Trying to workout with kids around (and awake) is a little bit like trying to take a nap on a trampoline filled with jumping gorillas; they are jumping on you, stealing your weights so that they can workout “wiff you, Ima” and making you take out your earbuds whilst jogging to tell them that “no, I don’t know why that man isn’t wearing a shirt.” and the always fun “no, I’m not done yet”.

I have spent the majority of my life overweight. When Peanut was about 7 months old, I decided that I needed to get healthy so that I could be around for him for many years to come. Since then I’ve had 2 more children and have had to get creative with my workouts. Whether it’s a baby on the Boomerang (thanks Jolly Jumper! We love your pillows!!) or in the swing, a bag of Cheerios for the toddler in the jogging stroller, very early or late workouts while everyone is still sleeping, family swim time (before we became seriously outnumbered) or very light weights so that the oldest can “exuhcise, too”, I get it done.

When your infants aren’t mobile, it’s very easy to get your sweat on:

Mobile babies tend to impede your progress a little bit:

Now, I love my kids. Wouldn’t trade them for the world (or more sleep…), but let’s be honest here. Working out when the kids aren’t around (or awake) is like winning a marathon; you’ve trained harder, pushed yourself to run faster (lest they wake up) and when you’re finished, you feel like you’re running through a throng of (silently) cheering fans.

I’ve been doing the 21 Day Fix and the workouts are not only awesome, but they’re all about a half an hour long. 30 minutes. 1800 seconds. You can bang that out, collapse on the floor hating her today (but loving her tomorrow) and STILL have time for a shower. Alone. Sans kids. I bring my phone in, turn on a playlist and hold my breath for a crying/door opening/question-free shower. To be able to work out and shower alone is like a dream. A miracle. A reason for mom-shaming & jealousy amongst your mommy group.

Autumn says that if you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up. I say that I don’t give up so much as hit pause every 2mins for swing restarting, soother replacing and Boomerang fetching.