Sensible Fitness: How Can a Busy Mom Get Time for Fitness?
Written by Doug Gibson, on 11-08-2008 19:44
Sensible Fitness: How Can a Busy Mom Get Time for Fitness?
If you’re a mom, you know how to get things done for everyone else, but chances are, you don’t take care of you. Our fitness guru has some tips for fitting fitness into your busy-mom schedule.
Question:
I am 45-years-old, overweight, with high blood pressure and borderline diabetes. Being a mother of three and working part-time, I don't have free time for myself to exercise. I want to be here to play with my grandchildren someday and need practical things that I can do besides the usual "diet and exercise." —
Kathryn
Answer:
Kathryn, you are a classic example of the type of mentality that drives me crazy! Absolutely no disrespect intended, but there are red flags waving in your face yet I perceive that you are not willing to prioritize an exercise program. This is maddening for me. What are you thinking!? I will most certainly give you some practical ideas of what you can do besides "diet and exercise," but this will be like putting a little band-aid on a severed leg.
I am going to be very direct Kathryn. Again no disrespect is intended, but many others are probably in your same situation, and I feel that giving you a sugar-coated response would not emphasize the urgency of your situation. The attitude that I perceive from your e-mail is concerning for me because I do not see this being an attitude of success.
You will not succeed without a healthy diet and exercise. And if you try to do it with diet alone, you will not succeed. If you don"t believe me, ask anyone who has successfully lost considerable weight and kept it off. So I will give you some practical tips toward a more healthy lifestyle, but by no means do I want you to think this is a cure-all.
Park farther away at the store and walk. I do this to avoid door-dings in my car but do not see many overweight people parking in the boonies with me.
Skip the free food samples at the grocery store. I thought a rock star was at the grocery store because of the mass of people gathering. No, it was free pizza samples and the ones sampling did not need the extra calories.
Walk your grocery cart back to the cart corral. My general observation is that those who leave their cart in the lot are the same ones that need to burn the extra calories.
Take the stairs instead of the elevator. I worked at a hospital-based weight loss center, and it was like pulling teeth trying to get clients to take the stairs even though they were paying more than $100 per week to lose weight.
Observe others! Look at what thin people are eating at restaurants or what they put in their grocery carts or what they do with their spare time. Start behaving like a thin person!
Make new habits! Start off by walking with your kids for 15 minutes after supper — rain or shine — and increase the duration if able. Quiz your children on their homework to kill two birds with one stone.
You may have heard some of these suggestions before, but are you doing them? You must realize that every choice you make, from where you park your car to what goes into your mouth, not only impacts you, your fitness and your health, but it also affects your children, who are learning lifestyle habit from you.
I mentioned that you have red flags waving in your face. These are warning signals that I refer to as "wake-up calls." Your body, or God above, is trying to tell you something, and you need to answer the call. I have attached an appropriate segment from my TV program that has hit home with many. Your phone is ringing Kathryn, answer it!
Click here or on the play button below to see a link to the Sensible Fitness TV show:
