If you’re one of those ladies that has gobs of extra hours in her day and tons of energy to go around, this episode is probably not for you. BUT, if you’re a mom that never has the time and never has the energy to work out and that’s always your biggest struggle, then lean in, take notes, and be encouraged. The best part about this episode is that I’m NOT going to tell you how to wake up earlier or cut things out of your schedule or make you feel bad that your priorities are all out of whack. Let’s get to it.

A little story...

Is there anything more irritating than when someone tells you, “If it was important enough to you, you’d make the time.” Yes, I get the idea, but I know you’re probably thinking it IS important, but I literally have no time and barely ever have the energy to do it anyway. So those comments feel so insensitive and honestly, probably make you feel ashamed that you’re not prioritizing better. And that’s demoralizing and not at at all helpful to you in the long run.

Whenever moms join the Self Care Simplified FB group, I ask right off the bat what they struggle with most when it comes to their self care. Lots of things are always mentioned, like injuries, or food prep ideas, or weight loss. But there are two struggles that I believe go hand in hand that are far and away the most commonly mentioned. Nothing else even comes close. And it’s not having enough energy or time.

It’s a story of frustration. You never have enough time in the day. You don’t have any energy. And so your workouts - the ones you know you should be doing to be in better shape and maybe even get you more energy - just fall to the backburner and don’t happen.

I got an email from a mom recently that said, “My number one struggle is finding time. I’m working a 50-60 hour/week job and commuting an hour. When I get home, I’m exhausted. I want to spend the 2 hours I have in the evenings with my kids being present. That leaves taking away sleep time if I chose to work out. What is more important? Getting 6-7 hours of sleep or taking away from that time to work out.”

Ok… that’s my challenge today. To see if I can help this mom, and YOU, figure this out.

I’m not going to tell you to “get up earlier”.

I’m not going to tell you that you need to get rid of something on your calendar.

Let’s just assume that like this mom, your schedule is packed, it’s fixed and that’s just not going to change.

Today, instead of demoralizing you and telling you things that really won’t help, I want to give you some grace, some encouragement, and some ideas on what you can do.

Let’s begin with finding the energy…

How to Find More Energy:

First, I want you to keep in mind that doing something new and different is going to require significantly more energy in the beginning than it will when it becomes a habit.

• When you first learned to brush your teeth, you had to be reminded constantly and you had to really focus and give it a lot of attention to do it right. But now, you can do it while going about other things and it just fits into your day without zapping you of any extra energy.
• Be gracious with yourself, and remind yourself that if you’re working on a new habit, it won’t always take this much energy. We just need to get the ball rolling right now.
• Also, keep in mind that it requires FAR MORE ENERGY to show up to a 45 minute HIIT workout than it does to show up for a 10 minute dynamic stretching routine. So while you’re working on getting the ball rolling, choose workouts that don’t require very much energy at all. Doing SOMETHING is so much better than nothing.

Secondly, maximize your energy, don’t try and fight it

• Take notice of your low and high energy points during the day
• My lowest energy is always early afternoon. My body starts to drain, I lose motivation, and start to feel myself procrastinating and putting things off. Planning to do my workout in the afternoon would be a fool’s errand. I would talk myself out of it every single time. But in the morning? I’m on point! That’s when I shine.
• Get an idea of your daily energy rhythms and try to work with it
• Also, notice if there is something that mentally, physically or emotionally consumes a large amount of your energy.
• I know a lot of moms that put off working out until after they put the kids in bed. When you have little kids, bedtime is so draining! The only thing you want to do after that is veg out on the couch.
• What consumes a chunks of your energy? Intentionally avoid workouts after those times.
• Take notice of your energy points throughout the week, too.
• You might always have a burst of energy on Mondays and on Wednesdays - awesome! Take advantage of that.
• Or maybe the weekend is the only time that you have energy - great! Take advantage of the weekends!
• Do not keep trying to force a workout in when your energy is at its lowest point.

One more sidenote on energy… if it’s a constant battle, your nutrition could be a huge culprit. When your eating habits are pretty bad, it will ABSOLUTELY impact your energy levels. While you’re working on figuring out your energy high and low points, also see what you can do to improve your eating habits a little bit, even if it’s just drinking more water all day long. You can go listen to ANY of my nutrition podcast episodes to have a good idea of what this could look like, but even the one a few weeks ago about supplements would be good to refer to.

How to Find More Time:

First, make the workout itself far less time consuming but still effective.

• Don’t travel to a gym unless it IS more convenient (e.g. on your lunch break while at work)
• Do 10-15 minute functional strength training routines - with the right routine, you can accomplish just as much in 10 minutes as you can in going for a 30 minute run
• Remember, a simple, low-key 10 minute workout is FAR MORE EFFECTIVE than that good intentioned workout that doesn’t happen.

Second, take advantage of the days that aren’t so full (weekends)

• I had a client one time that worked four 10’s. On those days, she was absolutely wiped and had no time or energy to do her workout. So I instructed her to not even try on those days. Just let it go. If you go for a walk at lunch or do some periodic stretches for tight muscles throughout the day, that’s great! But you have 3 other days that you can really try to take advantage of. How about on those 3 days we do two strength training workouts and one yoga or dynamic mobility workout. She got into a habit of that and felt awesome.
• You may need to be someone that does 10 minute stretching routines while watching tv with the kids 2-3x during the week, and then on the weekend is when you get in one 45 minute top-to-bottom workout. THAT would be extremely effective. And you would start to see a big difference in how your body felt.
• Ask yourself which days of the week CAN I do a workout?
• Get it out of your head that your workout routine needs to have a neat and tidy schedule like M, W, F because weekdays might be the worst.

So, my big advice for the mom that emailed me:

• Don’t try to squeeze one more thing into your week days. You need your sleep and you need your family time.
• See if you can do some movements while hanging out with your kids in the evening. Think outside the box and don’t underestimate how impactful those small moments will make you feel.
• Look to implement some more purposeful workouts on the weekends and any time you have a day off. Start small and gradually build.

The TAKEAWAY...

The big idea here is that I don’t want you to constantly be at battle with your own energy and your own schedule. Let’s just see if we can think outside the box and work with it. Probably the biggest takeaway is understanding that something small is infinitely better than nothing at all.

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