Where do you find the time to work out? The answer is simple, I don't find the time, I MAKE the time. If you want something bad enough, you'll figure out a way to do it. If someone offered you a free cruise for you and your family, you would figure out a way to make it work, because it's something you WANT to do. If you or your husband loses a job, you find a way to put clothes on your kids' backs and food in their mouths because you HAVE to. Yet when it comes to our own health, why are we always putting ourselves last? Don't you WANT to be around for your family for many years to come? Don't you HAVE to be healthy and take care of yourself in order to do that? Oohhhhh, yeah, I just went there, that's right reverse MOM GUILT! Come on, ladies, we all know about the mom guilt.....we are all "bad" mothers, of which I am the worst. Before I had children, my mother-in-law always said that with the kids, comes the guilt. And boy was she ever right! The day I came home from the hospital with Rory she said, "So, are you the worst mother in the world yet?!" She was a hip, hip lady! (miss you, Carol!) To answer her question, of course I was already the worst mother, my baby was breech, I had to have a C Section, we were at a birth center and not a hospital because I was some sort of hormonal dillusional hippy...blah blah blah.....but that's another story for another post......Ok, so back to the mom guilt....maybe you don't work out because you feel guilty, ok well get over it. Your kids will live if you want to work out for an hour. During the school year (I'm a teacher) I wake up at 4:45am to work out. That's right, and I am not dead. Am I always able to work out in the morning? Absolutely not, some nights I am up making cupcakes for my students, some nights I have church things that keep me out till 10, some nights I'm changing sheets in the middle of the night because Daddy can't stick to the "No juice before bed!" rule, some nights I'm simply laying awake thinking of all the crap I have to do and therefore can't get to sleep....so you get the point, but what you won't get from me is sympathy.....I get it and I still get my butt out of bed in the morning and do it. The hardest part is getting my feet to hit the floor. The key is being organized and having a scheduled. As a self-proclaimed obsessive-compulsive psychopaths, some of my many hobbies include making schedules and lists. I schedule my workouts every Sunday and write them on the calendar that hangs in my kitchen, this way it's something I HAVE to follow, as I don't like a lying calendar and I would NEVER cross something off, then I would have to look at it every day and that makes me CRAZY(er). I also plan out my work outfits every Sunday and lay them out the night before, right down to the underware, this way if I'm running late, I don't have to think. Of course my workout clothes/shoes are right next to my bed and I get my water (a.k.a. Exercise Juice to Rory) ready the night before and put it in the fridge. I also make sure the daycare/mom-mom's bags are packed and the kids' clothes are laid out. If I go through all this trouble, you best believe I am working out in the morning! There are those days where I end up hitting snooze, in which case I work out at night (ew) I HATE working out at night, but you gotta do what ya gotta do. For some people, like my awesome sister-in-law, Jackie, night time is the way to go. That woman is on the treadmill at 9pm......and she has FOUR kids, the youngest of which is 8 months and she is smokin' hot....so if she can do it, so can you, so save it. I'll tell you the same thing I tell my 6th graders, " I am not your Dr. Phil and I am not your Oprah, and I don't want to hear your sob stories and excuses". And don't even get me started on that, "But what about my husband" nonsense. They are his kids too, you didn't make them by yourself. He can watch them for an hour while you work out. So what if he lets your kid play with the toilet plunger (true story here), or accidentally feeds your baby protein powder instead of formula (again, true story...not my husband, but my stepdad), or thinks the dog is an acceptable baby sitter for "just a few minutes".....your kids will live and just remember, his mistakes with the children just remind you of how awesome and perfect you are and how your family would never survive without you. Kevin and I sort of make these little "deals" on Saturday, he gets to sleep in, but he has to watch the kids as soon as he gets up so I can work out. On Sundays, he gets up early with me and watches the kids so I can work out before church, but then I take them with me, which gives him two hours to scratch himself, or mow the lawn, or watch a sporting event, or whatever it is that men do.
Now that it's summer and I'm "off" (actually on because any one who stays home with children knows that going to work is a TREAT compared to being bossed around by a 36inch dictator filling juice cups and wiping hineys all day) I have had to get more creative with my workout time. I don't like to work out when they nap, that is my precious "Mommy Shows", or nap or facebook or all of the above time. Rory loves to "play exercise" I take him into the back room, he sits on the weight bench and plays with trucks or terrorizes the dogs while chattering about one senseless thing or another. I even make him his own "Exercise Juice" in an old Nalgene bottle that my husband melted in the diswasher. Rory would prefer to share Mommy's exercise juice, but he's gross, he has backwash, and my husband lets him play with the toilet plunger, wh knows what kind of germs he has! Toby is hit or miss, I usually try to pop him in the swing. I make sure he is recently fed and changed and if he cries for a bit, it won't kill him, he won't remember, but I will be annoyed all day if I don't work out. Mad at myself for not managing my time better and then mad at the kids because I can't just do what I want to do. That's right, I admit that sometimes I am annoyed that I can't do my own stuff. Any mom who says otherwise is either a liar or heavily medicated. I know it's what I signed up for, but sometimes I just wanna do what I wanna do! If it's too hot in my unairconditioned wieght room, as was the case this morning, I put Rory in front of the TV and pop a workout DVD in my laptop and workout in the family room. If I'm not in the mood for one of the DVD's in my collection, I might go over to
http://www.bodyrocktv.com/ or
http://www.crossfit.com/ or
http://www.exercisetv.tv/ and see what they have going on. The bottom line is, if you want it bad enough, you'll find a way to make it happen. I don't always get my 5 workouts in each week, sometimes life gets in the way, the key is to not give up if you have to skip a few days or even a week here and there. I work in a 200 year old building that is not airconditioned. Those last two weeks of school were brutal, there was no way I could work out in the morning as the baby decided to wake at least 4 times a night when I started back to work and it was just too hot when I got home from work. The last two weeks of the school year, I only managed to get 3 workouts in. The world didn't end, I didn't decide to drown myself in ice cream. I figured it out, reorganized myself, and got back on track.....and you can too! I would love to carry on, but I've been commissioned to cook Fathers' Day dinner for the hubs and my step dad (two of the coolest dads I know!).....time to get my butt in the kitchen!
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Making Fathers' Day Crafts while rocking the baby to sleep (see Rory "washing" the windows in the background?)
Daddy taking care of Tob while Mommy works out
Today was a cardio day, so Cardio Inferno did the trick!
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