Okay, here's the deal. I am an at home mommy of 5 children, ages range from almost 2 to 11 years old. I also homeschool my children and my hubby and I run a youth ministry. I spend most of my days running a round like a fruit cake with the kiddies and cleaning the house. The problem is I'm having a terrible time getting exercise in and I know it's slowing my weight loss down. I have purchased a few exercise DVD's the most recent was Windsor Pilates, well I spent most of that time with a 33lb 21 month old jumping on me (he thinks it's time to wrestle whenever anyone is on the floor) and this was a regular deal. By the time hubby gets home, I am able to get dinner on, give baths, correct more school work, run out the door for a meeting, and then get home and crash.

Does anyone have a similar situation or any ideas??!! I am just so sad at how slow it feels it's going and I know it has to do with no exercise.

HELP!

what's husband doing while you do all these evening activities?
seems to me he could give baths while you work out - or at least he could corral the 21 month-old while you work out -

or since you homeschool - could you move "correcting homework" to be concurrent with a 'reading/quiet time' activity in the day so that you can reclaim that time in the evening for your exercise time?

Well hubby is INCREDIBLY

OOPS hit enter to soon...

anyhow, hubby is incredibly helpful, considering he has degenerative disk disease and works as an ironworker, which his type of work is intense heavy lifting, we're talking tons of steel all day long and putting it up on his shoulders and carrying it, he usually gets home and can barely move..
anyhoo...he is a huge help, it's just I'm usually doing dinner and cleaning up and that's when he watches the kids for me.

What I guess I should have asked is any ideas for something that can be done fast(no Taebo, that darn near killed me) and maybe at night in the house kinda stuff. I know it's asking alot, but really I've only got about 10 minutes I could sit and devote with out being bugged, or at least not totally bugged (there are 5 of them *Ü*)

I hear what you are saying about child participation and sabotage of exercise.
I reccommend you try the plan at this site - http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/ww...000000000000000
It's really easy, to start with it usually takes less than 15 minutes. It's based on a plan developed for the Canadian Airforce - just not as complicated.
My kids like to do it - maybe you could incorporate it as part of your home schooling with your kids! At least it is better than no exercise at all, and you can increase your level at your own pace!
Hope this helps.

Cheers, Theresa

I am definetly gonna look into this one!! My kids are like mini-drug pushers..."oh mom your pretty the way you are," as they chant,"no more atkins, no more atkins, eat some bread eat some bread"...

I don't want to be answering more than what was asked, but there's way more going on here than just mom fitting in one more thing into an already-overscheduled day, when she's not getting support from her kids.

What kind of exercise are they getting and can this be turned into some family activity, maybe? Also, Atkins is about more than looks; maybe a home-school activity on nutrition and metabolism and conflicting opinions in the press, etc. I can see a research paper in this, if any are old enough.

Strikes me that I'd be itching to give a lesson about its not being anyone else's business what other people eat, but then I don't have kids myself so maybe I'm just being idealistic. Maybe it's time for some of the kids to learn how to clean house, too?

Which brings me to yoga, because one of its benefits is the ability to stop and calm down, to pay attention to the interior. Most other exercises don't give me anywhere near as much calm afterward.