Sometime around my last wedding anniversary (so, mid June), I decided enough was enough and I had to start exercising. Right. Now. Despite the kids, and also because of the kids. So I started 365 Days of Exercise With Kids, an accountability blog.
In fact, I have my reasoning right here, from the first post.
Today I resolved to exercise for 365 days straight. I have four kids. I will not let this stop me. Whenever possible, I will include them. Our lives are a template for them, whether we want them to be or not. So this is partly for them. But it is also so, so much for me. My physical ability has been slipping over the last several years and it is starting to add up. Not to mention that I am happier when I can get in a significant amount of movement each day.
Still sounds pretty good to me. And yet, just shy of two months in, the blog died.
Why?
1. Well, in a word DRIVING. The death of the exercise blog coincided with the start of driving my oldest kid to and from high school 40 minutes away each day. (That is a minimum of two hours and 40 minutes in traffic each day). Add in music lessons (x3), circus class (x3), swimming lessons, preschool (x2), co-op classes, and other random but necessary driving like grocery shopping, and all that free time for exercise disappeared. Before we started the trans-metro commute for 9th grade we had 8 hours worth of mandatory driving commitments each week. After our numbers went up to somewhere around 20 hours a week. That is a part-time job! So I should not be surprised that exercise slipped.
But driving aside, there were other things I learned from the accountability blog.
2. Novelty is important but so is routine. I get bored easily, but on the other hand, it is mentally exhausting to try to always come up with something new to try. Sometimes routine can be a friend to lean on. It makes things happen that otherwise wouldn't. For me, a balance of 3-5 routine days and 2-3 novel days would probably work best.
3. Including the kids is good, but I really couldn't meet my exercise needs if I always included them. Something ling 50/50 or 40/60 or even 30/70 would be much better. Most of the time they were up for doing whatever I suggested, but I often couldn't get the vigorous exercise I needed while also looking after them.
4. The observer affect is strong in the blogosphere. I found that (even though NO ONE was reading my blog) I chose activities differently because I was documenting them. Photogenic activities got the green light whereas things without equipment or pretty views did not. This was exacerbated by the fact that I was trying to take a representative picture for every day without photographing my kids' faces or my body.
5. Goals are important. I am a goal oriented person. I have been very frustrated with 'weight loss' goals ( I could write a book on that but I won't). Therefore I thought it would be better to totally take the focus off of results and zoom in on the process. I won't lie--it still felt more than a little aimless. The endless daily goal was not doing it for me. However, I've noticed I do well with event goals--like a ski race, triathlon, big bike rides, etc.
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