Achieving and maintaining the motivation with young kids?

How do you do it?? I am desperate to lose weight. I really don't like myself right now, how I look, how I feel, the role model I am portraying for my kids is terrible (well amybe not terrible, but it's not great!). I know what I need to do....how I should eat and exercise to lose weight. I have been healthy and slim(mer) before. I don't want to be unrealistically thin. But I just can't keep up my mojo. I get it sometimes for a week, sometimes jsut a few days, but when I go back into bad habbits I fall hard and it takes a few weeks to get back out of the hole again. I think I know my triggers. I have some strategies to deal with them. I can do it, have done it before. I have lost 10kg before (before I was so overweight!) so I do have the capacity to lose a fairly substantial amount of weight, but now with kids, it all falls apart so easily. I can't exercise with them in tow. Going for a walk with them is the slowest most painful thing I do in a day! What would be a 5-10min walk for me to the grocery store is a 25 min trip from hell with the 3 of them. DS2 is a cat napper and won't sleep longer than about 30-45mins at a time int he day time. He also likes to be held alot. He also feeds 2-3hrly, for about 20-30mins at a time. When I'm not holding/feeding him, I'm trying to get things cleaned/hung out/cooked and race around like a bat out of hell. If I have the chance I try to spend good quality time alone with my big kids, either at the same time, or one at a time. Or I'm having a shower which is the only peaceful time of the day for me, or I try to spend time with DH, which unfortunately these days is all too little.
So how do you manage to prioritise you? When all of these things need doing. There's so little time in the day! Most of this stuff has to be done. It can't go by the wayside. I have to cook food for everyone. I have to feed the baby. I have to spend time with my kids and hubby. But there has to be a way right?? Lots of people manage to do it somehow. I feel like I really want to lose this weight. I think about it alot....but maybe if I can't od it I don't want it enough...?? HELP!

Hey hun we're in about the same situtation, about the same weight and targets. I too am finding it really hard. Some days I am so motivated, I eat so well, I exercise and then other days it goes pear shaped and quickly.

On the good days I fit my exercises in around the kids, if DD wants to be held I do squats with her in my arms, then lunges. I try to be as active as I can be with DS, crawl around on the ground, dance all the moves to the wiggles songs. I've just started going for a run in the late afternoons. I get dressed in my gear, feed DD then when she is either asleep or on her way I'm out the door for a 30min jog. It's hard leaving them with DP for a bit, but at the end of the day I told DP,its either 30min here and there, or forever later on if I go to an early grave. He fully supports me, though he is such an enabler when it comes to my diet. I have to work on my emtional eating.

I'm finding a schedule the best thing. I plan our meals, so that at least 3 of them are either slow cookers or easy meals like spag bol. Makes it easy for me to go for that evening jog if its not a mad house trying to get dinner ready. Or we eat frozen left overs. I've also just made up a big tub of precut salad things for me and DD. (DP wont touch the stuff).

I also use the cross trainer a few times a week, for the duration of one of my shows when the kids are alseep. I think the biggest thing is being flexible, we cant have strict work out diaries because with kids this young it flies out the window. But a diary of what i have actually done helps remind me what i have to do. HTH

GL fingers crossed we can be yummy mummies by christmas. We only need 500g a week to be at our targets by then.

I'm having the same struggles. Hoping that I can find a gym that has a creche that's suitable now that DS is a little older to get to on the weekends. I've been thinking about getting a bike so that I can pop him on a seat behind me - but I just know that it's my luck that he would hate it and scream like a banshee. I wish I had someone I could leave him with for forty minutes so that I could duck out for a decent walk/slow jog every day. Diet alone just will not get me there after three years of very little physical activity! And so many competing things for time, like mowing and weeding, house chores, washing makes for a busy weekend. So, as you can see, I have every excuse under the sun but I need to stop thinking like that and get a routine happening. Before I completely blimp out!

For me, its not so much about motivation, but routine. Once exercise is built into your daily life it becomes easy and you don't have to think about it, same goes with eating. The best thing i did was find a gym with a free creche, have a look around at the options available to you. It sounds like your mind is in the right place and you are ready for a change! Good luck!

