Squeezing In Holiday Workouts

Last Saturday my husband was out of town and B and I had 3 parties on the schedule for that day. I knew doing a long run was out of the question, and I figured any sort of exercise that day was out of the question as well.

Here's a summary of how the crazy 3-party, no husband day went:

6:40AM-Wake-up, slap a little make-up and deodorant on, get dressed, get B dressed, grab a couple bananas, and head out the door. (No shower for me because despite our crazy schedule, I still had hope that I would somehow be able to squeeze in a workout, and not showering is actually extra motivation for me to workout. I knew I would want to shower at some point that day, but I like to "earn" my shower with a sweaty workout.)

8:00AM-Meet friends and head to Scott's work Christmas party that they put on for the kids.

12:00PM-Arrive home from the crazy, crowded Christmas party. Make something for B and I to eat for lunch that doesn't include sugar as the first ingredient. Put B down for a nap, which he didn't end up taking. (He played with his toys in his room for an hour instead.) I on the other hand was exhausted, so I took a 10 minute cat nap before getting up to wrap the birthday presents for the next party.

2:00-Arrive at birthday party for two of B's friends. 

(By this point I was really missing my daily dose of endorphins. I noticed I had felt a little antsy all day because I hadn't exercised. I still wasn't sure if there was any way I could squeeze any type of workout in, but my un-showered self was still hoping to.)

4:00-Arrive home from birthday party. (I had 2.5 hours before the next party and I still needed to exercise, shower, wrap a white elephant present, and make an appetizer. I needed at least an hour to get ready, so that left 1.5 hours for the exercise, present wrapping, and appetizer making. Not very much time. I barely even had enough time to make the decision about whether or not I was going to squeeze in a workout.) 

I had a million excuses why I should skip it; I had just eaten cake and ice-cream and jumping around might make me sick, I needed more time to make the appetizer and get ready for the party, I was tired from busying around all day, my only option was an at-home workout video, but I really wanted to run, I wasn't going to get a very good workout in with the amount of time I had to do it. 

Two things made my decision for me:

#1

Source

#2-Whenever I'm deciding whether to exercise or not, I always tell myself anything is better than nothing. So what if I only had time to do a 40 minute workout video? It would be better than nothing. 

I threw on some workout clothes as fast as possible, set B up on the couch with a movie on the laptop, and put in the Biggest Loser CardioMax dvd. It was worth it. I got my endorphin fix, I had more energy afterwards, I was in a better mood, and I finally "earned" my shower for the day! Yay for me, and for all the people at the next party.

I can't believe I almost let myself think that a short workout wouldn't be worth it. 

I finished my workout surprisingly more sweaty than I thought I would be, and jumped in the shower to see how fast I could get ready, wrap the present, and make the appetizers. All those exercise endorphins helped me straighten my hair and re-apply make-up in record time. (Wow. Two make-up applications in one day. I normally don't even do one.)

Thanks to Costco's little brownie bites, it only took me about three minutes to make these cute little Santa hat brownies. (My sis-in-law sent me a picture of these and I thought they were so cute. Not sure where she first saw them though.)

What motivates you to exercise when you're pressed for time?