High Maintenance Mom

I remind myself several times a week to slow down and sometimes, several times a day! But it is really a good idea in our overly rushed and activity driven world to just.....stop. After my first child was born I was coming right off a full time job, a full time career. I worked 10 hours a day and 6 days a week and enjoyed my busy, crazy life. It took me over 4 months to come down from that "high" and really focus on my new baby and the slow pace of life.....

Fitness is not an easy thing to maintain as a parent of small children. We all have good intentions but they seem to fall by the wayside after an exhausting day or at 5:30 in the morning when all you want to do is sleep. May is National Fitness Month and you don't have to join a gym or hire a personal trainer to maintain your personal fitness or show your children how important fitness is. There are many web sites that encourage family fitness (www.fitness.gov, http://kidshealth.org and www.mayoclinic.com) but all it really takes is some creativity....

I love my Nintendo Wii Fit. The yoga helps center me, the strength training, which I originally thought was too easy, is slowly increasing my strength, the aerobics exercises have become a workout, and the balance games continue to cause my kids to laugh uncontrollably. Who knew how much fun it would be for the kids to watch me being hit by one panda or shoe after another as I dodged the soccer balls by mistake. My favorite part is seeing family members on my runs or doing a step routine. The kids will call out, "hey look there's Granny" as I'm running. It feels like I'm running with all my friends and family, at 6:30 in the morning...

Now that my son is too heavy for a front carrier and isn't walking just yet, we need another way to carry him around. The stroller is great for walking around the neighborhood but sometimes I need something that allows me to maneuver in smaller places and also handle my almost 3 year old daughter. Enter the backpack!...

The burpee is a classic exercise that works your whole body. It does not require a lot of space or time so it's great for those of us who want something quick and effective. There are several versions of the burpee but my favorite is the following...

WHAT IS "PLASTIC SURGERY"?

The word “plastic” derives from the Greek word “Plastikos”, which means to mold or change form. Plastic surgery involves both reconstructive procedures and cosmetic surgery.

“Cosmetic surgery” is plastic surgery designed to improve the appearance of the body or counteract the effect of aging. It can often improve body image, self-esteem and help to restore a more youthful appearance.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying the weekend. We went camping, where we took our holiday picture, and returned to a traditional Thanksgiving meal prepared by our friends at Whole Foods. I missed the smell of turkey cooking in the house but I made the HMM cranberry jello and the kids still love it. Although I haven't completed a full workout yet this week, I've been trying to fit in small amounts of exercise and stretching whenever possible. Here are a few links to previous exercise posts for quick activities to add to your day: Stretch of the day plus yoga, standing with a neutral spine, Evening leg lifts, How to Exercise While Recovering From Caesarean Birth, Workout routines for your iPod or MP3 player, and You may be exercising more than you think... (some research shows that thinking you are exercising more really does make a difference so congratulate yourself and keep up the good work!).

A few years ago I bought the The New York City Ballet Workout Book: Fifty Stretches and Exercises Anyone Can Do for a Strong, Graceful, and Sculpted Body. It's a beautiful book with beautiful dancers showing off exercises that look so natural it's easy to imagine that if you follow the book, you too will look so beautiful. Since I did ballet a long time ago, I have fond memories of taking classes and even fonder memories of having great posture and a great strength to weight ratio (I was also ten but we can pretend it was all because of the ballet). Although I exercise now, I do not stretch nearly enough and I've been looking for new ways to motivate myself to stretch. I'm not sure how I missed the DVDs (the New York City Ballet: Complete Workout 1 & 2 (2pc) is now available) but I happily bought them once I was aware of their existence. I have disk two with me on my trip and have to admit it's a higher quality DVD than disk one...

Remember the President's Fitness Challenge from grade school? Now you can join other moms in the classic program to win an award with the Presidential fitness seal. As an adult you can choose from several challenges depending on your fitness level (the Active Lifestyle program is for those of us trying to get 30 minutes/day five days/week whereas the Presidential Champions program is for anyone who works out more). If you want your child to join, they can participate in the "Get It In Gear" program sponsored by Trek bicycles...

During breast feeding I kept track of everything I ate along with the kids' feeding schedules, naps, and diaper changes. It might sound a "little" neurotic but the kids' logs were useful when I was so sleep deprived I didn't know what was going on, plus it made it easier to identify patterns. Sleeping five hours in a night is a good pattern in the beginning. Now I'm back to being interested in my own patterns and I'd like to have an answer to my doctor's question from last week about how much I exercise other than, "not as much as I would like"...