A Svelte, New Me

I am a far cry from the size eight that I used to be when we started having children 11 years ago.  When I was a young, single girl, and saw a frumpy, overweight housefrau walk by, I would always swear to myself that I would ALWAYS get back to my original size after having children.  HA!  I did that after our first and came close after our second, a little farther from close with our third, and have totally missed the mark with our fourth.  :-)  I look at myself in the mirror and wonder when I got this way????? 

And it's not that I don't like to exercize.  I LOVE to exercize.  I am just finding it hard to find the time and energy to squeeze it into my day.  I've got three who are schooling right now, and a 12-month old.  Time is short, so I've started something new, thinking that it certainly can't hurt!

Cindy Crawford is my exercizing-soul sister.  I have had a Cindy workout video since I was in college.  She was the reason why I got back to my original size after baby #1, and then close to it after baby #2.  I love Cindy for three reasons:

1)  I am not required to bounce while exercizing.

2) Cindy doesn't talk in rhythm with the music.

3)  Cindy doesn't tell me, "Good job!" when she can't even see me.

Love Cindy, wish I could exercize with her more.  But since I can't, I've decided to take some of the exercizes she does in her video and do them throughout the day as I get the chance.  So while I'm brushing my teeth, I do this leg lifting thingy.  40 times for each leg, which is great because then I am assured of brushing my teeth as long as I should.  ;-)

After my shower, I do three different kinds of stomach crunches that Cindy does, plus another tummy-toner.  Takes maybe five minutes.  If I remember, I do an exercize for my behind as well. 

Then throughout the day, every time I go into my room, I pick up my free-weights and do one repetition.  This happens three or four times, so I'm getting a good workout for my arms.  I am a bit paranoid that my arms are going to get toned up before the rest of me though. 

When I walk up the stairs, I take them every-other-one.  This is not a Cindy-thing, but something I just thought about doing.  Although I've found myself halfway up the stairs many times before I remembered that I was supposed to be going every-other-one.  I guess it just takes getting used to doing it.  I thought about doing it even when I'm carrying the baby up the stairs, but, ummmmm, NO. 

This one is so trite, but at least it's SOMETHING.  I have started parking in the very last parking spot at the store so I have to walk further to the door.  This has had an interesting effect on my children.  We have a rule: No running in the parking lot!  But seeing the entire parking lot spread out before them is so irresistable to them - it kills them not to be able to run at full-speed to the door.  My 11-year old said, "But Mom, my legs HAVE to run!" 

So we'll see how it goes......I was getting out with the kids after lunch and walking a mile, but my hayfever has put a temporary stop to that. 

If you have other ways of exercizing that you have incorporated into your day, I am all ears!