Having time and motivation for regular workouts can be challenging for anyone – especially those with children. I haven’t always been into fitness but ever since I started my journey and started being open about it on this blog, I’ve had a lot of people ask me how I do it.

The top two questions I get asked are:

How do you have time?
How do you stay motivated?

A little back story…

My interest in lifting weights happened after I met my husband. I was inspired by how his body was changing in a relatively short period of time and since I had just had my second C-section, I was ready to get my body back. My lifting journey began with a little guidance from my husband and Muscle and Fitness magazines. I have never been a lifter before but I do remember loving it when we had a unit on it in high school gym class. The leg press machine was my favorite! Once I started lifting for myself, I was hooked.

This doesn’t mean working out comes easy to me every day. There are definitely days where I don’t feel like working out. AT ALL. It happens a lot actually.

8 Things That Keep Me Motivated

I always regret a workout that I didn’t do. After I finish a workout, I feel amazing. I prefer to feel amazing.

I remember that consistency is key. Results don’t happen overnight but if I take tiny steps each day, they add up to big things. What finally helped me understand this was reading The Compound Effect. I highly recommend this book! You can apply its principles to anything but I think it’s especially helpful for fitness/weight loss, paying off debt and saving money.

Being a great example for my kids. You might think your kids aren’t paying attention but they definitely are. Since I’ve found something that really helps make my life better, I want them to experience that for themselves too if they choose to.

I love getting stronger. When I’m able to increase the weight on an exercise it’s a great feeling.

It helps improve my mood. Working full time and having four kids and three bulldogs means there are a lot of things during the day that demand my attention. It’s nice to get away and forget about things for awhile. My mood is always lifted after a workout. It has never gotten worse.

I can be a little more relaxed with my diet and not gain weight. This is a pretty nice perk of lifting. When you increase your muscle mass your body burns more calories at rest. My food philosophy is basically eating “healthy” 80% of the time. I don’t go all egg whites and protein shakes and I still make room for treats and stuff sometimes.

Gives me some much needed ME time. It’s definitely easy to get caught up in the mom life. There’s so much we do as moms and it’s important to take some time for ourselves sometimes so we don’t go too crazy! Lifting is one way I do that.

Blasting my favorite music!

How to Have Time to Workout

You have to make the time. That’s the “secret”. It’s pretty easy to fill our day with things that don’t involve working out and then before we know it, we’re exhausted and it’s time for bed. The trick is to figure out the best time for YOU to workout, how much time you want to make for workouts and finding workouts you can do in that amount of time.

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Can you workout before work? After work? After dinner? During your lunch break?

I personally choose to workout after I get home from work after I’ve helped kids with their homework. So I usually start between 4pm and 5pm and my workouts are usually right around 30 minutes. My goal is also to workout at least 4 days a week but I shoot for 5.

It’s definitely not easy. After my workout I drink a protein shake, jump in the shower, make dinner, clean up the kitchen and then try to stay awake until I get the kids in bed. It’s challenging but I know my workouts are worth it and I know for me personally, my workouts make me a better mom. I’m able to release stress while making my body stronger at the same time.

And by the time I’m able to finally plop down on my bed at night, I sleep like a rock.