extremely busy single parent

tdavis143

Hi there,

I am new to this. I am an extremely busy mom working two jobs and currently in school full time. I have three teenagers.

I find it hard to find time to exercise, thankfully one of my jobs I walk on average 8 miles (on slow nights) .

What Ideas have other busy parents found to help with weight loss.

cranberrycat

Everything aside, I find that no matter how far you walk, you need to get into that aerobic phase for at least 10-15 min at a time (preferably 30 min). That said, if you can carve out 30 min of your day to do SOMETHING, I would advise doing it.

Now, as far as the schedule goes, it sounds like you are pretty busy! I am busy, but likely not as busy as that. Still, I struggle to find the time, myself. I have found that if I find an activity that I REALLY enjoy, I WILL find the time to do it. Last year, I fell in love with bike riding, and so I did that all summer and did fairly well. I fell off the wagon as far as exercise goes when the weather turned and I didn't enjoy other exercises as much, so I didn't do them. So, find what you enjoy and do it.

Recently, I have re-committed myself to this (diet/exercise). For now, I am wearing a pedometer to get 10,000 steps per day. I seem to be more motivated to get a brisk walk in at some point of the day, as it really helps me to achieve my daily steps. Sometimes, at the end of the day, if I am still short on steps, I will plug in a Leslie Sansone walking dvd at home. I can do 1 mile portions, or the whole thing. She actually advises to do a mile when you get up, do a mile at meal times, and then it won't feel like such a chore to get it done.

tlschlp

I'm also a single mom of teenagers. While I don't work more than 1 job, my kids and my volunteer work keep us pretty busy!

I try to wake up early to get my workouts in, if at all possible. When the weather is nice, I drag my kids out for a walk around the neighborhood after dinner. At their pace (I call it the "high school hallway" pace), I do get my heart rate up pretty high trying to keep up with them! And, I have the route mapped out for distance, so I know it will take about 45 minutes to go the full route.

Great way to stay connected with teens! They talk and don't even realize they are keeping the family strong!

Good luck!

judy20in2011

I find 30 minutes is hard to find so I do try to break it out in 10/15 min increments throughout the day. From what I've read it doesn't have to be all at once. At my office I keep a jump rope in the downstairs spare office. I'll go down there and try to jump for 10 mins or so, as well as good old fashioned jumping jacks. Both of those really wake me up during the day. I guess the big thing is get as creative as you can, think outside the box and always look for ways to just get the heart pumping harder. Good luck, I know how hard it is to do the single parent, work, school thing.