Balance, balance, balance – “Blend” your values

I recently figured out a way to “blend” two of my values.  This was inspired by my life long quest for balance.  If you are like me, you too cram too many things into a 16 hour window each day (sometimes for me it’s a 20 hour window).  But if you also value sleep like I do (man, oh, man – I do like my sleep!), then you must get creative about how you accomplish all the things that matter to you – so I seek to “blend”.  What do I mean by “blending” my values?  Let me share with you a recent real-life success story about blending my values…

Well – I have (as you do too), values in my life – things that I hold near and dear to my heart and/or purpose on this planet.

One of those things is being a Mom.  My value statement for being a Mom is:

“When my life is ideal, I am a loving, kind Mother who serves my children like they are a priority and matter at set times of the day and when they call upon me for assistance no matter what else is going on at the time or regardless of how I might feel.  This or something better!  I make choices that favor my values.”

One of my other values is leading a healthy lifestyle – that includes exercising.

Many of you know, especially if you are parents of younger children, that it can be challenging for these two values to co-exist harmoniously.

Young children demand your time and attention constantly – whether they smash their face into a fence post while sleigh riding (yes, this did happen just this past week – thankfully, all is okay now – bumps and bruises are healed!), or they desperately need your attention to tell you “some dogs are brown” or to have you watch them kick their feet up in the air.

Exercise, requires you to push yourself to a brink of breathlessness and often requires concentration on your breathing, form (and thoughts of what indulgence you will reward yourself with if you just make it through your routine).

I assess what I have going on each day and ask myself  “What tasks can I do with my kids around?”  I save those things for when the kids are with me and it doesn’t matter if I have young, active kids constantly tugging at me for attention, “uppy” (my daughter’s call for “pick me up”), or making dogs bark in the background.  I get everything else done when they are off at school and daycare.

Exercise takes time – too much time for my blood!  I hate dedicating 1 hour a day to exercise – but I am committed to staying fit and healthy for many reasons:

• To have the energy I need
• To treat myself well
• I prefer to exercise over watching everything I eat (I am a “foodie”!!)
• and especially, to set an example for my kids

So how can I set an example if I can’t get through a routine with them around?  I tried joining a swanky family gym – but they are too little to be in class with me so they are required to go into a childcare room (which they crank and complain about tremendously – so that was doing more damage than good).  I was determined to find a solution beyond exercise DVDs (I get way too bored doing the same thing over and over again!)

The Universe is such a great thing – just make a decision and the opportunities to manifest your virtuous purposes show up – such a thing happened for us!

I found this on-line exercise program called H.I.I.T. (High Intensity Interval Training) which I can do from home by downloading different routines onto my computer.  The best part is that it is only 20 minutes long!!  Perfect for my full schedule and for my young kids with shorter attention spans.  I thought about trying P90X but frankly I don’t want anything that is going to take 1/4 of my day to complete.  H.I.I.T. was a perfect solution to balance my effort, time, and values!

My kids love to do the H.I.I.T. series with me for several reasons:

• They like the names of the exercises like “Spiderman Push-Ups”
• My son likes the feeling of knowing he can do better than me with exercises and he knows that I am not letting him win like he suspects when it comes to board games (he is on to me!)
• My 3 year old daughter likes to listen for funny things the instructor, Dana Lee, says when she is coaching like “drip, drip”, “push to plank” or “Kick-Ups” which my daughter thinks she is saying “cakecups”  her word for “cupcakes” – (oh, I wish there was a cupcake eating exercise!)
• And of course, they (and the dogs), love it when we all roll around on the ground for “Military Rolls”.

So, in the spirit of sharing something I have found that truly enables me to balance two of my values (mothering and fitness), I just had to share my discovery of the H.I.I.T. workout routine.

Here is a link if you would like to check it out – I don’t get anything in return – it’s just me sharing a personal success story with you and hoping you are inspired to find ways to blend your values as well.

http://20minhiit.realfitstudios.com/20min_hiit/

Hopefully the Universe will deliver a way to marry my value of cupcakes with my value for fitness!!  Think I will stay persistent in this value – after all, persistence is the key to manifesting any value!