Helpful Fitness Tips For The Work At Home Mom Or Dad
Working at home has many advantages, but finding time for fitness isn't always one of them. Forging a peaceful environment for getting work done can be difficult enough, adding extra time to that so mom or dad can workout is next to impossible. Use the following tips to maintain your fitness level as a work-at-home parent without turning the entire house upside down!
1. Schedule fitness around everything else. Make an appointment to workout and do so regularly; although people who work from home tend to have a hard time walking away from making the money, your health is too important. Set a time and stick to it without letting anything short of a work-related catastrophe get in your way. As an added bonus, if your kids are old enough, make the commitment to exercise a family affair. You could even renovate your garage or basement into a home gym, giving the whole family plenty of incentive to get fit,strong and healthy.
2. Don't sit for hours on end. Sitting at the computer all day can be brutal on your body, especially if your posture tends to slip; get up and stretch at least once an hour to avoid stiffness and an aching back. Utilize time at the desk to do sitting stretches and other exercises that can work your calves, glutes, abs and arms. During days when work is particularly busy, break up your usual 30 minute routine into three 10 minute breaks and run up and down the stairs, alternate between push-ups and sit-ups or do something else for a mini-workout.
3. Prepare healthy meals in bulk and in advance. You may not be able to devote as much time to quality cooking as you'd like, but still need to feed yourself and your family well. Take one day a week and prep a lot of food at once, then pop it all in the freezer, preferably in microwave safe containers. Each night of the week you all can enjoy a wholesome and healthy meal in no time at all. Clean up will also be a snap, freeing up a lot of time for you to squeeze in your workouts throughout the busy week!
4. Equip your home-office for fitness success. Consider purchasing an exercise stability ball. You can use it many different ways during your regular workout sessions, but sitting on it as you work will also help strengthen and tone at the same time you are getting all that work done! Invest in a quality head-set that will allow you to multi-task while you talk; if it's portable you can even warm-up or down while engaged in important business conversations, or simply walk around and stretch. Also, keep plenty of natural, high-energy snacks at the ready for those times when you can't break for a full meal and need to keep yourself well-fueled.
Once you've established your fitness routine and synchronized it with the functioning household, you will feel better about yourself and have a lot more energy to keep up with everything. You will also be setting a great example for your children to follow!
