I go to bed at 9 and I get up at 4:30. I wake up, change into exercise clothing, and drink a cup of coffee. At the gym at 5. Home by 6. Walk dogs and online by 7. |
Why not work out for half an hour? 3:30am seems extreme. How do you sleep on weekends? |
You have every excuse in the book. |
I have read this post a few times and still can't figure out what you do from 6-11pm or why what you say you do takes so long.
I workout at 5am 4 mornings a week and go to bed by 9pm. I also work full time, commute and have 2 kids. When there were younger I hit it harder on the weekends so I only had to go to the gym 2-3 weekdays. I also when through a period where I ran while they were in their activities. My house isn't spotless or perfectly organized, and I definitely don't mop every night. We do cook meals from scratch most nights, but pick meals that don't take a ton of time to prep. Often times I cook and my husband does cleanup so some evenings I go for a walk after dinner. Like others have said if it is really a priority you will find time and I do think most people can/could find 30 min a day to do some form of exercise even if it is a walk. |
1) Lower your standards as to fancy home-cooked meals every night (nothing should take more than 30 minutes from raw ingredients to dinner on the table) and to levels of cleanliness.
2) Shove as many chores on the weekend as possible. 3) Prioritize your exercising above children's every single need--it's important for your physical and mental health. 4) Be flexible about when you can exercise--as many, many people have noted here, you can exercise during lunch! On your WFH days (take phone calls while doing a very brisk walk)! On weekends! In the evening instead of taking TWO HOURS to cook and clean! If you really want to find time, you will do so. |
I don't know how serious OP is about finding a solution. Between her judgment of SACC (and by implication, the parents who use SACC), making fancy dinners every single night (mac n cheese made with REAL cheese), all the hours of mopping and cleaning, I'm exhausted just reading it.
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It’s not possible because she wouldn’t be able to make HOMEMADE MAC N CHEESE for chrissakes. She couldn’t possibly feed her kids Kraft! What would the neighbors think?!? Fresh garden salads (nothing prewashed from a bag! All greens must be hand washed!) every night. I mean why have kids if you’re just going to cut corners? |
Omg THANK YOU. I can’t get past this. Until we had a cleaning lady, months would go by between kitchen floor moppings. Who mops every day? |
I find this to be true of a lot of people who claim they don't have time to exercise. I have an older neighbor who lives alone, have no children and only works 4 days a week from home. She "wanted" to get her health under control and to start walking. Yet every time another neighbor and I asked her to go she always had an excuse. She upset with me when I said "Instead of saying I can't say it's not a priority for me and see how that feels. because if something is a priority you make it happen, if it isn't you make an excuse." I find that people who can't carve out 30 min for a walk are the same people who somehow find time to watch TV and scroll on their phones. |
DH grills meat and we serve with steamed veggies or salad. One night a week we get Peruvian chicken takeout. |
9. Occasionally, I can stick to the schedule after a late night, but it's mostly 9. My kids are older, I WFH 3x a week, and I'm not that fastidious of a house keeper. |
NP.So jealous of people going to bed early!
My kid needs a load of homework support. Between sports pickup, homework, and other life demands every night — not to mention any work projects or west coast clients that need my evening attention — I never get enough sleep for a 5am workout at this stage of life. I rarely get enough as it is. Good luck, OP! It is hard. |
Too late for a consistent 4:15-:30 wakeup; unsustainable. |
1) There is no way you need to spend a full two hours every evening cleaning and tidying your house. Just no. That's nuts!
2) Is a parent actually staying/watching the older kids' activities? We are a household, like yours OP, where kids do a lot of activities, we see value in that, and we make it one of our priorities to support those activities. But during the week this consists mostly of just providing or arranging rides. I don't sit around and watch sports practices or theatre rehearsals or whatever. We have lots of carpools which helps TREMENDOUSLY -- truly the best! Or I drop off and go back home and clean up from dinner or do a small work out. And even on the rare occasion where I have to do both the drop off and pick up somewhere, and it's too far for me to go home, I will then go for a walk or run, weather permitting. (Or run an errand or get work done.) TLDR - stop all the mopping and get some carpools going. |
I think you first need to adjust your clock. Start by just getting up early. Then after you have adjust your circadian rhythms, add the exercise. |