"Too Busy" Is Not a Reason, It's an Excuse

FOREVER I had a list a mile long as to why I was "TOO BUSY" to exercise.  Actually, for me it translated to "too lazy," but who real wants to face that reality?  I was a stay-at-home mom so "all" of my time went to laundry- I cloth diaper Dillon and the washing process is about 4 cycles of washing, plus all the other laundry, and I made Dillon's baby food, he has never had a jar of baby food.  Plus, I had dorm duty, my gosh, I had to stay up until midnight making sure that 20 teenaged girls didn't plot to take over the world!  (You know, teen girls are quite crafty!)  Then of course there was all the dishes- we didn't have a dishwasher, and Dillon would be crawling soon so the floor needed to always be cleaned!  Sound familiar?  Yup, life!

Steve always likes to use the phrase: "life's tough, get a helmet!"

Then, when Dillon was about 10 months old, our priest offered me a job teaching Kindergarten at our Parish's school.  Well, that just added to all I had to do!  (DUH) 

Dillon's 1st Birthday Party, 2 months after I started working!  My mother-in-law is standing next to me, but gosh, it looks like she's 1/2 behind me!

Good thing Steve loves me, because gosh, I am about twice the size of when he asked me to marry him in this picture!

I got a wii fit, thinking I would lose all my weight and then some!  Well, you know, life...  I justified not working out because Dillon needed me, or he was upset if I wasn't holding him, or it was so hard to do the wii fit wearing a baby- I had a sleepy wrap, which, Dillon loved, but you know, working out holding a baby made it harder... sigh...

See, all snug as a bug in his sleepy wrap!

I would get on kicks where I'd go and take a nice long walk around the campus everyday, then, life...  you know, it gets in the way!  Last fall, I returned to my Kindergarten classroom, I had the sweetest students, I had fabulous, suportive parents, and a great teaching assistant; the truly ideal classroom situation.  Well, amost every mom in that room was gorgeous, beautiful, and thin, after not one, but two kids!  WOW, seriously, if I could post pictures of these beautiful, wonderful, moms, I totally would.  Well, I wanted to be like them!  Good motivation, huh, these hot moms dropping their kids of to me!  Well, actually, it was! 

I started bringing healthy snacks to work- setting that good example for my students.  After Christmas I even propsed that our school do a "Biggest Loser" competition so that we could keep eachother motivated and healthy- no, I didn't win!  As I started taking these little steps toward healthy living, I realized that a real key ingredient I was missing was exercise.  But, sigh, life...  It was REALLY REALLY hard to fit it in!  So, I decided I needed to find ways to fit it in while doing the things I normally did.

Instead of parking as close as possible to a store, you can never find those spots anyways, I looked for the last spot in the parking lot so that I had to walk just that little extra to get to the store.  Instead of hopping in the car and driving to dinner at the dining room, I ploped Dillon in his stroller and hoofed it.  After work, instead of sitting on the couch watching Dillon play, we played outside and ran around.  And then, as I stated in the first post, I decided enough was really enough and I couldn't do it on my own, I joined weight watchers in May of 2010. 

Fast forward 1 year and 1 month from that lat picture of my mother-in-law and I to July 2010:

Believe it or not, we didn't plan our outfits ahead of time!  Now, scroll back up to the 1st picture of us and then back down again!  WOAH!  Now I have a waist and my face has a slimmer shape! 

(Yes, I know, round is a shape, actually, that is circle...)

Now when Dillon goes down for a nap, I still take the time to relax, catch some tv, and in general not do too much, but if I'm watching tv, I do sit ups at the commercial breaks- as many as I can without hurting myself or over exerting myself.  

Dillon and I spent 2 1/2 hours raking leaves and pine needles in our yard this morning before his nap, I have blisters on my hands and I am really exhausted, however, our yard is clear, we go fresh air, and I worked up one heck of a sweat!  The yard had to get raked, so I did it, and it was a great work out!  Now, none of these things I have talked about are a traditional form of exercise, but on days when I don't have a walking partner or I just am in the mood for a different type of exercise, these things all work! 

So, instead of making excuses as to why I cannot exercise, or why I don't have time, I have changed my lifestyle to incorporate exercising and activity into the things I already do or that I have to do.  My son weighs 30 lbs. so if I wear him in his carrier while I'm walking, it increases my "workout" or if I pick him up and swing him around while playing with him, or if I chase him or get up and dance to music with him, believe, me, it's a work out!

So, stop making excuses and make progress, make changes!