Looking for Exercise Advice....from working parents of small children

Hi there,

I'm about to reenter the real world following a wonderful month of a working vacation...and will be 9 weeks post surgery this week. I'm ready to start really exercising. Up till now I've been working hard to be walking at least half an hour daily, if not more, but I know I need to kick it up a notch.

I have a 6 year old son, a full time job and a husband whose work involves me to a significant extent. I want to be at home with my family as much as I can during the few hours we actually have together.

So...how do you juggle it? When do you exercise? What kinds of exercise do you do?
I wish having a machine or something at home were an option but it is not as I live in a smallish NYC apartment.

Please share your ideas, thoughts, suggestions. I'm willing to take them all!

Thanks,
Sasrah

I also work full time and have kids at home. The main thing I do for exercise is walk at the mall 6 mornings a week. I can go early before work while my wife is home asleep with the kids. Most malls have a walking program that allows you in a few hours before the mall opens. It's climate controlled, measured out (mine is .75 miles per lap), and fun to do with a buddy. I go with another mom.

Some other things I have done to get in exercise when children are a factor:

Wii Fit
Go on a walk with the kids
Join a gym with child care
Join a 24 hour gym and go late or early while kids are in bed
Do yard work while they play outside
Exercise video


Hope this helps!

Can you purchase a treadmill?  They fold-up, and perhaps you could buy a screen or attractive room divider to hide it when not in use.  Also, you could buy some weights,  a book or video  on how to use the and store them under the bed.  I do not drive and don't have public transportation.  Following surgery I have to say 90% of my exercise was done at home using a treadmill and hand weights.  I understand your dilemma, especially living in the city, having small children and needing to spend time with your family.

I'm not a working parent, but I thought I'd share a way that I've found to sneak my exercise into my work day...  I get two 15 minute breaks at work and I've started walking during these breaks.  Because the breaks are so short, it doesn't even feel like I'm exercising, but if I walk during both breaks, I get a total of 30 minutes of walking.  Also, I'm trying to take the stairs instead of the elevator whenever possible.

RNY08/20/2010
Have 2 kids = 3yrs old & 4yrs old now
Husband works 3rd
I work 1st
Lots of times we pull a single parent workload due to schedules

I began @ 12 weeks post op

At first 3 nights a week for 20 minutes, alternating cardio & weight routines using Kettle Worx DVD program

After 6 months of that, upgraded to 6 nights a week, 3 are 20 minutes, 3 are 45 minutes still alternating cardio & small weights using Tony Horton's Power 90 program (not P90X)

As soon as I put my kids to bed, because this is the ONLY consistent part of my day, I run the exercise program.  No matter what, no matter who, no matter anything, as soon as they go to bed, I do it. Period.

I had to learn to make room for this in my life in order to be successful.  Do I like it, no.  Does it work, yes.  Is it hard, yes.  I keep telling myself, daily, it's just 20 minutes or it's just under an hour, it's better than sitting here watching tv.

Exercise is better than the alternative...going back to heavy.

You can read my profile for grocery lists and exercise updates.  I have posted a few blogs.

I get up at 5 am - do 45 minutes with a exercise dvd -walk away the pounds, turbo jam, biggest loser or zumba.  If I dont do first thing then i will not do it.  Sometimes in the evening I get an extra 30 mintues in - my 5yr old son and I do the Just Dance on the wii.

good luck!

Just dance 1 and 2 for the wii me and my kids- daughter age 3 and son age 9 do it all together we dont care about the score its like a dance party in the living room we take turns picking songs. Also we do letterboxing together as a family which involves a lot of walking if interested you can find more info at www.letterboxing.org we started that when my son was 3. The kids love it the call it treasure hunting!!

I am a mom with three kiddos in school (ages 8, 12, 16) and a full time job that has me traveling a few days a month. I have found that what works for me is getting up super early and working out. If I wait til the evening, half the time I talk myself out of it or something comes up with the kids and I miss out. I go to the gym at 5 a.m. before work for an hour. Luckily its right around the corner, so I just zoom home and shower before work.



The BEST thing I have done is working out with weights. I started off on the machines barely lifting ten pounds and targeted a different body part everyday. Now I am up to lifting 70 pounds plus and doing free weights. Its made a big difference on my metabolism and strength and muscle definition in my arms and legs.

If you can't join a gym, I highly recommend the Jillian Michaels SHRED Dvds - they are great for cardio AND muscle development.

I'm a single parent too. My daughter loves doing my walking videos with me. Check out Leslie Sansone. I put it on and she tries to do it with me. It's cute and she has fun. When she get tired of it, she sits on the couch and "coaches" me. lol. 

I also love going on walks with her. We go on a walk every morning before we shower. We just throw on exercise clothes and get walking. If your kids are too small for that, pull them in a wagon. They'll love it. We also go on a walk when we first get home before I start dinner and a walk after dinner. 

I have 2 balance balls (they're really cheap) and she does my strength and core training with me. We both get on a ball and do core exercises (abs, glutes, etc). I make this fun by playing kids music or dance music. I make it fun and silly and there's a lot of tickling. :P She also does resistance tubing with me. I give her the skinniest tube and she thinks she's the bomb with that thing. 

Another thing to change it up is to do "kid presses". When she was smaller I would pick her up and bench press her (well, laying on the floor). She thought it was sooo funny and she'd always get tickled too. Now that she's bigger I do leg presses with her and tickle her with my feet. 

You can let your son go on a bike ride and you jog to keep up.

My daughter and I LOVE to dance. I just put on some dancing music and we go crazy. We'll dance around and act silly until we're sweating and out of breath. It's really fun. You could also try some zumba dance videos, but I found that my daughter likes unstructured dancing best. 

Another fun way to exercise is the Wii. We play Wii sports. She loves trying to beat me in boxing. We also play Wii fit and Just Dance. Anything that gets you moving and gets your heart rate up. 

I'm sure there's plenty more, but that's all I can think of right now. 

 I agree with the other posters of involving your son in exercise - does your body good and getting in quality time with him at the same time! Taking walks as a family gives you time together to focus on just each other without distractions (no phones, TV, etc). 
For small spaces - i live in metro DC where homes don't run too big either - having equipment that can fold down or serve multiple functions is essential. I have a little peddler that I use anywhere I want. It's like having an exercise bike but takes up a fraction of the space and you use existing chairs/couches to sit on. Resistance bands, free weights, videos all take up very little space. Inflatable exercise balls can be collapsed when you're not using them. And another family-friendly tip ... don't buy new! Go on Craigslist and look for cheap/free equipment. May not be very pretty but used equipment that's still functional takes the pinch out of the pocketbook!
Good luck