No time for exercise? Squeeze it in!
When you have young children, it is often difficult to make time for an exercise routine – especially when they are babies. You barely have time to enjoy a hot shower, let alone put aside 150 minutes per week of physical activity, which is the recommended Canadian standard for an adult. Ironically, new mothers are often the ones craving a healthy outlet to boost their energy levels (instead of relying on 4 cups of coffee per day) and to help get back to their pre-baby body, but they are also the ones with very little free time. The good news is that you do not need to set aside large chunks of time each day to benefit from exercise, simply squeeze it into 10 minute allotments.
Performing exercises that focus on your legs can help to boost your metabolism, especially if done first thing in the morning before eating. When exercising before breakfast, your body is more likely to burn fat as fuel since you have been without carbohydrates overnight. Father Miser got in the habit of doing various squats, push-ups and pulls-ups for 10 minutes first thing in the morning every day. He could not commit to any more time in one day to do exercise, so he chose consistency over quantity and it paid off. By doing these exercises and changing nothing else, he lost 25 lbs in one year!
I myself lost the baby weight by fitting in any physical activity I could throughout the day. It was unrealistic for me to think I could exercise in the children’s absence so I started doing what I could around them. Here are some examples of what I would do:
- walking lunges down my hallway
- frog jumps
- push-ups
- sit-ups
- walking to the park every day pushing 70lbs of babies and stroller
- swaying on the monkey bars at the park
- jumping jacks
- cartwheels
- skip rope
- basic stretching
Often the kids would join in because they thought I was playing a game. Essentially I was playing with them while also getting my move on! Seize any opportunity to be active. Are your kids building a sand castle at the park? Start doing squats or jumping jacks. Are you all playing in the backyard? Run from one end to the other repeatedly and make it a race. Try to remember being a kid yourself: how much you moved, how much you played.
Before you know it, you will have dropped your excess weight and will do so without having to extend your day after the kids go to bed. You will look good, feel great and you will save so much time!
MM
