4 Tips to Maintain Your Workout Routine in Your Own Home

Hey mama, got kids? If so, then you probably know what it feels like to be needed just about 24/7. And with all your time spent being needed, even the littlest amount of “me-time” can really make a difference in your overall mood.

Don’t believe me?

When I was working outside the home, I didn’t believe that I had any time at all to do the things I loved. I wake up, feed the baby. Go to work. Come home, feed the baby. Try to do a wifey thing like clean the dishes, and then feed the baby. Cook dinner, feed the baby. You get the gist. It did not take long at all before I felt burnt out and like I had no personality. I literally didn’t know who I was anymore because none of my life expressed uniqueness!

That is, until I started believing that I had the time to do more. See, with those days of working and momming, I would dedicate most of my time to those two things, and any free time I had to zoning out, because goodness knows my brain did need a break. But when I started to try to fit things into my schedule that were for me, my attitude began to change, a lot!

I started not only writing for Living the Sweet Wife, but I started working out, too! When I started finding little tid bits of time in my day to do something that felt more “useful” (you know, other than keeping a tiny human alive with my body), I started feeling like I wasn’t forgotten. Not only that, I started feeling more confident and a much stronger sense of purpose!

Was every workout done in a gym?

Oh no. While my gym’s childcare was great, my 1 ½ / 2-year-old didn’t always agree. There were times when we were literally pulling into the gym parking lot when he would start kicking and screaming that he’d want to go home. So we did. Because goodness knows I’m not about to walk into the gym with that mess. Did I mention I was pregnant? So yeah, home workouts it was. Which actually ended up doing a lot more than I thought it would for me.

You wanna know how? I got 4 tips for ya right here that made it all doable!

1 | Get that activewear on

The more obstacles standing in the way of you and your workout, the way less likely you are to follow through with it. It may sound simple, or even silly, but if I start the day by putting on my workout clothes, even if I’m not working out until 11 or 12 (stay at home mom, here), then my plans of working out are going to be in the front of my mind all day until I do it! Not only that, but when the time is right and the kids are distracted, I’m going to want to jump right into it- not waste 10 minutes trying to get a sports bra on. By then, the possibility of me losing my momentum is all too real and the chances of me throwing my workout to the wolves increases greatly. Moral of this paragraph, get ready ahead of time so you’re ready when the time’s right.

2 | Designate your workout space

It’s important to have a dedicated fitness space in order to make fitness an easy fit into your routine. Being consistent about working out is hard enough with everything life demands from us. If we walk into our fitness space without even enough room to exercise, I’m going to pretty easily push it off until later. But, if I have the space I need and the room is de-cluttered, it’s 100x easier to jump into the workout I was planning on having. No excuses allowed here! One of the ways I made this happen was by installing a SANUS full-motion TV mount. This way I was able to convert our small guest room into a guest room/home fitness space! Since the TV mount is able to move and angle so I can see it from where I am on the floor, I can super easily keep up with guided workouts. Then when I’m done, I simply fold it up and put it back and the room magically transforms into a guest room again! Better yet, clumsy me doesn’t have to worry about tripping over cords with SANUS’ on-wall shelves that keep all cords of the ground. Safety first! Here’s a quick video of how I set up my wall mount all. by. my, self. Well, I hired some muscle near the end 🙂

3 | Schedule your time and stick to it

Be careful to not have an attitude of “if I get to it” when it comes to your workout. It might sound like much, but your day needs to be planned around your workout, or else it will slip through the cracks. I find it really helps to have a plan of what days during the week I’m going to work out, and what time. For instance, I know that Monday’s, Wednesdays, and Fridays are good mornings for me to schedule for working out because my toddler will be in his pre-k program those mornings, thus also giving me a deadline of having to work out before I pick him up. But even before he was all grown up and going to pre-k, I knew that I wanted to hit the gym about 3 days a week. I also knew that if I aimed to go every day, life would have me going about half that. So, realistically, 3 days a week I would get a workout in. Not bad for a working mama.

4 | Plan out your workout

Know what you’re going to do in your allotted workout time in your fitness space. Whether you stick to a program on a DVD or have it written out in a fitness journal, knowing what you want to work ahead of time will help you make goals and stick to them!! I used to be the type of gym girl who would stop doing an exercise as soon as I started feeling the burn. Later did I learn that that’s not exactly how exercising and building muscle works. (Please take note that feeling the burn is a lot different than feeling pain). If I know how many reps I need to do of a certain exercise ahead of time, I can mentally prepare and push through the feeling of wanting to give up to meet my goal for the morning. And it’s a pretty good feeling when you do!!

So ladies, to sum up, when you’re trying to establish or maintain an in-home workout routine, do these four things:

Put your sports bra and sneakers on at the beginning of the day, if possible.

Designate your workout space by making sure a room is optimized for a great workout, and free from clutter.

Schedule your workout time and then schedule the rest of your day around that. We’re talking priorities, here!

Plan what your workout will consist of so you stay focussed and don’t wimp out.

Got any of your own tips? Share them in the comments below!

How would you use the space that a SANUS full-motion TV mount would save you? You know the drill, leave your ideas in the comments below!!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of SANUS. The opinions and text are all mine.