I have never been a gym rat and won’t ever pretend to be. I mean, I did marching band as my physical activity in high school AND college. But once my thirties hit and my metabolism slowed down, I decided I’d need to at least attempt to workout out more. We have an unfinished basement and for Christmas a couple years ago, my husband made me an in-home gym. There’s a stationary bike, a bench, a pull up bar, a squat machine, free weights, jump ropes, resistance bands, and exercise balls. And most importantly, a TV so I can watch different exercise videos on YouTube. I despise having to make a special trip to go to the gym, so when we have some basic equipment in our house, I have no excuses not to work out. Here are some of my favorite YouTube videos and workouts in general.

Cardio: For cardio, I generally do 25 minutes on the stationary bike. Rather than pedaling at the speed of light at a lighter weight, I put it on one of the hardest levels so that I have more resistance/weight when pedaling and go at a moderate pace. Then, I put on a mindless show or makeup tutorial and will just watch TV while I bike. If I’m not feeling the bike though, I’ll do a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) video. If you only have time for a quick session, Jessie James Decker has one that I like because it’s only 12 minutes long and gets your heart pumping while working out every part of the body quickly. Find it here. Plus, JJD can do no wrong in my book!

Strength: I love Rebecca Louise. I found her on Pinterest when I had been on a kick of pinning different ideas for arm workouts at home. She was sponsored by Herbalife and now charges you if you want to be part of her personal workout program, but I don’t. She has some great free videos on YouTube that are 10-15 minutes. My favorite arm one is this one and my favorite leg one is this one. For a quick full-body video, I like this one. If you want to check out her fitness program, here is her site. I love her because she’s very real and peppy, yet not in an obnoxious hit-you-in-the-face with all her fucking energy kind of way.

For New Moms: I did a program after having each of my girls that really helped accelerate losing the baby weight called Body Back. It’s run by Fit4Mom and they are all over the nation, but I did the one in Littleton after having Lila and the one in Castle Rock after having Winnie. What I loved about Body Back is that you workout with other moms who have just had babies or have young children. It’s a judgement-free zone where no one bats an eye if you’ve had no sleep or have milk leaking out of your boobs into your sports bar. The program is fierce. It’s an hour of HIIT a few times a week as well as an eating plan where you eat clean and have “homework” workouts. Eating clean is VERY hard for me, so I struggled with that piece of it at first. My other issue was that the meal plans include a lot of meat, so as a vegetarian, when I’d remove the meat out of the meal they recommended, I’d be left a sad little lettuce wrap with just beans in it. Talk about boring as fuck and kind of disgusting. So if you work for Fit4Mom and are reading this, tell them to add some more “clean” vegetarian meals to the recipe book!

At the start of the program, the instructor takes your “before” weight and photo of you and then at the end of the 12 week program, takes another photo so you can physically see your progress. You also weigh in weekly. After having Lila I had lost the weight within three months of having her because I lose my appetite when I’m stressed, and being a new mom was stressful!! But I was still so soft in my mid-section that you could use me as a pillow. So this program was fantastic. I lost a lot of flab around my mid-section and my arms and legs toned up as well. But as I said, eating clean is HARD. You have to journal all of your food that you eat and also have “homework” workouts that are on a DVD. They’re only 30 minutes but you do those videos on the days you aren’t in class. It’s tough but it worked! I gained 30 pounds with Lila and 40 with Winnie so I know the struggle is real to try and lose all that weight.

If you’re not as hard-core and want to ease into a group-fitness class for new moms, they also offer Stroller Strides. It’s a class that you actually take your child to and incorporate them and their stroller into your workout routine. It’s fantastic for women who don’t have the time or resources to get a sitter while they work out. And everyone’s babies/toddlers can socialize with one another. I chose Body Back over Stroller Strides however, because I needed more of an ass-kicking. I also looked forward to the BB classes because it was my “me time” with no kids involved. If you want to check out Stroller Strides though, they do allow one free drop-in class!

For the hermit mom who despises group fitness: My other favorite thing post-baby was this Tracy Anderson’s Post-Pregnancy Workout video. It is very focused on the mid-section and is intense. She doesn’t move at a rapid pace and every move you do is quite intentional and focused. And when you’re done, you’ll be sore as hell. It’s a longer DVD so you can’t hammer it out quickly, but I loved doing it when I hit the 6 week post-partem mark and was cleared to work out again. I had a C-Section with both girls so not only did I have baby weight to lose, but my abdominal muscles had been physically cut through so they needed to retrain themselves to strengthen up and work together again.

When your workout routine gets stale: When I am in a rut, I will just go on YouTube and type in “ab workout” or whatever it is I am targeting that day and see what piques my interest. There are a billion videos out there and my advice is that once you find someone who you like, subscribe to their videos so you get updated when they’ve released a new workout routine. There are plenty of fitness programs out there that you can shell out your money to in order to get their routines or diets or emails. And for some people I think they feel like “Since I paid the money, now I’ll do the work.” But honestly, you can skip the part where you bleed money out of every orifice. If you have the motivation to give your heard-earned money to some chick to send you her routines or motivational emails, then you have the motivation to YouTube a free ten minute workout, or go for a walk or a bike ride.

For the busy SOBs: My advice, especially for stay at home moms or new moms, is to squeeze in your workouts whenever you can, even if you have to split them up. I do my squats standing behind my couch when my girls are watching cartoons in the morning. I’ll grab free weights and do arm workouts while my kids are coloring at the kitchen table. I’ll do 25 minutes on the bike once my husband is done working and then do squats while the whole family is hanging out. I know it’s preferable to complete your workout all at once and be done, but we don’t live in a perfect world. (In a perfect world, Thin Mints would have no calories.) So when your motto is “dry shampoo, coffee, and go”, throw in ten minutes here and ten minutes there. It adds up, and I don’t have to tell you, doing something is better than doing nothing!