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Exercising with kids



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How do those of you with full time jobs and young children fit in exercise? I work at 5am to 4 pm and then pick my son up from daycare and have to make dinner, cleanup and spend SOME quality time with my kid who was in daycare all day...I currently work out Saturday and Sunday and my husband watches him then. I set goals to work out after he goes to bed each night but I’m FRIED by then and struggle getting to the gym and back by then.

It’s tough between Mom guilt and take care of myself guilt.

I’m doing great on my weight loss at 2 months post op but I know I will need to increase exercise as my metabolism catches up to me. I even enjoy it- just have a hard time getting it done weekdays.

Any tips? Ideas? Good home tricks?

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Incorporate your son into exercise. Dance parties, going for walks, playing at the park, tag, hide n go seek. Don’t have to be typical exercises to burn additional calories. Plus you are teaching him at a young age to live a healthy and active life style. Maybe one to two days a week you can get up 30 minutes earlier to work out in addition. It’s hard to juggle it all. I’m a full time working mom of 4. There are weeks where I have it all together and there are weeks where I suck at it all. Learn to extend yourself grace. Learn to cease what moments you have and let go of guilt. Part of being a good mom is taking care of
Yourself. If you stay on your recommended eating plan you will continue to lose weight regardless of how much gym time you get.


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How do those of you with full time jobs and young children fit in exercise? I work at 5am to 4 pm and then pick my son up from daycare and have to make dinner, cleanup and spend SOME quality time with my kid who was in daycare all day...I currently work out Saturday and Sunday and my husband watches him then. I set goals to work out after he goes to bed each night but I’m FRIED by then and struggle getting to the gym and back by then.
It’s tough between Mom guilt and take care of myself guilt.
I’m doing great on my weight loss at 2 months post op but I know I will need to increase exercise as my metabolism catches up to me. I even enjoy it- just have a hard time getting it done weekdays.
Any tips? Ideas? Good home tricks?



I have the same issue. I either have to go before the kids get up or after the kids go to bed. I don’t feel like doing either of those right now, so I am not exercising and my weight loss has stalled.


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It’s tough. Early mornings tend to work best. We often take walks with the kids (put them in the backpack) or go to a playground and chase them or i’ll Put my son in the kayak with me. Finding time is tough, but now that there is more daylight in the evening it helps.

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Thanks guys. Yes maybe it will get easier when the winter finally goes away here in PA! Maybe going for family hikes and trips to the park will be the solution after school! No guilt that way!


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I go to a rec center and they have a day care there as well. There may be something like that as well in your area. My children are older (16 & 13) so they don't go, but I have taken them to the gym with me and there is no cost. They just walk on the treadmill or stationary bike and watch Netflix on their phones.

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@atphiladelphia, true Philadelphia Freedom will soon be yours when you can stroll outside without an icecicle forming on the end of your nose. I was hoping now that since spring has sprung Mr Winter would slink off to his dark cave,but it hasn't happened yet, just more snow.[emoji69][emoji300]

Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app

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Yeah right to everyone who thinks you should get up earlier to exercise!🤣 Did they miss that you get up at 5am?

I can relate and have 2 boys (4yrs and 18 mos). I lift free weights in the living room for our evening quality time. Both of them think it is fun to "exercise". By that I mean that the 4 yr old messes with the resistance bands and mimics what I do with 2 lb weights and the 18 month old rolls around the heavier weights and bangs them with a toy hammer.

Let go of the mom guilt. Life with kids is a mess, but you can make it a fun mess 😁. Try home exercise as time together on weeknights. 1 trip to Target should get you what you need.

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If you belong to one of the Philadelphia area YMCAs , they offer up to 2 hours of child care per day. Maybe sneak in a half hour work out between daycare pick up and home and let him have some play time at the Y. (My girls used to love the kids room at the Y.) When they are little, its really hard and the weather here has been MISERABLE. I'm not going to tell you to get up any earlier, because I feel your pain - the alarm goes off at 5:30 here to get the high school freshman out the door and the rest of us off to work. Once the weather gets better, it will be easier. Maybe you can add some walking at lunch during work or park further away (or get off SEPTA at a stop or two further from your work.) Good luck.

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      Soooo I am coming to a realization
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

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        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
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