Hey Fitness Friends,

Yesterday I had this great plan of action in my head for my workout routine. My husband recently moved our weight room around and I needed him to plug in my treadmill before he left for the gym early morning. Which he did not. So, I slept in and fell back to my plan B: Take the girls for a run in the double jogging stroller. I was really hoping for a good 3-4 mile run. I was just feeling the itch. I think it’s this weather. It reminds me of my countless summers training for Cross country season.

I literally unloaded the girls. I had to go to the bathroom. The whole first half-mile was me a twenty week pregnant women sprinting to a bathroom with both kids in tow. It was downhill from this point on. after 1 mile of running I had to go to the bathroom again. Ava my oldest demanded to run on the track. Amelia then climbs out of the stroller and we all are running. The kids had fun and I started to loose motivation. We were off to the playground next to play and to the library to take out a few books for the girls.

Frustrated mid-afternoon because I still hadn’t worked out and I was starting to literally feel sluggish and icky. I stubbed my toe and I think I broke it and my brother shows up with my dads f150 and a truck load of firewood for our log pile. I sighed. Because, honestly if I don’t do it by mid-afternoon I have about a 20% chance of working out before I throw in the towel that day due to: dinner, bath-time, and being a pregnant mom of two under 5, the last thing I want to do at 7:30pm is workout.

I dropped everything grabbed the girls and said we are working out. I put on my music and warmed up. Was it worlds most challenging and creative workout? No. I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I lifted my back and biceps and in between each set did a 30 second cardio drill. I didn’t give myself much rest except to let my heart rate come down a little bit before I moved onto the next set. The girls rocked their babies to the music and I spent a few minutes breaking up heated arguments over mini strollers. I’m telling you when I was done I felt so much better. I had energy to finish my very unorganized and random day.

If you have a hectic schedule or maybe you are a mom like me grant yourself grace. Tomorrow is a new day. Don’t let life’s little interruptions drain your fire. Use them to your advantage to set yourself up for success instead of failure. Let them help you learn quick mindless workouts that give you both Cardio and strength training at once. When we begin to understand more about working out, our muscles and our bodies response to exercise. We can use it in situations were we are pressed for time and still get an effective workout in.

Here are a few tips I have learned over the last five years of child rearing and trying to squeeze in my workout:

1. Have a plan in place the night before. Set up your week on a planner or in your head about what you want to accomplish workout wise throughout the week. If it is planned you can’t use many excuses to avoid it. You won’t have to worry about what you are going to do on that specific day.

2. If plan A falls through have a few quick workouts on the back burner for plan B so you are staying on routine and don’t let it discourage you. We all go through seasons in which things aren’t going to look exactly the way you might expect them to.

3. Know that some sort of activity is better then nothing at all.

4. If you get fitness magazines tear out workouts and store them in a binder. I often refer to these when I feel like I need to beat plateau or am just stuck in a rut. Change is good and it’s easy to forget that when we get set in our working out routine.

Lastly, When these things happen don’t give up! Start fresh the next day.

Whats your Plan B?

Blessings, Michelle