A balance of Mind-Body-Spirit

Friday, January 19, 2007

Natural Exercise

This post of born of a comment Sabine made to an earlier post.

How can we incorporate exercise with life and fun?

Leonie mentioned that specific workouts are fun! I agree. I also find that mentally, having that break is nice for me. It gives me "ME" time and I can concentrate on one thing.

I also like the idea of exercise and playing with the kids. Here is means walking the dogs with the boys or playing tennis. When younger, it was even more.. swimming, wrestling, playing chase, horsey (guess who was the horse?), etc. Just having toddlers was activity. Back then, I was running. I had a jogger and that was awesome--- we logged many miles.

I find depending on the age and dynamics, the workouts may be different. I do remember times in my life (like when my boys were toddler and infants) I could not find time in the day, and I had to make do.

One suggestion I heard was to get a pedometer and try and walk 10000 steps a day.

Any other ideas?

4 comments:

Leonie said...

When I had three three yo and under , I used to workout every night at 8pm - the kids were usually tucked in bed and playing by then...8pm was my mental deadline but sometimes it was more like 9pm and I didn't stress if we were out or had people over and I missed a day. I did the Jane Fonda workouts. :-)

I also used to walk to the park and play with the boys and once a week I went to a night time aerobics class - the night my dh was home !

When I was expecting my seventh,and when he was born, I worked out 3-4 x week, and I had a Plan A and a Plan B and a Plan C time . Plan A was around 8.30 in the morning, after cleanup and kids were playing and baby settled. If that failed,Plan B was around 2.30 in the afternoon, before another feed. Plan C, if neither of these others could be achieved, was a walk in the evening with an older son. Plan A and B were video workouts and sometimes they were kids workout videos and the kids would join in...This fell part when I went back to part time work when the baby was 5 months old - now I know better, I'd schedule my workouts in even if it meant we ate sandwiches for dinner! They are that important to my health and wellbeing.

Cindy said...

That is great inspiration, Leonie.

I remember when I had 2 three and under my goal was just to get a shower in by 10am! Really!

But, remebering back, I did still try to keep time for workouts. The jogger was great (we lived in California with beautiful weather) and I used it constantly. The boys each loved it, too, and often our destination was a nearby park.

I also would leave the kids in care of dh while I worked out.

I like your plan A, B and C.

When they were little and loved to spend hours in the park, I would jog around the perimeter while they played in close sight.

You have to be creative.. that is for sure!

Leonie said...

I had several years of few or nt workouts and guess what? I gained weight and I became less active with my dc, I played les with them..Re-instating regular workouts makes me more active with the kids and a more fun, fit mum. So, now its priority, in addition to natural exercise. It affects our quality of life..

Ladybug Mommy Maria said...

I've been walking with my kids! Today, we went to the park - 1 mile away and the children played for a couple of hours with friends!

Then the walk home - although, J. and I didn't walk the 2nd mile because she hurt her ankle....so my friend picked us up and drove us home - hopefully tomorrow we'll be up and out again!

It makes me feel better!


A balance of Mind-Body-Spirit

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