I am crazy, crazy busy--and yet, I am getting nearly 2 hours of exercise in each day, and then some.
I know, what the heck? Why am I doing this? Two hours? Am I a glutton for punishment?
Not really, but I'm finding I really actually like and need it. As I get fitter, I feel like I want and need the challenge. Plus, in a small town, we're able to walk and ride bikes to a lot of places which gives my calorie burn a little extra boost each day. I feel lucky in that regard. Our old neighborhood in Ohio was waaaaay out away from anything and that wouldn't have happened at all.
Anyway, I wrote about how Eamonn is also working out to Insanity (he is already developing a 6 pack after just two weeks--UNFAIR!!!) in the mornings now and that is creating a great demand for basement space. So I've been getting up and walking while he is working out and then I take my turn with the DVD player when I get back.
I've discovered a few things:
1. The 60 minute walk is a great warm up for TurboFire. I've always struggled with getting up at 5:30 or 6:00am and diving right into a high intensity workout. It's hard to jump and bop around when you've just rolled out of bed. I feel like my DVD workouts are better for the walking warm up.
2. It's really quiet and pretty outside at 5:45am or so. I enjoy the time to listen to my favorite music and enjoy the scenery. Sometimes I think about work or what I need to do that day and I text myself notes as reminders.
3. My reward at the end is picking up a newspaper that I'll read when I sit down and eat my Shakeology after my DVD workouts.
4. It's a great calorie burn/jump start to the day. Adding that walk in before the DVD workout usually puts me at burning 700 calories via exercise BEFORE I even eat breakfast. I am a person who does not like to eat before they exercise. That doesn't work for everyone; do what's right for you. But I love seeing those calories tick away and put me in a deficit right from the start.
5. Scheduling my workouts is keeping me on track so far this summer. I don't want to get all cocky and out of control though because summer has traditionally been a downfall. The boys are sleeping in--I'd like to, too!
But my whole point of this post before I started yammering about walking every morning is that I've really made an effort to follow the advice of my favorite expert, Chalene Johnson. At the end of many of her DVDs she gives tips of the day, and one of the most common one she talks about it scheduling your workouts and making them non-negotiable.
I've tried to do this for a long time and know how hard it is. It was especially hard when the boys were younger, but I just remind myself that getting my workout in is going to make me a nicer person and better mother all day.
Plus, we deserve it. We deserve some time to ourselves.
So, if the kids need to get up and sit in front of the TV for an hour while you workout, I think that's just fine. When they were younger, I used to set out little bowls of dried cereal for them. I'd even put the TV on their favorite channel so all they had to do if they woke up was get their dried cereal and sit down until I finished.
It is OK, and necessary, to make time for yourself, AND to explain to the kids what you're doing. "This is Mommy's time to exercise and be healthy." When he was 3, 4 and 5 years old and still getting up at 6am (UGH!), Finn used to hang in the basement and play trains while I exercise. Some days he could play and be quiet. Other times he kept asking me questions and I'd have him go upstairs so I could concentrate!
Whatever works.
So MY tip of the day is stolen from Chalene: Schedule time for you and stick to it. Period. Work doesn't interfere. Kids don't interfere. Husbands don't interfere. If you want to hang with a friend, strap on yours shoes and hang while you're walking. Just make it work.
I've said before that I use Beachbody's WOWY scheduler and I still love it. I'm such a competitive person that I even love competing against myself. I preschedule my workouts, which appear in blue, and live for turning them green when the workout is completed. When I have a completely green month, I feel so smug.
With that said, I've cobbled together a schedule to get me to July 12 when the boys and I leave for Ohio, but then I figure my schedule will be pretty blank until we return.
Ah well, I can look forward to turning August blue instead.
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