Hi Marie! Welcome to the group. 😃 It sounds like your crew has a lot of fun stuff to do outdoors. That’s great and I can totally relate with wanting to keep up with the boys. It seems like they’re always moving and it used to make me sad that I couldn’t really do the things I wanted to do with them. I vividly remember one time when we went tubing with some friends and first of all I was so uncomfortable in a swimming suit and then I fell off the tube and tried to get back on it and absolutely COULD NOT pull myself up onto the tube because I was so heavy and didn’t have much muscle either. I was so embarrassed because our friends had to pull the boat around so I could just climb up the ladder.

Do you have to wake up early to exercise? I know a lot of people like to workout in the morning and I thought that’s what I had to do too because it seemed like that was the “right” way to do it. But I move really slow in the morning and now I actually workout in the afternoon and even sometimes in the evening if my husband is working out of town. I actually prefer the afternoons because by that time of day my stress level has just gotten to the point where I need a break and exercising makes me feel so much less stressed and less tired-therefore-much better, more calm mom.

I also want to add that I am a huge fan of exercise but it isn’t absolutely necessary to lose weight. The only thing you need to lose weight is a calorie deficit. There are a lot of ways to do that and it might take some trial and error to find something that works for your lifestyle, personality, etc. but it is SO worth it!!

Welcome to the group StaceySaysRelax! I apologize for not responding sooner. Congratulations on your little one! That’s such a fun age!!

It can be a challenge to lose weight when they are still breastfeeding at least it was for me but it is possible. Working out helps me by giving me some extra calories to work with and even though it seems like it wouldn’t-extra energy as well. Some days it took everything in me to drive to the gym when I really just wanted to take a nap but then afterwards I felt like I had a nap anyways. And some days I did just nap if I needed to! 😉

I know this doesn’t work for everyone especially with really little ones that still nap in the afternoon but when all of my kids outgrew their afternoon naps we would go to the gym then. It was a great break for me and my kids had fun in the playroom. It took a LONG time to get to that point though because all of my kids had separation anxiety and it took a lot of persistence but I was eventually able to acclimate them. Before I got to that point I would workout at home after they went to bed. Sometimes it takes a little bit of trial and error to figure out what works and a routine and that’s the thing with kids too is that just when you figure things out they go switching things on you!! 😆

All that to say...even though I am a huge advocate of working out and can talk all day about it, I know people and have heard of others who don’t work out at all or not very much and still have lost weight. You can do it this and it is SO worth it. This is getting long but let me know if you have any specific questions and I would be glad to help and if anyone else wants to chime in feel free to. 😁