Gym Junkie or Home Video Vixen?

So where is the grass greener when it comes to toning up that baby tummy and shrinking back that butt? Gym or Home? Well, there is the logic component-money. Most gym memberships cost about $50 a month. Home videos can run you at least that much if you fall sucker to the tv ads that convince you that you need the 20 accessories to go with your video for $14.99. I'm pretty sure my husband and I could own a gym with all the home fitness equipment and videos we have. But guess what, I have a gym membership. Ha!

So, why would I have a gym membership? Well, I suppose two reasons. First, so I can see at least one other adult that day other than my husband or pre-school teachers (although I love my husband AND the pre-school teachers very much). And two, so I can get through two minutes of a workout without being asked for another cup of juice. Gotta love kid care at gyms.

The benefits of working out at home are pretty strong. Since I only go to the gym two or three days a week, I do like to do a yoga workout at home. It's just nice to walk out of my bedroom, still in my pajamas, baby rolling around on his playmat, and pop in PX90 or Shiva Rae yoga disc, no bra, no teeth brushed, no hair combed, mascara still smeared across my cheeks (how many moms have time to wash their face before bed?) and do a half-assed version of yoga because if I'm tired I just stop since no one is watching. Can you tell I'm hard core?

I also believe it is how you view fitness. If fitness is a full experience, and you have the sexy outfit, you likely want to be at the gym, because as I mentioned before, I do yoga in my pjs. I doubt you're going to put on the sexy workout outfit at home. Some people really do like to be watched when they are working out. It makes them feel good, and attractive. I personally can't stand when I am watched at the gym, especially while doing happy baby pose in the stretch area. I think I'll just stop doing that one.

The social componenet of the gym is nice, if you're social. I tend to be selectively social, meaning only when I feel like it, which really just sounds better than anti-social. In other words, I really don't make new friends at the gym, just chat with the ones I already know, which I could do without going to the gym. Therefore, for me, I suppose the green grass at the gym for me is the day care, which allows the ability to take a warm shower for more then 5 minutes.

To find your greenest grass in this area, ask yourself:
Do I prefer to exercise with others?
Is it okay for others to see me lifting dumbbells when I haven't shaved my armpits in a week?Do I really just need the gym to take a shower by yourself? ($50/month might be worth it)
If I 'exercise' at home, will I really just eat an extra donut and call it good?
Do I have cabin fever?

I would say if you answered yes to all of the above, then I would say a gym membership is pretty green for you. If you answered no to all of the above, then you likely prefer staying home and saying that each day, you will start your routine 'tomorrow.' Just kidding, that's just how I am about home exercise. I always something better to do. However, I have many friends that are able to do their treadmill every day.

In other words, no matter which route you go, there is really only one word...discipline. The grass is only greener where you have discipline.

So, I guess the greenest grass in the fitness area for me is a combo. If you have the will power to just buy the home video and commit to doing it three days a week, and don't mind going at it alone, home fitness is much cheaper. Both are flexible, semi cost efficient if you do it enough, and both produce results-but I suppose that is the key; we can talk about it all day, but we have to get off our hineys and get to it. I guess I've stalled enough-time for some yoga, right after I finish this cupcake.

Your kids sleep in their clothes?

I'm a BIG fan of pajamas...on the weekends. With four kids, getting out the door in the morning for school and preschool was a full on sprint. I am not a morning person, so getting up earlier was out of the question. I was usually sweating like crazy by the time I ran around helping everyone get dressed and socks and shoes and hair and lunchbox and backpack and well, you know the drill.

Then one day at an outing with a friend, we were at one of those jumphouse places so I was once again sweating, pregnant, chasing the two-year old so she didn't get nailed by some rowdy older kid, and the topic of mornings came up. I was explaining how I was already exhausted by 8:30am already from getting kids out the door. She looked at me smiling, and said, "Why don't you just dress them the night before?" My jaw dropped. Was I really not smart enough to figure this out? This isn't organic chemsitry here, it's dressing children, at night, in what they will wear to school the next day, and letting them sleep in it.

Whew. Well, that was life changing, to say the least. I say the grass is greener when kids wear their school clothes to bed, at least until they hop out of bed like a grasshopper and can change clothes in two minutes, which for my kids might be, like, never. Plus, it makes pajamas on Friday night that much more exciting.

Now I sleep in 15 mintues longer. I'm still not a morning person, but at least my tea is hot when I drink it.

Greener Grasses

So many days I ponder how I ended up being one of the fortunate women to receive four kids from God. Along with these beautiful gifts from above comes many choices to make that will impact their lives (and mine) forever. I was never the young women that was just dying to hold everyone else's baby. So how did I get four? How on earth did I get chosen to have to do this for so many little lives? And how on earth am I suppose to know what choices to make? I have no idea, but I do know that I have a very important job to do, and I won't be getting a whole lot of pats on the back for doing it until way down the line.

It is so hard to realize each day that the job I am doing has a major impact on the world. One day I will hopefully send four well-rounded, ambitious, compasionate young adults out into the great wide open and will pray for great things. Those four people can accomplish much and touch many. That is, if I do my job right for the next 20 years. No pressure, right? We mothers feel the pressure yet we are buried in lunchboxes and soccer jerseys. It's hard to stay super focused day to day when the paycheck comes in the form of another pile of laundry and the occasional commission pay when you get to go out to dinner without kids.

After eight years of mothering, staying home for half of it, working part time for the other half, I constantly am looking for the right choice in raising my kids. I try to anticipate the what's ahead and get our family prepared. We change things around, try it different, trial and error, until we like what we are doing. But I still see other mothers doing it different, and they look more calm, or serene, or just plain more happy than me, and it drives me to think that I'm doing something wrong, and that I should mix it up again.

I mean, is there a right or wrong?

So with this blog, I intend to examine a lot of the choices in our life, primarily with families and kids, and analyze which choice has the greener lawn, or is it ever greener on the other side?