Exercise gives local mother more energy to play with children!  

Going to the pool or to the park during the summer is something that children look forward to and enjoy.  However, after nights of interrupted sleep and long days, mothers might not be as excited about these daytime excursions.

When you play with your child(ren), do you get tired easily?  Do you opt to sit on a bench with other mothers and watch the children play?

Don't worry if you answered yes to either or both of those questions.  You are definitely not alone.  Carrie Phillips of Takoma Park, Maryland, the mother of two children under the age of two and a half, used to be the same way.  Carrie exercised on and off prior to the birth of her children, but was not an avid exerciser. 

"After the birth of my second child, I wanted to lose the baby weight as fast as I could safely do it. I knew, after taking more than a year to lose the weight after the birth of my son, that it would take more than a stroll with my baby now and then to do it,"  Phillips says.

She also knew that  she needed to find a way to workout with her new baby girl or it wasn't going to happen. After six weeks, her doctor cleared her to exercise, and she immediately signed up for personal training sessions and as many post-natal classes as she could.

Phillips currently meets with her personal trainer twice a week and has attended post-natal belly dancing, yoga and Pilates classes at The Hot Mama Fitness Studio. At home,  she exercises with her Wii-Fit and on her stationary bike. "At first my motivation was primarily getting back into my pre-baby clothes. I wanted to look like myself again."  However, now that she has been working out a few days a week for several months, her motivation is the new-found energy that she has. "I have more energy to run around with my kids and am stronger than I've ever been. I still have about half of the baby weight to lose, but am proud of my progress."

If you are a mother who would like to experience a similar energy boost, try exercising a few days a week and see how much better you feel.  After just a few weeks, you could be out there running around with your little ones with minimal effort!