Fitness Tips for the Busy Mom

Finding time to work out is hard. Finding time to work out while you’re still fulfilling your role as a mom is even harder. And finding time to work out when you while still fulfilling your role as a mom who works full time is even harder than that. But it’s not impossible. There are several easy tweaks you can make in your everyday routine.

1. Brown Bag Your Lunch

Nutrition is one of the key components to losing weight, maintaining weight loss, and promoting a healthy lifestyle. By packing your own lunch and bringing it to work each day you’ll be able to control the foods and portion sizes you’re eating. Restaurant foods are usually at least double the recommended portion size and loaded with excess calories, fat, and sodium which inevitably promotes feeling sluggish and unmotivated and leads to weight gain.

2. Aim for 30 minutes a day

You don’t have to hit the gym for hours upon hours to lose weight. In fact, it can be as simple as incorporating 30 minutes of fitness activities a day. Think of the time you spend watching TV or talking on the phone. Eliminate some of that and instead take a walk or a jog outside or pop in an exercise DVD. Even if it means getting up 30 minutes earlier, by taking the 30 minutes to fit in some exercise you’ll set a healthy tone for your day and be doing something good for yourself.

3. Schedule it

A lot of busy women operate by to-do lists and schedules, especially when they’re trying to shoulder not only the responsibility of doing the grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, and cooking, but also squeezing in a job and family time. Write working out into your to-do lists and have your spouse or significant other take over on the home front for at least 30 minutes a day. Not only will your health thank you, but so will your sanity. It’s important to make time for yourself too.

4. Every step counts

Incorporate more exercise by parking farther away at the grocery store, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and fitting in exercises during commercials. While you shouldn’t rely on that as your only form of exercise, a little bit here and there will add up in addition to regular exercise.

5. Make it a family affair

By getting the whole family on board it will be easier to make the transition to a healthier lifestyle. Make healthy cooking a family event, and get suggestions from family members for meals they’d like to try. Make little, gradual changes to food – incorporating low-fat or skim milk instead of regular, ground turkey instead of ground beef, etc. And get the whole family to go on walks, bike rides, or hikes together. By including everyone it will seem less like a chore and more like a family adventure.

Finding a balance between your busy life and a healthy lifestyle can be hard, but not impossible. Don’t try to do too much too soon because you’ll end up mentally and physically burned out. Instead remember that small tweaks here and there will go a long way when you’re dedicated to a healthy change and will be easier to maintain for a lifetime and not just as a fad.

By Paul Taylor for the Healthy Moms Blog Magazine

About this author:

Paul and his wife Julie both spend quite a bit of time coming up with ideas, blogging, and researching all things related to childcare. They take care of all the necessary information related to babysitting jobs.com. He personally thinks his blog will help finding information on all things related to a babysitter.

image credit: freedigitalphotos.net/

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