It’s easy for me to find an excuse why I can’t work out regularly.
I’m soooo not a morning person.
Which means there’s no way I’m waking up earlier than I have to even if it means a few minutes to myself before my daughter wakes. I can’t.
There’s no time during the day, either.
And as a mom who stays home with her daughter during the day, I don’t get a lunch break to squeeze an afternoon walk into; neither do I have the option of swinging by the gym on the way home. Did I mention my daughter doesn’t nap in the afternoon unless I drive her around in the car? So yeah, there’s no opportunity there, either.
I work in the evenings.
After we put our daughter to bed at night, my other work begins. I’m either headed to cheerleading practice, or doing some work for my clients, or both. Most nights I’m up working until 11:00PM, midnight, or later. Rinse and repeat.
I’m tired.
Because…yeah.
Until lately I haven’t found the time to consistently work in a workout into my routine. It’s difficult for any busy working mom and I know I’m not alone. What’s working for me right now is to push myself with a 30-day challenge workout – Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred – which has been a good choice for three reasons:
- It’s just 20 minutes. Even I can find 20 minutes.
- I can do it at home, meaning not eating up extra time in the car driving to and from the gym.
- Thirty days is a bite-sized challenge for someone who can feel like, when I start a workout routine, I need to keep it up FOR THE REST OF MY LIIIIIIFE otherwise I’ve failed at it. Push through for 30 days and I can reevaluate the plan if I have to.
Sneaking in my workout after our bedtime routine has been the easier part; what I thought would be more challenging was continuing with the workout on the weekends with my daughter there. I was afraid she wouldn’t leave me alone long enough to focus and get it done.
With my husband there to gently distract her, my first weekend workout was going well, but every so often she’d return her attention to me and pull my focus away from the screen.
It was then I knew this would work. Instead of being whiney or clingy when she realized I wasn’t giving her my attention, she tried to join in alongside me with jumping jacks and crunches, and called out to me.
Hearing my daughter exclaim, “Good job Mommy!” as I pushed through my workout is all the motivation I needed to stick with it.
CT Working Moms 
This is an issue I struggle with constantly. I had to change my mentality from thinking that a short workout wasn’t worth doing (pre babies) to one of “something ALWAYS trumps nothing.” I agree – you can ALWAYS find 20 minutes even if that has to come at the expense of sleep.
I have learned recently that if I wait to do my workouts after the kids go to bed, my success rate is MAYBE 50%. It’s just too easy to bail out when you’re tired after work.
Now that I’m training for 2 upcoming events, I wake up at 4AM (I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now so who knows if it will really stick?!) when I can; although, I have to admit that today I bailed because I was running a fever last night. This gives me time to “wake up” and do all the morning “things” that I need to do and get to the gym by 5AM when it opens. I have decided that that is the ONLY way it’s going to happen…
…this motherhood thing isn’t easy!!!
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I’m in the camp of not even having 20 minutes. I literally don’t. Or when I do, I’m so exhausted (like right now) that the last thing I want to do is any kind of physical activity. Usually during periods like this, I just try not to eat, but the last time I tried that I almost passed out. Sooooo yeah.
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