An Exercise in Bonding

Recently I have been on a relentless quest to lose the last remaining excess pounds of baby weight, and hopefully tones and tighten up this baby belly. Having no time or money to join a gym or fitness club I do what I can from home. I don't diet but I eat healthy, I walk the kids to and from school (for us that's 3 times a day,) and I work out at home every day. Being rather shy and reserved I tend to do my workouts after everyone's in bed so no one will be watching; this week however my routine was shaken up.

After dinner Monday night, my children asked if they could do my workout too, I was reluctant but they asked so sweetly I couldn't turn them down. I turned on a family program I thought would be pretty easy and fun for everyone and we started off. Aaden and Cadi lost interest after about five minutes and left the room to play, Jakob and RJ, however, did just about the whole program; I was so proud of them, as it turned out the program was not easy and we all worked pretty hard.

We had so much fun together that night that we tried it again yesterday morning, I haven't let them in on my toning days but I'm thinking I might, they make exercise so much fun it just doesn't seem like a chore when we do it together. I spend a great deal of time with my kids; meeting their needs, playing games, reading, playing in the yard, teaching, etc.; I never seem to spend time together working towards a common goal and encouraging each other to accomplish it. I have really been missing out. When we set out on a mission to exercise together an activity that had always been solitary became a team effort; we were on a mission to get to the end without quitting or cutting corners, and we were in it together.

Working together to finish the whole program,and do the routine well was more than great exercise, it was bonding. By the end we were tired, sweaty, and thirsty; as we all collapsed on the floor together with our water bottles my kids said they never knew exercise was so much fun. Neither did I.