Passionate Homemaking

Taking a pause from the simplifying series this week to address this question that Abbi presented several weeks ago…finally getting around to sharing our exercise routine. Come back next Wednesday for simplifying tips for the bedroom!

Abbi asked: I would love to hear more about what you do for exer­cise in the morn­ings. What has worked for you?

Accountability

Aaron and I have found the most suc­cess­ful way to be con­sis­tent in exer­cis­ing is to keep each other account­able. We wake up together around 6:30am and work out together before the little one wakes up. This has worked very well for us. I am not moti­vated to exer­cise with­out his help and the same goes for him. We exer­cise twice a week cur­rently, Tues­day & Thurs­day morn­ings, as we nor­mally take a family walk at least once a week to give us three exer­cise ses­sions each week (which I believe is the stan­dard recommendation).

Exercise Bike

The Lord pro­vided a nice exer­cise bike for Aaron’s use which he will work out on for about 30 min­utes (neigh­bors moved away and gave it to us for $10), while I use an exer­cise aer­o­bic video (around 25 min. in length). Due to the lim­ited space in our bed­room, we actu­ally store the bike in our closet and he exer­cises in there. We do have a large closet, so it works well. I use the video on my laptop, propped on the bed, and work out in our bed­room space. We enjoy this rou­tine because it works well for all sea­sons! We are not depen­dent upon nice weather to get some good exer­cise in. Exer­cis­ing in the morn­ing also helps boost our energy levels for the day. It also works well to just take a shower right after­wards and be nicely pre­pared for the day.

Aaron actu­ally reads his Bible while exer­cis­ing, but I have to wait until after­ward as my hands are active in my rou­tine. I will spend time in the Word while nurs­ing Karis as she nor­mally wakes up around 7:30am, and by then we have com­pleted our exer­cise, taken a shower, and have gotten dressed for the day.

I have seen numer­ous used exer­cise bikes and equip­ment on craigslist for anyone interested.

Workout Videos

Cur­rently I am using Denise Austin’s Power Zone DVD. (Warn­ing: on the front cover Denise is not in very modest attire, but in the video they wear decent sports bras or tank tops with shorts or capris. Front cover must just be for sales, sadly enough). This is an excel­lent, thor­ough, fairly intense work­out, includ­ing an aer­o­bic work­out, and two other toning seg­ments. I nor­mally stick to the aer­o­bic work­out, as time does not permit fur­ther toning. You have to have a power resis­tance band for this work­out, but these are very cheap in the exer­cise sec­tion at Target or a sim­i­lar store.

I am still using this video into the begin­ning of my preg­nancy, but in another month or so, I will mellow down a bit to using Denise Austen’s Fit & Firm Preg­nancy DVD. I used this with the first preg­nancy, and it was very help­ful for keep­ing me healthy up till the birth. It is def­i­nitely not as intense as the Power Zone video, but it also includes a post-​pardum work­out to ease back down to your orig­i­nal weight.

That’s what works for us!