One way to beat traffic

Spend more time exercising, and less time in the car

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about one way you can cut down
on time spent in traffic and make time for exercise too.
If you're ever on the roads between about seven and

(00:23):
nine am or four to six pm, you've probably noticed
that you're not the only one. I don't have a
regular daily commute, but I do drive to Philadelphia's thirtieth
Street station from my house quite frequently. I've learned that
a trip that takes sixteen minutes with no traffic can
take as long as forty five minutes during rush hour.
I'm sure a lot of people are listening to this

(00:44):
podcast in the car, so I don't have to tell
you that taking ninety minutes a day to drive something
that would take thirty two minutes round trip at a
different time is frustrating. It's particularly frustrating since one of
the first things people drop when they've got along comet
is that mood boosting activity known as exercise. One analysis
of data from the American Time You Survey found that

(01:07):
people who spent more time commuting consistently spent less time exercising.
Maybe it's a commuting SAPs willpower, or maybe it's a
simple time logistics problem. If you plan to eat dinner
around six thirty and the drive from work takes an hour,
leaving it five fifteen means there isn't really time to
fit in a run. If the drive takes twenty minutes, though,

(01:28):
well you'd have thirty minutes for exercise plus time for changing. Fortunately,
sometimes it's possible to address both problems. I received a
note recently from a listener who had long wanted time
to exercise, but wasn't sure how to fit it in
with his commute. But then he thought about the situation
and realized that the problem was that he was thinking
about exercising right by his house, or maybe during the

(01:51):
work day, when it was harder to fit in. So
if he was going to exercise by his house in
the morning or after work, he either had to get
up incredibly early to go before battling traffic, or he'd
be too tired to go by the time he got home.
So he decided to go to a gym right by
his office. He started leaving about an hour or so earlier.
He traveled to the gym and get a workout in

(02:13):
and discovered that even after doing fairly extensive workouts, he'd
still arrive at work before he had been getting there.
That's because traffic is so much better at six am
than at seven am, So anyone doing this will get
more than an extra hour in his or her life.
Rather than get to work frazzled at eight am, you
get to work at seven thirty feeling pumped up after

(02:35):
working out for thirty to forty five minutes. We could
picture our listener waving to his colleagues as they're coming in.
With everyone seeing him there early, he could possibly leave
a little earlier sometimes and feel no guilt about it.
I know he's not the only one thinking about this.
A friend of mine with a commute that took sixty
minutes or more at rush hour, started going to a

(02:56):
gym by her workplace right after work. By the time
her favorite fifty minute class was over, the roads had
cleared considerably. She figured she could leave work at six
and get home at seven if she was lucky, or
she could hit a six fifteen class, be in her
car by seven, and be home well before eight. Now
obviously shifting a drive time to build an exercise won't

(03:18):
work for everyone. Someone with a strict daycare pickup time,
for instance, can't just decide to get there later because
he or she wants to hit the gym. But if
you are co parenting with someone, it might be worth
trading off pickups or early morning coverage so each parent
can get at least one night a week skipping the
traffic and getting some exercise to or doing it before work.

(03:39):
Exercise makes people feel good and traffic makes them feel bad,
so anything that increases the former and decreases time spent
in the ladder is a win in my book. Do
you shift your schedule to skip traffic? What do you
do with this time? You can let me know at
Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com. In the meantime,

(04:00):
this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making
the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to
hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the

(04:24):
number four then Breakfast p o D. You can also
shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i
heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of

(04:46):
I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. W