How to find time to exercise when you are busy with kids

Life as a parent is already full. The world constantly screams at us to add more to our To Do lists. So how on earth do busy parents find time for self-care and to exercise? Let alone have the energy for it.

There’s no one-size-fits-all quick fix or hack to find more time, sorry. Each parent is going to have a different solution for fitting in exercise, just like we’ve got uniquely different kids. But as a certified PreKure Health Coach, I’m here to tell you IT IS possible to get even a little bit more movement into your day, improve your health and establish a fitness habit.

As a busy parent, finding time for exercise may seem like an impossible feat, but it is essential for maintaining physical and mental well-being, so you can be the best parent you want to be.

In this post, I will explore how to shift your mindset around what’s possible. We’ll look at the importance of exercise for busy parents and provide practical tips for fitting physical activity into a packed schedule. From creating a realistic workout schedule to incorporating exercise into your daily routine, maximizing efficiency, and overcoming common obstacles, this guide will help you achieve a healthy work-life balance and prioritize self-care.

The importance of exercise for busy parents

Physical activity is essential for maintaining overall health and well-being. For busy parents, exercise can be particularly beneficial for reducing stress, improving mood, boosting energy levels, and promoting better sleep quality. Regular exercise has also been linked to a lower risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, it is crucial for parents to prioritize exercise as a crucial part of their self-care routine.

Mindset: Shift your belief around making time for self-care

What is important to you about being healthy and fit?

As a health coach, I talk to a lot of people who WANT to improve their fitness but are convinced there’s no space in their day or week. So my first question is about priorities. What is important to you about getting fitter and, improving your chances of living a longer, healthier life?

It’s true, some people actually just want to look better. However, when I dig a little deeper with my clients, it’s usually connected to how they want to present themselves to the world. It’s about how they want to feel in their bodies and, most importantly, how their kids see them. This would be my first step – drill down into your motivation until you have a compelling and moving answer. Then I encourage clients to write this down and make it a concise statement, such as “I want to be fit so I can participate in my children’s lives as they grow up.”

If you can get clarity on your deeper intrinsic values, and separate them from external motivations, then this could help stick to your goals. If you write this down in a clear and concise statement and place it somewhere you can see often, you are reminding yourself of the deeper value this change would bring to your life.

Now that you know what’s important to you about increased fitness in your life, let’s look at what’s less important. Because let’s face it, something has to give if you’re going to change.

What priorities need to shift, to make your fitness more important?

We internalize so much pressure from all the imagery our brains digest these days. We start to form a narrative about what a busy family ‘should’ be able to achieve, how our homes should look, and how our children should behave. It’s easy to forget to ask ourselves what WE think a happy healthy home means for us.

Personally, I value connection and being there for my daughters. I know that for me, If I don’t get to exercise I have a sore back when I try to keep up with my kids, and generally don’t feel like I’m on my best parenting game. So, exercise is a priority that I make happen. This means, that the clean washing can sit unfolded, or the vacuum cleaner only comes out twice a week. I’ve come to realize that I can’t fit everything in. I have worked to understand what value each item on my to-do list is connected to.

It’s also helped to realize that this is just the stage my family is at. (I fully intend to teach my children to do their own laundry and to use the vacuum cleaner).

The plan: Finding realistic ways to improve fitness

Aim for what’s possible, forget the ideal amount of exercise: How to create a realistic workout schedule

Who wrote the rule that you have to work out for one-hour maximum, otherwise it’s not worth it? No one. If you’re currently not doing any form of dedicated exercise that elevates your heart rate, then working on establishing even five minutes a day will improve your health mentally and physically. Obviously, I would encourage you to go further, but we have to start somewhere.

Health guidelines recommend that adults aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise across a week, which might look like a 30-minute walk, five days a week. However, some parents are lucky to even get five minutes for a shower in the morning.

