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Health & Fitness

Big Girls Don't Wear Belts - How To Get Work Out In When You Have Children

How do you manage to work out and have kids? Or work out and keep up with your busy life? We all have lives outside of staying healthy - how do you do it?

I have a 15 month old (almost 16 months... sheesh where is this time going?). She is everything that I didn't know that I wanted. I didn't know that I wanted kids for a long time, then as the biological alarm started going off around 30, I decided that I did, but that I was still going to be CEO/super mom.

Then when she came, after much agonizing and crying, I quit my job. Now I'm happy just being mom. Well, mom/zumba junkie!

I love my little peanut, but trying to figure out when to work out with her can be a challenge - especially when she's teething, we didn't sleep, she's in "one-of-those-moods"... you know, the list can go on. This becomes even more challenging when you add all this and a full-time job or other outside commitments.

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So how does one work out and have kids?

One of the things I LOVE about C&C Studio is that they have baby sitting and it's only $2 per child! There are a few different gals that watch the kiddos, but Victoria watches my darling daughter during the day and Krysty watches the kids at night. I trust both of these gals so much that I have taken my daughter to their homes to be watched and Krysty has baby sat at my home before.

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There are other ways to work out with kiddos too. I pack mine up in her stroller and take a walk through our neighborhood. I know that Orting trail is beautiful and paved. If you have older kids - get them involved! It's so much easier now that the weather is starting to get a little nicer. Put them on their bikes (with a helmet, of course! Available through the fire stations for $7) and have them join you. Take them hiking on some easier hikes like near Mud Mountain Dam, for example.

There are other fitness facilities in the area that have baby sitting too. There are ways, you just have to be creative. The other way I figure it out is that I am very organized. I make a weekly menu of our dinners so that I know ahead what meat to pull out of the freezer and I know how much time it will take to make it in my head. Sometimes I will even do the walk while it's baking in the oven or cooking in the crockpot! Nothing works up an appetite like a brisk walk in the fresh air and coming home to your house smelling like someone had been cooking all day. Mmmmmmm...

How do you manage to work out and have kids? Or work out and keep up with your busy life? We all have lives outside of staying healthy - how do you do it??

Photo credit: Lindsay Porter Photography

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