Meredith Clark’s day begins around 4:30 every morning before the mother of three wakes up her family and gets started on a busy schedule. By 5 or 5:30 a.m. she is getting in her workout — either teaching group exercise classes at Lexington Athletic Club, where she serves as the group exercise director, or going for a run.
In my opinion, Clark is a perfect example of why excuses to skip getting healthy simply don’t hold water. As a group exercise instructor, health writer and fitness enthusiast who is always trying to encourage my friends and loved ones to take care of themselves, the No. 1 excuse I hear from people is that they do not have time to exercise. Clark has heard that before, too.
But when someone like Clark can do it, so can you. Not only is she a devoted wife and mother of three children (ages 8, 11 and 13), she home-schools her kids several days a week, carts them to Latin School and extracurricular activities, and works part-time as a dental hygienist. She is the group exercise director at LAC and teaches multiple classes a week at the gym. Oh, and she is a runner.
“Sometimes laundry and cooking are falling behind,” she joked.
And to put the icing on the no-excuses cake, part of the reason Clark got into fitness 20 years ago was because she suffered from the painful Temporomandibular Dysfunction and needed pain management solutions.
So now, there are no excuses … What are your reasons to skip out on exercise? After all, study after study after study prove that exercise actually adds years to your life and greatly improves your quality of life. So, “saving time” by skimping on exercise will actually cost you time later.
But a long life is only part of the benefits. For me, exercise also is about improving the quality of my life. My mood improves, my energy levels increase and I feel better about myself when I exercise.
Clark said she enjoys the alone time in her morning running workouts. She said that for her, it’s a great time to “pray and do some soul searching” and that she is refreshed when her workout is over.
