I need advice from those of you with kids

I need to pick my self up and start going to the gym again but I can't seem to find the time.

My situation is a bit different because i am separated from my husband but we are still living together.

I have 2 days with the kids and we alternate weekends but all the dropping off and picking up at school/daycare falls on me and I am also trying to work from my home office which is very hard since school hours are really short...

How do you find the time to go to the gym?

I need to find a way to make it appealing... I have a Goodlife membership which I really want to use but... I have excuses galore...

Please help! I might just need a good kick in the butt and that's ok too :-)

there are gyms with daycare now. That's the only thing that works for me

How old are the kids? Some Goodlife centre's have daycare that you can drop off for small fee while you exercise.

My daughter is turning 7 and the boys will be 3 next month but one of them is autistic and i do not feel comfortable leaving him in a drop in as they probably have untrained caregivers there.

Since you still live together, would he no****ch them every night so you can go?  Since you do all the picking up and dropping off maybe that could be a selling point to make things more even that he gets them ready for bed or stays home for a few extra hours so you can go to the gym even if it's not his day.

On his off days he goes out and comes home really late. so I can't get him to watch over them... :-(

I'm separated as well (as of June 2013), we don't live together but he gets the kids every other weekend.  So I'm doing all the running around with the kids (hmm, did that before June too).  But since it's winter, make use of it.  Do things with your kids then you can get exercise and spend time with them.  Go ice skating.  Either at an outdoor rink or find out when public skating is.  Go sledding.  Play outside making stuff in the snow or playing soccer/hockey.  If your kids are in hockey (you don't say) do laps around the ice surface while they are on the ice practicing.  Hey, shoveling snow is a good workout (I don't have a snow blower, and my neighbors are never home in time to do it for me).  If you have a Wii or something get a fun game.  My son loves Just Dance, and if you want it can be quite the workout.  They also liked my Wii Fit.  It'd be hard to find time when I could use it.  Challenge your kids to do something.  There's the Trans Canada Challenge here, but on your own, you could challenge each other to walk somewhere (adding up your steps/distance) and see how long it takes you to walk to say Disney, or Wonderland.

Good luck!

Cathy

You have really good suggestions but I have an excuse for every single one of them... My main problem is that for some reason and it does not matter how well I dress my fingers and toes freeze when I am outside.

I like the potential for using the daycare at the gym but I just looked at the hours and of course they do not work with my schedule.... blah... I need a kick in the butt.

I fyou have an excuse for everything people mention or everything you have considered, truly (YOU) are the problem.

..where there is a will there is a way

...if your (x) is amicable to live in the same house/premises as you, perhaps you can trade some time off so that you can alternate picking up or dropping of fthe kids..why not walk...you don't have to get to the gym especially if that requires making alternate plans.

Make your supper and bundle up your kids and go for a 1/2 hr walk...make them do it, if you;re kids are anything like mine they are too sedentary and why are you doing this...to improve your health, so you might as well try getting the kids on board as well

you will not succeed if you can't find the time to do something..if you can't do this, how will you do other things related to this process???  I am not saying that exercise is the end all..be all of this process...but believe me it does help\

SO CONSIDER YOURSELF KICKED IN THE BUTT FROM A 5 YR POST-OP(wil Sorels on...LOL

I am maintaining a 5 yr gain of 10lbs~!!!so I can offer butt kicking advice.

I'm with you Mary...good post.  We all need to accept responsibility to use our tools and honestly put ourselves first for long term success.