Happy Mother’s Day weekend to all the moms out there! I want to address a serious issue I see in the world today.
Mom guilt
In a world full of Pinterest and the highlight reels of Facebook, it can easily make you feel less than. Less than that mom who has her kids dressed in head-to-toe cute outfits, makes lunches in the shape of unicorns and tanks, is the room mom/team mom for all 8 of her kids, and somehow manages to put a 7 course meal on the table at night.
How does she do it??? My guess is lots of wine and crying in private, but I have no idea.
Seeing all of this can lead to mom guilt about exercise too. Moms are givers by nature, who tend to take care of their entire universe before they tend to themselves. Most of the time this means mom’s exercise plans go out the window.
This is the opposite of way things should be.
Mom needs exercise more than anybody! What happens when mom gets sicks? Can’t get around and take care of everybody? The whole train tends to shut down!
If you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anyone else.
By staying strong and healthy, you will be able to do more and for a longer time. No need to feel guilty, this is a win win for everybody.
So how do you go about getting started? Once you get over the mom guilt, there are 4 other common pitfalls I see that can hold you back. They are: no time, no energy, too expensive, and no one to watch the kids. Let’s break those down and get some strategies for overcoming them.
1.No time
This is a big one. When they are younger they need you for everything, when they get older you have to drive them everywhere, and in between they create messes and want to be fed. Every. Day.
The biggest thing to think about is this: A little bit of something, beats a whole of nothing.
Got time for 5 minutes of exercise? Awesome! 10 squats while holding the baby? And you can accumulate small bouts of exercise throughout the day. Shoot for 30 minutes of cumulative exercise per day. If you look for it, you can find little blocks of time to exercise.
2. No energy
That’s all well and good, but what about when you are beyond exhausted? Exercise is the last thing on your mind! This one is actually more of a mental challenge.
Just get started! Go back to having no time, you don’t have to have the exercise to work for an hour. Talk yourself into a short workout and see what happens.
Once you start exercising regularly, you will find yourself having more energy. It doesn’t really make sense, but it works. Once you get a little more energy, you can start addressing nutrition and supplementation to really boost your energy levels.
Just start.
3.Too expensive
There are tons of free options for exercising, like walking, running, hiking, calisthenics, etc… but those do not work for everybody. There are also inexpensive options ($15 or less) as well, such as on-line follow along videos, DVDs, gym memberships, and more.
And a lot of fitness classes will have special deals for people wanting to get started. For instance, we have a New Member Special where you can come for a month of unlimited classes for $99. Doing a little research can find some great deals to get you jump started.
4. No child care
There are really two options to overcome this one. Exercise when the kids are asleep or workout with them.
Our biggest boot camp class is the 530am class. And it is to because all of the women in that class LOVE getting up early, it is because it is the only time they can get it done. You can also exercise after putting the kids to bed if you are more on the night owl side of things.
Because DHR frowns on leaving small children by themselves at home, you may not be able to go anywhere to exercise. So incorporate them into the workouts! This is an awesome option because not only do you get to exercise, but you get to model the importance fo health and fitness in a very real way to your kids.
I will be on Channel WAFF 48 tomorrow morning around 8am demonstrating a few exercises you can do with your kids. Y’all pray for me, working with children on live TV is not usually recommended.