Exercise Makes You a Better Homeschool Mom

20 Monday Jul 2015

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Last week I posted on how the HEAV recordings are good for your health. If that wasn’t good enough to convince you that exercising is good for you, here is an article I found: 6 reasons why exercise can supercharge your productivity. As you know I love reading business articles. I love how I often get life-hack ideas from them, especially if you think about how it applies to you as a homeschool mom.

Most everything we read on homeschool mom blogs is about becoming more efficient, more productive, more — whatever. How to get the best deal, how to homeschool 10 kids at once, how to have a clean house and homeschool those 10 kids at once, etc. All really interesting articles on their own, but what they really boil down to is – how can you do more with the limited resource of YOU?

If you’ve been around for a while, you know I have gone hard-core gluten-free (undiagnosed celiac because my results were “inconclusive.” BLEH.) Living through this meant I have spent several years with about 25% of my previous energy levels, and couldn’t do half of what I used to do, and barely make it through the other half that I had to do, whether I felt like it or not. Through this experience, I realized that ENERGY, not just time, is my most valuable personal commodity. Can I do something had all new meaning.

So, becoming very productive and efficient took on greater and greater importance for me. How can I do more with less. How can I stretch that less of me that I had to spend to cover the necessities of things that have to get done?

Beyond my fav of their reasons –

Exercise will kick up your energy level
Exercise improves brain function
Exercise can spark a breakthrough idea
Exercise can help you find your optimal work-life balance (change that to “homeschool-rest of life balance” and you get the idea) –

here are a few of my own that I would add as a homeschool mom:

Exercise gives you time to mentally chill AWAY from the kids. It took me time to figure out when I first started homeschooling how much I needed this. Public school has set hours, but when you homeschool it can feel like you are “on” as a teacher all the time! Looking to help learning happen 24 hours a day can be rewarding, but it can also lead to some serious brain fatigue! Sometimes you just need to turn the brain off for a while, and obviously doing this while working out is much better than vegging in front of the TV.
Exercise reminds you that you are more than just a homeschool mom. Man, I could so write a book about that alone, but what I have found by making time for myself and my health is just one thing that reminds me there is more to me than just being a homeschool mom. My identity isn’t found solely by that title.
Exercise is one way I can lead my kids by example. Part of my own personal parenting theory is that since kids learn best by watching what you do, that I really need to live the life I want them to lead as adults. I need to be the role model and example I want them to follow. A major component of that for me is that I want them to lead healthy lives. And how can they know how to do that if I (and their father, of course) don’t model that for them? Teaching them about nutrition, about healthy eating choices is a part of that. But also, showing them how important taking care of your physical body is another component. Whether I want to or not on that particular day, I want my girls to SEE ME taking time to take care of myself.
Exercise can make me more healthy, which means I can then fulfill my regular roles. There is nothing like having your health taken away to help you appreciate it more. This falls under the “put your own oxygen mask on first” category. Even now, I am propped up on a couch not feeling my best, rather than spending it with my girls at the pool. If I want to be the person I want to be, the mom/wife I want to be; I have to take the steps to keep myself in a physical state that allows me to do so. (Please note – this is not me trying to be Superwoman, this is about me living at a level that is higher than “barely functioning.)
Exercise makes me feel better about myself. I want my girls to have a healthy level of self-esteem, but again I have to role-model that for them. How can I do that if I have terrible self-esteem about my body? And I do, as I’m sure about 99.99999% of women in the US struggle with every day. But I want more for my girls. Is it possible to inoculate them from that particular disease? I can only doing it by living it out, and the only way I can live that out is by becoming healthy and feeling better about the skin that I am in. Taking care of my physical body is not only about losing weight (even though I really need that), it’s also about showing my girls that I value myself enough to take care of myself. I am worth it.

The HEAV Convention Recordings Are Good for Your Health!

13 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by MP31W! in Uncategorized

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Convention, Exercise, HEAV

Did you get the HEAV recordings of the Convention?

Or, perhaps, a better question is — have you done anything with the recordings once you received them?

This was my dilemma this past year!

Sometime in January, I realized I had multiple years of recordings that I had never even touched. I buy them every year with very good intentions, but never actually listen to them!

About the same time, I was working on my New Year’s goals – of which one of them is to get in better shape and lose weight before my XXth (you know, it ends in a 0) birthday this December. And then I thought – heck, I can kill two birds with one stone!

I downloaded the entire collection onto my iPod and set off to the gym. My oldest had ballet on Wednesdays this past year and her class is in the same complex as my gym. So the youngest went into the childcare room, and I got on the treadmill for a solid 50 minutes each week. (Plus 5 minutes of treking to the treadmill once I dropped the oldest off, and 5 minutes treking back.)

Staying entertained at the gym has always been my biggest downfall. Classes are hard for me because my strength and endurance level aren’t enough to endure a high intensity class for the full hour, and this gym seems to schedule their classes at odd times. But getting on the equipment was always a bore. I could last about 15 minutes before going stark raving mad. (Why are all the dumbest TV shows on in the only time slots I can seem to make it to the gym?) I would listen to music, but then I’d spend half the time choosing music or flipping between songs.

So, the convention recordings are PERFECT for my workouts! Most recordings are at just around an hour, so the timing is perfect for me. Once I get the treadmill going, I really didn’t having to think about what I am doing. (I’m klutz-prone and actually have to focus on the elliptical or stair-thing-a-ma-jig. I actually sprained my ankle in June putting on shoes. Not even kidding.) But walking at a good speed? That I can handle! I can really focus on the words being said instead of what my feet are doing.

At first I made it about 20 minutes before my legs started to protest and then I would spend the rest of time doing good yoga stretches, etc. But by the end of the semester, I was able to walk almost the entire hour at a quick walk speed! I was even trying to figure out how I could squeeze a second workout hour somewhere into my schedule! And then of course, I sprained my ankle putting on shoes and sadly spent the rest of this summer so far trying to heal from that.

But this week my girls are attending a camp at my gym and I’m going to start the regimen once again after I drop them off. I am so glad I have some new recordings to listen to!