Is Your Workout Ruining Your Diet?

4 ways to make time for both

You know you need to make time to take care of your health, but can you really make time for both exercise and healthy eating? Spending time cooking could make you more likely to cut your workout short, finds a new study from Ohio State University. After analyzing data on how more than 112,000 adults spent their time in a 24-hour period, researchers found that a 10-minute increase spent on food prep was associated with 10 fewer minutes spent exercising. 

Naturally, you can thank your crazy schedule for this. "People face real limitations in the amount of time they have in a given day. If there aren't enough hours left to prepare food and to exercise, they can end up making a trade-off," says lead study author Rachel Tumin, a doctoral student in epidemiology.

What's a busy woman to do? Start by being more aware of how you spend your free time—and whether it's helping or hurting your health goals. Some smart advice for always working in your workout (without hitting the drive-through on the way home from the gym):

Exercise efficiently. When you're short on time, try a 15- or 20-minute interval workout by alternating between two minutes at a comfortable pace and 30 seconds of all-out effort. You'll get all the benefits of a longer workout—but in less time, Lombardo says. Sounds too good to be true, but research backs up the claim. In a study from McMaster University in Ontario, performing 8 to 12 minutes of interval training (an 18-minute workout, when you include the rest periods) three times a week was shown to be just as effective as more frequent workouts that lasted 30 to 45 minutes. (Consider our three quick calorie-burning interval workouts.)

Make conscious cuts. On those crazy days where you have to choose between making dinner and exercising, it's okay to opt for exercise, says Lombardo. Picking up a salad, microwaving a lower-cal frozen entrée, or heck, even eating a bowl of whole grain cereal for dinner once in a while is perfectly fine. (Or, pick from our winning cleanest packaged dinners.)

Think of the productivity benefits. Staying active does more than keep you healthy physically. It also boosts your mental energy by slashing stress and helping you think more clearly—making the rest of your day's to-do list a little easier to tackle. "Think of it that way, and you'll start to see exercise as simply non-negotiable," says Elizabeth Lombardo, PhD, author of A Happy You: Your Ultimate Prescription for Happiness. Case in point: In a 2011 University of Stockholm study, employees who spent 2.5 hours of their week exercising instead of working actually reported being more productive at the office—and had fewer sick days, too.

Cut yourself some slack. Even if you've only got 10 minutes for a walk during lunch, take them. "Don't fall into the all-or-nothing mentality," Lombardo says. "Doing something is always better than doing nothing."

More from Prevention: 25 Ways To Sneak In 10 Minutes Of Exercise

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