Finding time to work out

[supenguin]

My whole NF journey hit a bit of a pause this past week. We visited my wife's family for Thanksgiving and then when we got back our two kids (girls aged three and one) both had colds. I've pretty much spent the last two days helping take care of them and have not had much time to do much as far as exercise and eating healthy.

Here's my average day:

get up about 6AM (sometimes hit the SNOOZ button a couple times)

head out for work around 7:30, get there around 8:15 to 8:30. My schedule is somewhat flexible but most mornings I've got meetings starting at 8:30 or 9 AM.

I take a full hour for lunch (I find I pretty much need it to maintain my sanity) and head back home 5:30-ish, arrive home by 6:30 PM

We try for a 9PM bedtime for the kids, but especially the 1 year old often does not go to bed when we want. Often it's 11PM by the time we go to bed and she's still up, so my wife ends up snuggling with her until she falls asleep.

So, I've tried working out after the kids go to bed and that ends up being me working out after 9:30 PM and I have problems sleeping. The other options that seem to work are before work or right after supper.

Thoughts? Ideas? Not sure if this matters, but I'm a computer programmer. I try to get in a walk during the day. I've been trying to alternate running and some kind of other work out. I thought about going to the gym, but that seems like that just adds to the time crunch and never happens.

[msuroo]

I'm on a similar schedule, so I can relate. The time is there, you just have to make it a priority.

For me, it's either before work or after everyone else has gone to bed. It's just tough to get time to myself otherwise. On days I want to work out in the morning, I'll either make sure Mrs Roo can take little man to day care in the morning, or I'll get up 30 minutes earlier so I can drop him off right when the doors open at 6:30. That gives me an hour to workout and I can still get out the door by 8.

Another alternative to the late night workout thing is just to get your family on board (or even involved). Set the expectation that every Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm is exercise time. As the little ones grow up, you can even turn it into a game so that they can take part (take a page out of Crossfit's book and make up some AMRAP or WODs for time games, for example).

This isn't always possible with little ones, but if you can, try and stick to a set routine for a couple weeks. You'll find pretty soon that it's weird when you don't work out, not the other way around.

Anyway, one of my favorite quotes came from one of our posters here (I think it was LRB) - whose mom told her: "Someone busier than you is working out right now."

[Waldo]

Our little one (19 mo) goes to bed by 8, and we eat dinner at 10. In-between is my workout window, though I often have to start dinner in the middle of it.

[Choronodon]

I work out first thing out of bed. It means getting up earlier than I'd like (5AM), but it's the only time that I can reliably work out. Trying to do it after work just doesn't work for me, I'm tired from work, my GF wants to eat, etc etc. But if I roll out of bed, toss my workout clothes on, I can knock out a workout or run by 5:30AM and then relax for a little bit.

In my case it helps that my martial arts studio has classes at 6AM, so on days when they have classes I can throw everything together and head out the door, and on days they don't have classes I just work out at home.

I'll be honest though, it was really rough to get the habit rolling. I probably struggled with it for a year before hitting my stride (cutting out my evening adult beverage helped immensely).

[scb]

I tend to do them early, I drive my mum to work at about 0530 and home by 6, I work out then and have breakfast by the time my step daughter's up(lil horror is always up early) wakes me up nicely and I feel alive for the day, hell on the rare occasions after my workout and the kids are still asleep, I tend to catch up on TV shows I've missed after I've got all the kids clothes ready. It takes a few weeks to get into this routine, but feels so rewarding

[Me_]

Any bedtime works as long as they get all the sleep they nEed which is around 14 hours.

I have a 2 year old and a 2 month old so I know for me they are my weights . We do active play togather. We have been doing pushups over my 2 year old sine she was an infant and now she does pushups! Not real pushups but she tries and it is cute. We do what we call up downs where she is on the floor and - pick her up while in a squat then throw her up in the air while shanding then return her to the floor. She also likes to swim here I pick her up and run around our small house with he laying flat and face down. We do animal games where we try to move like different animals snakes are an army crawl with more wiggling. The key is don't stoP. It does have its challenges my 2 YO likes to crawl under me and sit when I do yoga with her and I am in down dog though now I just lay on her tell she moves dancing is great too the key is down stop moving and give it your all so you don't cut corners and not get a workout. Doing this right when you get home will have your kids so excited every time you get home.

