time for exercise
I’m a mom of a 3 year old, I start my day at 7 and get to work by 9. leave work around 5 to pick my daughter by 6. From 6 to 9 it’s a sprint to make dinner and get her ready to sleep. My husband and I tag team between getting her fed and ready to sleep and kitchen and house cleaning. After all this we are too exhausted to do much except have some quiet time to catch up in any office work or just relax. We call it a night by 11. Weekends are a blur of grocery shopping and costco trips and laundry.. we are both slowly but surely rounding up.. we are not fat, but we are not fit either. And I don’t know what we can do to get some exercise in our lives! What do all you awesome people do to get it right? TC : 280K
Trust me on this, if the day was 26 hours you will fill up those extra 2 hours with anything but exercise. Issue is not about your 3 year old. Issue is about what you prioritize. Your priorities don’t have workout at high enough level. One 3 year old baby is much less work than 2 babies or one year old baby so there should be room for workout esp if your hubby is as helpful as you mentioned.
You are so right.. thanks for spelling it out for me.. hubby helps a lot.. he needs to get fit too.. I think we need to start running around the house with the toddler.. she’s very active..
Use every opportunity to walk, try to take public transport vs driving. U should workout for 30 minutes after your Child goes to Sleep And Then sleep yourself after. Maybe rotate between hubby and self going to workout if u go to Gym so one Can stay with child
Meal prep as much as possible to save time and make sure you're eating to a plan. Get up early and work out, "pay yourself first" with fitness, even if it's 10 minutes of jumprope or a bunch of burpees. Something to get the heart rate up and use muscles you don't use day to day. Keep it simple so you can stay consistent and increase complexity over time. Get in your steps.... its cliche at this point but its an easy several hundred calorie difference every day. Make an evening walk part of the family routine? Do one walking meeting a day at work? Get creative.
FASTING
Aim for 15 minutes. Then 15 minutes twice a day. Start and it gets easier. Cut out the time sinks you can do without. Put a treadmill or bike in front of the tv if that helps.
My schedule is too busy to even fathom by many. Yet, my body fat is under 10% and skeletal muscle mass is almost 50% of my body weight. Every single tests on my annual physical is within the normal range. Literally. I work full-time as a senior data analyst and also a full time masters student (2nd masters. 1st masters from Arizona State University) with ~3.8 GPA (I'm on day 1 CPT cuz visa 🤦🏼♀️). I am constantly looking for better opportunities and preparing for interviews most of the days. With such crazy schedule, here's how I stay in shape: I workout only two times a week (mostly during weekends). Each time I'm at the gym, I spend about an hour and a half and I go all in on the workouts. So much so that I'm sore for at least 3-4 days in a week. I make my own meals and I probably eat out for about 5 times a month (this includes cheat meals: Indian buffet🤰). Here is what's usually on my plate for lunch and dinner: Daal (made with spinach, kale, chard and green beans), brown rice/quinoa, fish/chicken breast/beans/tofu etc for unsaturated fat and protein, mixed veggies for vitamins and minerals. The key here is portion control (more than half of my plate is filled with protein and veggies). Breakfast: about half a cup of nuts and seeds, glass of almond milk and a scoop of protein powder (to maintain muscle while in semi fasted state) with water. Snacks: fruits, Greek yogurt. Initially when I wanted to lose fat, I did intermittent fasting for about two months and lost quite a bit of fat. I try to get at least 7 hours of sleep on weekdays and 8 hours of sleep on weekends. I do meal prep every 3 days. I simultaneously clean most of the dishes and do laundry. I keep my grocery list current and pick them up on my way back home from work. I rarely shop on weekends. In other words: discipline and practice to scale and automate recurring daily rituals 👩🏭
Have maids (house cleaners) come over once a week or two weeks. Will help immensely with the house cleaning and tidying. This’ll give you more time to get to the gym or to the park. Some gyms have play areas for kids, so you know, you could always look into those.
Don't ever, ever give up on your fitness and health activities because of your work, silly shopping, meetings, deadlines, and other stuff. Corporate work culture has increasingly made the term "balance" a joke, but it's up to you really to achieve that.
buy Peloton bike. 30 mins in the eve or morning really flexes you. cheaper than gym in the long run, quiet so that you can exercise at any time and super addictive.
I understand. Working motherhood is challenging since as mothers we feel a need to be more hands on and present. I think most parents go through this. It will get easier. Here’s what I did. I walked at lunch daily even for 15 mins. I bought a treadmill and woke up early mwf to run on treadmill before household woke up. Over time I felt better. Once your kids are in school it will be easer. Then on weekends I went to gym and had thorough workout. I also modified diet
Head to the office gym if you have one at work or a nearby one during work hours. Is this such a tough puzzle to solve!!