Exercise

Making time for exercise is a daily challenge for me. I love how exercise makes me feel during and after, but the logistics of getting all of the children safe and happy so that I can exercise can be difficult. If you are trying to find time to exercise, let me suggest four options.

Option 1: Exercise early in the morning before the children wake up. I know lots of ladies who do this. Currently this option does not work for me because as you know, Sam sleeps with my hair! If I get out of bed in the morning while Sam is still asleep, he is awake within five minutes.

Option 2: Exercise late at night after you get all of the children to bed.

Option 3: Exercise with your children. I do this about half the time. We all go to a walking track and I push the little ones in a jogging stroller. We also frequent one track that is safe for Leah and Sam to ride their bikes and riding toys while we run. It is not near a road, and it does not have many other walkers/runners. Sometimes when Jimmy can run with us we will go to a neighborhood to run...with Leah and Sam in the stroller. Also, we sometimes run on our driveway, and Leah and Sam can just play out there while we run.

Option 4: Enlist your older children to watch the little ones while you exercise. I do this the rest of the time. I let the older ones know how long I will be on the treadmill or precor(30-40 minutes), and they divide the time by three. They set the timer and each of them will watch Sam and Leah for 10-15 minutes. After that, they let them come down to the workout room while I lift weights, stretch, etc.

You have to be creative, but you can do it!

This is what Sam does while I exercise.....jump, hang, and swing on the weights.....or smell my hair when I am lying on the floor!