Exercising Around My Kids

This week's Family Search question is: What would you want your friends and family to learn about making and achieving goals from your example?

The thing that I have learned about goals that I would want to pass on to others is that it's a good idea to frequently review the plan we have created and make any necessary changes. The example I am going to use is my health goal for each year.

Last year, for my 2016 resolutions, my health goal was to lose all of the weight gained from my pregnancy with Luna and fit into size 10 pants. I accomplished the weight loss by June of last year, and I was in size 10 pants by October! It was a very exciting and successful year for me.

This year, for my 2017 resolutions, my health goal is to exercise a minimum of 3 days a week, and to move up from the beginner's level to the next level on my exercise videos.

Due to Benjamin, Luna, and I being together all day long, I had to pick a time to exercise that would work for all three of us. And I have learned over the past two years that that time will continuously change as my kids grow and develop.

When I was pregnant with Luna I exercised at night after putting Benjamin to bed. During the last month of my pregnancy Benjamin started coming out of his room to "exercise" with me. I can't remember when, but sometime in between Luna being born, and me being ready to exercise again, I read an article about how beneficial it is to allow/encourage your kids to exercise with you, even if they can't do it exactly right. So, I decided to start exercising in the morning so that Benjamin could join me. I would put Luna in her baby swing, and everything was fine, at first.

Benjamin really struggled to understand to give me a safe distance during this first attempt at exercising with my kids. He learned some pretty painful lessons about why I asked him not to try to hug my legs while exercising. Shortly after Benjamin learned to "exercise" in his part of the room, Luna's feeding and sleeping schedule changed (she was about 4 months old). This change made exercising in the morning difficult, so after a while of not feeling like I was getting anything out of it, I switched back  to exercising at night after bedtime.

Exercising at night is not my favorite thing to do, but I've always done it because it's what has worked best with my past schedules. When Luna's feeding and sleeping schedule changed again (babies do that frequently during their first year), I decided to try exercising in the morning again. I remember she was crawling so she was at least six months old, but she was crawling well, so maybe more like nine months old. Benjamin was better behaved, so no more problems with him.

It was really fun at first. Luna would crawl all over me when I was laying on the floor to do my ab workouts and stretches. Benjamin liked to crawl under me any time my body made a "tunnel". After a while Luna mastered climbing up onto the couches, but she couldn't get down. I couldn't fully focus on exercising when I was worried about her couch climbing. And if she wasn't climbing the couch, she wanted me to hold her; which couldn't happen so then she would cry, and put all of us in a bad mood. So, once again I went back to exercising at night.

For the past six months I have been exercising at night. It was going well for quite some time. Then, in December Luna's sleeping schedule started to change, again. For most of last year, Benjamin would wake up around 7:00 am, and he would wake me and Luna up. I would get him some breakfast, put a movie on, feed Luna, and then Luna and I would go back to bed. During the month of December, Luna slowly stopped taking that morning nap, and by the start of January she was completely done with taking a morning nap and now she only takes an afternoon nap. That also means, I no longer get a morning nap. :(

Since the new year, I have struggled with exercising at night. I'm just so tired, and there are many things I wait to do until after the kids are in bed, like grocery shopping. Also, now on Tuesday nights I get together with some girl friends and we watch The Bachelor on Hulu (go ahead, laugh at me). Because of all of that, I have only exercised one night a week for all of January.

So this week, I decided to once again, go back to exercising in the mornings. Both Benjamin and Luna are at an age and development that it's fun for everyone! I'm sure this won't be the last time my exercising schedule changes, but as long as I remain flexible to the changes around me and apply this to my other goals as well, I will be successful in achieving my goals and enjoying the process at the same time.