Hi,

I am a new maintainer - just reached my goal weight about 5 month ago. Did not have problem maintaining in summer, when I could bike, hike, rollerblade, just walk, but with winter coming I see weight coming back. I thought with all of you beeing experienced maintainers you can give some suggestions how YOU FIT exercise into busy life.

What I have to overcome. Full time job plus teaching 2 yoga classes/week, 3 kids (3, 6, 15), house, commute to work and back.

What tips I can suggest:
1. To have time to exercise, try to limit time to do other chores. Some of those I would recommend:
a. I dress up my kids for day cares in the evening and let them sleep in their clothes - that way I only need 10 min to wake them up and get them into car while they are still half asleep
b. I cook in the weekend and plan my meals that do shopping once a week - so it is only 2 hours that I spent on grocery shopping
c. Make your family members help you doing chores - like kids loading dishwasher or doing laundry, etc.

2. Time to exercise:
- on the threadmill while watching movie or reading a book
- at work during lunch hour - we have running club with runs twice a week for 5-7 km during lunch hour
- during lunch hour drive to the gym for 40 min - not too much but that's maximum I can have
- while my kids are playing soccer - run around the track
- early SUndays or Saturdays bike rides - while everybody still in bed
- I finished yoga instructor training and I teach 2 classes a week - needless to say, I can not skip them. The only problem I encountered so far is teaching is very energy consuming and I feel drained afterwards - I think I will not continue next year - I find having yoga session by myself is much more rewarding than teaching people and afterwards feel drained of energy and very tired.
- gardening - I LOVE this huge tree in my backyard - everybody tells me it is time to put it down, but it keeps me raking those leaves 3 times a week... And kids love to do it too.

In whole, even though it worked before, I still feel like it is not enough - so I thought maybe somebody can give me other ideas. Videos are out of question - my kids will not let me have quiet time while they are active BUT when they are asleep I feel tired already.

Any suggestions, ideas, examples ill help me and hopefully others!!!!

Thanks,
Sandy.

Just off the top of my head - I don't have kids myself...but I do see you have a 15 year old - can't the oldest watch the two little ones for an hour or so while you have some "ME TIME"? Help the little ones get dressed and ready for their day each morning? And do some of the household chores as well...? (oh wait a sec, you have that as c.) I realize the 3 year old might be a bit young for most chores but certainly the other two are old enough to lend a hand - my parents had us four girls doing assigned chores by the time we were 5 years old (maybe younger but my recollection only goes back so far...)

You've got to find what works for you. There IS a balance, sometimes we need to search for it, but it's always there. For me, the lunch hour workout doesn't work, mostly because I generally don't take a lunch hour, also because I don't like to get all sweaty in the middle of the day. (almost a shame, really, because our company has a beautiful onsite fitness center that was recently renovated - Jim uses it on the weekends occasionally.)

For me, what works is getting up super early in the AM and getting my booty to the gym. It sounds a lot worse than it actually IS - I've been doing this for so long (probably, oh, about 8 years now - I started when I discovered that it was no problem getting whatever cardio machine I wanted, as long as I wanted, if I was there before most of the rest of the world showed up... ) that it's no problem whatsoever to get out of bed at 3:45 or 4:00 am.

Just some thoughts - but you have a nice list there.

I don't have anything noteworthy to say but I did have a thought. When I work alot (like this week 7 nights in a row) fitness and eating well are more important than the dust.

I am working 2 jobs right now (one full time, one part-time). I schedule workouts with people and commit to them. I may start running on my lunch hour too.

Cheers!

Ali

SusanB -- You're a gal after my own heart : " fitness and eating well are more important than the dust. " Those are my thoughts exactly!! If I'm not here no one drops in anyways, ... I fit it in whenever I can... For years I did like Karen 5AM... Then when I started working part-time I started going in the middle of the afternoon... If I happen to work full days I go on the weekends too... I manage to make it into the gym 5 days/week...

Long ago I realised that my kids would rather be with me than in a spotless environment. (my mother is NOT happy) The other day I almost didn't go with my husband somewhere because I needed to clean the kitchen ... wrong. Now it is important to have a healthy home but some stuff is indeed more important than dust. back at ya Ilene.