You will have to alternate between the 2 kids for using them as weights but then they get to learn impulse control!

You will also be teaching them that a healty adult is one that is active and loves to play!

[girljen]

I've done the Beginner Bodyweight Circuit while cooking dinner before.  If something's going to be in the oven or on the stove for a while, stay in the kitchen and work out there.

 

There's a link to a playground workout somewhere on here, it's a good one.  You can do it while the kids are at the park.

 

What's your commute like?  Any chance you could walk, bike, take public transportation, or any combination of those?

 

One more thing:  Please do NOT feel guilty about missing workouts to take care of sick babies.  While taking care of you should be a high priority most of the time, when they're feeling awful and both of them are trying to cling to you or Mom and somehow meals and laundry still need to happen and everyone's at their wits end... it is TOTALLY OKAY to go into survival mode.

[alienjenn]

when my kids were littler (they are now 16, 14 and 13) I would set them on the couch and do workout vidoes

[67alecto]

3 kids here, with 3 different schedules.

 

Youngest (4 months) is in daycare, middle child (6) goes to a summer day camp, oldest child (11) goes to a different summer day camp on the opposite side of town.  Drop off and pick-up times are different for each, so my wife and I share them.

 

It all comes down to priorities.  I've been using that mantra for years, and I loved it when Steve addressed in a blog post awhile back.  Clicky-clicky.

 

When I was first starting out, I was typically working out after the kids went to bed.  Like you, I eventually found that it was making it hard to get to bed at a reasonable time.  I tried right after work for awhile, and then all of the times in between.  I'm not a morning person, so working out before work simply isn't going to happen.  

 

I'm willing to bet that you haven't been at this for very long, so it could be that you haven't had time for the habits to take hold.  What worked for me was to eliminate every possible excuse I could, and overtime, it became very hard to skip a workout.  I started out walking around my neighborhood and using resistance bands.  I graduated to hikes and nature walks (kids on the shoulders are a great way to get a workout), and joining a gym.

 

For the gym, I picked one close to my house that was open 24x7.  Excuse that the gym wasn't open: eliminated

When I was working out right after work, I'd sometimes miss because I got delayed going home and getting my workout clothes.  My solution was to pack my gym bag the night before and put it in my car.

Some days, I'd find myself really hungry as work was almost over, so I'd go home to get something to eat and end up taking too long and not going.  My solution was to start packing an afternoon snack.

 

Basically, I reviewed all of the things that I was getting in between me and exercising and did whatever I could to eliminate them ahead of time so I wouldn't have any excuses to cling to.

 

Now, my wife and I have a new gym (not 24x7) that we chose because it has a daycare.  We adjust our workout schedule to fit within those hours and we plan our workouts around the kids' schedule.  Last week, for example, was a Tue/Thu/Sat schedule because we had some appointments on Mon/Wed.  This week, we're on Mon/Wed/Fri because we have a picnic to go to on Thursday.  

[DasBoot]

I'm with 67alecto, I hate working out in the morning. My wife gets the boys to school in the morning, and my commute is far enough that I have to leave so early that getting a workout in before that is unreasonable. Instead, I joined the local YMCA. There's a branch 2 miles from my home, and another 5 miles from my office. I can get a 30 minute workout in during the week on my lunch break. The sacrifice of having to eat lunch around my work is no big deal, since I use my lunch break as a psychological break anyway, and working out makes that happen.

 

Then on the weekend, I hit the one nearest our house and take the kids with me, because they offer childcare. What's better, is that the childcare is only offered during a few hours in the morning, so it forces me to use that morning time as workout time if I want to get a workout in. Plus, the kids love the play time they get there, and there are classes and other things I can take advantage of if I choose to. It just comes down to making time for it, and realizing that whatever you sacrifice to make time for your workout is probably not as valuable to you as your workout will be in the long run.

[El Exorcisto]

Here's your answer... If you can't find the time for two exercises on alternating days, put the kids to bed a half hour earlier.

 

 

I have the luxury of being home all day 4 days a week, so most of my working out gets done while my daughter naps. Shes at the sitter on days that I work, so I have time alone to knock it out before I leave. My wife was having issues with motivation after a long day at work. Now that I have her 30 lbs away from her bodyweight deadlfting, motivation isn't her problem at all. She puts our daughter to bed around 8:45 and then trains. She ends up falling over into bed around 10:00. We're both doing Stronglifts.