Thanks everyone. Unfortunately I live in a remote community and whilst there is a gym here, it's only small and I am pretty sure there is no creche. Plus it's realy exxy and we don't have the spare funds to put towards it. I would love it if I could though, I do enjoy going to the gym. There is a walking group here, but again I would have to take the kids and that is just torture for me! I will have to try to be more organised. DH is on different shifts every week though which is also part of the issue. I can't say to him I will do this and this on these days because he's working different shift and different days every week....aahhh, I feel like all I have is excuses for it all! But I have given up trying to sort it out!

Lilias I know how you feel! Before falling pg with #4 I really wanted to change. Now I don't have much of a choice for the next few months. But since this is my last I want my body back. Well as much as possible! But with four kids under 3&1/2 it us going to be tough! I think you have to take baby steps maybe changing diet first and sticking to it? Hopefully that will show some results and you can slowly incorporate exercise. What time do the kids go down? Try and get them all on a similar schedule so then you can spend a little time in the evening exercising? I know I am stuffed at the end of the day but just a half hour a night will make a difference!

You can do it Kellie!!!
I have been in a rut feeling similiar and getting really annoyed about feeling unable to do stuff to help myself be the best I can. So last week - no more excuses and I am walking/working up to running at least 3 times a week and having set food in the day. Sounds so easy but it is not. I get up and walk for 40mins when DH is on a late shift or go when he gets back and deal with the kids etc when I get back rather than procrastinate and put it off. I do not have a baby either!!!
I have meal planned my lunches and snacks - so gradually cutting back rather than getting upset and throwing in the towel! Also focussing on having 2L of water a day.
Small steps and keeping consistent changes are the key - also for me keeping at it rather than giving up!!!
xxxx

Do you like exercise videos, or zumba videos? you could do these at home and have the kids jumping around with you too. (might tire them out ready for a nap??)

Can you take a 1/2 hour walk when DH is home or when the kids are in bed ?

I am married to a shift worker too, sometimes it is good sometimes it sucks. If you know his shifts ahead of time can you write up a rough plan of times when you might be able to get out by yourself.

good luck

I am in the same position now. And I desperately want to get some weight off (I gained 30kilos this pregnancy) and am a bridesmaid in a few months and also want to ttc again later this year (so dont want to gain another 30 on top of the 20 I haven't lost). I was thinking Zumba also as DD4 could jump around also if we don't bump into each other (but I can't afford to buy it)

Can you try simple things around the home like vacuuming more often, gardening, mowing the lawn, opting to use the clothes line over the dryer (my bigger down fall around the house) I'm yet to try these stratergies myself but I am still in the thinking about it stage. How about go to the park and whilst the kids play on the equipment do laps around the enclosure? Do you have any friends locally that can go walking with you to help with the kids (like push an extra pram etc?)

I could have written your post myself. Above are just some things I'm thinking I could try. When I find the motivation to try it.

Forgot to say that once upon a time I worked with an anethetist who swore by you are what you eat (I don't neccessarily agree with this as I think genetics plays a huge part) Anyway he did alot of work in nutrician and weight loss and reckoned you can get to your ideal weight without extra exercise apart from normal activites of daily living like work, caring for kids, cleaning etc) Its the exercise that helps tone up etc. So based on this theory if its true maybe changing eating habits or foods maybe the answer. I'm going to try weight watchers anyway when I get the motivation to start. I've done it before and it worked although then I only had two children then and not a newborn.

i really struggle to exercise with young kids too, but one thing that we have done is bought a cross-trainer (you can hire them too). i just do 15-20 mins on it here and there when i can. sometimes if dh gets home early from work he'll take the kids out into the backgraden so i can quickly do 15mins on it without them bothering me, or sometimes i'll do it in the afternoons while ds2 is asleep and ds1 is at kinder or watching a dvd. it's not much, but at least it makes me feel like i'm doing something and i have heaps more energy on the days where i go on it and the best part is that you don't have to leave the house so you can do it while the kids are asleep.

