HOW & WHEN BUSY MOMS EXERCISE

I will not be performing my max strength experiment this week as I had of food poisoning, thank god it was me and not one of the kids. We have implemented a schedule to accommodate date night/family outing/entertaining in our household. Well this week during our family outing we took the kids to a restaurant and I got sick that night, it's been 2 days and I just ate my first bowl of soup.

It finally happened- they broke through. My baby daughter has the signs of her first teeth. Two little white "chicklets" on the top of her mouth. I know they usually get the bottom ones first. Well, we'll take it. She will be turning 1 year old on Thursday as well, this is a big week for her.

As a busy mom how and when do you fit exercise into your day?

1. Being extremely desperate on Friday I exercised in the shower. It's great because I will not be interrupted by screaming kids because I cannot hear them. I performed the BUSY MOM FITNESS mini circuit of 10 squats, 10 deadlifts (waiter bow), 10x 1 legged squats each leg, 10x 1 legged deadlifts each side. I repeated this circuit and got a bit of much needed circulation through my body. DO NOT do this if you are still nursing or on a slippery shower surface.

2. On Sunday I utilized nap time again. I performed 20 kettlebell chops, 10x weighted full squats, 10 pushups off the stability ball. I repeated this circuit 3x. I then performed 1 more circuit again 3x, Bulgarian split squat 10x each leg and 20x reverse flies with resistance band. DONE this took me about 12 minutes. This is a busy mom fat loss circuit.

3. When I do not exercise- when I feel sick or I am fighting something. I am the backbone of this household and cannot afford to go down sick if I can avoid it.

4. When I do exercise- when I am feeling emotionally drained I pull my butt off the couch and do a mini circuit, I always feel better. When I am only slightly tired, I usually feel better afterwards and adjust my intensity accordingly. I try to exercise before noon on days that I work because this is when I have more energy and I find I have better focus when I pick up the kids. I exercise during nap time (1pm) when I have the kids with me, I do not leave this until the end of the day because it will just be another thing that gets pushed until tomorrow.

5. If the kids won't nap- take them to the park and exercise- yeah people stare- so what. Get the kids to exercise with you, this for me is a last resort because I would rather use my exercise time as personal time. Everyone is different and many of you may find comfort and motivation in exercising along side your kids. They are able to do more than you think, and they want to exercise with you.
.

So I hope this helped you as a busy mom;
How to exercise-answer very short circuit style training with minimal equipment needed.
When to exercise- whenever you get a chance (nap time, shower, park) and are not feeling sick or like you are fighting a virus

NEW RECIPE AND CRAWLING FOR FITNESS?

A new recipe has been donated by Gayle for Potato and Leek soup at http://babybumpfitness.ning.com in the Recipe group. Note do not use green parts of leek.

So I have a great video of my baby's first crawl. I was very excited to share this with you because it indicates proper neuromuscular development for her. So what does this have to do with you and your busy mom fitness. Well, have you ever suffered from back pain or a back injury?- most likely yes. If so, I want you to try to crawl. This is a primal movement and indicates good spinal health at the L4/L5 level that innervates the lower body. There are certain movement patterns that we are supposed to be able to perform and the pattern of crawling is one of them. So I challenge you- give it a try and see how fluid you are at crawling. Are you moving opposite arm and leg at the same time? Is your pelvis steady while crawling and not dipping excessively to either side. Again look at the video of my baby's first crawl- you'll notice her coordination is not perfect, but good enough to get around. I expect to see this develop rapidly over the next week as she progresses to a fluid, coordinated crawl.

Throughout our life to motherhood injuries and overuse happens to our bodies ( a lot from being pregnant and caring for a baby). This has an impact on our movement patterns. Working on a fluid, coordinated crawl is not just for babies, you can benefit too. Return to your roots and perfect this pattern, this is the start of a great exercise program. Let me know how you perform on this challenge and I may have some more insight for you.

Some great news for BabyBumpFitness:

Hi Jacqueline,

We just posted an article, “Top 100 Healthy Mom Blogs” (http://www.rncentral.com/nursing-library/careplans/top_100_healthy_mom_blogs). I thought I'd bring it to your attention in case you think your readers would find it interesting. I am happy to let you know that your site has been included in this list.

Either way, thanks for your time!

Kelly Sonora

2 DIFFERENT SLEEP DEPRIVATION WORKOUTS

I have been getting some more response regarding the recipes and realized people without a blogger account cannot comment on the blog. If you want to share your recipes with others mothers please email me at jacqgradish@hotmail.com and I will post your recipes or you can sign in http://babybumpfitness.ning.com and post your recipes in the busy mom group, this way everyone will get to share the information.

This is a comment that Denise had emailed to me to post-

Hey Jac

I just wanted to let you know that the pulled pork was yummy, yummy, yummy! Leah helped me sprinkle the spices over the meat and then kept asking me all day "WHAT is that smell?" (I thought it smelled great!). She gobbled it up and so did Jeff. We're going to try your second recipe next week. I liked that I could have the spicy stuff I want, but still have Leah eating the same meal as the entire family (by taking some non-spicy meat out to the middle). I hate having to make her something different because I feel like something spicy.


Thanks,

Denise
Great feedback Denise, thanks. We can really support one another through our journey as parents, please share anything that you may think another mom may find helpful.

