Part of living a healthy, happy life and having the energy to keep up a home is staying active with regular exercise. But sometimes there are so many obstacles to working out. “The weather is too hot/cold to get outdoors.” “I can’t take my baby to the gym.” “We don’t have a jogging stroller.” “I’m too busy.” Any of these sound familiar?

Well, one way to overcome some of the obstacles is to recognize that staying active doesn’t have to always happen under the ideal circumstances. I don’t have to have 2 hours of time to myself to go to the gym. I can go for a walk or play outdoors in the yard with my kid. Or, if I want to have a serious work out, I can tackle the biggest excuse and ignore the rest of ‘em. The jogging stroller excuse was a biggie for me. So what did we do? We bought a used one for about $20, cleaned it up, and started running.

To improve consistency in our activity levels, we often will set goals as a family. One that we have done for a few years now is to register for a marathon (or half) to do together. This long term goal keeps my husband and I motivated because neither of us is willing to go into it unprepared. We loosely stick to a training schedule, and even try to go for our weekly Long Runs together, with our toddler in the jogging stroller. We also quote scriptures to one another and build each other up when our spouse is having a harder time. Having a common goal helps us motivate one another in a way that we can’t always do when working towards something individually.

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We want our daughter to know that exercise is important, and so is family time. So why not combine these and make them fun?

Here are some other favorite ideas we’ve come up with as a family:

  • Hiking
  • Jumbo Bananagrams
  • Dancing at outdoor concerts & events
  • Using the family room at the gym
  • Yardwork (yes, that’s exercise!)
  • Swimming
  • Wii fit/Dance Video Games

 

What are some of your favorite ways to stay active as a family?