Motivation help or schedule? SAHMs help!

[BelleVie]

Just started week 3 of LiveFit, love working out, but lacking motivation to start the sessions, LOL

I'm a stay at home mom, oldest in school 5 days a week, youngest in Pre-k 2 days a week. After usual household chores/garden and yard work, I'm exhausted. Diet is ok, stay close to 1400-1600 cal a day via MyFitnessPal, doing ok on Protien, etc..but just TIRED all the time.

Been waiting on Hubby to workout when he gets home from work (around 6:00)...but it's crazy then with cooking dinner/kids baths/bedtime and I'm so distracted I barely finish a whole session in 2.5 hours!

Hubby likes for me to work out with him, and I like it too...but beginning to wonder if I should just schedule a certain time of the day for my workout and then maybe do cardio/elliptical while he's doing his? Nice to spend time together and it's a great mood booster doing it at the same time, but it just feels like it's not working out so great for me...especially since I get a huge energy burst after workout and can't sleep well then.

Sounds like I made my decision, but wondering what others think, and possibly what you do if you are a SAHM?

[mrshester]

Hi! I'm a SAHM mom right now as well My hubby isn't going to the gym right now, so I typically wait until he gets home and then I'll go to the gym. If he's going to be later than 6, I'll see if his grandparents would like to watch him till one of us gets home (I haven't gotten a "no" yet, lol). We've only got the one child so far, so it may be more difficult with more little ones, but once a week I try to cook up enough chicken or make sure I have enough leftovers so that if hubby gets hungry before I get back, he can have something to warm up. I am a HUGE fan of the fish that you can bake up in about 15 minutes and the steamable bags of veggies; they even have some with pasta and the "lightly sauced" potatoes are VERY yummy! I try to get to the gym 4 times a week, and the nights I'm home is when I'll put a little more "effort" into dinners. My little guy is still a bit of a night owl, so its usually 12:30 or so before he's down for the night. We have a treadmill, and I'm trying to get motivated to get up in the mornings to use it so I can get home earlier too, but its hard, lol.

[gwnorth]

Another SAHM here, but both my kids are in full day school. I work out at 10:00 am M,T,W,F and hubby works out after work M,W,F. One day on the weekend (usually Sat) we work out together at home. I drop the kids off at school, go to the gym, take a protein shake with me to have after my workout, shower, and then either run errands or go home to do whatever I need to do. I then pick up the kids from school at 3:30. The days dh works out I feed the kids dinner earlier and then he and I have a latter dinner when he gets home. My kids are 8 and 10 so they are more independent than yours and can fend for themselves a bit. I'm also starting to get them involved in doing some household chores as well.

I will admit that I'm not one for doing a whole lot of housework. I do the groceries, prepare meals, make sure the kitchen is clean, do laundry a couple times a week, and sweep/mop. Everything else is on an as needed basis.

When my kids were younger it was more challenging and I was much more tired. I also did more housework lol. As I get older I've gotten the philosophy that no-one dies thinking "I wish I did more housework" lol.

[momicon]

Just started week 3 of LiveFit, love working out, but lacking motivation to start the sessions, LOL

I'm a stay at home mom, oldest in school 5 days a week, youngest in Pre-k 2 days a week. After usual household chores/garden and yard work, I'm exhausted. Diet is ok, stay close to 1400-1600 cal a day via MyFitnessPal, doing ok on Protien, etc..but just TIRED all the time.

Been waiting on Hubby to workout when he gets home from work (around 6:00)...but it's crazy then with cooking dinner/kids baths/bedtime and I'm so distracted I barely finish a whole session in 2.5 hours!

Hubby likes for me to work out with him, and I like it too...but beginning to wonder if I should just schedule a certain time of the day for my workout and then maybe do cardio/elliptical while he's doing his? Nice to spend time together and it's a great mood booster doing it at the same time, but it just feels like it's not working out so great for me...especially since I get a huge energy burst after workout and can't sleep well then.

