No time, No way! No excuses, says contributor Catherine Cameron, “you all have time to sneak exercise into your day.”

What can make you happier, help you manage your weight, prevent and fight disease, slow aging, promote better sleep, boost your confidence, decrease pain, and even add a little spark to your sex life?

Exercise of course!

As a former personal trainer and having led fitness classes for 27 years, you won’t believe some of the reasons I’ve heard as to why people don’t exercise. At the top of the list?

“I have no time”.

In response to this particular excuse, I would argue that what people really have is a perception that they have no time. As committed as I am to helping Canadians move more, I’m equally committed to helping them discover that they do have time to be active each and every day. We all do.

Even if all you’ve got is 10 minutes, grab it! Research shows that even tiny bouts of activity, as little as 10 minutes at a time, are associated with increased fitness. And these mini workouts all count towards the minimum 150 minutes of heart-pumping activity adults need each week for health benefits.

5 Easy Ways to Sneak Exercise Into Your Day

1. Walk or bike the kids to school – and yourself to work. Be an active role model for your kids and they’re more likely to be active themselves. Trust me, they need it. Only 7% of Canadian kids and teens get enough physical activity.
2. Get a dog. Those who own dogs take more steps. A responsibility to take Fido out for a walk three or four times a day, and in all weather, will help you achieve or exceed the recommended 10,000 steps a day.
3. Be active on the job. Take the stairs, ask colleagues to join you for walking meetings instead of sitting around a table, start a lunchtime walking group, and use coffee breaks to get moving.

4. Wear flats. Hands down, on days I wear flats, I’m more likely to run errands on foot or by bike, to hop off the bus a stop or two early in order to walk more, and to park my car at the far end of the parking lot. Comfy rules!

5. Rethink your ‘down’ time. When my youngest daughter plays soccer, I refuse to be among the parents sitting on the sidelines. I use the hour to walk or run around the field to get a workout myself. If I watch the evening news, I do light weights to build upper body strength or a few yoga poses to relieve end-of-day muscle tension. Find the ‘idle” time in your day and repurpose at least some of it to make every hour and every day a little more active.

You do have time for exercise – is today the day you’ll get started?