My last post talked about finding exercise that we enjoy. But my awesome sister-in-law Becky wrote that knowing what she likes isn't the problem. The problem is finding a way to do it. I agree. I think being a stay-at-home mom with small children is the worst season in our lives for working out! Well, work we do! But exercise it really isn't!!
I find that if and when I exercise now, I always have to choose to sacrifice one of the two most important things in my life: 1) My children, OR 2) Sleep.
You know the drill....you either have to put your kids in the daycare or pass them to a babysitter so you can exercise, OR you get up at the crack of crack to exercise. Which do you choose? How can you choose when you are so tired?
What do you do? I would love to hear advice or success stories from those who have been there done that. Because I, like Becky, really haven't found much success since my baby was born 9 months ago. Infact, I started this blog to get me thinking about it and hopefully get me motivated again.
But you know, the voice in my head (or is it my stomach?) says, "Is it really that important right now to have abs of steel and a firm butt? Don't our husbands love us anyways? Don't our kids love us even if our behinds are jiggly? (I KNOW I'm not the only mother whose kid is fascinated by the huge shaking mass that is just at his eye level!!!....Aren't I right Sheri??) But they love us anyway. As long as there are always snacks available and we are there for scraped knees and bottle and binky calls and lots of hugs and kisses all around, does it really matter if we have cellulite?"
Or.....is their unfaltering love the excuse that keeps us fat?
6 comments:
Very interesting. But first, cool blog. This is my first visit and I really like it! Love all the pictures of poses and I am VERY impressed with what you can do. My goodness, girl, you got it goin' on.
I want to respond to this post but I'm running out of sleep time. :) I'll be back, though :)
I love this post, Shannan! You needed a blog a LONG time ago! I absolutely love your writing style, which is just as enjoyable (and amusing) as being face to face! Love you!
when i exercise i feel like a better mom and a better person all around. i find that i am more organized in all aspects of my life. But sometimes (okay most times lately) i just can't get that big jiggly bum out of bed! And so i go around feeling guilty all the time so instead of doing something i just stand in my kitchen eating chocolate chips and do nothing.
Back again. If I could get a half hour to an hour exercise in every day, I'd be a better, saner, happier, more effective AND efficient person and mother.
Also, I tagged you. Come see my blog for the details. :)
Okay, I've been thinking about this all week. The one day I went out with the express purpose to exercise AND play with my kids, I discovered what my problem is when I try too hard to exercise. I am focused on me and my kids are just in the way so I am not a very nice mommy. Before I said i wasn't willing to put my kids in day care to exercise at a gym because they would watch TV and I would get a workout and I felt too selfish, but when I tried to exercise with them at the park I was being exactly that - Selfish. It occurred to me maybe it would be better just to have exercise time to get it out of the way so I could focus completely on my kids, instead of multi- tasking their time. I used to belong to a great gym that I could do a class at 5:45 am every morning and that worked wonderfully. I was happier and saner, as long as I was satisfied with what I did. If I turned into body obsessing I flipped back into that selfish mode where my kids just became obstacles again. So I don't know exercising is a fine line. Can make you happy but can easily take over your life. On the other hand I also did Body Mass Index calculation and found I was only 10lbs over my ideal weight. Not bad for not seriously exercising for over a year. Made me a little less concerned about that jiggly bum or free flapping arms ;) Other questions I'm pondering Myth or Fact: You have to be incredibly in shape doing a great exercise regime to be able to exercise when you are pregnant. You can't exercising when you are pregnant. What do you think Yoga Street? p.s. Shannan, I love your Blog.
I love what Becky wrote here about how multi-tasking the kids time is just as selfish. I think we all agree that this is not the season of our lives to look like Pamela Anderson, but we also feel like we are better moms when we DO exercise. Even if it's just a half-hour. So there you go...The Yoga Street guru says: Go ahead and exercise mommy...do it for the children!:)
Post a Comment