Mommy Exercises

I have 3 little girls, 7, 5 and 2, and I'm finding it difficult to squeeze any quality exercise into my day. I work full time in an office and my husband is out of town 3-4 nights a week. On the weekends I get up early and run or bike for a couple hours before anyone wakes up. I'm aiming for at least 5 good workouts a week, minimum.

I'm wondering what other mom's do to get in a few workouts around a busy schedule. For that matter, anyone with a packed day!

I only have one little girl (6y.o.) but things I've done with her are walking while she rides her bike or tricycle, depending on the age.  They have those little push tricycles for the smaller kids (your 2 year old) and your 5 & 7 year olds can ride theirs too while mom trots alongside them pushing the little one along.

Another thing I've done (and will be doing again this season) is I taught her how to play badminton and volleyball.  You can team up your 5 & 7 year old to play against you.  You'll get a lot of running out of either.  It also helps with their hand/eye coordination.  Frisbee too.  And baseball.  I started her off kicking the ball instead of hitting it with a bat.  The bat came when she turned 4. 

I hope these help.

edit to add:  BTW, I lost a decent amount of weight last spring/summer and most of what I did were the above with my girl and the a few neighbor kids.

They do help, thank you! I've been trying to get out at night and teach my 5 year old how to ride without training wheels, maybe I should have added that............. :) Doesn't exactly qualify as high-intensity, but it sure doesn't hurt either.

Here's another riddler for ya: What about in the winter? I live in Wyoming and we really only get 3-3.5 months of summer, tops. That's kinda pushing it really. I'd like to take them skiiing or even sledding but on top of the bitter temps, we get an obnoxious amount of wind. Any indoor ideas at all?

I'm just outside of Chicago so I can relate to the bad weather for the majority of the year.  Three things that were big for us over the winter......the exercise ball, the Wii and giant foam puzzle mats.

The exercise ball:  I got a dvd for myself to learn some new exercises over the winter using my exercise ball.  My daughter saw me trying these out and she witnessed me falling ALOT!  She thought it was the funniest thing.  Now (not every single time) she gets into that herself.  I picked up a larger playball and we'll do the dvd together.  She knows it's exercise but because she'll fall off the ball as she is trying and I'll purposely fall off here and there she enjoys and I still get to do some of my exercises.

The Wii:  we hooked up our Wii to the TV that is in the same room as my treadmill.  She knows when I am on my treadmill it is the perfect time for her to play the Wii.  It keeps her busy (and moving) and I get in my cardio while I cheer her on, keep her company, and know she's not getting into trouble.  She bugs me to get on the treadmill so she can play.  She's not allowed to play unless I or dad are monitoring her.

Foam puzzle mats:  This is a jumping thing.  We've organized the mats into a sort of maze.  Think life size Candyland.  We'll shout out colors of squares and we have to try to jump from where we are to the color that is shouted out.  You can really work up a sweat doing this one.  We've also just jumped to every other square to music too.

These are all things I've thought of to keep her active while I've kept myself involved and active as well.

Oh yeah, and aside from the formal exercises I do get in you can easily gauge how much these activities really do burn in calories:

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/search.php?s earch_type=activities&searchpro=playing&a mp;x=33&y=8

Those are all really good ideas. We do a lot of similar things, so I guess I didn't realize how much exercise I was getting without even trying! ha ha, maybe it's all in how you look at it!

My girls LOVE to do yoga with me. For the most part my youngest just crawls around on me and her sisters, but it's instilling good habits all the same which is equally as important to me. I really never noticed how much exercise one could get just playing with the kids. I'm heading to the store to find some of those mats tonight, that's such a good idea! Thank you!

I have two myself, 9 & 4.  I also work fulltime so it's very rough to get the excercise in, I understand that!  I find the easiest is right after I put them to bed I pop in a video or run on my treadmill.  Sometimes I'll prep dinner the night before so I can take them for a walk after I get off work, I put the little one in a stoller which gives me a better workout too! 

It's not intense but my daughter and I do mommy and me yoga.  She's 3 and thinks its the best thing ever. 

 I second spuckine with the dancing.  That will burn some major calories.

I'm a mom of 17, well only 3 of them I gave birth too.  I run a daycare out of my home that is open over 55 hours a week.  My own children are 7, 4, and 4.  I have an older daughter and identical twin boyz.  Last summer and well we've started a little bit of walking/riding bikes to the park that is almost a mile from our house in the evenings after supper. 

I live in ND so I totally get the whole winter issue.  Two winters ago I saved up and bought an elliptical for my basement.  Put the old TV and VCR down there and after I put the kids to bed would spend 45-60 min. 4-6 nights a week on it.  I have also purchased a couple Yoga DVD's and other workouts and all my kids love to try and do them with me.  I also have a ball, a few dumb bells and a couple bands.  This past winter I bought a treadmill and a TV with a built in DVD player.  I also treated myself to Netflix.  I figured I have spent over a year consistently working out, I deserved it.

Since January I have started training for the full marathon.  I do most of my running on the treadmill but get outside at least once a week to run outside.  My kids are looking forward to watching me run and they are going to run there own "marathon."

You need to make the time, you need to look at it this way....You need to be healthy for your kids and you need to set a good example for them.  Sometimes that means putting them to bed early or leaving the kids with Dad for an hour to go for a run/walk.