Becoming a mother doesn’t strictly mean that your pre-motherhood exercise regime has to go out of the window. We know it can be hectic chasing after your little one, but you need to make time for fitness anyway!
Yes, we realize that your kids have to be your priority. However, in-between getting them ready for school, sorting out their laundry, cooking, and tackling the various other household responsibilities that compete for your time, it can be surprisingly easy to find time for fitness and adding exercise to your life – if you know where to look.
Be very disciplined with your time
In truth, on many occasions, avid fitness buffs don’t “find” time; instead, they just take it from other, less productive activities. You probably underestimate how many minutes you lose here and there to excessively checking your emails or Facebook – perhaps even before your kids wake up.
“No-one will schedule a meeting at 4:30 am. That’s my time to rise and sweat,” clinical exercise specialist Angela Bekkala tells Daily Burn. You need to make time for fitness, even if it feels inconvenient.
Set aside time for fitness
There’s nothing wrong with randomly grabbing a few minutes where you can find them in order to make time for fitness, provided you know exercises you could practically sneak in like this. However, you should also plan ahead with your exercise sessions – and mark them on your calendar.
“If I set aside specific times in my planner, they feel more like an appointment I have to keep,” fitness blogger Madeline Glasser says.
Decide exactly how you will exercise, too
Yes, you might have penciled in, say, a gym session for 11 am next Saturday. However, have you decided exactly what you will do once you are actually at the gym?
You could decide to, say, hit the weights or take a dip in the gym’s on-site swimming pool instead. Detailing your plans in this way can help you to prevent your motivation from flagging.
What will you wear? Decide ahead of time
Fortunately, even if you are a busy working mother, sourcing activewear doesn’t have to be time-draining, as you can simply order it online. A wide range of women’s tracksuits, including online exclusives, abound in digital stores’ stock.
You don’t have to reserve your tracksuit just for the gym, either. You could even sleep in that tracksuit, saving you from having to seek alternative attire for a workout the next morning. Not having to shuffle around looking for your workout wear can save you time so you won’t have any excuse not to make time for fitness.
Your kids could join in with you, too
Really? Well, yes. kids love having an excuse to just move about. They could do that through, say, using your Bosu balls as small trampolines or enjoying the local playground while you do likewise, doing triceps dips off a bench or attempting pull-ups on the monkey bars.
You could even invest in a stroller in which your kids can sit back and relax as you walk or jog with that stroller in your hands – a phenomenon known as “stroller fitness”, Lifehack explains. Make time for exercise even if you have to take it outside or do it while the kids are playing around you. No excuses!
Don’t worry if you occasionally fall off the wagon
That will happen sometimes; you can’t always account for your child becoming sick or throwing a tantrum. On occasions like this, skipping a day’s exercise won’t be a huge deal. As long as you try your best to make time for exercise, that’s the important part!
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