Day 290 or Training for the Olympics, Mommy Style

If you are looking for a hardcore, cross-trained workout routine, one need only look at the mother of two young children.



Aerobics -- Chase after a potty training child while she runs giggling through the house with no pants on. Repeat 3-5 times daily.



Weight lifting -- Carry children who are clearly of age to walk themselves. Start with younger child and work up to school age child. Be sure to switch sides during carrying to ensure a balanced work-out. Add piggy backs, monkey hangs, and upside down swings, as desired.



Calisthenics -- Lean down and pick-up laundry strewn throughout the house. Be sure that clothing is placed far enough apart to require a unique bend-down ensuring multiple bends at the waist and several steps between. Note: Toys, sippy cups, or other childhood accessories may be used in place of clothing, as appropriate. Hallways are especially effective for this exercise.



Cardio -- (For those parenting in the multi-level home) Run up and down the stairs. Sources of this activity can include but are not limited to the following: 1) running to children who are screaming incessantly due to an unending need for food, drink, or dispensation of an argument with other sibling, 2) discovery that any item needed regardless of its owner or home location will always be on the other floor, and/or 3) discovery that said item once retrieved was nonetheless left behind as one of the previous two events happened during its retrieval and thus a round trip on the stairwell is required yet again to retrieve the item.

For full cross-training effect, an obstacle course of laundry baskets, toys, and other misplaced household items is suggested. Repeat daily.

Olympics, here I come!

(I once heard that an Olympic triathlete was hired to follow a two year-old for a day to test their endurance levels and he gave up after a couple of hours. And that's what we moms do everyday. Maybe we need to start our own games.)


P.S. Now that my husband is safely positioned in the Arctic -- a big shout out to my Canadian friends, my husband is now in your Northernmost region -- and I have survived my first full week back to teaching, I am getting back to my real life. You know the bloggy world. I should be around catching up with you all soon. :-)