How do I fit exercise in my busy schedule?

Would hubby be willing to get your daughter up at 5am? That way you could work out from 5am - 5:30am. The other option is to work out at 8:00PM and push dinner to 8:30PM.

Is it possible to cut some of the morning time of getting ready? If you cut that down by 30 minutes, you could get a 30 minute work out in first thing in the morning. My other suggestion would be to eat when she does, so during the hour of eating and cleaning up, you can just do the clean up and have half an hour or so to work out then. Or during your lunch, if you are able to eat your lunch while you work before or after going for a walk during your 30 minutes? You have a pretty tight day! Good luck!

Could you maybe eat a relatively large lunch at work, eat a light dinner while feeding your daughter at around 6 pm, and then exercise at about 8 or 8:30?

I am busy too, and even though I've read that late-day exercising is not ideal, it's the only thing that works for me. If I eat a larger dinner it makes it hard to work out. I've gotten into the habit of having a more substantial lunch. Some days I come home relatively late, but am able to work out before dinner because I am not that hungry (due to the large lunch).

I have a similar schedule. Even though my hubby isn't always home to eat with us, I eat dinner with the kids. Then, I get them ready and put them to bed. I work out, log everything on here, take a shower and get ready for bed myself.

this will be a hard...but maybe try waking up at 430a to do a 30min workout... or try going for a quick walk during lunch.
also maybe try eating w/your daughter instead of a later time that way you have time to digest before going to bed. this will also give you some extra time to do a dvd workout

You could get up 15-20 minutes earlier than usual and fit in an intense circuit training routine like 30 day shred. With limited time, it'll have to be something intense to really burn a lot of calories.

I am a single parent that works full time and I take 3 college courses every semester. My kids are older now but it wasn't long ago that my schedule looked an awful lot like yours. You have scheduled everything except YOU time. The only way I see you making time to exercise is if you pencil yourself in. I recommend you make it the very first thing you do every single morning before you even wake up your daughter. Start off committing to 15 minutes of anything...push ups on Monday, sit ups on Tuesday, stair climbing on Wednesday, lifting a full gallon of milk/water and doing curls 25x each arm on Thursday....don't make it a huge production....just do something that is different than your typical routine but make a list, write it on your To Do list or calendar and make a commitment to do it. I am presuming there are places in your schedule before or after work where you could shave 15 minutes of time -- perhaps you could pack things your daughter will need during the week every Sunday afternoon -- drop everything off that you possibly can (food, changes of clothes, etc) on Monday so you aren't repeating steps unnecessarily over and over-- that sort of idea. Tonight I had to force myself to get on my treadmill after 9pm tonight. I worked all day, cooked when I got home, started homework that's due Thursday because my daughter has a band concert at school tomorrow night. I didn't want to do it but I forced myself to commit to 15 minutes.... I ended up walking 30 minutes at 4mph which is fast enough to cause me to break a sweat. (just my 2 cents)

It's hard, but you have to really learn to put yourself first. I still struggle with it, but I am getting better at being selfish, at least when my exercising comes into play. Is there any way grandma would watch your daughter a bit longer so you can get 30 mins in?

I am lucky enough to work at home, I am a home daycare provider. That being said, my days are in no way easy. I live where it's humid and hot so I have to start running in the morning (starting tomorrow actually). My day will be starting at 5:00 am so I can get my full work out in and get home and showered before my first job, (being a mom), starts at 6:15. My daycare starts at 7:30.
My days go until I finally (if I am lucky, I have insomnia) get in bed at 10:30pm.

When my husband is away on business I run on the treadmill and lots of times I start the oven warming up or start the food cooking while I am down running, my boys don't mind waiting a bit. Some times I have to stop mid way to take stuff out, but I still get my time in.

Your daughter's age will make a huge difference in what you can do. My boys are 10 yrs and 8 yrs old. When they were younger though my exercise was just walking. They loved it, I got to spend extra time with just them (even though in the day I am always there with them, but with the daycare kids they had to 'share' me). There were days I would use my yoga dvd.

It's never easy, even those with out kids can have trouble making/finding the time. As a mom I put everyone before myself, I was always last, but not anymore! I have to put myself first IF I plan on being there for my kids for as long as I can.

You can also do a quick exercise DVD (I recommend 30-day shred) in 20 minutes while the dinner is cooking! (I also recommend Dream Dinners or other food prep stores, which really helps me get a quick and healthy dinner on the table, without doing all the prep work.) That saves a lot of time. It's hard to fit it in, but you just have to make it a priority, just like the other things on your to-do list.

I hear you! I worked 70+ hours for the past two years. I made a couple of small changes - didn't get huge results but was better than nothing. One thing I got mini-trampoline and put it in my kitchen - when I was cooking especially the micowave, I would jump on the trampoline while waiting for the timer to go off. You can also do standing crunches in the shower - helps with abs. Also I did find just 10 minutes to take a quick brisk walk - I am hearing more and more that even 10 minutes helps. I had to mentally get over the idea that exercise had to be 30 minutes or an hour - that I never seemed to find or have the energy for. I just couldn't get up any earlier - just truly exhausted all the time. I just tried to find minutes every where I could - parking farther at the grocery store or walmart or wherever, etc.

But ultimately I had to get out of denial and the idea that I hated to exercise. I believe I talked myself into not finding the time or making it a priority. Once I got past that - I started to figure out how to find the time.

Good luck!