Workout Wednesday Guest Post - Fitness Tips for Working Moms

Happy Wednesday! I made it to beautiful Cebu yesterday and hopped on a ferry for a meeting in Bohol this morning (province #4 if you're counting). 

I'm strangely fond of ferries and like to brag about using as many modes of transportation as possible. The 7 AM start time and 7 pm return time...not so much.

Luckily, I have another awesome guest post to share for today's Workout Wednesday (WOW) linkup! Shelby from Everything Isn't Normal is sharing her tips for fitting in fitness as a busy working mom. Shelby blogs about parenting, fitness, animals, and DIY projects, and even finds time to edit and manage her fiancé's movie review website. Plus, as you're about to find out, she's freaking hilarious!

"I believe in full disclosure and I dislike hypocrisy, so let’s get two things out of the way before I explore today's topic. When Amanda first responded to my email letting me know I should pitch a guest post idea to her, my first act was to send a text to my fiancé that read, "I got an opportunity to write a guest blog post. Focused around fitness, I should probably write something about not being a fatty," to which he responded, "I hope you write it just like that!" So, you're welcome. Second, I'm eating a bowl of spaghetti o's while writing this. It's not my proudest moment, but I feel like my excuse justifies it tonight, so I'm letting it slide. Let's carry on.

I'm here today taking a break from my regular blog to discuss with you guys how I manage to include fitness and health into the busy lifestyle of a single, full-time working mom. To be honest, it's really hard. I'm not talking "Oh man, these crunches are hard" or even "I missed the last 30 minutes of daylight, now I can't workout, time to watch Psych" hard. I'm talking, "I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and got home at 6:00 p.m. and now I've got to get the kids’ dinner on the table all while doing the potty dance and hoping I can get the kids distracted long enough to do 20 minutes of yoga" hard. 

So, I've developed a few tricks to make sure my eyes remain on the prize--a lean, strong, healthy body--without getting burned out. 

• I don't ever beat myself up about missing the mark. If I didn't do yoga, didn't pop in my workout DVD, didn't run around the block because I worked 10 hours that day and got scratched by twelve cats at the clinic, I allow myself to be okay with it. Because stressing out over missing the mark is going to just make your whole plan backfire. An abundance of stress is worse for your body than eating a bowl of spaghetti o's. Really, it is. 

• Work out when it hurts. If you're going to work out, but your body hurts, do it anyway. Take it down a notch though, if you pull a muscle somewhere, it's only going to make matters worse. You don't need to be out of commission for a month because you pulled your LCL and now every time you squat you scream out like a little girl. Why? Because a month away from your workout easily turns into two, three, six, nine months away from your workout. And then you're farther behind than where you started. If you typically do high intensity training, try some low impact training such as pilates, yoga, or swimming. Even a good steady pace on an elliptical machine can be therapeutic and allow you to work up a sweat. 

• Establish a routine, especially with your eating. This is a piece of advice I need to take myself. But it's something I learned from a personal trainer I dated awhile back. If you map out your food, plan it, make sure you're getting enough calories to maintain energy and burn fat, and then just stick to your plan, you'll lose weight. He lost 150 pounds in a year doing that. It helps you be accountable to know that today is cottage cheese for breakfast day, no matter what. And what makes this great for my lifestyle, I can plan ahead so that when it's mealtime, it's quick and easy. 

• Last trick, my favorite trick, don't ever let yourself hate on yourself. Just don't. A few months ago I wrote a blog post titled "Why I Don't Hate My Body" and it went mini-viral (that means it got 5 more page views than my other posts that week). I even included a picture of my muffin top. It rocked. The point of the post wasn't about how to love your body, it was about simple acceptance. We all want everyone to accept us, we want men (or women) to look at us with admiration, we want strangers to get that "Oh she looks fiiine!" feeling. We expect the world to RESPECT us. But we need to start by respecting ourselves, and that starts by respecting how we feel. You wouldn't let anyone else walk all over your emotions, quit letting yourself do it. Be confident in your abilities, your appearance, and your brain. You're not going to be sexy to every person on the street, but you better believe someone thinks you are. If you don't believe me, just start digging into the depths of the internet. Just kidding, don't do that. But please know, when you can love your body now, then you can truly begin to sculpt it into the body of your dreams. Because we all know, we don't think about or care about something unless we love it. Love that body."

Thanks for the great guest post, Shelby! The last trick is my favorite, too, and I LOVED your "Why I Don't Hate My Body" post!

For more of Shelby's funny and thoughtful writing, don't forget to check out her blog here. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. 

Now on to the party!

Point & Purpose: The purpose of this link up party is to mix and mingle and support each other’s sites by visiting, subscribing and/or leaving a comment. Please do not drop a link here, disappear and not follow through by visiting other party goers’ sites. 

Theme: We are linking up blog posts, Google+ posts or Facebook posts related to FITNESS, RUNNING, HEALTH or WELLNESS.

Simple Rules:

1. Follow, Like and/or Subscribe to your hostesses and co-hostesses:

• Diatta Harris (Femme Fitale Fit Club)| Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
• Sheila Simmons (The Frugal Exerciser) | Twitter | Facebook |subscribe via GFC or email.
• Amanda (Eat Hard Work Hard) | Blog | Twitter | Instagram
• Natalie (Mean, Green, Clean Eating Teen) | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
• Jenn (Comeback Momma) | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

2.   Don't be a wallflower.  I can not stress this enough.  Show some comment luv and support to other party goers of this link up by visiting their blogs and either leave a comment on a post, subscribe or both!  Visit at least 5 others who have joined the party.

3.  Also join our WOW Link Up Pinterest Board (http://www.pinterest.com/curleedst/workout-wednesdays-link-up/ ) so you can PIN your post to it.

4.  Invite your like-minded friends!  We love finding and reading new blogs so spread the word so we can increase the size of our parties every week til we make the walls sweat!!!!  I told ya we party hard!  :-)

5.  Use hashtag #wowlinkup when you comment on someone's post for easy identification.

6.  Last but definitely not least, HAVE FUN!  This IS a party.

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