You know you need to focus on your fitness. Everyone online is telling you to walk more and lift weights. To boost your daily steps. And while you’re a busy mom, you often find yourself in the carpool lane, nap-trapped, or at the beck and call of your kiddos. I get it. (this post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no cost to you).
As a busy, SAHM millennial mom, let me hold your hands when I say this. As the great Avril Lavigne once sang, you’ve gotta stop making this so complicated (she was totally talking about motherhood, and fitness, and all that, right?). And boosting your daily steps doesn’t have to be super challenging.
I used to villanize my kids when it came to fitness. My oldest struggled to nap his entire infancy. After the birth of my 2nd, I found myself as a SAHM with no village nearby with 2 under 2, on completely different schedules. “They won’t let me workout!” I’d tell myself. “How am I supposed to get healthy?”
I wish I had let go of my preconceived notion of what I believed exercise was “supposed” to look like a lot earlier in my journey (I haven’t done a full update here yet – but I’ve lost 140 lbs while building muscle and taking my health back. You can read more about my PCOS/PMOS diagnosis here). Enter walking and increasing daily steps.
When my kids were younger, I’d put them both in the stroller and walk outside. But if it couldn’t be the exact route and the exact duration I “needed” it to be, I’d get resentful. I felt like it wasn’t enough. Then, I’d self-sabotage. Rinse, repeat.
It wasn’t until I accepted that walking, and simply moving more throughout the day, can be more effective for weight loss and wellness than 60 minutes of cardio, that I started sustainably losing weight and improving my health.
So with that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of ways I get extra movement and boost my daily steps throughout the day. Are they groundbreaking? Nope. But sometimes hearing them from someone who’s in your shoes and done the thing you want to do is all you need for that kick in the ass.
While doing mundane tasks
I’m sure you’ve heard this a million times – when you brush your teeth, walk around the room. I take that advice and apply it to pretty much everything I do to increase my daily steps.
Waiting on the microwave to reheat some dino nugs? Take some laps around the kitchen island. Putting away laundry? Put one shirt up at a time. Trying to get through bedtime routine? Pretend your hallway is a runway while your kiddo brushes their teeth or finishes up their potty routine (fun fact: if bedtime is particularly challenging in your house, like it is in mine, this also helps you self-regulate instead of losing your cool). Maybe your little one will say, “I want to walk with you!” like mine do. It’s always such a fun moment when your kids start picking up your healthy habits.
Park further
Depending on the age of your kids and what you’ve got going on, you can park further from the entrance of wherever you’re going. It’s easier when your kids are in a stroller because you don’t have to corral them to make sure they’re safe. If I’m going somewhere solo, you can almost guarantee I’m upping my daily steps from just parking a little further away in the parking lot. This is another of those “duh” ones, but don’t forget it!
Quick stroll on a walking pad
No, I’m not even talking about taking a 20-30 minute walk on a treadmill. I mean, literally hop on your walking pad super quick. 5 minutes is all it takes to elevate your heart rate and boost your endorphins. If you can do this right after a meal, even better. This morning, I got on my walking pad while my kids were putting their shoes on to go outside. Each micro walk counts to boost those daily steps, and helps to keep you active throughout the day. Now that my son is out of kindergarten for the summer, I leave the walking pad out in our guest bedroom, so that I can get on for short spurts throughout the day, without rolling it back under the bed. I have a Urevo Spacewalk walking pad, and it has been a total game-changer in my fitness since getting it.
Obviously, to really boost your daily steps, you can also do a proper walk on it, and I do often when I’m not able to get outside for a walk. One of my favorite ways to use it is during my kids’ screentime. Turn on a movie or their favorite show and get your walk in for the day!
Tour the neighborhood with your kids
While my days of putting my earbuds in, blasting 90’s/2000s music, and pushing my babies in their stroller while getting a proper, brisk walk are gone, I still enjoy taking walks with my son and daughter.
In fact, it’s become a non-negotiable for our summer routine this year. We have little routine charts for the kids where they earn stickers for completing their daily tasks and chores. One of the items in their routine is to get outside! To be honest, I have a pretty hard boundary around using our morning outside time to take a walk. We lace up our shoes, and the kids either walk our dog or hop on their bikes while I walk alongside them. We stop and look at interesting plants and, of course, bugs. A lot of times, we just walk to our neighborhood playground, others we stroll down all the streets in our neighborhood, or even find a field to run around in, or trees to explore.
While I want my kids to have time to explore, I depend on outside walks not only for daily steps but also for my mental health. Walking regularly has been paramount in replacing binging in the pantry as a coping mechanism. If my kids put up a fight, I remind them that their moods often improve after we go on our walk, and that the sooner we go on a walk (even if it’s really short that day), the sooner we can do the activity they want to do instead. It’s actually funny because those days are often the ones we’re outside exploring forever once we get going. So if your kids are having a hard time with it, hold your boundary – you may be surprised at the outcome.
Laps while your kids play outside
Hey, I get it. Some days you just want to draw on the driveway with chalk or blow bubbles in the backyard. Or your kids just didn’t want to leave the playground that day. It’s ok! Any moment can create the possibility for more steps. Kiddos not ready to leave the jungle gym? Take some laps around the perimeter of the playground while you watch them play. Bonus points for stopping and climbing, running and swinging with them!
I’ll get down on the ground and draw a couple of chalk drawings, take a couple laps around the driveway, then get back to my masterpiece. We’ll take turns seeing who can run to pop a bubble the fastest. You can pretty much include movement in all of your activities to boost your daily steps.
Final thoughts
These may seem a bit silly when you first start. But once you start getting creative with how you can move your body throughout the day, I promise it will start to become second nature. You’ll eventually find that you’re someone who moves more instinctually. Your daily steps will increase, and overall calorie burn will go up, without you even noticing. And that is what starts building a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. Not the hour-long cardio session that’s difficult to recover from and leaves you famished. The bonus is that your children will learn these lifestyle habits from a young age. Your kids are watching you, even when it seems like they’re not. Loving yourself and your body is an invaluable lesson. Invest in yourself, and it will pay dividends to your family, I promise.
I’m currently running my Hot Mom Summer series on my Instagram account (@adairinglife), which was the inspiration for this post. Head over and say hello! Sound off in the comments and let other moms know how you get in those extra daily steps. That’s it for me today. Quiet time is over for my kiddos, and I’ve been sitting a lot more than usual since we had some appointments this morning.
Stay Dairing.
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