Getting Back To Fitness | @SexyMomsRun

 Disclosure:  I was invited to participate on a blog tour, to help get the word out about family fitness and help raise awareness of the Sexy Mom’s Running Club.  For my participation, I received a gift bag with goodies.  In no way did this influence my opinion.

 Lately, I have to admit, I have been really lazy. Hubby says I need to get out and get active again with my Zumba class.  He is so right!  I felt so much better when I was attending a fitness class regularly.

My laziness began when the kids picked up a summer cold.  I was so focused on getting them better.  Then I caught their germs.  As usual, that cold didn’t stop me from attending events and other commitments, running myself ragged that I think I developed walking pneumonia (totally self diagnosed since I never went to the doctor).  At that point, all I wanted to do was sleep.

Now that we are all healthy, we really haven’t resumed our usual routines.  I haven’t gotten back to my regular Zumba classes.  Handsome boy is out of baseball season and totally into Skylanders and the iPad.  At least my princess is still enrolled in dance 3 times a week and The Hubster is refereeing summer leagues.

Have you heard of Becky Reese?  She is a mother of 5 who began to take back control.  She made herself a priority again and is now armed with a mission to empower moms across the country to feel beautiful no matter what.  She founded the “Sexy Mom’s Running Club” to help busy moms make themselves a priority again.

Becky has come up with some great tips on getting your family off the couch and moving:

1. Move the TV or limit the hours.  With my older kids, the Internet would stop working around 9 pm every night!  That only worked a few days, so then I made them turn in all electronics around 9:00 each evening.
2. Change their diet slowly! Make swaps (like water for soda, cheese sticks and fruit for potato chips, etc…). When they have more energy and feel good, they are easy to get out the door.
3. Find some activities that you can do as a family.  Wake boarding, skiing, snowboarding, biking, or even a family 4k – our favorite activity is to get into a family golf scramble.  We are out walking for hours and laughing and having fun.
4. Competition can be fun.  I have two kids that are book worms and not athletic, whereas I have another who is on a sports team in college and two that are incredibly talented at any sport they try. Sometimes it’s a struggle to find activities where the athletic kids don’t dominate the other two.  What I found was to try and team them up. When they work as a team competing against the others, I can level the playing field and they all are smiling in the end.
5. Plan vacations that include walking.  Amusement parks, city tours, etc… work great! For example, I have two kids who LOVE Harry Potter, so when my husband had a trip to Barcelona for work, we tacked on a trip to London to give them the opportunity to see into the life of Harry Potter.  Knowing they were going some place that they would enjoy, the kids had no problem going for nightly walks to prepare for sightseeing in London.
6. Put up a trampoline.  All of the kids love jumping on the trampoline, and believe me, it is GREAT exercise!
7. Try something new!  For summer, we had every kid pick a new activity they wanted to try.  We had a kid sign up for horse camp, karate, swimming. You name it – we tried it!

We are already implementing a couple of these items.  Yesterday, as a matter of fact, we took the kids to try out a soccer class, which one liked and the other didn’t.  And for me, I will be heading back to Zumba tomorrow (Monday).  Can’t flake this time, cause I’ve wrangled up some friends to help keep me motivated!

Now, here’s the fun part:

GIVEAWAY

One lucky Toddler Trails fan will win:

• The Fresh 20 Cookbook by Melissa Lanz

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