The Mom Crowd

I thought I would do a follow-up post to ‘Do You Work Out?’ so I would be more motivated myself to workout. I was inspired by Dawn getting out and running even though she has two small kids. Jenn makes time for it in her day and I completely understand where Sharon is coming from. Lisa has some great resources on her blog Workout Mommy.

Everyone knows that working out and exercising is good for your health and well-being. But we don’t always do it. Our schedules get busy. A dinner with friends pops up. The house needs to be cleaned. You overslept again. You don’t have the right clothes or equipment. You’ll start tomorrow. You don’t think you are “athletic.”

So how do we make working out a priority and overcome the obstacles in order to achieve good health? Here are a few tips that will inspire you to hop on that elliptical machine again.

• Use a Buddy System

Exercise with a friend! It takes some extra effort to coordinate, but it is worth it. I love going to the gym with my friends. My friend Natalie and I had a set time to meet and I was more motivated to go to the gym knowing that she was going to be there. I also walk the first and third Friday at a local park with another friend. Working out goes by a lot faster when you are catching up with each other while walking on treadmills.

• Find an Exercise That You Enjoy

Try everything out at least once! Don’t be afraid to look like a fool while running or going to the aerobics class. When I first went to step class I could not keep up, but in a few weeks I could do it with my eyes closed. I also took a swimming class so I could learn how to do all the strokes correctly and flip turns. I found that I didn’t like swimming that much. Maybe you will enjoy spinning, yoga, or swimming. You don’t know until you try.

• Set Realistic Goals

Don’t set out to run a marathon your first attempt at running. Start with a goal to do a 5K or 10K. Don’t expect to make it to the gym five days a week. Start with three days a week. You could start with cardio exercises then add on weights after going for two weeks. Write down your goals where you will see them to remind you!

• Get Support from Your Family

Have your husband watch the kids or agree to spend money on a gym membership. Communicate your needs. You will be less likely to skip working out if you already have babysitting in place. Take your child with you in a stroller.

• Have Your Clothes Ready

Getting dressed is half the battle. Once I am dressed I am a lot more motivated to go. Set your gym clothes out the night before. Make sets of workout clothes ready to go in your drawer complete with a sports bra, shorts, a shirt, even socks.

• Get Motivated!

Determine what is your motivation for working out. Is it so you can run a half marathon? To fit in your old jeans? For a reunion? We may be going to California in the next few months. Every time I have been to California I have felt very self-conscious about my weight and I am not even fat by normal standards. So I am motivated to loose a few pounds before we go. This may not be the best reason for wanting to workout, but if it is getting my behind to the gym, so what?

• Put It on the Calendar

Set your workout times and write them on a calendar. Guard that time with your life. That means you will have to say No to requests and schedule things at a later time. This really worked for us when we did it. We worked out right after work. That meant that we couldn’t meet anyone for dinner until at least 7:00 p.m.

• Have Accountability

Have a friend or spouse hold you accountable to your goals. Share your goals and let them to check up on you once a week. Don’t get mad if your husband asks if you have lost any weight.

• Set Consequences and Rewards

Set a reward when you reach your goals, but don’t let food be a reward! Get a manicure or treat yourself to a new lipstick. With your spouse’s support and accountability let them share with you the reward of watching your favorite chick flick after the kids are asleep! Set a consequence when you don’t work out – Force yourself to try on your skinny clothes or be like the coaches in high school and make yourself run extra laps next time you work out.

• Change Your Mindset

Working out can be fun and relaxing! While waiting to get into my step class, I overhead a classmate say that she had been looking forward to class all day, because she had a rough day. What she said changed my perspective of working out. I made an effort to view exercising as a stress reliever. It reminds me of when Charlotte on ‘Sex in the City’ goes jogging when she needs to get away from her fertility problems. Running or going to class can be a big stress reliever.

• Get Up and Go!

Stop procrastinating! Make yourself a priority and go! Go for a walk with your ipod in the evenings. Get out of bed and go to the gym. Stop the excuses. Stop saying that you will start tomorrow. Iowa Management has a great post offering solutions to your excuses. If you blew your routine, start again! You can do it!

Fun Bonus:

Read about Mihow’s experience going to Yoga class with her baby.

