For a little background, my chosen career path after college was to be an elementary school teacher. And I loved it. I still love teaching, actually, it's just not in the cards right now. So I resigned this year to be home with my kids and run Spray Pal on the side. I call today my first "official" day as a WAHM because I've been doing the work at home thing for a few years now on top of teaching, and it's been quite nuts. So I made a promise to myself that after my final teaching day, I would make a big deal out of it with my daughter and let her pick out anything she wanted to do that morning to celebrate.
So she did. And you guys, I have no idea where in the world this child gets her crazy ideas, but this is what she picked:
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Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. Who knew it would make for great mother/daughter bonding?[/caption]And at first I was thinking, You've got to be kidding. I haven't touched that thing since 2011 and the last thing I want to do at 7:30am is listen to Jillian Michaels
bark orders at me and tell me not to "phone it in." She obviously doesn't know I haven't had enough coffee yet.But, she was serious. (My daughter, not Jillian). So, I went with it. And this is where I learned my very first life hack as a WAHM (that didn't take long, right?). And since it didn't take long, I decided to number these life hacks, because I have a hunch that this could easily become a series of blogs.
Work at Home Mom Life Hack #1: Use play time as a time to check something else off the list.
Basically, this means if your daughter wants to do a workout video, turn that into an opportunity to multitask! I needed a workout anyways, and I likely wouldn't have done it if I had planned my day based on what I wanted to do. I also wanted my morning to be about spending time with her. So, she actually got the ball rolling so we could combine the two and make it fun!
We didn't do the video exactly as instructed. Instead I popped it in, and we ran around the room, and did a few fun variations of the moves that we could do together, and I took a ton of pictures of her getting her workout on. She claimed a few toys as makeshift dumbbells and I used the real thing, so I actually did get a little bit of a workout. But the bottom line is, we both broke a sweat, got active, and had fun!
I never would've thought about working out with my kids as a form of exercise, but honestly, I think it's a great way to start each day now to keep us both on a good, healthy schedule. It makes exercise a fun part of our normal routine. It was actually perfect timing because her little brother was hooked up to his gtube feed and we pulled his high chair into the living room with us so he could watch, and he found it absolutely hilarious to see the two of us running around like maniacs and goofing off. I'm pretty sure he got an ab workout from laughing as well. ;)
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Mini Spray Pal 2.0 thought we were pretty amusing.[/caption]If you're interested in checking out the 30 day shred video, I've included an affiliate link: Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred
. I actually like the video, but I usually have to press mute to handle it get through it with my sanity. ;)What life hacks do you use to save time and keep things fun?