Sounds like I made my decision, but wondering what others think, and possibly what you do if you are a SAHM?

I'm a mom of four, ages 3-12 (almost 13!) and all I can suggest is do what works for YOU, it's the only way you're going to enjoy it (and probably stick with it) and hang in there, those crazy busy days are gone before you know it I like your plan of doing some cardio while he's working out, sounds like it will work for you. I also can't sleep if I exercise at night, and moms need their sleep! Plus if you workout earlier you'll probably get a better workout and sleep better.

Personally I usually go to the gym one morning during the week and put my LO in the daycare, go 1-2 days in the afternoon when my eldest gets home and can babysit, and go one day on the weekend. Our weekends are busy but one workout over two days is very do-able, and only using the gym daycare once a week doesn't cost much (plus she really likes it).

[wakechica]

If you want a couple of evenings to work out - why not pre-make the dinner during the morning when kids are at school so you can have a little bit more time to yourself later on? Easy stuff that you can pull out and reheat - spaghettti bolognaise you can pre-cook and freeze; east stuff like that.
Almost worth using your rest day(s) to sort out meals etc for the some of the week to free up more time? Just a suggestion (I'm not a mom, but I know what it's like to be tired). Good luck, I can't imagine it's easy.

[BelleVie]

Thanks ladies....my kids are 7 and 4(5 next month), so they do ok, and our gym equipment is in our garage, so even when they are home, they can play in the yard while I workout. (we live in a very rural area, large yard to play in) Win-win, they get to play and get dirty and mommy gets alone time!

wakechica that's a great idea (meals ahead of time)...could do a few crock pot recipes a week or freezer to oven meals. Used to do that and it was great, but I've been too busy lately to do that. Even if not cook aheads, could do the preparing in the mornings and that way have a clean kitchen still at dinner.

I do use the steam fresh veggie bags occasionally, but have found that unless I've had a good sale and coupon, it's cheaper and tastes better to just do fresh veggies steamed and doens't take but a few more minutes to do along with dinner. We also have a garden, so I have fresh veggies most of the summer months.

[Rowyn]

I often train either early am or late in the evening so that I have that time between school and dinner/bed free to spend with the family. Too much to do with homework and baths and such. If I train early in the am, I may hang out with my husband when he trains in the evening (he does it after kids are in bed).

[sonti]

I have a baby jail in my home gym and play Disney Jr. while I work out (my boy is 2). I do it at 6am when he is at his most eager to sit and watch a cartoon. I like to do my chores later on and relax at night so it works for me. Not sure how I'm going to do this with #2 in the picture though

[mrshester]

Thanks ladies....my kids are 7 and 4(5 next month), so they do ok, and our gym equipment is in our garage, so even when they are home, they can play in the yard while I workout. (we live in a very rural area, large yard to play in) Win-win, they get to play and get dirty and mommy gets alone time!

wakechica that's a great idea (meals ahead of time)...could do a few crock pot recipes a week or freezer to oven meals. Used to do that and it was great, but I've been too busy lately to do that. Even if not cook aheads, could do the preparing in the mornings and that way have a clean kitchen still at dinner.

I do use the steam fresh veggie bags occasionally, but have found that unless I've had a good sale and coupon, it's cheaper and tastes better to just do fresh veggies steamed and doens't take but a few more minutes to do along with dinner. We also have a garden, so I have fresh veggies most of the summer months.

I'll have to check my prices, but if it's cheaper to buy fresh, I may have to start doing that! Also jelly of your garden...we're rural too and had a small garden the past couple of years, but being a "new" mom and the only one who really does the garden work, I just didn't have the desire this year :/ We do have a rather large Mennonite community nearby, so I'll probably buy quite a bit from them and freeze or can what I'm able to. There was also a Mennonite lady whose family grew several veggies organic, without organic prices! They were yummy