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Toddling Through the Silicon Valley

By Cheryl Bac

E-mail Cheryl Bac

About this blog: I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, home cook, marathon runner, and PhD. I recently moved to the Silicon Valley after completing my PhD in Social Psychology and becoming a mother one month apart. Before that, I ran seven marathons incl...  (More)

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Staying in shape

Uploaded: Feb 22, 2016
One of the first clues that I was pregnant with our son was my lack of desire to exercise. Before my pregnancy I could easily run 12 miles straight, but during the first trimester, I couldn't even handle a 30 minute elliptical workout without getting nauseous.

After having our son, my desire to run returned. Thankfully, I had access to an elliptical that could keep me fit in between the occasional run. My new baby, however, didn't understand my need for 30 minutes of continuous cardio and frequently interrupted my workouts.

Ever since our son was born I've been tweaking my exercise regime. I tried running before my husband went to work, using a stair stepper while our son napped, and taking exercise classes where you can bring baby. But none was right for me - I missed out on too much sleep, our son wanted to climb on my stair stepper, and classes didn't fit well enough into our routine for me to do them regularly.

So far, the best solution for me has been to just use one of my kid's stools as a stair stepper. It's an old fashioned solution, but it's safe enough for me to exercise when my kids are awake, I can easily pause mid-workout to help a kid, and my kids see me exercising frequently so they are curious about it and sometimes join in.

I recently went for a run and found out that this workout is keeping me in shape enough to still grab (and enjoy) a run outside whenever the opportunity arises. As our kids grow, I'm sure my exercise routine will change as well. But right now, this is working for me.

How do you stay in shape with little ones at home?
Local Journalism.
What is it worth to you?

Comments

Posted by Member, a resident of Menlo Park,
on Feb 23, 2016 at 11:25 am

Some of the local exercise studios offer childcare on site for a very reasonable fee. Alkalign Studios in Menlo Park and Los Altos will watch your little ones while you work out.


Posted by Cheryl Bac, a Palo Alto Online blogger,
on Feb 23, 2016 at 8:40 pm

Cheryl Bac is a registered user.

Member - Thanks for commenting. I'll need to check those out in the future. I've also heard nice things about the JCC's childcare in Palo Alto.


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