How to Let Your Workout Slide, Healthfully

When your schedule is heavier than all of the The Biggest Loser contestants combined, there's one thing you shouldn't drop: your workout.

When exercisers in one study slacked off, they exponentially gained more weight the closer they got to zero exercise. And here's the kicker: Weight gain from a prolonged hiatus won't automatically be reversed by simply going back to your old routine. You have to do more to burn the excess off. Yikes.

So, tempting as it is, don't ditch your whole routine. Just scale it back if you have to; it's better than doing nothing. Walk 1 mile instead of 3 or 4. Instead of resting between sets of arm exercises, fill the time with a leg exercise. Or let something else slide for a change. (Really, your dishwasher can do the dishes even if you don't prewash them. Maybe not as well as you can, but give it a shot.) As your schedule tightens, your workout becomes even more essential in helping to reduce stress so you can sail through your to-do list -- not to mention decrease the aging of your heart, arteries, and immune system, as well as help maintain bone density.

Your workout shouldn't take that long, anyway. You can do a whole-body resistance-training routine in just 20 minutes. That's probably how much time you spend worrying about everything you have to do. So skip the worry, hit the road, and chill out. A little workout investment now will net you serious returns later. So start now.