When life Does get in the way of weightloss (well, exercising)
 

Lets face it, sometimes life gets in the way of everything. I guess the secret is making sure life doesnt get in the way too much, or all the time, otherwise weightloss isnt going to happen at all.

Why am I writing this? Last night at 1am my 3 old son, who has ASD, woke up screaming. These are not night terrors, my husband, I and his doctors been over this. They are tantrums, I was up with him until about 3 am, until my husband came home. I slept broken sleep because the tantrums continued until about 4am or so. I over slept on my first "workout" alarm, and just got up about 10 minutes ago. I am exhausted and I have a headache. I'd just go back to sleep, but I have to work today.

I'm not going to excersise today. I'm sad about it and disappointed too, but physically I feel aweful.
Of course I'll stay on eating plan today.

Maybe I'll shoot to work out longer tomorrow morning (I don't have to work) to make up for today? Anyone ever done that?

I've definitely spread the workout onto the next day when I can't get one in. Actually, I'll be doing it tomorrow because my gym was closed for MLK Day and I hadn't realized it. I got a 40 min walk/jog in, but it isn't the same as hitting the weights or stairmaster for cardio intervals. So tomorrow I'll be doing an extra 5-10 min on both the stairclimber and treadmill. The only thing I don't add to is weights - my weight days are already really hard, so I chalk it up to a day lost rather than overdoing it to prevent injury which would keep me out longer.

Sometimes I just do a crappy job exercising. That way, I keep to the principle of my plan. I figure a half-a** job is still way better than none.

Honestly, when I can't get in a workout, I just skip it. I know in my heart if I am making an "excuse" or if it's really not in the cards for that day. After the night you had (I'm SO sorry! :(), I wouldn't really even be pressuring myself about doubling tomorrow's workout, either. Then if something happens and you can't do it, I personally would start to get all weird/panicky that I was failiing. Just keeping your eating on track being so tired today will be enough of an accomplishment IMHO! Now if you WANT to exercise more tomorrow, go for it. But I don't think I'd be pressuring myself over it. One missed workout is not going to affect the bottom line very much. ;)

I don't double up if I miss a workout. And if I need sleep, I sleep.

But, don't start veering off your eating plan also.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs comes to mind. First, get enough sleep. Then get your eat right (hey, you can't eat if you're asleep!). THEN get your exercise in.

Anyway, yeah...life, diet, exercise...I hate when they all get intertwined. I was doing SO well with P90X - even with the sore muscles! - and then I got a major sledding whooping. One side of my body is a giant bruise, and hurts to move, so there was no working out last night...or this morning...hopefully tonight I can get my yoga on again.

I've been going through this because of travel and being sick, husband and kid being sick. I'm reminding myself it isn't a race. It isn't black or white and I can still make good choices even though I'm not 100% on routine. :)

Just here for some accountability!! Re-cap, I missed my workout yesterday morning (Tues). I stayed on plan. I was 188.4 this morning and I worked out this morning as scheduled. I'm going to bed in about 15 minutes, andI'll be working out tomorrow, god willing!! haha. But I have stayed on plan, no unauthorized snacking.
;)

I wouldn't sweat missed workouts all that much. After all, diet(food) is a good 80% of the weight loss equation.

For what it's worth, I also have an ASD son, (now 18 years) and I remember the raging tantrums like it was yeaterday. One thing we did was buy a mini trampoline and let him jump off his frustrations. I remember many days taking turns jumping with him. He'd jump 50 jumps, I'd jump 50 jumps. I got a work out in, he learned to count and it calmed him down. Of course this was before I went into a total depression and gained 100+ pounds. YIKES!

GLad you got there today! I know even when I don't feel like going once I get there I am ready to HIT IT!

I skip workouts sometimes too when I have absolutely no time. I exercise every day except one, so if I have no time to exercise one day, I make that day my OFF day for exercise. Don't know if I'm making sense, but Sunday is my usual off day. If I am too busy Saturday, I make Saturday my off day that week and exercise Sunday and get back on track.

I have 2 ASD kids and while we don't have many night issues, many hours of my day are devoted to their various issues/therapies and as we all know, there are already just not enough hours in the day. If I miss a workout one day, I often do lenghten the next day's, but sometimes I just call it one of those days and move on. Persistance, not perfection; JMO, but if it's not a regular thing and you're eating well, get right back with the exercise the next day and you'll be fine.

Lori Bell & Loreedee as you know its so easy to let a child with special needs dominate every moment of the day. My son also has eating issues, so a lot of my day is trying to make sure he's eating enough to stay a healthy weight and doesn't lose weight. Also there are a lot of anxiety issues, and what is seeming to be OCD and ODD, but he's only 3 1/2 so its still be coming evident, if that's the words I'm looking for. My son had EI until he turned 3 and now he gets therapy in a social setting. We are lucky that he is very bright, and really his deficites are social, behavioral (ODD), and like I said, what seems to be OCD/ anxiety type stuff....and of course sleep. But that bothers my husband and I more than anyone else.

