By B.M. Garrett, author at i Diet & Fitness.
If you are a “stay at home mom” you might envy your neighbor who is off to work every morning. You know the one that lives down the street and carries workout clothes in a designer gym bag so she can go to her fitness workout right after work. You wish that you had the opportunity to fit a workout into your busy day to day schedule and increase your own physical fitness. You know, you just might have more of an opportunity to work out than she does. All you have to do is create opportunities for yourself to start a home grown fitness program.
If you are a stay at home mom then you already know that one of the most fun endeavors that kids want to have is staying outdoors. Here’s the ideal opportunity to take them out and get a workout in for you. Instead of jumping into the car and driving to the market, get a bike seat or a tow behind buggy for the little one and ride a bicycle to the market or to pay bills. It might take a little longer, but you will be increasing your fitness in an aerobic exercise and the little one will love being outside. By getting your exercise in you are also helping the environment out by not driving the car.
If you are on the floor with the baby, you have an excellent opportunity to get some weight training in to help your fitness along. Lie on your back and lift the baby up five or six times. Take a short break and repeat that set. You don’t have to go to the gym to lift a 15 or 20 pound weight, you have one that you love right at home. Making the baby “fly” will also be emotionally satisfying to you since the giggles and laughter produced by the baby will readily become evident. Also, having a happy baby increases the mother’s mental fitness to deal with the day to day stresses at home.
Doing laundry provides another opportunity for a weight training workout. Once the laundry basket is filled, Pick it up in your arms and do squats with the additional weight. Even if you only do 5 squats each time you pick up the laundry basket, multiply that by the number of loads of laundry you do each week. In case you have not kept track of the count, the average household does 400 loads of laundry each year. Who needs to go to the gym for fitness training when the laundry waits?
Preparing meals is another opportunity for a short workout. When you take the roast out of the freezer to thaw do some arm curls with the roast in your hand. Once again, you’ve been provided a weight that you don’t have to pay a gym fee to use. Every time you pick up anything that weighs a pound or more, you have an opportunity to do some weight training. Whether you will use curls, presses or squats, enjoy the moment and do just a little bit of exercise to help increase your fitness.
If some or all of your children are in school another workout opportunity arises. When dropping them off or picking them up, stay late or arrive early so that you can walk along the track of the school. If you approach the school administration chances are that they won’t object to you using the track. Walking is one of the best aerobic fitness exercises that does not cost anything. You might just find other mom’s that use the facility and make some new friends.
The simple fact that you are a “stay at home” mom provides you an unlimited number of exercise opportunities that you can perform at no cost. All it takes is a little imagination and everyone knows that “stay at home” moms have an overabundance of that. Determining the exercises and performing them on a regular basis will increase both your physical and mental fitness.
