Hi. I'm new here, and hoping to have sleeve surgery in January.

My biggest concern, aside from just slowly returning to bad habits, is fitting in exercise. I am a single mom with 2 kids. Age 3.5 and 6.5. I am a single mom by choice, so there is no other adult doing some of the driving or cooking or any other household running, income earning tasks.

I work full time and we are usually away from home from 7:45-5:45. Then it's dinner and family time. And by the time the kids are in bed I'm beat and still have to do all the running of the household stuff. I need an hour of true downtime to sleep, so I end up in bed around 11, and get up at 6.

I have no idea where or how to fit in exercise. Icahn squeeze in a 10 minute walk at work. And I do have a treadmill. But I'm just so tired that the thought of getting the adrenaline pumping right before bedtime is terrifying. But I've never done well getting up earlier. Partly because isn't get to sleep earlier. I already average less than 6 hours sleep a night despite my efforts to get 7 hrs. I don't want to give that up.

Jess, mom to Ysabel, 6 and Maggie, 3

Welcome !!! I'm also a single mom out of choice of a 18 year old and a 11.5 year old it's a hard hard routine and I can So relate because I also don't have that extra support to get my kids or to buy groceries so everything is on me. But I try to keep moving if I'm cleaning I try to get in as much movement as I can. At work I'm at a office 7 hours sitting so I try to get off my chair and walk around the other offices as much as I can. My body is too tired to get up at 5 am to work out so I try the best I can to do leg lifts even if it's in the bathroom at work anytime I have free time I try to do squats or anything that involves movement

I am not a mom and have no idea how anyone (married or single) has time or energy for taking care of kids, so kudos !

That said, I know the local Wellness Center that I belong to and the YMCA that I belonged to in a previous city, both offer child care. Lots of parents take advantage of that. Plus, your kids get to burn off energy, too.

Tough situation but I wouldn't beat myself up if I don't get the exercise in. It just means your food choices will be very important. They say 80% of weight loss is what you eat anyway. Hopefully you can get some nice walks in on the weekends with the kids.

Go for the walk during lunch. If you can manage to get up earlier, use the treadmill before work. You can also get one of those kids exercise dvds and do that with the little ones on the weekend. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about it. With 3 little guys, you're probably pretty active to begin with.

Hi BLERDgirl; Congratulations on your current weight!!!! You are doing such a terrific job and I just had to give you a shout out!!!

That's a tough one! Kudos for you for everything you already do! First of all, after surgery, focus on the new eating habits. Exercise is not going to make or break you in those first few months. Is it important, of course! But I wouldn't let that deter you from surgery because it will work regardless. I didn't start formally "working out" until 4 months post op. I wish I would have sooner, but in any case, the weight came off just fine during those 4 months I wasn't.

But, when you are up to it, you could try doing something that you could do with the kids? I sometimes will stream workout videos and my little ones think it's fun to do their version of it along with me. Or we go "on a run" together - ie - I run, they ride their scooters, bikes, etc.