I went to parenting.com and the first article in big 26-point letters read, “Easy Exercises for Moms: Simple Workout Moves to Fit into Your Day.” I thought, “Yeah right, how can I fit that into my day? I am happy when remember to feed Ace and wash our underwear.”

I have every intention of going to the gym in the mornings, but something always comes up. I don’t make it a priority. I keep procrastinating on my big schedule change to fit it in. My gym has child care from 8 a.m. to 12 noon and then again in the evenings. So if I don’t high tail it to the gym by 11:00 a.m. I don’t make it. Sometimes I call my friend and we will walk for about 45 minutes at the park in the afternoon, but it isn’t a regular routine. I need to make a change. I was disciplined when I was pregnant and for a few weeks after, but it is time to get off my butt and just do it again.

Do any of you workout? When do you go? What type of work out do you do?

In December Kristi wrote a great post for us titled “How To Get the Most From Your Workout.”

I googled “new year’s baby” to get an image for this blog post, but I got distracted by the first provided link. The link led me to a documentary called, “New Year Baby.” The story is about a family fleeing genocide in Cambodia and coming to America. Read the synopsis. It is an amazing picture of what family and acceptance is all about. I hope this story gives you hope and encouragement for the new year.

Here’s to new beginnings in 2008!

Cheers!

One of my favorite things about Christmas is receiving Christmas cards. As Christmas cards arrive in the mail, I place them all in a basket at the end of my bar in my kitchen. I love walking in there and looking through them and remembering that this is a very special time for friends and families to connect through Christmas cards. I wanted to share with you an idea I had this year for displaying our Christmas cards. I was recently given a digital photo frame as an early Christmas present and I scanned all of our Christmas cards we’ve received this year and downloaded them to the photo frame. Now, in our living room all of our Christmas cards are rotating on our photo frame. I will probably keep them going for a couple weeks. I also added some pictures of our family from past Christmas’.

I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas!

Do you have any other creative ways to display your Christmas cards?

I have been friends with Sara and her family for several years. Living in a military town, I meet a lot of people who are serving our country, and unfortunately have to say goodbye to a lot of friends as the military moves them to other parts of the country. Sara’s husband, Josh is active duty Army and currently deployed in Iraq. They have three young boys. Sara has the most positive attitude and such a gentle spirit. She’s a tiny little thing, but she has her boys in order! Sara, thank you so much for writing this post for us and giving us an insider’s view on being a military spouse!

It’s been just over 3 months since Josh left. The Army says we have approx 12 more months to go. At times it doesn’t even feel like he has been gone for 3 months. Then you have those days where it seems like time is standing still. But you can’t get caught up in the number of days, weeks, or months. Once you start focusing on how many days you have left or how many days you have been apart you can quickly fall into despair. You just have to take it one day at a time and remember it’s only time.

Everyone who is not military always ask “How do you do it?” I have thought about this question time and time again and the only answer I can say is “By the grace of God.” There is nothing you can do to prepare yourself for a 15 month deployment without your husband, best friend and spiritual partner. You have to have total trust in God to get you through the time. Being a military wife has its set of challenges. But the way I look at it is who truly does not have their own problems? Even though we are separated and I have now become both mom and dad, I know there are those people who have it worse than us. For the most part we have been truly blessed.

Trust me I have those days when I feel like I am getting pulled in 20 different directions (okay I have actually quite a few of those days). Like when we have been sick in this house for what is going on 3 months. With three small children someone is ALWAYS sick. I myself have been ill with strep throat twice! Literally one week after Josh left, everything hit us. This is where your “family care plan” comes into action as the military would say. When you are 1800 miles away from home you soon realize your friends and neighbors are now your family. These are the people you learn to count on when your son’s bike breaks, you hear a noise in the front end of your car, or you are trying to hang your Christmas lights. While you learn to help each other out you also have to be independent. You will not last a month if you can not manage a household on your own. Another important quality you must have is multitasking. This is where it pays to be a mom. We are the best at multitasking. We can cook dinner, hold a baby, and cut coupons all at the same time.

Being a military wife definitely has its good side. I am very proud to say I am a military wife. Not everyone is cut out to be one. When the 15 months is over and you see your husband again for the first time it’s like falling in love all over again. You get the butterflies in your stomach and your heart drops to the floor. You definitely learn to appreciate one another during each deployment. If you can get through 15 months of deployment you know your marriage can pretty much survive anything.