How to balance both fitness and children
Trying to fit in a workout when you have several children can be an incredibly difficult thing. Mothers already have too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it in. How are you supposed to fit in that 30 minutes a day 5 days a week that experts say that we are supposedly supposed to be able to do? Well, don't despair! There are ways that you can fit in a workout, even with all of the demands of kids, housework, a job, and all of those other obligations that go on and on.
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As a mother, you need to be as healthy as possible so that you can have the energy and the strength to take care of all of the different things that you need to do. The problem is that you don't have any time to take care of your health! But there are ways that you can take care of your health and get the exercise that you need, even with a busy schedule.
- Break up your workout
Begin your new workout regime by forgetting what experts say about needing 5 hours of exercise a week. Chances are that you won't be able to get in an hour a day. But feeling guilty about not exercising enough will only make you discouraged and will make it difficult for you to work out at all. So set a goal for yourself that is more reasonable: say, 30 minutes a day for 3 days a week. Just this amount of exercise will help you feel better and will help you keep in shape.
You don't need to work out those 30 minutes all at once. You can break up the time during the day. Just do exercises for 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there. While your baby is napping, for example, you can get in some quick ab workouts. Be flexible with the time that you spend working out. If you can't even find a 10 minute segment of time, then you can go down to spending just 5 minutes at a time working out.
- Integrate working out with your daily life
Working out doesn't necessarily mean that you have to set up an exercise bike or an elliptical machine and sweat away for a half an hour or an hour. Instead, give yourself some aerobic exercise by parking at the back of the parking lot when you go grocery shopping. Walk quickly all the way to the store. Most grocery store parking lots are so large that you can get a considerable work out just walking to the front door.
While you are cooking dinner, working in your cubicle, typing on the computer, or even driving in the car or talking on the phone, there are other exercises that you can do. There are a number of leg exercises that you can do, or unobtrusive isometric exercises that you can do in the car. While you're at work, you can slip into an empty room to do tricep curls or squats. Or you can just do them quietly at your cubicle. Being flexible in where and how you do your exercises can help you do aerobic and toning exercises without making you skip out on other responsibilities.
- Bring the kids along
There are a number of different exercises that you can do with your kids, both younger and older. With younger kids, turn activities with them-such as dancing or playing tag-into your daily activity. Or purchase a jogging or walking friendly stroller, strap them in, and then off you go. You can also take kids bike riding with you. As your children get older, you can schedule family time where you all go on a hike, you all go on a bike ride, or some other outdoor activity. Integrating your children into your exercise routine will be healthy for all of you!
- Eat right and drink water
Along with exercising, you need to keep your health and your energy up by eating right. Don't get down on yourself if you don't have time to prepare an enormous dinner for every food group. Instead, work on little things. Snack on carrots instead of cookies. Choose low fat ice cream instead of the full fat version. And drink as much water as you can. Water is incredibly important for your health, can help you lose weight, and is good for your complexion.
