Balancing Baby and Fitness

Before I had little Hannah-Banana to take care of, it was all about me. It was about my needs and meeting every single one of them as I saw fit. But now that I'm busy meeting HER needs, mine often get put on hold. Or I meet them in short, but effective spurts—such was the case with yesterday's workout. I busted my butt in 25 minutes. At home. While she slept.

Let's back up: I knew that I had to teach two classes yesterday, starting at 9:45AM, so we got to the gym around 9:00AM. This would have given me plenty of time to log some miles on the dreadmill. Except, well...dummy over here forgot that she scheduled a 9:00AM client. (Hey, at least I wasn't late.) So the miles never happened. And it poured down rain yesterday, which meant the miles certainly weren't going to happen outside with the jogging stroller. I debated staying after my last class, since Hannah was tucked away in the nursery, but I knew that if I did, we'd throw off the lunch/nap routine. So we came home, got through all of that, and then I got through all of this when she went down:

I know that I am blessed to work at a gym with a nursery that Hannah and I both love. And as a group fitness instructor, I get paid to perform two of my strength workouts. These two things combined make it fairly easy for me to balance baby and fitness—well, most of the time. If you're a mom, you know how things can change LIKE THAT. And when that happens, it has the capability to throw off everything in a given day. Especially all things fitness. A mom can't just leave her helpless baby and go for a run, right? But that doesn't mean it's impossible to find a balance that works.

You just have to be adaptable. Which, perhaps is easier said than done for some. As a semi-stay-at-home mom with, again, complete access to a gym and childcare, I realize that I come at you from a somewhat ideal situation. But it's not all roses and lunges all the time. So here's my best tip on how to balance baby and fitness:

Short, efficient workouts. Squeeze them in when your bundle of joy is napping. I know...I know. But you'd rather go for a long run. Plan those for when Daddy is home, or when the nursery is open at your gym—trust me, you won't lose your fitness if you have to audible for a quick, high intensity type of workout. Even if you have to do so more days in a row than you'd like.

The above circuit? I did it yesterday in 25 minutes. 25 MINUTES! Well, OK...and some seconds:

I was sweating profusely and breathing heavily through it all. (Trainer got trained, yo!)

Hannah was asleep in her crib the entire time and she slept longer than 25 minutes, which means I had time for some laundry, a shower and minutes on the Internet. Realistically speaking, all stuff I might not have gotten done had we taken the jogging stroller for a spin around the 'hood.

25. Minutes.
Short and just as effective.

Pin this, just in case:

Question: How do you baby and fitness? Or X and fitness, whatever your X may be?