Exercise for Life Series Part III

Tips and tricks for balancing work, home and health.

Spindaroos presents a helpful series that emphasizes the importance of creating an exercise routine for life. We want to motivate you to do something regularly to encourage strength, health and flexibility. Getting and staying fit is important for long-term health both physically and mentally. We’ve been offering information about getting your routine set up, and keeping you motivated for the long-haul. Now, we’ll be discussing tips and tricks for balancing work, home and health , The series is meant to encourage you and your family to create and stick to a routine, not as just part of your week’s schedule, but as a part of your lifestyle, something that just naturally fits into your everyday life.

We are fully aware that it can be a tricky beast to try to deal with balancing work, home and health. We’re here to give you some pointers on how to best balance each aspect of your life so that you’re getting fulfilled in every aspect. Many of us are being pulled in multiple directions each day. Between job(s), extracurricular activities, volunteering at school or other places in your community, making meals, managing homework assignments, etc., life can get overwhelming. Thinking of adding another item to your schedule seems almost impossible, especially something that typically requires an hour several times per week to do to make it most effective.

When some folks think of a daily workout routine, they may not consider that a workout doesn’t have to be done all at once! If you can find 15 minutes in the morning to do some stretching, 15 minutes during your lunch break to take a brisk walk and 15 minutes in the evening to work on strength training, that’s 45 minutes…done and done! And it’s done on your own time and doing things you enjoy doing. Even if it’s one activity done throughout the day in intervals, breaking it up like this helps to make it feel less overwhelming to your daily schedule and manageable for your lifestyle.

If you would prefer to do your workout all at one time so that it’s ‘done for the day’, picking the right time of day is important. If you’re a morning person, waking up and getting your workout groove on early is probably best for you. If you are a night owl, maybe a workout after dinner is best. However, it’s important to not workout too late if you’re doing more strenuous exercises because a boost of adrenalin later in the evening may impact your ability to have a restful sleep.

Other options to making sure your workout is seamlessly incorporated into your everyday life is to include your kids in part or all of your routine. Taking a walk with your kids at night after dinner benefits you and them in so many ways! Not only are you getting fit together, it opens up opportunities to chat about your days, whether it be cracking up about something funny that happened, talking about a class they may be struggling with or more serious issues like bullying or feeling pressured. If they know they always have an opportunity to talk to you, it helps them on so many levels. They may even put it in the back of their minds during the day that they’d like to talk to you about ‘something’ during your nightly exercise activity.

If you’re still having a hard time incorporating a workout into your daily routine, don’t be distraught or give up. Be patient with yourself. You don’t have to do a 600 calorie burning, heart racing, muscle soreness workout every day of the week, or at all for that matter. As long as you’re moving your body regularly while doing something you enjoy, that’s what matters most. And that’s the recipe for long-term success!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this series and have benefited from it in some way. One of our missions here at Spindaroos is to encourage and motivate families to move. That’s why we do what we do in making dynamic, unique cycling gear for kids. If children see their parents leading a healthy lifestyle and taking part in movement each day, they’ll be more opt to copy! While you’re building good habits for yourself, you’ll be helping them build good habits simply by following your example. It’s a never-ending cycle of good.

Our next blog, Creating a Food Diary , accompanies our Exercise for Life series. Look for it soon!