We are entering the summer months, which tend to be the second best time for weight loss and exercise (New Year’s Resolutions being the best–or at least the most popular). Many of us try on those summer clothes and realize that we need to get in shape, add exercise to our schedule, and take steps to get fit (no pun intended.)
But we’re busy and it’s hard to stick to an extensive exercise routine … especially during these jam-packed summer months! How about using these 5 Easy Ways to Add Exercise Into Your Day…. with little to no interruption of your day?
5 Ways to Add Exercise to Your Summer Days
1. Opt To Take The Stairs
While this might not always be plausible due to the number or age of children in tow, you can not only do this while out but you can do this at home too (if you live in a home or apartment with stairs). If you don’t have a reason to take the stairs, create one! Use the bathroom on the second floor instead, or as you are walking by, opt to go up and down the stairs a few times.
2. Have An Impromptu Dance Party
Kids love for you to stop what you are doing and have some fun with them. Help get their wiggles out and get a little cardio in yourself! Either just turn on music and have at it, or do something more structured like learn a dance or follow a quick video. We spent days learning Cotton-Eyed Joe, the Electric Slide and more!
3. Park Farther Out
You can do this even with children in strollers and shopping carts! Choose to park farther out in the parking lot and walk the distance to the store, or place of business you are heading to.
4. Quick & Easy Exercise Challenge
Just by doing a quick Google Image search, you can find tons of quick and easy exercise challenges. In our house we do a combination of leg raises, crunches, and planks. You start out doing just a few and then add throughout the month. It only takes 5-10 minutes each day and even our children love to try and do it with us!
5. Mini Walks
When my children were younger, I would meet a friend at the mall and we would stroller walk. It gave us exercise and great mommy time. As the kids got tired of sitting, we would go to a quieter end and let them run around to get some of their energy out, or we would slow down a bit and let them walk with us awhile.
You can head outside, or to the mall with your children and spend a small amount of time walking together. In our neighborhood, we walk/jog our circle which is .7 miles and will do that twice which takes about 20 minutes. The kids love to get out with me and “tour” the neighborhood, and walking is one of the best ways to add exercise easily into your day!
In Closing
As you can see, it may not seem like a large amount of exercise but as I say, “Every bit counts, and anyway you slice it you are moving!” What tips or tricks have you found to help add exercise into your day?
Trish is the owner of Hip Homeschool Moms. She also owns Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, Homeschool Travel Adventures, Only Passionate Curiosity and Love These Recipes! She has been married to her best friend, David, for 25 years and they have three sons (ages 23, 22 and 18). Trish is from the coast of North Carolina, but they now live in rural West Tennessee on a 40+ acre farm. She has been homeschooling since 2009 and her homeschool style leans towards a Montessori approach with a heavy emphasis on hands-on learning. Trish’s family is Messianic and they love studying the Scriptures, learning Hebrew and growing in their faith and walk daily. In her spare time, Trish loves to travel, write, work in their garden and can regularly be found trying to learn something new, modeling that learning is indeed a life-long endeavor!
Let’s talk about physical exercise for our homeschooling kids during winter. Does your family spend most of the winter class time indoors? If so, getting some physical exercise is important to burn off some of that energy! Let’s look at some traditional and not-so-traditional ideas of ways to keep active during the long winter season….
Whether you homeschool or not, there are going to be days when you feel overwhelmed. We tend to keep ourselves busy with everything from housework to kid’s programs to church meetings to hobbies. I you’re like me, you have a never ending to-do list when you wake up each morning. But sometimes the overwhelmed days…
Is it just me, or do fruits and vegetables seem even more delicious and “in season” during springtime? Perhaps it’s the return combination of warm days and cool evenings, inviting us back outdoors, that’s so positively conducive to enjoying fresh, healthful foods. And yet, while the impact and sensations subside with the season’s passing, I…
Coconut oil is a very popular oil these days to cook with and use for various reasons. It also has many great benefits. In fact, I have seen lists of 101 uses! Today I’m sharing 10 surprising health benefits of coconut oil that you may have never thought of! To get the most…
With the official summer season being upon us, there are precautions we have to be mindful of as moms. Cautions such as sunburns, ticks, mosquitoes, etc. Our skin is the biggest organ of our body, and it’s very important to be careful of what we spray on it. Thankfully, there are healthy, natural alternatives to…
Recently, my six year old asked me if he could buy a piggy bank with his own money. I told him he didn’t need one because he already has a “bank” his Grandpa built for him. It’s a beautiful wooden box, complete with an old style post office mail box door. Each one of our…
2 Comments
I love the idea of an impromptu dance party…but I can’t dance! Still, I need to do something 🙂
I so need to own these! Thank goodness it is warming up, so maybe I can get some exercise in! Thanks for reminding us to get off our rears and get after it!
I love the idea of an impromptu dance party…but I can’t dance! Still, I need to do something 🙂
I so need to own these! Thank goodness it is warming up, so maybe I can get some exercise in! Thanks for reminding us to get off our rears and get after it!