Finding the time??

pleasepleaseno

30 day shred, or other short and intense workoit video you can do at home. The levels can even be found on youtube.

SarahRuthRuns

OK, so this is going to probably make me WAY unpopular because people will think I am being harsh. That is not my intention. I have, on occasion, needed a firm but gentle shake-up myself.

You get that there is one big choice your family made that is at the root your time problem, right? No one forced you to live where you do so that you have no alternative but to drive all over hell's half acre to go to work, ferry the kids around, etc.

Everyone makes decisions that show what their real priorities are. You wanted a big house and a big yard and a pool. Unfortunately, the choice to procure those things often means that you have limited selection within a village or town where the kids could safely walk or bike to their activities. Also included in the Suburbia package was a bevy of time (and money) stealing upkeep requirements. But that is what you wanted then, so that is what you bought.

If your choice of living location has led to circumstances which do not support the physical health of you and your family - because you are spending untold hours in cars (massive, motorized lazy-boy recliners), burning up your money and growing your behinds - maybe it is time to consider shaking it up and moving somewhere else. You could search thoroughly and find a place that is within walking or biking distance for most of your everyday needs and activities (grocery stores, school, etc.), most of the time. If your job is still too far away, find another job. It sounds like a huge change, I know, but life is much too short to spend such a large portion of it behind the wheel of a car. What you have tried to do so far has not worked. It may be time to think a bit farther outside of the box. Is it truly worth the many costs to stay where you are?

The goal is to have what you have stated is important to you (health) buoyed by the reality of your living circumstances, rather than standing in complete contradiction to them. And as a happy side effect, you could have more money as well as time. The actual dollar cost of our excessive driving in the US is usually greatly underestimated.

The awesome news is that it is fixable - if you so choose. The challenging news is that change is not always easy and tends to be vastly unpopular with the teenage set. It would be a fabulous life lesson for them though. I do wish you the best of luck!

Seriously?? Just move? Problem solved? Like choosing where you live is that easy and can be based solely on driving time. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to just up and move.

You made one big, unfortunately incorrect, assumption. You believe I chose to live here because I wanted this home/yard/pool. I have a beautiful yard, yes, and I'm in Florida so most of the homes have pools... but I do not love my house. We just bought this house in June, and we chose it because it was large enough for the family, in the same school zone, and in a nice neighborhood. Homes close enough for the kids to walk or take a bus are either in bad neighborhoods or too expensive for us. And even if we lived in one of those areas, the public transportation in this area is so lacking that they still couldn't always get themselves to their activities.

The only jobs in this area in my field are government, and they pay significantly less than what I make by commuting to Tampa. When we chose to live in this particular suburb, I worked in this area, and we couldn't afford to live in Tampa (surprise!! my low-pay government job didn't afford me that luxury!). Now my children are far too involved in their schools to move them.

This is one of the many sacrifices that parents make for their children.

I swear sometimes, even if you have legitimate issues with time constraints, people just have to make it all your fault somehow. I was looking for suggestions for working with what I have at the moment. "Move" isn't a reasonable suggestion.

F00LofaT00K

Exercise is great for you and all, but you can be a healthy weight without exercising if you're accurately tracking fewer calories than your body needs. Exercising and paying attention to food intake at the same time is ideal for health, but if you don't have the time. . . then you don't have the time. I work 40 hours a week, go to school 25 hours a week, sleep 50 hours per week, drive 12 hours per week, spend 7.5 hours per week between getting ready for work and school. That leaves me with 33.5 hours of waking, free time. 10 of these hours are my lunch break, changing into my uniform between work/school, and after school/before bed. It's not feasible for me to exercise in the middle of the work day during my lunch break. I need some down time after being on the go from 8am-11pm so after school is out of the question. I get less than around 7 hours of sleep during the week and I'm not getting up any earlier to work out. I barely function on 7, let alone less. This leaves me with 23.5 waking hours of "free" time on the weekend. I use that time to study, do homework assignments/projects, laundry, cooking meals for the week to follow, grocery shopping, any and all errands, and finally. . . FINALLY I end up with about 5 hours of free time either Saturday morning (this weekend) or Sunday afternoon. So when people tell me I'm not trying hard enough to find time, they can kiss my butt. They don't know what goes on in my life.

