Exercise and Being Busy

I'm busy. My calendar is jam packed and there is no relief in sight. My busy life is starting to infringe on my workout time. And it's starting to worry me. I started really using my Google Calendar and putting everything on my schedule ... it was eye-opening to realize how much stuff I have going on and how few days there are when there are no obligations at all. One thing I haven't put on my calendar is my non-scheduled workouts. Meaning the times when I'm just exercising on my own and not meeting a group or an exercise class. One side of me thinks I need to start putting those workouts on my calendar, but then I also think that I want to avoid doing that because I don't want my workouts to feel like an obligation that I'll come to dread and resent. I did have my workouts on my calendar for a while, but then whenever I couldn't hit the gym or keep that scheduled appointment with myself, I'd be riddled with guilt for missing it and it became a point of disappointment and failure in my life. And I've made the commitment to myself that I will never set goals for myself that I don't 100% believe I can acheive... Here's a sampling of a typical week for me. Monday through Friday I work ... leaving the house at 7:00 a.m. and (on a good day) getting home at about 7:00 p.m. If I stop on the way home for a workout, I get home around 8:30 p.m. I try to get to bed around 11:00 p.m. most evenings but sometimes don't even make it that late. So on a good night, I have about 2.5 hours of "Pam Time" to get stuff done like cook and eat dinner, do homework, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, getting in a workout (yoga or Shimmy) with a DVD, deal with family obligations, do any leisure activities like crafts or surf the net or watch TV. But its rare that I actually come straight home after work. In addition to this typical schedule, here's what else is on my calendar: Monday -- three Mondays a month is my WLS support group meetings Tuesday -- I'm trying to dedicate Tuesdays to homework, but soon it'll be Crim Training to meet my walking group each week for a long workout. Wednesday -- right now I'm doing class on Wednesdays from 6pm to 10pm then driving home (40 minutes) and usually straight to bed Thursdays -- meeting my support group for walking training night Fridays -- after working a 60-hour week I'm exhausted and try to save Friday nights to do "nothing" but usually am so tired I am in bed before 10:00 p.m. Sometimes I meet my girlfriends-group for an appetizer party or dinner Weekends -- usually booked with family obligations or other stuff. I still try to reserve at least one day of the weekend for absolutely nothing, but that hasn't been happening lately. Technically I'm still able to fit about 4 workouts in per week. So really, that's not horrible. But I really want to be doing more. And once Crim training starts I need to do more to keep up with my groups training schedule (which is 6 days per week). I know I'm rambling. I guess I'm just trying to figure out how to fit everything I want to do, everything I have to do and everything I need to do ... into an already packed calendar. Something has got to give and I don't want it to be exercise. I've got some thinking to do, huh? ~Pam