Navy Veteran, Trainer, & Toddler Mom Lisa on Fitting in Fitness

Helping mom work from home

I am a full-time, work-from-home Mom, so I am up early with my 3-year-old son and we are out the door each morning at 8:30am. We are a busy, active family, so we usually start with a scheduled class for Mason and then run the errands for the day. We go to the gym, dry cleaners, grocery store, car wash... you name it. And we are home in the early afternoon for lunch and work. I work while Mason has some down time, we prep dinner together, and then we try to get out to do something fun for an hour or so while we wait for Dad to come home.

Four days each week, we make it to Parent Bootcamp (a group fitness class where you can bring your kids) at the local YMCA. If that doesn't fit in my schedule, I wake up early and make it to the gym and home again before my husband has to leave for work, or I take the dog for a run in the evening just before our family sits down to dinner. When the weather is nice, I drag both my son and the dog running with me!

I didn't become interested in fitness until college. I was working full-time and going to school full-time, and while adding something else to your schedule doesn't seem like what a person needs... a stop at the gym to start the day or between classes was EXACTLY what I needed to stay focused and grounded. After college I joined the military and haven't left the gym since.

I am a better person when I am working out consistently; I am more patient, energetic, and positive. I feel better about myself and walk around with my head held higher. The best part is that my son now asks to go to the gym every day, and I know he is building healthy habits that will last him a lifetime!

Making fitness a family affair

Absolutely not! If I miss a day I'm groggy and lethargic. If I miss MORE than a day... then I have to get back on track by doing something active and different, like running a trail I've never run before. And I'm reminded that the effort to stay on the wagon is well worth the payoff.

Even 15-20 mins of exercise will make ALL the difference in the world. Wake up 20 mins earlier to get your heart rate up, and you will start to "find" time everywhere else in your day to feel that good again.

Start with 20 mins in the morning, or RIGHT after work. Bring sneakers to work, you don't even have to change your clothes, but walk 10 mins away from your car and then walk 10 mins back before you drive home. Your body, your brain, your family will thank you!

"Do it anyway."

Don't have time? Do it anyway. It makes you uncomfortable? Do it anyway. It's hard? Do. It. Anyway.

9. Leave us with some added inspiration (doesn’t have to be related to fitness).

There are so many things in life that are "hard." Just do the hard things that pay off in the end. Getting up early to workout, eating right, putting yourself first... it's all HARD. But feeling unhealthy and unhappy with yourself, and guilty, that's hard too. Exercise and nutrition are hard one choice at a time. Wishing you had made a DIFFERENT choice... that's hard ALL the time.

Getting ready for a workout