I could have written your post! I have pretty much got my food intake sorted by meal planning, and putting DH on the same meal plan as me, which makes it much easier. I ahve been baking a chicken breast each night, and making up a huge salad for each of us for the next day, and put the baked chicken with it. He takes his to work, and it means instead of me having no lunch, and then eating junk later, I can just grab my lunch container out of the fridge and munch away.
Exercise I am having trouble with, but I have just bought DS (he is 2) a bmx with a parental steering bar at the back, so my plan is to put dd in the baby bjorn, push DS and tackle as many hills as I can find to make up for the fact that it might be a short walk.

The other idea I had was walking to a near by oval (which is about a 10min walk) with the kids in the pram, and when I get there just basically run around like crazy playing with ds. I was even thinking I could run up and down the cricket pitch with DS flung over my shoulder for resistance! He would love it, we get to have fun time together, and I would be burning fat.

Anyway, these are my ideas for this week anyway! Will see how I go! Good luck :)

These are my tips:

1. Meal plan and don't buy anything you think you shouldn't eat.
2. Cut down on portion sizes. Even if you're eating healthily, if you eat too much, you won't lose weight. The first few days are hard, then your body adjusts to not eating as much and you no longer feel hungry.
3. Get a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps per day. Trying to fit in formal exercise is too hard for me because DP's a shiftworker who works different shifts every week so I can't get into a routine of going to the gym/swimming etc. It's just too hard to plan (for me). So I've been wearing my pedometer instead and if you have a goal, it's amazing how much more incidental exercise you can fit into your day just with housework. Putting clothes away in three different rooms is no longer a drag; it's a chance to get another 1000 steps. If I look like I'm going to be short, I jog on the spot for a few minutes several times per day. Cheaper than buying a Wii! Or I go for a walk around the garden while DD2 is asleep. It all adds up. I've lost almost a kilo in a week just doing that and not by making any changes to my diet.

Has anyone got a Wii? Do you really use it?

I have been using calorie king and counting calories religiously lately- I find that if I am in control of what is going in my mouth, then I am a lot more in control in general.
Excercise DVD's are good too- I have the Michelle Bridges ones and her workouts are broken up into 10 min segments, so you can do the warm up and then just do 10 mins, if you find 10 mins 3 times a day then you have done 30 mins of work out. I wear my heart rate monitor when I do my workout and I tend to burn between 200-300 calories in 30 mins of her workouts.
Planning, Planning and Planning- Plan what you are going to eat the night before or in the morning, always have a snack in mind for when you are hungry or busy, so you don't eat the first thing you find, and try and plan in your excercise so you are commited to it.

Good Luck, it can be done- I think the thing to remember with a busy life is to accept that it might take a bit longer to lose weight and be happy with a 200-500gm lose each week, because if you are loosing you aren't gaining.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it! DH and I will be doing it this time!! We both have a fair bit of weight to lose, and now it's not 40++ degrees every day, it's much more likely that we will get out of the house to exercise. I have gone through his work roster and put in when we can exercise on our own, just going for walks or a jog (for him!) and I have also dregged out the hand weights and wii.

(On a side note whoever asked about the wii, we have one and yes I was using it before I fell pg with DS2. I used it 2-3 days a week and walked the otehr days and lost about 5ish kg in about 3ish mths, so not a huge loss, but TBH, I wasn't trying really hard either! It made my muscles sore and was getting me moving more than usual which was the aim of the game! I will be trying to get back into it now too, and use it when the kids are asleep day or night)

So as of Monday (after a last splurge at easter) this is it!! I will lose weight! I have a fair bit to go, ideally about 30kg, though would be relatively happy with 20-25. Gosh just getting under 90kg would be great! I will take on board your suggestions, thankyou everyone for the encouragement!

i so need to take more notice of what i am eating. i eat whenever i can :hide:. i made it my treat to eat a lolly here and there whenever the kids go to bed and i think i need to do what a PP said and just not buy the stuff that is bad for me.

also portion size...i eat the same amount as DH at dinner and yet he is an active sportsperson and well, let's just say i aint :rofl: so i think i also need to change that one up too.

argh, i wish that i could get an hour to go to the pool (half hour commute there and back and half hour in pool). i love swimming but since finishing uni i dont have access to the pool like i used to and i just wanna get back into it. i am no good with gyms...too many excuses not to go for me haha.