Working out has never been something that I would priority on, well okay let's be honest working out doesn't make it on my to do list for the day. But recently I had gotten really sick (hospitalized sick) that made me really rethink my whole lifestyle. Albeit eating healthy for myself and my family has always been important. I made it a priority to cook/prepare healthy foods for my family. I never for a second thought about fitness being important. But now more than ever besides eating healthy, fitness has become very important. I want to be around for a long time to see my kids grow up and grow old with my husband. So I have been doing lots of different fitness things and testing them to see which one would work for me and my family.
We are so fortunate to live in here on the West Coast (Vancouver) were the weather is beautiful for most of the year. Not only that there are so many beautiful parks, with large tracks, free outdoor workout areas that have weight machines, treadmills, elliptical machines and so much more that I have been lucky enough to take advantage of. And especially with two kids and my husband works a lot, I'm usually alone with the kiddos and with that in mind I have had to be creative with my workouts and taking the kiddos along with me.
Believe it or not the kids have so much fun at these outdoor workout areas. And we literally have on just 10 minutes from our house which I have used quite a bit. The kiddos get right into it with me, like while I was running across the steps my little guy jumped in right with me. We ended up spending a whole hour there, just jumping around and playing around with the equipment and I got a great workout out of it. Besides these great outdoor workout spaces, you could definitely take advantage of the playground. While the kids are busy playing on the slides and monkey bars, I've used the monkey bars to do pull ups and did laps around the playground to get my cardio in. And the not so nice days, I would whip out my Jillian Michaels workout DVDs and there are so many out there. Or you could even just go on YOUTUBE and type in your desired workouts and literally you get thousands of options to choose from. I usually go with 30 minute workouts and find the one that suits my time/needs for the day.
Besides working out outside, on the not to nice days, take advantage of your local community centres that have great mommy and me workout classes. And the bonus not only are you working out with your kiddos there with you, you'll also meet other mommies and who knows make some great friendships. I'd also check out your local mommy magazines as well, they always have great advertisements in them of local workout groups for moms like here in BC we have so many great options like a group called Shop n' Stroll and Salsa babies are great places to workout and get to other moms. But what I would love for you mamas or moms to be to get out of this is that if you put your mind to it and make it a priority you'll find a way to make it work. As you can see the kiddos enjoyed working out with me, they got right into using the machines and even helped me make it a fun time, instead of something I just wanted to get over with.
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