Dear Heather,
I’m exhausted. I confess, I don’t like exercising. I do it because I need to do it and because I read blogs like yours that promote all the wonderful things that exercise can do for you. I want exercise to do all those wonderful things for me. But I have four children, the youngest is turning a year old next month and the oldest is finishing up the fifth grade at the same time.
My husband works and is often gone for 12 to 14 hours a day. I never stop moving, from the moment I get up until the moment I go to bed. The only way for me to exercise is to join a fitness club with a day care (since my youngest two are at home with me) or get up even earlier than I do to go and workout before my husband leaves.
I’ve tried the latter and I barely get four hours of sleep at night now, this cuts into that by thirty to forty-five minutes. I’m exhausted – what can I do?
-Worn Out
Dear Worn Out,
Four kids are enough to keep you hopping without a gym membership. You need your sleep and if you’re only getting four hours of sleep each night, then that is not enough. First and foremost, you need to adjust your schedule as you can to get a few more hours of sleep each night. Sleep is an important part of getting into shape, more important than some people may realize.
Daily exercise doesn’t need to happen in a gym. In fact, if you can walk your older children to school – that’s exercise. If you want to take the baby out for a walk or take your youngest two to the park (depending on their ages) you can do walking circuits around the park while they play.
Exercise is important and it can help you achieve your goals, but your first priority needs to be your wellness as a parent and sleep is paramount to that. The 10,000 steps a day program may contain goals that are achievable for you without leaving you exhausted. A pedometer isn’t a huge investment and it can keep track of the steps you make whether it’s going back and forth to the washing machine, taking the kids outside to play, walking through the grocery store or the mall. Wear a pedometer for a few days, measure your steps. Then make a conscious effort to add 200 to 500 steps extra each week until you reach 10,000 steps a day.
You get the payoff of achieving goals and that is a real mood booster. Don’t put an overwhelming amount of pressure on yourself to conform to a fitness program that you read about it. Instead, concentrate on what you can do and what helps you – not hurts you further. Take it one day at a time and get some sleep – no fitness program you attempt will do you much good if you’re too exhausted to even do it.
Good luck.
For more fitness questions and answers, check out our previous Dear Heathers.
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