I have 4 small children. This means I have no spare time for myself. This takes its toll primarily on my mind development and my physical fitness since I rarely get the chance to read or workout these days. I suppose I could get up at 5am for a run but as yet haven’t been able to set my body clock for fitness at that time of day. So I have to find creative ways of sneaking in a dash of cardio and a pinch of strength exercise. Here are a few things I do to (barely) maintain a decent level of conditioning:

• Stairs twice a day: My building at work in 10 stories. At 10 am and at 3pm I take a short break to ride the elevator down to the first level and walk the stairs to the top. Average workout time is about 2 minutes 30 seconds. I have 3 co-workers who join me now.
• Walk to work:  I used to do this more often when I didn’t have to take my oldest daughter to school in the morning. Even then I take the car home for lunch and walk back to the office.  If the road is dry I ride my Xootr
• Push-ups: Before the coffee has finished brewing I hit the deck and crank out 31 push-ups. Takes about 45 seconds. I like to add the one on the end to grow on. I try to get a set in at night too but have to be careful not to let the boys see me or I end up as horsey instead.
• Plyometrics: Yeah so I look like an idiot doing 30 lunges down the hallway but in about a two minutes I get a nice leg workout.
• Playground: Most have monkey bars – perfect for pull ups and chin ups. I try to sneak a set of both in while being “the monster” (chasing the kids around the slide and jungle gym).

Keeping fit makes me happy.