It's OK to Want (and Take) a Break from Your Kids

After my daughter was born, I remember thinking, "How could anyone ever get tired of being with their kids?"  I know what you might be thinking: "That chick was seriously sleep deprived if that's what was going through her mind."  Yes.  I was extremely sleep deprived.  But I also remember feeling so amazed by all the little things I saw my daughter learning and how she seemed to grow overnight.

However, I also remember the days when I felt like I couldn't take another moment of being mom to my beautiful, screaming, daughter.  My husband would come home from work and I'd hand him our baby and shut myself in the bathroom for a half hour just to get a little alone time.

Now I have two kids and while I love them with all my heart, I just can't keep them entertained all day, every day.  And honestly, I think sometimes they get a little tired of me too!  And now I'm going to tell you a secret: it's totally OK, even normal, to want a break from your kids.  To take some time away from them.  Time away from being mom.  Time away from the stresses of running a household.  Time away from breaking up sibling fights and trying to think of creative ways to keep your kids busy for a few minutes so you can use the bathroom without an audience (can I get an amen?).

Can't Get Yourself To Workout? Let Me Give You A Reason (Or Four)

A while back, I posted about how I made exercising a part of my daily routine. I got a great response from that post, and in it, I promised to post about my motivation for making exercising a part of my life. And so here it is!

The motivation for doing something is key for me. I'm an over-thinker so I can't just do something for the sake of doing it. It has to have a purpose. Sometimes that purpose is fun, or because whatever I'm doing makes me happy. But I've never been able to just do without some type of meaning or reason behind my actions. So if I'm going to commit myself to doing something every day, it has to have some rock-solid motivation behind it. In the case of working out, I could go on and on about the benefits. But today, I'll just give you my top four reasons for getting my butt in gear every. single. day.

It's vital to find reasons that motivate you now and will continue to motivate you. You will not find "get skinny" or "lose weight" on this list. It's not that I don't want to lose weight. I'm human and I could stand to lose a few. But it's not a good enough reason for me to exercise everyday. Working out is hard. It's called "working" for a reason. And some days, I care about my weight more than other days, so just the prospect of possibly losing some weight is not enough for me. It is far from enough, in fact. Especially since I've actually had the experience of running six miles every day and not losing one pound for MONTHS. (Can you say frustrating?!) Anyway, I digress.

I have managed to find the right motivation for exercising for me. Maybe getting thin is one of your top motivators, but it just doesn't cut it for me at this time in my life. I remember saying to Quinn (my husband) about six months ago that I wanted to lose weight, but more than that, I just wanted to be happy with how I looked. I wanted to be confident and not have self-esteem issues every other time I looked in a mirror (after-baby body can be a rough thing to deal with, especially when your babies are ten-pounders). Living like that was not okay with me. And I'm happy to say that after making exercising a bigger part of my life, I still have days when I wish I were thinner, but generally, I am ten-times happier with the way I look. And honestly, I don't think it changed that much. I just changed my perception of it, which was my goal in the first place.

Starting From Scratch: How I Made Exercising a Part of My Daily Routine

 The hardest part of working out is getting in the habit. Good habits are so hard to form and so easy to break, but this is one that is worth the work. Stay tuned and I'll tell you my motivations for exercising in a later post! But for now, I want to focus on the how, because I think most people already have their why for this particular habit.
I'm not a sedentary person by any means, but when I'm pregnant or just had a baby, I tend to spend way more time resting and way less time exercising, if I spend any at all. And sometimes, I just get out of the habit of exercising regularly and get distracted by other things, pregnant or not. This particular time, I got out of the habit because of pregnancy and the aftermath of pregnancy: two babies. It had been over a year since I'd exercised regularly this time so I was really, really out of the habit. After months of thinking to myself, "Man, I really should be working out," or "I would really like to lose a few pounds," I finally got my butt off the couch and get some actual results--that stuck--by using these small tricks:

• Look good, feel good. This may seem shallow, but it's actually really important for me to feel cute when I'm working out. It makes me want to get up in the morning and put on my cute workout clothes and it makes me feel good about myself when I'm exercising. I know that by the time I'm done working out, I am no longer cute. But exercising in a baggy t-shirt and unflattering sweats doesn't make me feel great about the situation. This is obviously not a must, but it definitely helps me be motivated.
• What I Did: I had no cute workout clothes when I started. So, after about a month of regular exercise, I rewarded myself with some new clothes! Since we don't have a huge budget for that kind of thing, I shopped outlets and slowly built my exercise wardrobe over time.