Morning Salutations: How I Found the Motivation to Build a Sustainable Workout Routine

Thank you Ellie for sending me the Velvet Crush outfit from the November subscription to use in this post. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Being a mom is hard. It’s exhausting. I have to admit there are so many mornings where I have to drag myself out of bed (usually after way too late nights trying to soak up that after bedtime alone time). One thing that’s keeping me going lately are my mid morning workouts. They take up a lot of my time so hello messy house but they also give me energy and patience (okay not much but a little;) to get through the rest of the day mothering four littles. But, it was a hard road making fitness a priority so I want to share what has helped me get moving and stick with it.

The first thing I did was ease into workout habits. I started with five to ten minutes a day right before my shower. Everyone has five minutes that they can devote to working out. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I alternated things like marching or jogging in place with simple body weight exercises. Check out this post for more about finding your five minute routine.

Now that you’ve got the habit down, you can focus on honing your moves to reflect your goals. I really wanted increased core strength and to be able to do full push-ups. So, I chose two exercises that would really help build upper body and core stability. I practiced holding a plank for up to a minute and I did incline pushups (I found these to be more helpful in increasing strength and ability to do full toe push-ups). The push-up is really a fantastic full body move. It engages so many muscles when you do it correctly and it really works on your core stability at the same time. If I had to chose one exercise to work on for full body enhancement it would be the push-up. To read more about my main exercises to build up strength for any (especially body weight) workout see this post.

The last and maybe most important thing to consider when building up to a sustainable workout routine, is choosing something that keeps you interested. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve started a gym membership or an at home workout program only to fizzle out a month or two in. This time has been different and the key reason is that I am able to switch up my workouts with the click of a button making it easy and fulfilling. I love not doing the same workout day in and day out (and I do workout most days of the week because of it). I use (but do not sell) Beachbody On Demand. It has all the workouts available (and there are a lot) for a flat monthly, quarterly, or yearly fee. You can try it free for seven days to see if it’s for you (that’s what I did). Now, I only use about five programs regularly and still have enough variety to keep it interesting every single day (and there are so many workouts, I often don’t repeat my cardio for weeks).

Now that I have the strength I need to complete the workouts (this was another deterrent for my previous attempts at workout programs- it’s frustrating when you can’t do all the moves), the last component has been adding in workout gear that I feel comfortable in and makes me want to get moving each morning. Right now, I’m loving the Ellie Active subscription box. You get a top, bra, and bottom each month for only $45. (Use the code 25NOVINF for 25% off your first month.) I love that you can let them surprise you, or choose from a list of preselected outfits each month. This is only my first month and I’m kicking myself for not signing up with them sooner. Can’t wait to see my pieces for December.

I hope this post helps motivate you to get active and keep moving. I’m looking forward to sharing more of my fitness journey with you as I go. And, if all else fails, just drink a lot of coffee.