When I started making exercise a routine part of my day all I managed was 15 minutes a day, and that was hard enough. But it was enough to form the habit. From there I found it gave me more mental energy. I was able to convince myself that it was worth doing something rather than waiting until I had more time to do it ‘properly’.

Start with the time you have available. Established habits are easier to tweak once they are in place

So ask yourself: How much time can you find a day, or every other day to dedicate to intentional exercise?

If it’s only 10 minutes, then schedule that 10 minutes into your day. Be as specific as possible and build a plan around that to make it happen. For example, if it’s to go for a walk at lunchtime, make sure you have suitable walking shoes with you. Choose a route. Set an alarm. Ask a workmate to go with you so you’re accountable.

Tips for incorporating physical activity into your daily routine

It might be helpful to schedule regular times that you do your workouts. This could help with arranging the help of a partner, family member, or friend to watch the kids. Enlisting someone else to make this happen also uses the accountability lever to motivate you. Our minds love routine, it means fewer resources have to be used to make things happen.

Figuring out creative little ways to sneak more movement in might not be what you think it is, and may not be the same solution that another parent uses. Many of us have heard about the suggestion to do a number of squats each time you visit the bathroom, take the stairs, or get off the bus a stop early. There are bound to be little nooks and crannies in your day-to-day that present movement moments you haven’t considered yet. This is where I love getting creative with clients.

You could split the workout across your day. If all you have is 10 minutes to do a short at-home workout while the kids eat breakfast, maybe you can take a 10-20 minute walk in your lunch break, and then after dinner, possibly kick around a ball with the kids to unwind from the day. Movement and gentle exercise are better than sitting continuously throughout your day.

Making small changes to your daily habits can add up to significant health benefits over time.

Making exercise a family activity

Exercise can be a fun and healthy way to spend time with your family. Parents can involve their kids in physical activity by going for a family bike ride, playing tag or other outdoor games, or taking a family hike.

You get the benefit of movement, as well as being outside which is amazing for calming our nervous system. Most importantly, it is an opportunity to build connection with our children while modeling healthy behavior.

A new family tradition we started this year was to take our dinner down to a nearby park and playground. It’s surprising how much extra movement you get after eating when you’re playing lava monster or helping your child (safely) climb trees.

Additionally, many gyms and fitness studios offer childcare services, allowing parents to work out while their kids are supervised and entertained.

Make it easy and schedule it – don’t count on willpower

We all know that willpower on any given day can fluctuate. If you want to build a new healthy habit, such as ‘going to the gym more often’, problem-solving around what currently makes that hard for you, could be a more productive place to start.

For example, if your goal is to exercise in the morning, but you’re finding that when you wake up the intention you had yesterday is no longer there, maybe you can try setting out your workout gear the night before. That’s one less mental hurdle to climb over when you wake up. If time is the issue, maybe it’s a case of preparing your breakfast the night before or going to bed 30 minutes earlier.

Once you’ve done the exercise as you intended, you can then use it as a memory to galvanize you on to the next goal. This article around mindset and multiple scientific resources that it quotes, suggests that believing that “mental stamina fuels itself”, can result in stronger self-control for your next goal.

The benefits of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for time-strapped parents

HIIT is a type of exercise that involves short bursts of intense activity followed by periods of rest or low-intensity exercise. This type of workout has been shown to be particularly effective for busy parents because it can be done in a short amount of time, usually 20-30 minutes, and requires minimal equipment.

HIIT workouts can be done at home or at a gym, and they provide a cardiovascular and strength-training workout in one session.

Do you find yourself making an excuse because you don’t have a gym membership? Or that there never seems to be enough time to go to the gym? Changing your baseline excuse can help. For example, “if I can’t do 45 minutes, then I will do at least 15, rather than nothing.”

You can get pretty sweaty at home.

