Taking care of your health is such an important part of mom care. We all know that it’s important to get adequate sleep (yeah right), eat well, and establish a fitness routine as part of our self care. In fact, there’s so much emphasis put on doing these things that it can feel more like a chore than a joy to take care of our health. Fitness for moms is a wonderful way to start focusing on our health and feel good thanks to all those happy endorphins being released. But how can we do it all? How do we fit in fitness when our days seem so full?
I really do love fitness. Well, I love the feeling of completing a workout. Workouts are small and attainable goals and give us the opportunity to accomplish something for the day. For this post, I am going to share with you five tips I’ve discovered over the years to help me establish fitness as part of my self-care.
Disclaimer: This post is not intended as medical advice. Everyone is unique and you should always check with your own health care professional to get advice for your unique health situation.
Fitness for Moms: Establish a Realistic Routine
This is the very, very first step to start working out consistently. Everyone’s routine will look different and you really need to find what is realistic for you. You can only work out twice a week? Great, it’s better than zero times. Want to do 4 days in a row and take three days off? That’s totally fine if that’s what works for you.
I used to follow fitness gurus that had their perfect formulas for workouts, and this often resulted in my just not doing anything. If I didn’t have time to work out six days a week, then I figured there was no point. As I’m getting older and wiser I realize that I have to live in my reality, not someone else’s. Those fitness gurus weren’t changing my kids’ diapers or feeding my babies, and their goals weren’t my goals. This brings me to my next point.
Fitness for Moms: You Don’t Need a Big Fitness Goal
This goes against the wisdom of the fitness gods, but you really don’t need a big fitness goal. You can exercise just for the sake of exercise. You are not required to train for a marathon or even a 5K. Exercise has many benefits in and of itself, and you will feel better, hopefully sleep better, and improve your health just by moving more. Goals are great if that’s something that drives you, but if goals only remind you that you can’t quite measure up, toss them. You don’t need to live up to an arbitrary expectation of being at a certain point by a certain time. I find if you just do something and get moving, you will see changes over the long term, and it may lead to establishing big goals, but you don’t need to start there.
Fitness for Moms: Pick a Time of Day that Works for YOU
If you are one of those people that think fitness has to take place in the wee hours of the morning, I want you to think about something. There are many, many gyms that are open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Why do you think this is? Because people that join gyms and workout regularly do it at all hours. I’ve even heard of some insane people that go to the gym at 1 am.
Do you want to know one of my fitness failures? 5am workouts. This is not from a lack of trying. There have been several times and seasons in my life that I was determined to get up at 5am and join the early morning fitness warriors that were accomplishing greatness. It would last for a week, if even that. I am a morning person, but I like a slow, quiet morning where I can drink my coffee and do some introverting. Waking up to an alarm and hitting the ground running doesn’t work for me.
In different seasons of life I found different times of day worked for me. When my boys were little, afternoon nap time was perfect. We were home at the same time every day, and it was usually distraction free. Once they got a little bit older I became a night owl just to workout in peace. I loved this night time routine as it was my me-time at the end of a long day. Presently, I workout whenever. My kids are older and I can get out and run or walk in the middle of the day, or go take a class at the gym. 5am workouts are still not my thing, probably never will be, and that’s okay.
Fitness for Moms: Choose Realistic Workouts
You have no idea how many times people tell me that they hate running as they lace up their running shoes. It’s as if they think running is the only workout option. Guess what? You don’t have to run to workout (even without a gym). You can workout any way you please. Even taking a brisk walk will give you some great benefits. I personally love running but I go through seasons where I don’t run at all. While the world was locked down in 2020 my husband and I established a routine of walking every day. This was a sanity saver and there are so many things I appreciate about walking. To go for a walk I don’t need to put on workout clothes or wrestle myself into a sports bra. I can put my shoes on and just go.
The internet is full of free workouts and I have found many, many favorites over the years. If you want some great ideas for at home workouts, here is an article from the Life Unboxed Blog on Workouts to do at Home.
Here is my favorite fitness blogger/YouTuber with tons of free workouts.
Bonus Tip: You Don’t Always Need to Shower
I debated whether or not I wanted to add this one, but this is realistic fitness for moms. Back in the days of those nap time workouts one of the things that constantly held me back was the fact that I usually couldn’t shower after a workout. I remember having this discussion with another mom in my MOPS group, and she told me to just be okay with not showering after a workout. When I was able to let go of the expectation of being clean, and embraced the post-sweat look, I was able to stay consistent with my workouts. I will leave this tip with these two things: Baby wipes and baseball hat. Enough said.
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Here is some of my favorite at home workout equipment:
