Working Out While Being a Mom!

As many of us, I am working on losing weight and toning away this baby weight. Often times though, my ‘mom’ job doesn’t ever end so finding alone time to be able to visit a gym isn’t easy. Here are some at home activities to try!

Zumba, replace with Dancing
Zumba workouts are the latest craze in most gyms. It is a Latin based dancing aerobics. High impact dancing routines help burn away fat. I’ve had many mom friends swear by them! However, they can be pricey and purchasing a home kit might not be an option either. An easy replacement – and can be done with kids- is to simply dance in your own living room. Who cares if you look like a fool and the kids will have a blast dancing with you. If you really want some ‘professional’ moves try finding some videos on YouTube of dancing instructors giving help on aerobic type dance moves. Put together your own routines or just ‘free’ dance. Either way you’ll be burning calories, wearing out your kiddos and enjoying yourself all at the same time.

Personal Trainer, replace with work out games/videos:
Personal trainers at a gym can run quite expensive if you’re actively seeing one. Frankly, I don’t have a couple extra hundred lying around so I vote to go to the at home route. You can often times find videos online or there are many games out there that are put together by personal trainers. We have a Wii game console and I have the Jillian Michaels game. It’s effective and a work out! Although not the same as someone getting in your face at the gym she does a good job trying to keep you motivated during the game play. Another popular one among my mom friends is Jillian Michaels 30 day shed. It’s a series of allotted workouts per day. Although this one might be best done if young children are napping, why not let them join in! You can often time find videos for cheap at local retail stores and you can find them specific to a specific area you’d like to focus on. If you have a smart phone check out workout apps as it’s a great way to track your workouts + amount of calories burned!

Gym equipment, replace with home equipment:
Obviously one major benefit of a gym is to have all the various types of machines at your instant disposal. If you’re in the market to drop a couple hundred consider an at home piece of equipment. If you’re like me when I had a gym membership I spent most of my time on a treadmill (a comfort zone perhaps?). Purchasing your own equipment will be more beneficial in the long term as it’s not something that will only be good for a year ( but often will cost the same as a yearlong gym membership!)  Obviously there is a lot to consider when doing this (space, cost vs. usage, features on equipment) but it’s something to consider and can also take away the ‘shyness’ of having to go to a gym and expose yourself with all the nice fit people. At home weight sets are also an option to consider. Try purchasing hand and foot weights to add to any workout (especially dancing!). Using any sort of equipment is usually best done when young children aren’t going to be present as it can be dangerous to have them roaming around.

Mom favorites:
If you’re looking for workouts that are completely kid friendly try things like walking with a stroller. The extra weight in the stroller will help tone and create a larger calorie burn! Slowly increase your walks to jogs and so on. You’ll be running your first 5k before you know it! Take the kids to the park for an hour and bring a ball. I bet you’ll be surprised how much exercise you get while chasing your kiddos around the park kicking a ball. Need an indoor idea? What about laps around the mall? That is what I used to do with my kids on cruddy days! You’ll burn calories and what woman doesn’t like wondering around a mall! Sit ups, pushups and squats are easily done around kids (in between tea party servings!). If you don’t have weights available try using things like gallon jugs filled with sand or water. Soup cans or 2 liter pop bottles can also make good weights! Don’t forget to use those babes as weights! Do leg lifts with your kid sitting on your leg, push ups with them on your back (even if they are the girlie push ups!) or doing house work with baby in a carrier can even add more calorie burning power.  Talk to other mom friends and see if they want to start a support group even if it’s via email or text message to send each other daily motivations to get moving!