I just finished a great read called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. In the first chapter she lists her personal, “Secrets of Adulthood”, one of which is the title of this post. It stuck out to me as a good motto that applies to many aspects of being a mom and trying to keep in shape.
Sometimes one of the biggest challenges to getting things done when you’re a mom, is not having large chunks of time to do things, especially with little ones. Take keeping your house clean for example. It would take me at least 3-4 hours or more to get my entire house clean in one go. I rarely have or want to take a chunk of time like that to clean. A mom friend of mine and I talked about how the best way to keep house cleanliness under control is to do a little bit every day. So one day I might get a bathroom cleaned, another day I might get time to vacuum. If I do a little bit of cleaning every day I feel like I can stay on top of the dust bunnies that keep hatching! I also liked Gretchen’s goal to do an “evening tidy up” every night no matter what. It is very satisfying to wake up to a clean kitchen by taking the time to get it clean before bed every night! When Zoe was first born I’d often go several days at once without cleaning up the kitchen – not a pretty site! And of course, not everything can be done every day but it is important to recognize a few key things that will make your life just a little bit happier! Some things I strive to do daily include eating fruits and veggies, flossing teeth, reading to my kids, laughing, picking up toys and clothes off the floor, stretching, and getting outside to name a few…
Similarly, by committing to exercise every day you’ll get many more benefits than if you’re just a weekend warrior. I’m working on applying this rule to core workouts and physio exercises. I’m lucky to remember to do core work more than once a week, but even just getting down on the floor for 5 minutes a day of exercises I’d be way farther ahead than I am now!
Finally, I’m trying to follow this motto in writing this blog. I’ve had many ideas of things to write about related to motherhood, mental performance, training, competing etc floating around in my head for some time. I’ve tried taking notes in a book but the books always eventually get stolen by Zoe and turned into coloring books. So I’ve finally had the AHA moment to get my ideas down and categorizing my random thoughts through a blog. And here I am on post number 6, and plan to write a little bit each day until I run out of “Deep Thoughts by Danelle” which I don’t think will be anytime soon….ha ha….
Move fast. Think slow. 
You know, your thoughts here are just perfect for my state of mind tonight! How fortuitous, before sticking another cheezie in my mouth and feeling more glum…(and I have heard Gretchin interviewed on CBC and maybe will now actually find her book). The house clean to keep up with the constant messes created by all of us (6 mo, 3 yrs, and mom / dad / cat) seems to sap my time. All too often I am choosing to forgo the little workouts…and they lift your mood so much. I have very little babysitting right now so all I do is run with the stroller. I was happy to hear of your sleep patterns with Zoe, because right now my little guy seems to wake almost every 1 – 2 hours. I sometimes wonder if it is dangerous to exercise on so little sleep.
Shannon,
Sounds like we’ve been on the same page in many ways! Especially those first few months you do what you can eh? But also can’t believe your little guy is already 6 months! I think what of the hardest things when you’re at home is not being distracted by all the house things that need to be done. I find it so easy to say, I’ll just clean this up or do this laundry etc etc and then boom, I have no more time left to do a workout. But with the lack of sleep too, the biggest surprise I had getting back to training with Zoe on much less sleep was how good I’d feel once I got going. I would feel dog tired but once I got through the hardest part – getting out the door – I was amazed and how revitalized I felt exercising and that it actually increased my energy by the end of the day, instead of making me less tired like I thought it would! Of course, some days my top priority was to get extra rest of a nap just to stay healthy but I was amazed at how strong you can still feel on less than ideal sleep!