Even when I get up in the morning to treadmill, my son will sometimes stand there and scold me to stop. And he will do this the whole time. I'd tried redirecting him, to another activity or room, telling him that this is mommy's time so I can be a better mommy, I've tried giving him more attention afterwards thinking he felt neglected, but when he is set on me getting off the treadmill, he will stay there and continue to yell for me to stop. It doesn't cause a melt down (thank goodness) , its seems more like a need to control his environment. It doesn't even seem to make him anxious, but more angry. So, I put on my ipod (ear buds) and do my work out. What else can I do? Its draining to feel like my entire life is controlled by my son. It would be so much easier to just get off the treadmill and eat away my feelings. Like I used to do.
I don't, but everyday is a struggle. I don't want to use my son as an excuse to stay over weight and unhealthy. And I felt like I was doing that.

One of the things I definitely have on my side is that mine are school aged. Sometimes I do have to go into the school during the day, whether to pick them up or just sit with one of them (they're in SpEd, but stuff still comes up) so I do have those "empty" hours of the day, but since my time is solely for my kids when they're here, I spend the time while they're at school doing everything else, cleaning, working, errands, etc. Plus I'm a single parent, so...I totally understand how difficult it can be. I guess I'm lucky, when I exercise, mine do it with me! Or amuse themselves. But while my son's not so bad, my daughter gets into everything and still requires a fair amount of redirecting and I believe she has OCD as well. Her tantrums are out of this world when she really gets frustrated, and she does this serious hand wringing thing that makes me believe she'll break a finger one day, so anytime she does it, I have to stop what I'm doing immediately no matter what, and this can happen several dozen times a day. Believe me, I completely get it, it's hard to make time for yourself, or to even want to really when you're so wrapped up in caring for them, but of course, we need to take care of ourselves too. Do what you're doing, put in your earphones and go for it; you say he's not really melting down or anything so it certainly won't hurt anything. Or get up earlier than he does, plop him in a stroller and walk around the neighborhood, whatever it takes. My kids' issues control my world too, but I know I have to make time for me and I do that.

Laureedee, :hug::hug: Because when people don't have children with ASD (or don't know someone closely with an ASD child) they don't seem to get it. Along with the daily challenges of parenting these spirited kids, it seem like people are more likely to judge than accept. And the catch 22 is the more mild ASD, the higher functioning they are, (which is a blessing) but the less people support you because they "look fine" . Eh, maybe I'm wrong, but that's been my experience with my son. So when I meet another parent that knows I just want to give :hug: for being a strong person.

Part of the reason I started exercising was to relieve stress. :dizzy:

:hug: to you too glamour. My son is one of those higher functioning kids. To look at/spend time with him, a lot of people who aren't too familiar with ASD kids would never know there's anything wrong with him unless they spent a long time talking to him (speech issues) or they happened to make him mad, lol. In that sense, people (including my family, grr) want to treat him as a "normal" kid and expect that I have a "normal" time with him. SOOOO not the case. Not to mention the ones that like to think your kid's just a big ole spoiled brat :mad: My mother is constantly telling me that my daughter's going to be a huge diva when she gets older; she can't seem to get it through her head that it's my daughter's issues, not her attitude, that make her act that way.

Exercise definitely helps with my stress!

Omg, my father thinks the same thing! That I need to tell my son his behavior is "unacceptable" ...oh I don't think I'll ever stop laughing at that. As if it were that simple! He says that I have caused the issues, INCLUDING the speech delays he had, and eating issues, like gagging and choking, which was related to low oral motor tone and sensory issues combined.
And my DS is high fuctioning also. My father just does not get it. He has no desire to read on the subject or talk to any of my son's therapists or doctors.
I too, am so tired of people just thinking my son is a brat. One of my coworkers, who is such a nice woman, her son has CP, but her nephew is high functioning ASD. Her and I share a lot about our lives with each other, including what its like raising our children. And she also understands because she sees her sister's struggles with her nephew. And she tells me how their parents think her sister is making it all up. Well, my coworker actually said to me that she really feels for parents of ASD children, because, and she said this, not me " people can see my son has challenges, family, friends and even strangers give me help, support and are very understanding. But as with my nephew, he looks completely fine. My sister still has the challanges of raising a special needs child, but instead she does it with out support from most of our family or friends, critisizing, and judgement from people. Its so alienating for her."

I dont ever wish that my son had a different obstacle to overcome, because ASD is what he's been delt, but I must say, my coworker was right.