Working it out~vacations and babies!

As you may or may not know I have two awesome little people named Marley and Jonah.  Marley is 3 and Jonah will be 2 at the end of August.  Being a parent doesn't have to put a cramp in your health and fitness.  Yes I know ~ we lack sleep, work our lives around our kids and are crazy busy.  Don't let that stop you!  Use your kids as a starting point of getting exercise everyday ~ it doesn't have to be a super high intensity workout but you can do a whole bunch of little things during the day to get that body moving.

Here are some examples of what I do:

• Hike up at BX Falls and I put my 30lb son in my Mountain Equipment Co-op carrier backpack ~ doing the stairs with this cute little sandbag as extra weight is awesome!
• Bike to the beach ~ I have a 2 seater child bike trailer so I bike my kids to Kal Beach and then pull it thru the sand.  Set up and play, swim, etc.  Pull the trailer back thru the sand loaded with kids.  I do a jog pace as well.  Man I tell you ~ once you get off of the sand you are one sweaty mutha!  One man even commented as I went by (he was sitting with his family and no he didn't offer to help push haha) ~ "Nothing better than mom-ercise!"  Yes sir ~ you are correct ~ being a mom is good exercise and nope I don't need your help to get this heavy trailer thru the deep, hot sand:)
• Use the kids playground as your gym!  If I see monkey bars I do them!  Chasing the kids around is a good workout too but it is neat to do some other body weight exercises.  I have done pull ups, push ups, box jumps (jump onto the metal levels) in addition to doing the monkey bars or rings.
• Carry your kids up and down stairs for pete's sake!  Oh my goodness ~ this is a crazy workout in itself!  There are great sets of stairs around town ~ over near Fulton, the bird sanctuary side of Polson Park, BX Falls and the list goes on! 

Having kids is not an excuse to avoid exercise ~ use them as a your little personal trainers and a REASON to exercise.  Seeing mom and dad being active will do nothing but good for your babies!

Hopefully you will also have the opportunity to go camping, travelling, cabining, etc. this summer.  Don't go sloth just because you are on a vacation.  Use the new surroundings to give yourself a little (or big) workout.  For example, this past weekend my family went all the way down south to Princeton to "camp" with extended family.  Side note * "camping" in this case was staying at my husband's aunt's 'get away home' on the Tulameen River ~ not technically camping but that is what my daughter called it!  I did a RYDE class at Excel on Thursday night and was driving Friday so by Saturday I sure was feeling the itch to get moving.

I grabbed my runners and went for a run around a town that I had never been too.  It was fantastic!  I tried to stay along the river and ended up finding some wicked trails to get some trail running in.  Half way through I stopped at a bench and did 30 burpees ~ yah I guess maybe some chick wearing a neon pink tank doing burpees in the middle of town could appear strange to the non-training type folk but that's ok:)  I then ran back home and proceeded to do a lunge matrix and an ab matrix before doing a good stretch beside a river on some super green grass.  Did I have this all planned?  Nope!  I brought my runners so I would have the option to exercise if I wanted.  Once I started it pushed me to extend it to something more than running.

On Sunday I went for another run ~ same loop I discovered the day before and then this time when I got back I did 2 minutes of "Hell" (burpees for 30 seconds, star jumps for 30 seconds, mountain climbers for 30 seconds, spilt lunges for 30 seconds).  Marley was a big help and held my iPhone so I could see the timer!  Bonus side note * You really get to see way more by getting out and taking a run.  I would have never known some of the cool things I saw in Princeton if I was just lounging in a hammock over those couple of days!

I am at the point where I NEED to exercise daily or I get super cranky.  Like on that Friday ~ travel day for our trip ~ sure I was busy bustling around, packing, loading, driving but I didn't get a good sweat on.  Let's just say I was a wee bit moody by that evening.  After my run I felt waaaayyyyy more rejuvenated than I did after sitting around that night "relaxing".  It's just the way I am now.  I need to exercise and I need to sweat everyday ~ how I do it can vary but it needs to happen.  Have your "rest" days too ~ they are super important but don't let you week long camping trip turn you into a lawn chair potato.  Babies and vacation won't stop me! and I hope it doesn't stop you either:)