Workout Regimen for 9 to 5 parents

I would start off with a basic bodyweight routine. The Nerd Fitness Beginner Bodyweight workout is a good start, especially when you lack equipment. I would start with an easy cardio warmup (use the elliptical on an easy setting for 5-10 minutes), stretch a bit, then do the workout keeping in mind that you will need to scale it back if you are a completely out of shape beginner (start with 1 or 2 times around the circuit and cut back on reps.) Stretch a bit afterward as well.

I think it's great that you have a plan and are looking to implement it. I have two kids under the age of five, and an hour commute, so I can relate.

I use an app called Fitness Point to track my progress. It has some routines, but has a pretty big inventory of exercises to do. They each have animations and descriptions of what you should be doing, which comes in handy when you can't remember the different between deadlifts and bent over rows.

I built my routines based upon what equipment I've acquired and what I've learned from people I've talked to.

I second the nod for fitnessblender.com. I too have two small kiddos and I find their videos so helpful when I can't make the gym. I do them in my garage watching the videos on my ipad. Whatever works right so long as your accomplishing your goals.

How about this: While one of you is on the elliptical, the other one is doing a circuit of push-ups or rows, squats or lunges, crunches or leg scissors. Do all three back-to-back with about a minute or two rest time in between sets. Now here's how you do the rows: Get two tall dining room chairs, or anything else about an arm's length off the ground. Separate them a little over shoulder width apart. Put a broomstick or something of the like on them so that one end is on each surface. Lay down below it, perpendicular to it. Grab the broomstick where each end meets the chair with each hand and pull your upper body up with your feet on the ground. You can make it more challenging later by elevating your feet by resting them on something above the ground. I'm not sure what fitness level you're at now. The push-ups can be done from the knees as well. You can also bring your feet in closer by bending your knees in when doing the rows if it's too hard to pull yourself up with them fully extended. Do a challenging amount of reps, but not so many that you dread having to do it again. Count how many reps you do so you can maintain some consistency and track progress. Do this 3 to 4 times, depending on how you feel, so you did 3 to 4 sets of each exercise.

Bump your bed time to 8pm along with the kiddos and get up an hour earlier to work out. Of course that's not always going to work with kids, but getting up an hour earlier to work out can help wake you up and get your body in fat burning mode for the rest of the day. Until I started getting up earlier to work out my workouts were spotty, I missed them a lot, and sometimes simply didn't have the energy at the end of the day. Granted, I don't have kids at home so if I want to go to bed at 8pm I can, but most nights it takes me until 10pm to get to sleep. I get up at 5am, work out for about 1.5 hours and then get ready for work. It's made my weight loss/maintenance/strength training more manageable as my workouts are now very consistent.

If you are a morning person, sleep early a few days per week and wake up early. If you are not a morning person (I am not) work out in late evening. With a young child, I would not start with anything very ambitious and I would not start working out the same days as my spouse. Aim for something like 2 days strength training, 2 days cardio and see how this goes. Also figure out if you can get more physical activity as a family: go for a late evening walk or bike ride, go hiking on Sundays, or for a long walk at the park etc