ride with someone you are killing two birds with one stone.
You get to have the ride and also spend time with friends and family.
During the warmer months I ride with my son and husband and friends all of the time.
Sometimes it’s the only way to really guarantee that I will get on the bike. I know that other people are counting on me either for the camaraderie or to get THEM out on their bikes, and this is enough to motivate me.
It’s also often times more fun!
Now, if you don’t have friends or family that ride you can do something else. For example, my dear friend Caroline and I have very busy schedules and don’t get to see each other all that often. We both really like to be active, though, so we can hang out and walk at the same time!
Is this a ride? No. But it’s movement and it keeps me in the habit of moving my body, and that absolutely counts.
If you don’t have friends/family to ride with or move with but still want the accountability you can just tell someone.
Casually mention to someone at work that you are planning a walk or ride after work.
It may seem silly, but just putting out there in the universe that you are planning to do something, and know that that person could possibly ask you how it went? That can be all we need to actually get out on the bike or move our body.
Tip #5: Be Just a Little Bit Selfish
This may be very hard for you. I know it is for me. But sometimes you need to be just a little bit selfish.
If you are the kind of woman who does everything for everyone else always at the expense of what you need for yourself, it’s time to start being just a tiny bit selfish.
Being a little selfish from time to time is NOT bad. It’s actually good. Because when you take care of yourself and what YOU need you actually have the energy to take care of everyone else.
Sometimes after dinner I will fill up my water bottle and go down for a ride on the Peloton even though my husband and son are doing something together that I could easily join in on.
If you are anything like me you put a LOT of pressure on yourself to be a good colleague, wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend…and you might do it at the expense of what you really need.
I find that if I even just take 20 minutes to ride it makes ALL of the difference in my energy levels and my mood, and I can be a much better wife and mom for the rest of the night.
A Final Note
It can feel really challenging to get on the bike after a long, hard work day.
Sometimes all we want is to curl up on the couch after work and dinner and scroll our phones and watch some Netflix instead of hopping on our bike for a ride.
However, when we get really serious honest with ourselves, we often realize that we actually have time to ride, we just don’t really want to in those moments.
When we plan our rides in advance, plan a couple of times to ride, stack our rides/movement with quality time with friends and family, and be just a little bit selfish about protecting our time to ride, we are able to really show up for our families and ourselves the way we want to show up.
It can be hard to balance biking weight loss and work commitments, but it is definitely not impossible. With a little honesty and a little planning we can make sure we protect that time for ourselves and get out on the bike and ride.
Remember, riding is supposed to be fun, and supposed to be that thing that we do to feel GOOD about ourselves and our bodies. I am confident that with these tips you can absolutely carve out just a little more time to get on the bike.
Ride on!
xoxo
Stacy
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