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)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 including Chicago and Boston. Exercise is an integral part of my life. I hope to one day go back to long distance running and tackle the New York City Marathon. Right now I run after my one year old son. Although I am a stay-at-home mom, we are rarely "at home." My mom also stayed at home with my brother and me. She warned me that, although rewarding, it can be isolating. So, with her help, I learned the importance of getting out into the community and meeting other mothers. On the rare occasion when I am at home and have a hand or two free, I squeeze in time to scrapbook. As a new mom, many challenges are thrown my way. I hope my opinions, triumphs, and struggles help experienced parents reminisce, new parents cope, and parents-to-be get an honest glimpse of what the first years of motherhood can entail.
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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?
