Anonymous wrote:There are lots of morning bootcamps around the area. That's what I've been doing for the past ten years - class from 5:45-6:45, home before the kids wake up.

Agree. I love my morning bootcamp - it's like 'secret time' before the rest of the world (i.e. my household) wakes up.

Running, weights and planks + low-carb diet. I lost a ton of weight doing that.

Goblet Squat
Box Squat Jump
Dumbbell Farmer's Walk
Alternating Kettlebell Swing

lift weights

best exercise is the one that you can stick with and will actually do.

While I agree that weight-loss is largely determined by diet...exercising in the morning can really help with staying on track with your diet during the day. For me, I find if I exercise in the morning I'm more careful with what I eat because I don't want to undo my workout. And, I just feel better, in general.

It would help to know what equipment/resources you have available, OP. Do you have a treadmill or stationary bike or weights? Can you leave home (go to a gym or go for walk/run)? How about a DVD?

Anonymous wrote:Diet for weight loss.

Exercise for health.

Heavy lifting for strength, to prevent bone loss, and total body composition.

Cardio for your heart and lungs.

This. You can out-eat any exercise program. Professional runner Paula Radcliffe used to run about 120 miles a week to train to compete in marathons. Assuming she burned 100 calories per mile of running (that's a lot for a woman her size and efficiency, but she runs fast), that's 1710 calories a day --- or one slice of Romano's cheese cake and a small soda per day. OR just over 3 Starbucks frapopuccinos per day.

There are lots of morning bootcamps around the area. That's what I've been doing for the past ten years - class from 5:45-6:45, home before the kids wake up.

Diet for weight loss.

Exercise for health.

Heavy lifting for strength, to prevent bone loss, and total body composition.

Cardio for your heart and lungs.

Weightloss is really about 80-85% diet, not exercise.

But if you are looking for major calorie burning/leaning out exercise, I would recommend running + weight lifting. You mention you need to do it before your kids get out the door--are your kids old enough to stay home while you go for a run?

Another suggestion: On Facebook there is a page I follow called HIIT Burn. They post a short workout each day.

This is 10:40 again. You can look online to get some good ideas for leg and arm exercises, and even add in weights and resistance bands. The idea of the card game is to keep it quick and interesting.

Could you do a playing card workout? Get a deck of playing cards and take out Jokers, threes, fours, fives and sixes. So you're left with 36 cards. Then split them into two decks of 18 cards each. You will alternate these decks each day.

Mondays and Thursdays are 'Leg days' and Tuesdays and Fridays are 'Arm days', and Wednesday is a yoga or stretching day (or abs).

Assign four exercises to each suit, and twos are 10 bicycle crunches and 8's are 10 mountain climbers (keeps your heart rate up). Then pull a card and do the exercise in the reps on the card - Aces are 11 reps. So you pull a Queen of Hearts - so that's 10 squats, etc.

You can change it up however you like. But write down the days exercises because they're easy to forget when you're on a roll.

I have fallen off the wagon a bit, late 30s and need some quick and effective exercises that I can do in the morning before my kids get up and out the door. Any suggestions appreciated!