It has always been difficult to find the time to exercise. I think about it often all day long. I realize I need to get it done. It hangs over my like a storm cloud all day. But for some unknown reason, I let life take over my life. The evening arrives, I’m exhausted and guess what still needs to be done. It happens all the time. I’ve tried many different Workout Plans nothing seems to stick. I have tried Home Workouts, personal trainers and even a Couples Workout. I stay motivated and determined for a little while, but then as I stated, life happens.
Every morning I wake with same goal of doing a long, hard workout. I get the children off to school, go to the office, drive carpools and watch sporting events. My day begins winding down with dinner for five and then homework. As the day continues on, my intentions slowly turn from a long hard workout to a fast less intense workout, to maybe a brisk walk at lunch, and finally I’m very exhausted I’ll do it the next day. I’m sure many of you moms have felt the same way. Everything and everyone gets cared for before you take care of yourself. My husband is great. He helps out when and where he can but he has a very time consuming and stressful job. So I am left with most of the day to day chores. I have deep compassion for single parents, either moms or dads. They must find it almost impossible to get a minute to themselves let alone an hour or so to workout.
Like I stated earlier, I have tried many, many ways to workout. I once had a personal trainer at the gym. I figured that if I had a scheduled time to meet with a professional, I would not squander his time or mine. What I did found out was that I did show-up and work but my brain was not into it. I was always thinking and worrying about what still needed to be done. While doing my crunches I would think “who’s picking up Suzie from class” and “I need to run to the store to grab some ground beef”. By the time I got to the locker room my mind was buzzing with all the errands still left to do. I didn’t like feeling that way and then I got the bill. Wow! Personal trainers are paid well!
I went through a phase where I met a friend at 5:00am to take a quick morning run before our day started. I thought that if someone was waiting for me out on the street in the dark and cold of pre-sunrise, I would surely get out of bed. This actually worked fantastic.. We did it for several months.quite a while. We had the rare miscommunication, but all in all, we had a great system. And, for the rest of the day, I felt really good knowing that the workout was completed – until 5:00am the following morning. Our perfect plan fell apart when my friend said she was moving across town. I tried in vain to discover someone else to commit to our early morning jogs, but to no avail.
As I said, my husband is a great man. We once tried couple’s workouts. This was from a DVD. We figured we would kill two birds with one stone: workout and spend quality time together. We put the kids to bed and started the 50 minute video. While I believe it is great for some couples, we just giggled the whole time. The only muscles we worked were our smile muscles from laughing so much. This was surely not for us. Time to go back to the drawing board.
So, I am still out here looking for the perfect workout to do at the perfect time. Until I find it I suppose I am stuck feeling guilty every day I don’t get in a little run. Maybe once the kids are grown and I’m old I’ll be able to do water aerobics at the old folk’s home!
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