Finding time to exercise

[EverythingsDozy]

I want to join the gym, but as a single parent to two children, I'm finding it difficult to find the time. Can anyone advise on how I might find some?
I'm currently a student and I work 37.5h over 4 days a week on placement. At the moment, I have weekends off so I have my children all weekend. My mum picks my children up every evening as my childminder finishes at 5.30 yet I work until 6. I'm reluctant to asking my mum if she will have them longer so I can go to the gym, but I'm desperate to lose weight. I'm significantly overweight and I just want to feel good about myself.
My DCs dad is barely in the picture so he is a no go currently.

Forget about the gym at the moment. Weight loss depends on in calorific deficit. So you need to work out your TDEE and simply eat 500 calories less per day. That will give you a rough weight loss of 1 pound per week. You can add exercise in at home... weighted squats with filled water bottles, press ups, lunges, triceps dips can all be done at home. Jogging on the spot, skipping... google HIIT videos, again you should be able to do this all at home. It can be done.

I've started a complete diet overhaul to be honest. I'm addicted to food, particularly sugar (chocolate, biscuits, cakes, sweets) so I've gone completely cold turkey from them as I find having one leads to having loads.
I am doing intermittent fasting on top of that 16/8, and seriously limiting my calorie intake. I'm not calorie counting as such but I have had a dramatic decrease and not really feeling hungry either. I do crave the chocolate and sweets but I'm hoping it'll pass eventually.

But I really do want to exercise. I used to love to run but I don't like doing it outside because it's cold and wet. I prefer to run on a treadmill. Plus, I have a good friend who uses the gym and he would be a massive motivation for me to go (he's lost 13 stone doing what I'm attempting).

Why don’t you start with exercising at home? YouTube is full of great exercise videos. You could exercise either after kids have gone to bed or before they wake up. And then once you know you’ll stick to exercising you could ask your mum and she might be happy helping you knowing you’re serious about it.

Good luck!

I had two under two when I started exercising at home. I signed up for the DDP Yoga app. It’s not traditional yoga (the eponymous DDP is an ex WWE wrestler who broke his back and used yoga and Pilates moves to rehab), it focuses on fat burning and increasing flexibility. In 18 months I’ve gone from 17 stone to 11 and a half. I exercise during nap time and I love it. There’s workouts ranging from ten minutes to over an hour and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had exercising.

If you want to know more feel free to PM, I won’t get too evangelical about it here but I genuinely love it and it’s changed my life for the princely sum of six quid a month. DH and I started losing weight together, he joined a gym and was merrily going in his lunch hour, I had no clue how to jam exercise in regularly while dealing with the kids and it just fitted!

OP, take it from someone who has probably wasted 5k plus on gym memberships over the years, don't bother! If you have such a limited amount of free time, chances are you won't use it. I saved up money I would have wasted as monthly donations to the local gym last year and am going to use the money to get a wii fit (I know, old school right!) you can always find 20 mins a day at home, but when you have to go out etc it ends up being like 2 hours min!

I am also doing some yoga videos I found on YouTube before bed.

Good luck though!