How I fit fitness into my Mom Life: Fitness for busy moms

I don’t often write about fitness but I do feel that it is an important part of our lives.  Things happen and we don’t always keep up with our fitness goals but our lives run so much smoother when we regularly exercise–and by “we,” I mean both the Hubs and myself.  I get it.  Fitness for busy moms can easily become a pipe dream that we think of every turn of the year.

Benefits to becoming more fit

These two little terrors are a reflection of my mood.  It really is true that if Mommy’s not happy, nobody is happy.  They feed off and imitate my energy and my frame of mind.

I can fit into more of my clothes

Early last year I dropped about 4 clothing sizes and got rid of my maternity clothes (because my “baby” was now four!) and my larger clothes.  I got rid of ALL of them.  When I stopped working away from home, my size crept back up.  We are on a greatly reduced income now, so I have no intention of going out to buy bigger clothes.

My kids see the importance I place on health and well being.

My daughter asked me why I never have to go to the doctor.  She has to go quite a bit.  My husband tends to go to appointments in clusters.  He gets all the physical, eye work, dental at about the same time every year so she thinks that he goes to the doctor a lot.  She accompanies my son to his well checks too.

I used to be ill all the time before the kids were born and when they were babies.  Now, not so much.  I think the last time I actually went to the doctor was for the follow up after the miscarriage and D&C in October of last year.

My kids are both a motivation and an excuse when it comes to working out

How crazy is it that my workout routine was derailed when I stopped working?  Life as a busy work from home mom is a different sort of craziness than life as a busy working mom.  Either way it isn’t easy to make time for fitness for busy moms.

It’s taken me a while to get back into a routine and it will have to change again when the kids and I go back to school in a couple of weeks.

As a working mom who spent long hours in traffic and at work, I hated to keep the kids in daycare longer so I could work out.  They were already in daycare ten hours a day at the time.  So I worked out at home.

I have an old treadmill in our family room which is a life saver.  In my past working life, I would wake up at 5am to run on the treadmill.  When the kids woke up, they would stumble into the living room and watch cartoons while I finished my workout.  More often than not, they would sleep through my run.  This is how I can spend all day walking around a theme park or at the zoo without having my enjoyment of the time I get to spend with the kids marred by aching feet or joints.  It’s how I have energy to make time for fun.

I slowly built up my home gym equipment.

 The first things I got were a few dumb bells from Play it Again Sports, a sports equipment consignment shop.  There are a ton of people that buy exercise equipment, never use it, so get rid of it.  My gain! I also got my kettle bells from there.

The cheapest and most effective cardio “equipment” I have is a jump rope.  Yes, that’s right.  A jump rope.  I hate it with a passion but it works.

I also like my big stability ball.

It really doesn’t take a big gym or a lot of equipment to work in an effective exercise regime.

Spending less time ill, being in a better mood, and being an example to my kids are priceless benefits to being in shape and worth far more to me than the number on the scale.   However, you don’t have to pay membership fees or spend tons of money on home equipment.  You don’t even have to have room to have a home gym.  Sure I have to remind my kids that my exercise stuff are not toys and watch them to make sure the rules are being followed (I have to do that anyway!)  My equipment is a jumbled mess in the corner but my health and well-being trump how I want the living room to look.  That being said, a workout room will be part of our next home 😉

Hey busy moms, how do you fit fitness into you mom life?