Family Fitness

Juggling staying fit  and taking care of the family can be really challenging.  Some days, I know that the only time you get alone is when you're driving in your car.  It's tough!  But it's all about switching priorities around.   Can that load of laundry or the pile of dishes wait?  Absolutely.  They can wait the 20-30 minutes it takes to get a quick workout in.  I know with my family we get so busy that sometimes, I can't get a workout in until late at night when the kids are asleep!  It's difficult to think of taking care of yourself when so many other people need you but your health is important to you and your family.

One KEY element in this is that you are also demonstrating a healthy lifestyle to your kids which will have a domino effect on them.  If your kids are seeing how important it is to make fitness a priority, they will pick up these same habits as a young child which they will take with them as they become adults.  Finding time to workout really is an investment in your kids' health.  

One way to manage finding time is to include the kids in some of your workouts.  Here is a list of some fun ways to get active with the kiddies!  

-Sign the kids up for youth sports.  Then sign up to be a coach!  Even if you don't want to be the head coach just yet, the head coach more than likely is looking for a few set of hands to help out.  Offer your time, pick up a baseball/softball glove, run up and down that soccer field, run some basketball drills.   If the sport doesn't allow you to participate, then the kids' practices typically last an hour.  That's an hour when you can walk or run around the neighborhood on your own until your child is out of practice!

-Every month, pull ideas out of a hat.  Write down new activities you and the kids can try (the kids can throw out ideas too!).  Yoga, karate, gymnastics, tennis, swimming, even an hour at Pump It Up (yes, you'd have to jump mom!).  A lot of places offer family classes you all can do together.  Some places also have free introductory classes.  Try them all and see if any of them is something one of the kids absolutely loves.  You'll never know what will stick!  Switching up your workout is also a great way to keep things interesting because running on a treadmill can get SUPER boring and then you're more likely to quit and be unmotivated.  

-Red Light Green Light.  Remember those school yard games?  These games are perfect for the littler kiddies.  You all can take turns so you can get a chance to sprint too, mom!  These would be great games to play at a big field or playground so that you get a good workout.  The living room is not going to cut it.  Other games you can play: Duck duck goose, Steal the Bacon, Cartoon (or Color, animal, etc...the possibilities are endless!) tag or Line tag, 

-Mini Boot camp at home.  I posted on FB about Miyah's mini workout at home.  It went something like this:  Jump rope-1 minute.  Sit ups-2 sets of 15.   50 jumping jacks.  Planks-6 x 10sec. hold.  This is something both you and the kids can do together.  It keeps the kids' attention because the activity is constantly changing. 

You can combine some of these to create your own family workout.  For example, mini boot camp routine and then a game of tag for some cardio.  Or make it fun by doing a challenge night once a month with incentives.  Whoever can run around the block twice the fastest gets to choose the next movie for the family to watch.  Whoever can hold the plank the longest can pick a board game the family can play together.  You can also make a cumulative goal starting at the first of the month.  Like if you set a goal of run 10 miles by the end of the month, the kids get to pick a movie if you guys reach that goal.  You can split the miles up daily.  Half a mile one day.  Half a mile on another day.  Or more if your kids can keep up!  

But with whatever you decide, commit to it.  This goes back to what I was talking about in the beginning of this post.  MAKE IT A PRIORITY.  If you need to, create a calendar and put it up somewhere for the whole family to see so that everyone can be accountable for the day's activity.  Just print out a calendar (this is cute, so is this one) and write down what you plan to do.  Kinda like this....I didn't fill out the whole calendar but you get what we mean...

Let me know if you end up trying any of these with your own kids!  Take pictures and tag me on Instagram (@fitnessmama_) or post them on the FB page.  I would love to see what you guys did and I also want to share how you stayed fit with the family with the rest of the FitnessMama community!  Also let me know if you guys want us to create a family fitness calendar all filled out and ready for you guys to download!