THAT being said, I have successfully lost weight just by figuring out how many calories I would need to maintain my CURRENT weight and just staying under that number. Someday, when I'm finished with school and I've settled into my future career, when I HAVE THE TIME, I will plan exercise into my day. But in the meantime, I'm just keeping track of calories.

SarahRuthRuns

Exercise is great for you and all, but you can be a healthy weight without exercising if you're accurately tracking fewer calories than your body needs. Exercising and paying attention to food intake at the same time is ideal for health, but if you don't have the time. . . then you don't have the time. I work 40 hours a week, go to school 25 hours a week, sleep 50 hours per week, drive 12 hours per week, spend 7.5 hours per week between getting ready for work and school. That leaves me with 33.5 hours of waking, free time. 10 of these hours are my lunch break, changing into my uniform between work/school, and after school/before bed. It's not feasible for me to exercise in the middle of the work day during my lunch break. I need some down time after being on the go from 8am-11pm so after school is out of the question. I get less than around 7 hours of sleep during the week and I'm not getting up any earlier to work out. I barely function on 7, let alone less. This leaves me with 23.5 waking hours of "free" time on the weekend. I use that time to study, do homework assignments/projects, laundry, cooking meals for the week to follow, grocery shopping, any and all errands, and finally. . . FINALLY I end up with about 5 hours of free time either Saturday morning (this weekend) or Sunday afternoon. So when people tell me I'm not trying hard enough to find time, they can kiss my butt. They don't know what goes on in my life.

THAT being said, I have successfully lost weight just by figuring out how many calories I would need to maintain my CURRENT weight and just staying under that number. Someday, when I'm finished with school and I've settled into my future career, when I HAVE THE TIME, I will plan exercise into my day. But in the meantime, I'm just keeping track of calories.

I like you. I thought I was the only one who broke my schedule down like that. LOL

SarahRuthRuns

3 hours/3 days of lifting would be more than enough to get good results provided your diet is in order. It simply doesn't take as much time as people think to be in half way decent shape.

One of these days I will start lifting. It's in the plan, but I'm not there yet.

I LOVE your profile pic!!

AllieLosingIt

My son is just starting school this fall so I haven't tried this myself, but my friend is a mom of 4 kids. She found her exercise solution was to do it while helping with homework. She bought a treadmill, put it near where the kids do their schoolwork and walks while they do their thing. If they have questions, she's right there, but doesn't have to stop walking in order to help them.

I don't know if that would work for you, but it seems like it could. Good luck!

bergpa

I used to make all the parenting & household jobs more important than either myself or my husband. I tried to be more efficient when I really needed to was to revise my priorities so I had time to be healthy. The two biggest changes we've made are to limit the kid activities (especially the ones that require travelling) and to expect a lot more help around the house.

paigek214

I have an extremely busy schedule too - I'm not sure if this could be a possibility for you but I started getting my workouts in during the morning. My gym offers group classes with membership and they have classes M-F at 5:30am. Now, before you say "I could never get up that early in the morning, I love my sleep, blah blah blah." I said the same thing for years. And let me tell you, I LOVE my sleep - if I could be a professional, I would. But getting up at 5 wasn't as tough of an adjustment as I thought. It gives me no time to talk myself out of working out and I feel amazing for the rest of the day. Plus when 5pm rolls around and I'm done with work for the night I'm always so happy I don't have to think about working out because it's already done.

I also take Thursdays as a rest day just to enjoy a little sleep (plus I didn't care for the Thursday morning class, haha.) I'm not sure if waking up could be an option for you but if it is you should look into it. Getting up earlier really isn't that bad - you adjust quickly. And it frees up the rest of your day. It's also nice to not have the constant "Oh crap I still need to work out" thought in your head all day long.