Busy moms, can you relate?

I do not feel guilty about time I spend on myself. I just don't. I am trying to be a healthy person. I am trying to model healthy habits. And when I take care of myself, I am a better mom.

this. absolutely this.

i'm married and have a 4 year old. up until about 3 weeks ago, i was 95% of his care... dropping him off at daycare/preschool, picking him up after work, keeping him entertained till bedtime while i did housework, putting him to bed, etc. after a doctor decided to be a royal *kitten* to me, my husband vowed to help balance his care so that i can take more time to go to the gym. so i drop him off in the mornings, my husband picks him up at night. i go to the gym and then come home and do whatever needs to be done... cooking, cleaning, laundry, bed time, whatever.

whoever decided that moms were supposed to feel guilty for spending time to get ourselves healthy instead of spending every minute with our kids must not have kids of their own. if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

I can relate to this in some ways, but in others i can't. I don't do all the housework or cooking in my house. I have delegated tasks since the very beginning, because we're a team. He eats and lives there, why shouldn't he cook and clean, too? I've had my two children doing chores since they were able to walk...take this to the trash can...or the laundry basket...and it's morphed over time to being able to handle cleaning a house from top to bottom and making meals on their own at 15 and 11. (Part of this is because I honestly do not want to do it by myself...and the other part is because I saw kids fresh in the Army who had no clue how to do their own laundry because their mommy always did it for them. I refused to put human beings into the world who couldn't feed or clothe themselves.)

I think busy moms/dads CAN do it all..but we can't do it all perfectly. Something has to give. I firmly believe there is only so long we can put ourselves on the back burners before something breaks.

It isn't selfish to take a few hours out of the week for ourselves if it means a happier, healthier parent. My mother is 60 and she always put herself last, and now she has a lot of health issues, all stemming from her weight...I spend more time parenting her and dealing with her medical issues than I like. I refuse to do that to my children, too...

These are just my $.02, worth absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things...but this a touchy topic for me...

I can relate to this. It took me a long time to figure out what worked for me. I work full time and I have 3 kids ages 7, 4, and 10 months. I wake up at 5:30 just to be able to get the kids to the sitter and get to work on time and then I'm usually not home until 5:30 or 6 at night. I've learned to fit exercise in wherever I can. Sticking to a rigid schedule such as "I"m going to work out for 1 hour Monday, Wednesday, and Friday" doesn't work for me. I wake up every day with the intention of doing some kind of exercise, that way if I do have a crazy day where I can't fit it in it's not such a big deal. I do a variety of different things for exercise. I walk on my lunch breaks if I can, I take a Zumba class once a week after work, I do exercise DVDs at home after the kids go to sleep, ect. Also, when my fiance and I do "date nights", it's almost always related to a physical activity. We'll get a sitter and go cycling or hiking. It's fun and it's a good way to get an extra work out in.

I'd just exercise on days you're not working. Or try and make it a habit to go for a family walk after dinner every night or something.

Do you watch tv at all? The best thing we did was buying a $100 stationary bike. This way we can watch our shows and still get a decent workout, and the thing is small and takes almost no room in our living room. I second buying some dumbbells too - you can just do a few sets every day and it takes 15 minutes tops.

Also, what helped me more than anything else: GET TO BED and sleep 8 hours.

There's nothing I"m doing after 9 p.m. which is productive. I"m usually just watching TV mindlessly, snacking on stuff, starting something and leaving it half done.

Nothing, and I mean nothing....has made weight management more successful for me that going to bed every night by 10:30 p.m. 7 days a week.

I have found the only way I can squeeze exercise in, being a single mom of a 4 year old boy, is to get up earlier. Even just an hour earlier and get a walk in. I also use this time to plan for the day on food.

Yes, I can relate. I work two jobs (one full time, plus 3 waitressing shifts a week) and I have two kids under three. My secret has been finding exercise that I enjoy doing. I started waking up early a few days a week to go swim laps (my favorite cardio ever!). I knew swimming would be the only thing that would get me out of bed. I've also come to enjoy running as I do it more and both of my kids like being pushed around a lake or taking a nap in the stroller, so it's a win-win. I also just started lifting weights with a trainer and I love it!

Yes, it's tough. Yes, it can take time away from your family. However, the pay off is so worth it in my opinion. I would rather get healthy now while my kids are too young to remember me being gone than wait until they're older and still be an unhealthy mom. I want to be a role model to my kids, so I make it a priority.

When I just had one kid, I did a C25K pushing the jogging stroller. He had fun and it was a good workout. Now I have two (one is only 3 months old so I'm just recently back at this). I do a 15-minute body weight routine 3 times a week. It's 7 moves, 3 circuits and a 5-minute warm-up. It's about all I have time for. Fortunately, my husband will watch the kids and get dinner started while I do it. The weekends we typically do something fun as a family that includes a lot of walking. The scale is ever so slowly moving downward.

I can so relate. I had to do things that included my boys. play baseball (throw a baseball around). pick them up and toss them in air, go swimming with them. just walking through water helped. now that they are teenagers, I play tennis with my 17 year old and I am about to start riding motocross bikes with my 14 year old. anything to stay active, be an example.

As my children grow (now 11, 13 and 15), I find that I am busy in a different sort of way. I spend a lot more time coordinating and chauffeuring. As a teacher, my schedule is similar to that of my children. Time is always a challenge, but even worse I am lacking the motivation. At the end of the day, I would much rather read a book or watch television. This summer I decided to try the C25k program (on week 2, so far so good), but I am afraid that once summer comes to a close so will my commitment. So, I'm hoping being a part of this community will help (new to MFP).

I definitely can relate! I am a new Mom and I work full time. My husband works 60 hours a week as well so I am on my own with the baby until 7:30-8pm and I am wiped out by then. I have a lot of home workout DVDs. I have a lot of ones that are 30 minutes or less which does not seem like much but it is much better than nothing. I try to just watch what I am eating and if I can get a work out in I do it.