Here are some of my favorite places to look for HIIT workouts:

• FitOn : Ah excellent, free fitness app with a wide range of varied workouts with skilled and engaging instructors. Many workouts don’t need equipment.
• Natacha Oceane: A UK-based fitness enthusiast, studying Biophysics. She runs her own fitness programs and is an upbeat influencer on Instagram and youtube. Her 20-minute HIIT workouts on youtube quite often only require a mat and a small amount of space.
• Caroline Girvan: A personal fitness trainer from Ireland with a wealth of intense workout series available on youtube. A lot of her workouts are with dumbells. However, even if you did them with light or just your body weight, you would still sweat!
• Growingannanas : Anna Engelschall has over 3 Million youtube subscribers. Her channel is packed with Full Length Workout Videos, HIIT, Pilates, and Strength Workouts.
• Eleni Fit: Her channel has HIIT, Pilates, and dance workouts that are easy and not intimidating.
• Yoga with Adriene: If you’re wanting a more gentle approach to your movement practice. Adriene Mishler is an international yoga teacher with 11 million followers on youtube. Her gentle approach to yoga and depth of knowledge of the practice is welcoming to both beginners and regular practitioners.

Progress isn’t a straight line

When you decide to get fit by changing one thing at a time, then you begin a journey. However, people quite often can get obsessed with an end goal and frustrated with themselves when it doesn’t go as planned. The journey can take you on a winding path of stopping, re-starting, getting super-motivated, getting tired, and life obstacles knocking you. It’s the commitment to the journey and generally getting more out of life, that makes it sustainable.

Talk kindly to yourself – champion yourself

When we’re attempting to change our habits for the benefit of our long-term health, we’re going to meet resistance. Our brains are wired against the discomfort of change. However, one way we can make the shift easier is to also get into the mental habit of championing ourselves.

For example, let’s say we aim to set the alarm earlier and prepare the night before so we can get out the door to the gym or go for a walk before work. However, the chaos of the morning takes over, and all we manage is 20 minutes. There are two ways we can deal with this. We can build a positive thought pattern around it or a negative one.

The negative voice would say “I only managed 20 minutes, which is useless, don’t know why I even bothered. And that was really stressful. I doubt it’s even worth it.” That’s a pretty demoralizing perspective to have on trying something new. It makes it a lot harder to keep trying.

Alternatively, a positive & resilient reframe on that could be: “Even though it wasn’t as long as I had planned, I did manage 20 minutes. That is better than nothing at this stage. I felt more awake and had less stress in my body. I think if I keep trying it will get easier.”

Many of my conversations with clients work around this reframing towards a positive pattern. Your internal story around how you cope with doing hard things grows. Gradually you start to count the wins over the fails.

It takes a huge amount of cognitive energy to build a new habit. Our brain’s main task is immediate survival and not long-term health and well-being. In evolutionary terms, we’re still stuck on the plains of the Savannah. Our brains want us to keep doing the same thing we’re used to doing. This means it can run on autopilot, avoid discomfort, and reserve energy. Even if that habit is incrementally impacting our long-term health negatively.

Work with me on implementing an exercise plan that fits your life

Information is plenty. Putting it into action consistently is the key. Having me as your health coach means having someone in your corner to cheer you on. I’ll be that compassionate voice to help you back on track. You will spend more time progressing forward.

As I work with you on your goals, we address mindset obstacles that can deter you from building healthier habits. We dig deeper into what feeling fit means for you. You grow aware of how much you move currently and look to create more opportunities. We start to build a greater understanding of what your values are and what motivates you.

When I work with you, we will keep coming back to your deeper motivations and values. We define the person you want to be. We essentially change how you identify with yourself and what you believe you are capable of. I feel really honoured to work with people on this level, and it’s really exciting.

Have you’ve tried to change your habits before and struggled to keep a consistent and sustainable routine in place? Working with a health coach to uncover that obstacle could make all the difference. In fact, it could make it easier.

I offer the first discovery session for free. This helps us both work out if we’re the right fit – and it might mean you come to understand what’s tripping you up on your health journey currently. What are you waiting for?