I like to use the fitness center here at Madison College. I also enjoy going for a run, doing yoga and taking walks. I also really enjoy pretending that I do these things much more than I really do.

On most given days you can hear me telling people I do yoga if it’s brought up. It’s true. I do yoga, but not nearly as much as I should. And I do go to the gym, about once a week, in spurts, until I get busy again.

The desire is there, and to be honest so is the motivation. The problem is the time. I’m not just a student. I also work full time. I’m a mom and I write for a website in addition to writing for the newspaper. I’m not the only one this busy. We all have lives outside of school and at times it can get really complicated. Just because we don’t have time to get up at 5 a.m. three times a week to go run the treadmill doesn’t mean that we can’t be a physically fit person who, well, technically exercises.

It takes me eight minutes to walk in to Truax. Why, you ask? It’s because I park all the way in the back – construction or not – even if there are open spaces. I do this because it guarantees I get a walk in and my metabolism is amped up for the day.

If I’m late for class, I better walk quickly because I know that caring for my mind and body are intertwined. Stress is burned away during physical activity and endorphins are released. The benefits that exercise gives you are incomparable to vitamins or energy drinks that you can take.

We have stairs people! Really, and in the time that it takes you to push that button and wait for the elevator, you could probably be up a level and healthier. If it does add any time, it may perhaps be two additional minutes when it comes down to it. You combine that with parking in the back and your whole day just improved.

These suggestions can be applied to so many things, places and situations – at the store, anywhere. In the time that it takes most people to find a good parking spot at Walmart, you could have parked in the first open stall in the back and walked to the doors. No wasted time, but a whole lot healthier.

Little choices add up. That 10-minute walk we talked about earlier, for a 150-pound person that burns 66 calories. Now say you cut out just one 150 calorie soda or energy drink. Would it shock you if I told you that you’d melt away 26 pounds over one year by making absolutely no other changes than that? If you merely parked in the back of parking lots, you’d shed eight pounds

We are very much so an instant-gratification-society as a whole. Often times when we don’t see changes immediately, we can quickly resort back to former habits. Like I said though, that weight would come off over a year, not in a month. It certainly shows how benefits add up over time. We may feel that we are too young to worry about issues such as blood pressure, cholesterol, etc., but as Benjamin Franklin said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

What about you? What small changes have you made in your life to accommodate for physical activity? Email me at [email protected] with your ideas to share with fellow students.