I need a boost of motivation for mums with children

sachmeer

Hi ladies

I have been on MFP on/off for a few months and have been reading posts etc, some are so inspiring,
Im sure like many of my relationship with food is bad and so is my willpower.
Although I do not have alot to lose its ' getting into the zone' I am finding hard.
Currently my stats are

Height 5ft 3
Weight 151 =lbs

Ideally I would love to lose 21lbs !!

Due to having children time is limited, my eldest has many sports clubs after school, so only on Tuesday nights I go to kick boxing a solid 2 hour session of circuits follwed by 45 mins of kick boxing techniques,

I work 3 days per week, leaving home at 7am and getting home by 5pm,
Now do any of you exercise early in the morning as trying to motivate myself to get up at 5am to do this ??

I have 30DS and Ripped in 30 so planning to do 30 mins of this 3 times a week.

Food wise, Ive been drinking the biggest loser shakes for lunch and having a meal in the evening, ...

So.. basically I need a kick of inspiration to get off my *kitten* in the morning and do this exercise, Im sure once I start doing this, I will hopefully eat better ( i tend to binge in evenings )

any advice would be great and apologees for bitty post
Sach

gooiyw

Hi Sach,

I'm a crack-of-dawner and yes, it's at 5am over at my timezone as well. 3 kids and working full time forced that on me, but once in a while (like for the next few days for instance), I've had to change my workout time to the evenings (that also means getting home later than the kids would like me to). I do a protein/greek yogurt breakfast on mornings that I do weights training (actually, I plan to, even if it's cardio morning, we'll see) My meals are mostly repeats of the meals before, i.e. if I have a bunch of things for dinner, I'd pack the leftovers as lunch for the next day at the office. So, good thing out of this is I've cut out/ reduced significantly my eating out, which is great for portion control, nutrition balance and my sodium intake.

One way to give you that kick of inspiration? Get friends. Add me if you want, I'm glad to be of any help. When you start seeing friends on MFP (total strangers from across the globe) burning those calories, chances are, you'd start doing the same. Plus, I like to remind myself when it's "Urgh! Do I really have to?"... this: I won't do it if I don't do it now. Btw, the early morning rush you get from those exercises... addictive!

Hope you find your motivation!

Gooi

sachmeer

Hi Gooi

Wow, I dont know how you do it !! but that is fabulous, right then I am going to do this and bust these 21lbs away
I think the cooking extra on the evening and eating next day is a very good idea,
my biggest problem is the over indulgence in the evening, so I know what i have to do it is telling myself this, I kind of start eating then think ill start again tommorow - wrong !!!
thank you very much
Sach

4thehardman

I am also a 'crack of dawner' and get up at 5:30 to work out before the children get up. If I miss my morning workout I do it when my husband gets home in the evening so there is someone at home with the children.

I don't work outside of the home. (I run my own business from home because childcare here is too expensive for me to go out to work) I sometimes think that my day leaves me just as little free time though. I have 4 kids at home 24/7, Three 3 year olds and a 4 year old but I love working out too much to let my busy schedule get in the way. I guess that once you get into the habit of it, getting up early is not so bad. Just remember to balance it out with a few early nights or you risk getting cranky and slowing down your weight loss due to lack of sleep.

Lally x

flobee76

I don't work outside of the home either, so I don't know how much help I could be. I am a stay-at-home-homeschooling mom of 3. I manage to squeeze in a Jillian Michaels (I am currently using Ripped in 30) workout during naptime. Then, I walk on the treadmill at night after the kids have gone to bed.

Kell_Smurthwaite

Forget about meal replacement shakes - as soon as you start eating proper fod again you'll regain every pound yo ulost. In the long run, they're just not worth it. Just eat healthily and get some exercise - increase your intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, reduce your intake of fatty foods and but out fast/junk food. You'll see a difference very quickly, I promise!

I have a 3.5 year old son who goes to nursery schol ni the afternoons. I work 4 nights a week, so I to my run training on 3 afternoons and go to the gym on 2 of my days off while hubby looks after our son. All my exercise gets done in the afternoons, because that's when it's most convenient for me. If you're not a morning person, you're going to find motivating yourself ot get up at 5am for exercise difficult, but if you ARE a morning person, then go for it.

If you have trouble with willpower, then make it easier on yourself - don't have your trigger foods in the house at all. If it's chocolate that you binge on, or crisps, or whatever, make sure there are never any in the house, or if there arem label them so that they are noticably for other people, that way you're less likely to eat them (I adore chocolate, but I would never dream of snafflinf my son's treats). It's easier to avoid eating them if you have to actually leave the house to go and buy them every time.

sachmeer

thank you all for your advice- will takein on board, Lally 4 children under 5 my goodness where do you get the energy to get up and exercise?
kell - your absolutely right

thank you very much

fergie2812

Hi
I have 2 kids I leave at 7.30 and get home at 6 full time. My youngest is an early riser and has started telling me to do my exercises when she wakes at 6! So I've started doing 30DS then and rushing around! I'm lucky to have a wii so I've been doing a kids dance on there so they get to jump about a bit of an evening and i join in too. Only 5 mins here and there but it helps.
I also would give up the shakes. I've been and done that and put even more on. If you can't cope with 'food' then I have been having a thick soup at lunch which is onyl a couple of hundred cals but is really fillng.
I too am in kick up bum mode but you CAN do it!

