Gym No More
Featured Guest Blogger October 20th, 2008
Up until the point where my husband and I brought our puppy home in July, I was a member of a gym here in the city. I used to go to the gym as a mental break from my research, as a way to improve my health, as a way to feel better about the chocolate cake I had for lunch. However, once that puppy came home, the gym became merely something “I used to do.” Not only did I feel guilty for leaving her in her crate if I left, but I honestly didn’t have the extra time to go to the gym now that I had to fit a couple of hours of walking the dog into my daily routine. Sigh….so this is working parenthood.
I have seen this happen to many of my friends and colleagues, and have read about the cost benefit analysis of taking time to exercise. This is an issue that has come up in online magazines, in the Wall Street Journal online forums, and even on military sites. With health and stress being two forefront topics of our society today, how can we manage our desire to pursue better health while juggling our family and work schedules? Where does it fit into the ever-evolving list of priorities?
We have several scholarly articles on the interplay of work, family, and exercise in our literature database for those of you who might want to delve a bit deeper into the research. Additionally, our Effective Workplace Series on Overwork mentions the role of exercise, and we have leaders in our leaders’ database who have specified that they have expertise in this area.
As for me, I have temporarily convinced myself that my puppy walks me fast enough to justify skipping out on the gym. However, there are days when I still long for the rush of a spin class.
