Keeping Fit (Body and Brain) as a Parent

This week, the Work at Home Mom Bloggers ask, “how to best keep fit physically, mentally and emotionally as a parent?”  I could also add, “how do you keep fit while you travel?”

Let’s see: 

1) Best intentions. Check.

2) Some idea of how to eat in a healthy way and exercise since I spent over 20 years on active duty adhering to U.S. Navy height/weight and physical fitness standards. Check.

3) The knowledge of impending doom; i.e., Bathing Suit Season Is Coming, and it comes even faster here in warm, sunny Florida. Check.

4) The Desperate Housewives and others show that you need not be an overweight, raggedy-looking loser the minute you turn 40. Check.

5)  Follow-through.  Whoops.

I know exactly what I need to do, I’m just not doing it.

(“It’s the blog’s fault.  I’m a blog slave; can’t stop working to work out.”)

Nope, sorry, the answer is to get my head out of the feed bag and my butt out the door to exercise.  That’s it.  Stop eating crap and work out every day.  It’s not the carbs, it’s not my metabolism, it’s not the stress, it’s not my genes, it is my own self-discipline.

When it’s important enough to me, I’ll do it.  After I’ve been doing it awhile, it’ll also be a habit, which is even better. Ain’t gotta like it, just gotta do it.

Ever read Stephen Covey’s book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People?”  Author and organizer Kathy Paauw does a good job of laying out Covey’s Quadrants; how we divide up our time in her article “Capturing That Illusive Thing Called Time.”

Are you doing the right things, or just worrying about doing things right?

It’s tough to keep fit while you travel, so don’t plan any big training sessions, just hold what you have.  Walk everywhere, find hotels with workout rooms, take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator, drink plenty of water. Check out USA Track & Field’s “America’s Running Routes” for a quick run on the road.

Don’t snarf down dessert and booze with every dinner just because “you’re on vacation.”  And watch the buffets; I always overdo those.

Maybe now that I’ve pontificated about fitness I’ll go get some.