Treadmillmom1st

Hiya, I work 5 days a week and have 3 children aged 8, 6 & 3.

Fortunately, I do not have to leave the house as early as you.

I get up at 6am and sneak outta the house whilst everyone is asleep and cycle for one hour.

Back home help the kids get ready for school and me for work. If the weather is fine I'll cycle the kids to school, to nursery, on to work, back to school later, nursery and on to home. The youngest cannot keep up yet so she sits in a seat carrier on the back of my bike, that in itself is a workout!

For lunch at work I have a bowl of Shredded Wheat with semi-skimmed milk. Filliing but minimal calories. Mid morning/mid afternoon I'll snack on a raisan and peanut mix or a banana.

I'll eat a regular evening meal.

On a Sunday night I'll make a pot of vegetable soup, I too am an evening binger so if I get peckish in the evening (not unusual) I'll warm a bowl of soup.

At weekends I'll try to encourage the kids to cycle to the park or cycle around the block so I can burn a few extra calories along the way.

islaybower

I get up and run at 5:30am, and do Shred or Ripped 4-5 times a week as soon as my kids go to bed in the evening. I only get up and run 3 or 4 mornings a week, as I need a day of getting up at 6:15 in between to make sure I don't get too tired. And I try to do my exercise DVDs on the same days I run, so I can have at least one full rest day a week, preferably two.

Siannah

Sachs you don't mention whether you have a partner as well.
I'm a mother as well and I work fulltime. Yet there's absolutely no need for me to get up at 5am to exercise (no way Jose). My husband and I take turns to do the bedtime routines etc, so that will leave both of us plenty of time to fit exercise in. It doesn't have to be hours and hours anyway, a 20 minute Jillian Michaels dvd, or a 30 minute run is just perfect.

avafrisbee

I started with meal replacement shakes. I wasn't eating because I was running around after a newly mobile baby, this was wreaking havoc on my weight loss attempts. I did the one for breakfast, one for lunch, 3 100 calorie snacks and I make dinner and when the hubby gets home we sit down to whatever. I try to fix healthy stuff, but sometimes he gets home so late I don't want to eat a full balanced dinner and it turns into fish sticks and a bag salad. I don't do the shakes anymore and I have started eating normal meals now that I got the hang of having a mobile child that has a gravitational attraction towards choking hazards. I haven't gained anything back and I am still losing. Slower than before but I see the scale inching down 100 grams here 100 grams there, slow and steady wins the race.

As for working out. I used to do 30DS at 6am before the little one woke up. But I find JM a bit annoying. Great work out but I needed a break from her. Now I do a quick 5 minute ab workout in the mornings get my breakfast and then do a bit of your shape for the kinect or find a you tube video during nap time and maybe go for a run in the evenings if my husband gets home early (VERY rare). I am trying to convince myself to get back on the wagon and start 30DS again because I was seeing big time results with that one. I've also learned that consuming more calories (with proper fiber, protein, etc.) at lunch prevents me from wanting to snack until it's time to start dinner.

Hang in there. You can do it. Even if you don't find time to do a proper work out, just move. Dance with your kids, take them for walks. Mine likes going to the zoo or to the Deer Park. There are always deer and peacocks in a very large enclosure there and while he's watching the animals I can do a few squats and lunges and push ups with my hands on a bench and my feet on the ground.

Wishing you all the best!

jules1202

As a mom you fit in exercise when you can. I work full time but am blessed to have a gym in the next building over at work so I have no excuse not to work out. My DH and I both go to boot camp (circuit training) in the evening and we take turns and swap out our younger child at the class (I go to 530 and he goes to 630 class). Last night he had to work late so no boot camp so instead I went for a jog at 9pm last night.

Focus on drinking plenty of water and eating lots of fresh veggies and fruit along with lean protiens and healthy fats. You can do it!

sachmeer

Thank you all again, some very useful advice to take onboard,
I felt rubbish this morning as set my alarm for 5.30am to begin my Jillian DVD but could not drag myself out of bed spent the morning cursing to myself, anyway partly due to having such a heavy workout tuesday evening - I do an hour of circuit training - really intense, followed by an hour of kick boxing ( i basically burn about 750 cals alone !!!), so today two days later my arms were killing.
anyway I think I am going to set myself a 'realistic' exercise program, reading your posts make my realise us mums can fit it all in !!! and lose weight, I have a huge incentive as going on holiday in 5 weeks and would dearly love to lose 10lbs - 2lb a week is doable.
Thank you all again