nursenic’s BodyBlog

“You are so lucky to have time to work out. I wish that I wasn’t so busy so that I could work out too.” This is a statement that a friend of mine said to me on the phone a couple of days ago.
Although this wasn’t the first time I heard a comment like this from a friend, I couldn’t help but get a little irritated by it  for a couple of reasons.  This friend works a 9-5 job at an insurance company. She’s married, but has no children. She enjoys her job and is financially stable.  She always tells me how she desires to be fit. In fact, over the past couple of years, she’s jumped into fitness programs a few times, but has never stuck with a regimen for very long- often citing that she just doesn’t have the time. Along with these “no time” complaints, she often tells me what happened at last night’s Happy Hour and on her late-night sitcoms.  From our conversations, I’ve also gathered that she has plenty of time for reading and watching the latest celebrity gossip . She says that her job and her responsibilities, like the scrap booking club meetings she hosts, consume too much of her time. The way she chooses to spend her free time is not a concern of mine- it is completely her business. This is not what bugs me at all. The irritating factor is that she calls me “lucky” for having the “time” to workout.  The truth is my consistency in training has nothing to do with a surplus of free time at my disposal. While I’m not married and have no kids, I don’t have a carefree life with tons of “time” on my hands.  In fact, in order to workout before going to work (where I put in 12+ hour days), I often wake up before 4 am.  In addition, over the past couple of months, I’ve moved to a new city in a different state, bought my first house, and started a new job. Yet, despite the long hours at work and all of the stressful and time-consuming changes in my life, I’ve kept my training consistent, working out 6-7 days a week.  In light of these circumstances, I feel that I am just as busy as her. That is why I became frustrated at the comment.
However, after the conversation was over, I did some thinking and I came to a conclusion of sorts. What I decided is that she probably made the comment to help herself feel better about the fact that I work out consistently and she doesn’t.  Calling me lucky to have the “time” makes my workouts a function of good fortune rather than deliberate hard work, dedication, and prioritization.  This conclusion eased the frustration I was experiencing. That being said, my irritation could be have been avoided if she had said I was lucky to have the determination, dedication, and desire necessary to maintain my training regimen rather than just the “time” for it.