Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think I don't have time to exercise?

215 replies

puglife15 · 12/08/2017 22:09

I really struggle to see when I'd fit it in. Typical day looks like this:

6.30 wake up
7 DH goes to work
7-8 get DC and myself ready for school/nursery/work
8-9 commute/drop off
9-5 work (30 mins lunchbreak)
Get home by 6
6-7.30 play and do bedtime, DH back from work
7.30-8.30 cook and eat
8.30-10.30 clear up, chores, admin, often extra work etc
11 bed

OP posts:
Mide7 · 13/08/2017 20:24

I would suggest stop using mumsnet.

Made time for exercise.

Miracle

Original poster
puglife15 · 13/08/2017 20:24

Pastys that's great! Well done.

I get jumped on as soon as I'm home, have to bf younger one and older one is shattered usually otherwise I'd try that. There's enough time for a book then it's usually straight up to bathroom and 20 mins of the DC dicking about while I try to get them into pjs

OP posts:
Original poster
puglife15 · 13/08/2017 20:25

Mide. Generally only use mumsnet when I'm breastfeeding and haven't figured out how to combine that with Crossfit, yet

OP posts:
Mide7 · 13/08/2017 20:27

Uou can download apps that tell you how much you look at your phone. I bet it's way more than you think

Original poster
puglife15 · 13/08/2017 20:27

Illstart thank you, sounds like you get it.

I've contacted a sleep consultant as getting nowhere trying to sort it myself.

OP posts:
loveka · 13/08/2017 20:28

Bloody hell, your life is full on. I would be exhausted.

If you really want to do it you could do Saturday and Sunday?

I exercise a lot, but only because I work part time.

Cherrytart6 · 13/08/2017 20:35

How long would your walk be one way to work. Not the 20 minute one. longer one. I'd be tempted to run it daily. Even if you can only do a walk run walk run mix initially.

Original poster
puglife15 · 13/08/2017 20:38

Cherry it's about 4 miles I think. But involving some major hills.

OP posts:
Original poster
puglife15 · 13/08/2017 20:39

Mide yeah you're probably right, I'm just too shattered basically.

OP posts:
SchnitzelVonKrumm · 13/08/2017 20:41

Get a bike and cycle to work?

jobergamot · 13/08/2017 20:42

Is there a decent yoga class near you? Yoga is ace for mental stress relief as well as good ease back into exercise. Could hubby be in charge for an hour one eve a weeknight and one hour sat/Sun? If you have to book and pay for a class in advance you'll make the effort to go.

Mide7 · 13/08/2017 20:47

Fair enough pug, suppose that's a different set of questions but I truelly believe that walking is the most underrated exercise.

Everyone goes on about hit or whatever but leave the car at home and walk ( you may have gone over this, sorry).

Being "fit and healthy" is firstly about building an aerobic base, the best way to do that is long slow cardio.

OhPuddleducks · 13/08/2017 20:53

Sit ups while the dinner is cooking/kids are doing homework. 500 only takes about 10 mins once it's part of your routine. I also leave DP to deal with bedtime and bath time twice a week so I can go to the gym and get some cardio in. Can you run instead of train/car commute home from work? Cycle to school with the kids? Early morning swim? Or download the seven minute work out? All easy prays ways to fit it in around a busy life.

OhPuddleducks · 13/08/2017 20:54

*easy peasy not easy prays. Bloody phone. If only I spent 10 mins spell checking every day!

SchnitzelVonKrumm · 13/08/2017 20:55

God if was being woken up five times every night there's no way I'd even be contemplating exercise!

Vonklump · 13/08/2017 20:58

Five thirty wake ups killed my excercise. I'm motivated, but not that bloody motivated.

I did Jillian Michaels workouts. The ones under half an hour, ideally twenty minutes, worked best for me.

It did make a difference over time, and I could feel it in my calves and arms after each session.
If you want to try Jillian and aren't sure about getting weights, I started using tins of baked beans.

ThomasinaCoverly · 13/08/2017 21:05

You need sleep more than you need exercise! I'm another morning exerciser (in spite of not being a morning person), but I couldn't have contemplated it till DD started sleeping through the night. While she was tiny I commuted by bike if I wasn't actively hallucinating with exhaustion, but that was absolutely all I did.

But it does sound as though your DH needs to do more if you're BF on top of the list in your OP...

OrangeSunset · 13/08/2017 21:07

OP, what's your reason for wanting to exercise? If it's simply that you feel you should be (which is true, everyone should be doing at least 30 minutes vigourous exercise per day) then the videos at home would suit you down the ground. I did these as a start back on the road to exercise after DC and when DH worked away for half the week, meaning I couldn't get out to a class.

I think Joe Wicks says 5 x 20 min sessions a week. Could your DH mind the DCs if they are up early? Done and dusted and only one shower required per day. Do it on auto-pilot - get up, stink of water and off you go.

Maybe say you'll do it for 30 days and then review how you feel and the impact on other areas of your life?

hopeful31yrs · 13/08/2017 21:16

I have that same schedule pretty much but with on calls as well. Those days I really can't do a workout but every other day I get in a workout video each day before eating. Ask DH to supervise the evening meal cooking and get it done! If you procrastinate it'll never happen. He understands that getting back to fitness is important for me post pregnancy and so gives me the space.

Also there are 2 weekend days it absolutely could happen...

Give it a shot - I'm not saying that the pre exercise me wouldn't have thought the same but where there's a will....

Strokethefurrywall · 13/08/2017 21:19

I'm up and out by 5am to run/HIIT/swim but that's because it's the only time I have to myself, it's over 100oF most days here, I'm a morning person and I love the sunrise.

We also have the weather for it here, there's no way I'd be up and running in the cold and dark, bugger that.

I miss exercising when I don't do it, but it's getting out and doing that first run/cycle/class etc that will get you into it.

I can make excuses not to do anything, but if you want to do something active you can find a way I'm not saying you're making excuses, just saying that until you find a exercise you enjoy doing, you won't try and carve out time to do it.

sunfloweras · 13/08/2017 21:19

I was like you op except only have one dc. Flat out in week and woken up by dd regularly killed any attempts to do any more exercise:
What I did find helped though was: paying for a gym membership. So expensive I forced myself to go even if just weekends and put dd in gym crèche.
I also walked my full 30 min lunch then shoved my food down quickly at my desk when I got back Smile so I'm not sure if this is possible? A Fitbit really helped show me if I'd done enough in the day well walking at least. I aimed for minimum 10k a day and just fast paced walking around where I walked helped. I also went for walks in the evening even though like you I was starving I'd just go for a quick stroll here and there to top up steps I hadn't achieved.

sunfloweras · 13/08/2017 21:20

*where I worked

eurochick · 13/08/2017 21:24

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, OP. I did this for ages. There is no way I could manage the three hours a week after work that I used to do in the gym, so it felt pointless. But I can see some fitness improvement from my one run a week, and the fitness blender abs workouts that I've been doing will mean less sucking in of my belly when I wear a bikini in a couple of weeks. So even 3x10-15 minute breakfast workouts and one run a week are doing something, even if my fitness levels are not what they were before. As I said in my earlier post on this thread, I worked out that to do more I'd have to sacrifice either time with my child or sleep and I'm not taking either of those options at the time in my life.

PastysPrincess · 13/08/2017 21:27

Can you eat lunch at your desk and go for a walk at lunch time?

Girty999 · 13/08/2017 21:27

I do Insanity Max30 it's half an hour as the title suggests and my children often 'join in' count me down or generally leap about in my way, I've managed every morning in the school holidays while they eat their breakfast and yep use the to to distract them too