Today in busy mom fitness I want to talk about working out while sleep deprived. As a parent I think you have a new sense of "normal" when it comes to the amount of sleep you get. If you are only moderately sleep deprived like one bad night, but you still have you regular "mom" energy level you can still get a great benefit from performing Tabata fat loss circuts. These are the short 4 minute circuts I post with 20 second work 10 second rest intervals, repeating the circut 2 to 3 times. These are intense while you perform them and have a great after burn affect for fat loss. The workouts are short enough that you can manage them with less sleep and intense enough to help increase you growth hormone for a great health benefit.

If you are extremely sleep deprived or feel like you are fighting a virus I suggest performing a joint mobility workout with foam rolling ending with some static stretching. You should feel energized by getting your blood flowing, release some tension and you will not be lowering your immunity by performing intense muscle breakdown work. (As a bit of back ground this is how muscle grows- first by causing micro tears that stress the muscle tissue during your workout and, then repairing it with proper sleep and nutrition) When extremely sleep deprived you do not want to start this breakdown cycle, you want to focus on maintenance and relaxation.

As a busy mom integrating fitness into your life you have to trouble shoot what you need and what you can manage. We have talked about two totally different types of mom workouts that are both beneficial depending on your unpredictable schedule.

I will post examples of each style of workout at http://babybumpfitness.ning.com. So visit and give them a try.

I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT MY SLOW COOKER- Busy Mom Recipes

Ok, how do you take care of your children, run your house hold, make money, and eat a healthy- hot family meal every night. Two words--CROCK POT. That's right, I rely on my Slow Cooker to provide a healthy- hot meal for my family. I use the slow cooker about 4 nights a week and we always have left overs for great lunches the next day.

Benefits of a slow cooker

1. Quality on a Budget. You can use a cheaper cut of meat because it will be stewing all day. This means you can take those extra pennies and spend it on a better quality of meat. Eg.- instead of buying a generic prime rib, you can buy a hormone free or organic beef pot roast. That's right- quality on a budget.

2. One Pot Meal- all of the veggies are cooked right into the meal. This is great if you have toddlers, you are basically disguising the vegetables and can avoid a the great vegetable debate at the dinner table.

3. Low Prep Time- I have not spent more than 15 minutes ever preparing a slow cooker meal and typically I spend 5 minutes on the prep. Sad but true, I wake at 5am, feed the baby, make lunches, eat breakfast, prepare a dinner meal in the crock pot for that night and go to work by 6am.

4. Homemade Baby Food- Although my baby is 11 months old, she has NO TEETH. She is active and ready for a hearty meal. Using some little bits of meat, mashed veggies and juices allows her all the nutrients she requires and we are setting her up for great eating habits.

5. No Burning- that's right you cannot burn something in a crock pot, and small inevitable interruptions do not ruin your efforts, just serve out the meal when ever you are ready, or have food at hand for your forever hungry toddler.

There is no TV allowed at meal time and we all sit at the table, this is the only 15 minutes we all spend together each day. We connect as a family over a hot, healthy meal.

I would love to hear your favourite busy mom meals, write in and let me know. Here are 2 of my favourite meals.

J Fit Mom Meal #1
Spicy Pulled Pork

Place a frozen or fresh pork shoulder into your crock pot and spill about 1 tablespoon of olive oil over it.
Add 1/8 cup of water to the pot and sprinkle these dry spices over the pork
1tbsp paprika
2tbsp of ground cummin
1tsp chopped thyme
1 clove garlic or 2tsp dry garlic powder
1 tbsp fresh oregano or 1tsp dried
1tsp cayenne pepper

Cover the crock pot and cook all day. The pork will pull apart when ready. I just pull no spiced pieces from the middle for the kids.
I like to serve this over rice and snow peas. I use my rice cooker and in the last 5minutes of the rice cooking I throw the snow peas on top to steam them.
Other ideas- you can put the pulled pork into a tortilla shell with avocado and veg.

J Fit Mom Meal # 2
Crock Pot Osso Bucco

This is dinner party grade. Add the Veal shank osso bucco and a 2tbsp olive oil to the crock pot. 4 servings

4 veal shanks
2 tbsp butter
1.5 cup red wine
1 beef bullion cube
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 onion
2-4 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
1tbsp fresh parsley
3 sprigs fresh thyme
sprig of oregano if you like it- not mandatory
course salt and pepper to taste a few sprinkles
carrots-chopped and celery chopped

Please write in and share your best Busy Mom meals, we want to hear from you.

MOM FITNESS Dancing Queen

Every night after dinner my 3 year old asks to be excused from the table and goes to turn on the TV. We have ended this, "NO TV, you can listen to music or play with your toys". My daughter out of her own volition has decided to DANCE, as we have music on anyway during dinner. She is discovering how to move her body, feel the music, amusing herself and is being physically active. She needs this for her own physical development. Childhood obesity is on the rise and most children are not getting any sort of physical activity. Studies have shown children that have a physical outlet are able to concentrate and learn better in a structured environment. So I ask you, why are many schools cutting physical education programs, so the children can be more distracted and learn less? All I know is I cannot rely on others and I have taken it upon myself to make physical activity a part of my daughters life everyday. Check out the video clip of her dancing.

Yesterday I had a great barbell workout and it was the first weight lifting I had done since getting over the flu. I took 1-2 minutes of recovery between exercises. My busy mom fitness Workout- dynamic warmup, barbell full front squats 2 sets, barbell push presses, good mornings, deadlifts 2 sets, Romanian deadlifts 3 sets max weight, lateral band walks, band assisted pullups 2 sets, stretching. I had a client cancel at the gym and had time to do a slower workout and spent more time on my static stretching routine.