Work outside home moms...

I'm a single mom who has sole custody of her child, so I understand that it can be difficult to fit exercise in sometimes between work, caring for your child, preparing meals, going to your child's activities, playing etc.

For me, I never exercise in the morning as we are out of the house by 7 am. I generally run at lunch time, sometimes I will take my daughter for a run after her bath (she's almost 5 but will still sit in the running stroller with either a book or a DVD... I don't know how much longer she will agree to do this, though), or I'll hop on the elliptical or do weights after she has gone to sleep. I find it I put a load of laundry in at the beginning of my workout, it motivates me to fill the time of the wash cycle with exercise :-P

I just gave up on working out at all! I am trying to walk in the evenings but I'm exhausted at the end of the day as well. I'd like to get up early and do it but I have a huge problem with hitting snooze and not getting up. How do you do it?!?! I'll be watching this thread for more good ideas!

On good days I'm up at 5:15 to get a run or my workout in, and I hit the gym during my lunch hour. On not so good days, I hit the gym only. My evenings are generally reserved for family time. I'm fortunate though as my husband does all the cooking so if I need to sneak in a quick workout after work he's handling dinner and I just have to manage clean up!

My kids are aged 21-7. The oldest 2 (21 & 20) are out of the house. The last 3 (15, 13, 7) are fairly self sufficient. However, I have tried to take the 7 year old with me on my runs. He is all excited to ride his bike on the trail while I run until we're about 1/2 a mile in. . .then it becomes pure torture!! Maybe when he's 8...LOL!!

FInd the times that work the best for you and be a bulldog about keeping that time for you. It's 30 min to an hour. Not a lot when you really think about it!!

You can workout on your lunch break. How old are your kids? Can you run while they ride their bikes? Or push them in the stroller while you run?

As for working out at night...I am not a fan either. I get up at 5:30am (and that's NOT working out in the morning, if I wanted to work out in the am, it has to be at 4:30). I work all day, hang out with the kiddos in the evening, and put them to bed around 8:30 or 9pm. But, it's important to me, and to my family, that I workout, get in shape, and am healthier. So I just do it. You can do a Jillian Michael's DVD in 25 minutes, and you will feel awesome when you are done!

do you have showering facilities at work? i run to work now (not all the way) - just run for my train then get off a stop early and run to work - works great for me as i hate the treadmill.

then i squeeze in 30 -45min weights 3x a week

Because my home is tiny, I workout at the gym or outside, so my time is limited by when there are babysitting hours at the gym, or when my husband can watch the kids. He works third shift, so that means anytime after 8:30pm, or before 7am is out for me.

I usually work out at least twice during the week at lunchtime, once in the evening from 7-8:30, and whenever I want on Saturday & Sunday. This way I can get in nearly 6 hours of gym time, and the only time the kids notice I'm gone is one night during the week. They enjoy the extra time with their dad, so this is no big deal.

I get up at 4 a.m. and go to the gym until about 6;00-6:15. Luckily, I have an older teenager who is at the house in case one of the younger kids need anything. For the most part, they don't wake up, when they have they have just turned on the TV & got their breakfast. Lunches are pretty easy. I pack a bag full of the 2nd part of my breakfast, lunch & snacks. Today I have 2 hard boiled eggs, 2 string cheese, carrot sticks, hummus & pita chips & leftover meat & veggies from kabobs last night along with some rice.

My office has two full size refrigerators so it's pretty easy to keep what I need here on a daily basis.

I'm in the same situation. It is very hard and I will admit I am struggling to find time to balance everything. I had been trying to go to a gym right after work and taking my son with me and putting him in the child care center. But like you said, I was feeling really guilty about leaving my son in daycare all day while I'm at work and then putting him in the gym's child care center for an hour or hour and a half. That left me no time to really spend with him. I was coming home feeding him, bathing him, and putting him to bed. No quality time. I haven't been to the gym in a week because I have felt like I needed to spend time with my son.

I know for me working out on my lunch break is really hard too. Because there is only one place that I could even go walk/jog at around my work and it's 10 mins away. So by the time I spend 10 mins to get there and 10 mins to get back then I have 20 mins to get in a quick workout. Not too mention it's like 110 degrees outside so I need to at least be able to change clothes before working out. And walking around my work or on the street I work on is not a good idea. It's a very busy street in a not-so-great part of town.

I've considered trying to put a spin type bike on layaway from Sears. But to be honest I'm worried that it will be hard to stay motivated. I love the gym, but when I'm at home it's easy to find 10,000 other things that I "need" to do. I'm still struggling with how to figure this out. However, I must say I like what one other person said on here about working out while she puts a load of clothes on to wash. Accomplishing two things at once. Maybe that would motivate me to keep my laundry caught up better and workout. Also, I'm learning my workouts may not burn a lot of calories because I've just got to accept the fact that I may only have time for 20 mins some days. And I've got to teach myself that, that is okay. Something is better than nothing. It may take me a little longer to reach my goal, but that's a price I'm willing to pay if it means I am spending more quality time with my son.

I will be following along on this post too. Hopefully I will find some other great ideas. I know I'm not the first nor the last mom to deal with this issue.

I am a single mom with full custody of my 9 year old daughter. She does see her dad but only every other weekend so I have her all but 4 days a month for the most part.
I am up at 5 just to get ready for work as we have to be out of the house by 6:15 so I can drop my daughter at daycare and get to work by 7 am. So exercising in the morning is out of the question.
Weather permitting I do walk during my lunch break and then eat lunch at my desk after. I try to do this at least 2-3 times a week. I addition to this I take kickboxing twice a week on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings a the local martial arts studio. The instructor allow kids to come as long as the will sit quietly and not disrupt class. Since she's 9 she goes along and just sits and play her DS or sometimes she will even participate in class and the instructor doesn't mind.
During the summer I also mow and weedeat my own yard (I have a fairly large yard with quite a bit of trimming to do). This is a good 2+ hour workout in itself at least once a week.
In addition to this I take my daughter for walks or bike rides in the evenings during the summer also (weather and time permitting). Time is a precious commodity for any working parent but especially for a single parent when you have all the childcare, housework, yard work, shopping, etc. that would normally be at least partially shared with the other parent. This is why I find myself doing cleaning house and doing laundry at 10 or 11 at night when I should already be in bed since I have to be up at 5.

Looking at this for ideas as my hours will be changing at work. I will be trying to exercise in mornings I think (me and kids will have to be ready and on road at 10:30 am). I won't be home till 8pm from work. By then if I start a workout then I won't be done ti 9 pm or so which takes me close to when kids go to bed:(