Exercise With Your Child Week on August, 2024: How do I motivate myself to exercise?

Exercise With Your Child Week 2024. National Exercise With Your Child Week Family Fitness Kick-Off ... National Exercise With Your

The best (and safest) exercise is still just plain walking... With all those kids, it would be great if you could go for nice walk even a couple of days a week.

Suggestions to help for walks:

-- If you wish to take the children with you and they seem to be making too much trouble for you or are moving too slow, you could ask someone to babysit them for a good half hour for you.

-- You could also find a nice place to go to, having the children focus on a park to go to or a relative to visit can help keep them moving forward with a smile. And it will give you a good rest pause halfway the walk.

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I would however advise to have a cellphone handy the first few weeks in case you need a ride back home. After all the children may get really tired if you take them to a fun place like a park, and while carrying them home would be a good workout, you would never want to repeat this proces! At the same time, you may get really tired yourself. Don't force yourself if you can barely walk, go home, have a nice hot drink with the family and relax. Some people say to push yourself to the limit, but "feeling the burn" will not motivate you, while feeling your heart pound and your muscles warming you through the cold will end up feeling nice and refreshing.

-- You could make some of these walks a special walk just for your oldest or middle child... Give them a little half hour once or twice a week that you spend just with them, even if you just walk 15 mins to go buy them an icecream or chocolate milk at a bar, sit around for a bit, then walk home again.

-- If there's nothing you can think of that is close enough to walk to even once a month, find a place you can drive to, but park a bit away fromt he place you are going to. It may feel a little silly at first, but don't feel bad about getting fresh air.

suggestions in general:

-- Know that you are doing great already! Eating right is a really good start and you are obviously wanting to do it right while still being the best mom for your kids. Be proud!

-- You should know that in a way, you already have a lot of motivation. You sound like you really want to get moving, you just can barely move once those three little bundles are done for the day, your energy is all gone.

-- A good time to exercise is early in the morning, as soon as you get up. This gets your metabolism going right away, so it starts burning fat before you have even eaten. If you feel up for it, this is a good time to quickly do a douzen sit-ups or similar exercises before your brain wakes up and realises what you're doing. ;-)

-- For some people having a reward ready for the end of the week or month does help. You could plan a nice meal, outing or even a long relaxing bath for yourself. Giving yourself permission to have this reward if you meet a goal like for example working out about 20 mins per day (or 2 hours spread over the entire week). If you feel you haven't met your goal, but have tried, a secondary, smaller reward is still in order.

-- Start slow. When I first started exercising, I could barely handle 5 minutes on a stairmaster or 10 minutes on a treadmill, I was so out of shape! It takes a while for your body and muscles (and mind) to get used to a repeated exercise. Take your time to go as far as you can, be proud of going that far to begin with, and know that in time your energy level will rise.

-- Find someone who's willing to join you, suffering together makes you feel a little better about it. And having someone who can make you laugh makes you feel happy in general and you won't feel so bad about exercising or being in a gym.

-- Find a distraction.

- have somewhere to go for walks/jogging/biking

- music with a nice steady rythm

- company to talk and laugh with

- a small reward to look forward to such as: a visit, a movie, a shower/bath/sauna, some time for yourself, ...

Exercise for couples with kids?

Making exercise a priority is a challenge for everyone. And for parents it can be especially difficult to find time to workout because of the full plates that they often juggle. When summer arrives the juggling act becomes even more tricky with kids home from school and involved in extracurricular activities.

But, finding time for regular physical activity is so important that it should be a priority placed on your calendar, just like your kids’ softball game. A parent needs to exercise not only for themselves, but also for their kids benefit. It’s important to set a good example. If your children never see you engage in fitness or if they hear you complain about working out, then they are going to have a negative image of exercise. Let them know that you workout to stay healthy, to be strong and to have more energy and stamina (so you can keep up with them)!

The big question is how to make it a priority that fits in your schedule. Well, it’s actually easier than you may think. With a little planning you can find ways to incorporate workouts into the time you spend with your children. Regardless of what age your children are, there’s a way to find time to workout (often even with your kids)! Here are some tips based on the age of your children.

Age: Infant through pre-school

Fit in exercise time while they are napping. Try a home exercise video, walking or jogging (if you have a treadmill), jumping rope.

Occupy them for even 15 minutes with a video or toy while you do some toning exercises like squats and tricep dips.

Grab your stroller and go for a brisk walk*. Or, buy a jogging stroller for more flexibility. With a jogging stroller you can walk faster, jog or even run at a fast pace. And, for veteran rollerbladers, you can even use the stroller for some skating time.

For younger children, you can use a back carrier to transport them while walking. This can burn even more calories as the extra weight makes it more challenging.

Turn on some music and dance together. Toddlers love dancing, especially when their parents joins in.

Push your kid on a swing. And, after every push complete one squat.

Use an infant carrier or bike trailer to enjoy a bike ride together.

Age: Grade School

Try rollerblading or skating together.

Spend an afternoon at a park with a playground, but don’t spend the whole time relaxing on the sidelines – join in on the fun. Spend some time swinging to help workout your legs. Try making it across the monkey bars – even just once (it’s a great upper body workout and you’ll be amazed that your kid does it with such little ease). Try some pull-ups using a bar on the playset. Do some tricep dips on a nearby park bench.

Play catch with a ball or get a small group together for a kickball or softball game.

Make Saturdays family bike outing day.

Involve your kids while you strength train. Let them count your reps out loud for you and/or clock your rest time in-between sets.

For pool outings, don’t just spend time soaking up the sun. Walk back and forth in shallow water while your kids have fun splashing about.

On rainy days that force you inside, walk or run up and down the stairs. You might even make it a contest to see who can finish 5 complete rounds first.

Age: Teenagers

Register for a fun run (or walk) event and spend time together training for the event.

Purchase a family gym membership and workout together weekly.

Play tennis or basketball together.

Consider joining a community volleyball or softball team that includes enthusiasts of all ages.

Don’t just sit and cheer your kids at their sporting events. Every few minutes do some walking or jumping jacks or squats.

Implement a daily family walk each day before or after dinner.

Work together in the yard raking leaves, planting flowers, trimming trees.

So, with all the above recommendations, you no longer have the “I’m a parent – I don’t have time to workout” excuse. If you implement these activities for just 30 minutes three times per week, you can easily burn an extra 450 calories or more! Plus, working out sets a great example for your children that will teach them at an early age how important (and easy) it is to make physical fitness a part of daily life. Exercising with your kids also provides the extra bonus of spending quality time together.

*For a complete stroller workout plan, visit:

Exercise???

Losing weight (or maintaining weight) isn't so much about exercising, though that's certainly helpful... it more about counting calories. If you take in fewer than you expend, you lose weight, and vice-versa. Here's a little tool I've prepared that might help:

Here’s all you need to lose weight and get healthy. First, you have to realize there is no quick, long lasting weight loss plan or pill that is going to do the trick. It’s purely mental. You have to learn to “Eat to live, don’t live to eat”. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? It is, if you understand that you are going to be reprogramming how you think about eating for the next few weeks. Old habits die hard, right? Not really. You get rid of bad habits by replacing them with good habits. If you learn to count your calories, keep calorie intake lower than output, exercise moderately, and eat only healthy food, you will lose weight. That’s a fact. All it takes is repetition. All success stories have this in common: The successful folks among us know how to be patient, persistent, and consistent. Set a goal and stick with it. The benefits of feeling good will outweigh any sense of sacrifice you might feel about having to push away that cake and ice cream. Here are some helpful and healthy links to help you get started on your way: