Fitting fitness into your insane schedule

Moms do it all, but finding time in a busy schedule for you can be tough. I caught up with a couple local moms who are finding time for much needed fitness, and making it work for their schedules.

Check out Q13Fox.com to see the whole story and the video interviews!

Mandy Levenberg is running two businesses from her home, walking her kids to school, and still making it to a group fitness class at Strength Studio. She admits her schedule seems impossible, even for herself.

She says especially, “when my kids were infants, when I was nursing or when I was in a full-time position where my butt had to be in my seat every day and I didn’t have an option to sneak out.”

That’s why Levenberg loves the latest fitness craze, FitMob and ClassPass. The companies are in the middle of a merger, but both provide a membership to nearly every gym in Seattle. They provide people with flexibility and options.

Levenberg said, “I’ve never done spinning until recently and I’m gonna try a barre class. And then also just being able to check the night before and see what’s available and schedule on a last minute based on my work schedule and my kids schedule, is really making the whole process faster in terms of getting at the exercise instead of planning for it.”

Other local moms are hitting the pavement with their strollers and pumping up their biceps while they pump up the nursery rhymes. Chelsea Startup says Stroller Strides, by Fit4Moms gives her a chance to workout with her babe in tow, and join a community of new moms.

She says, “Even on those days where you’re exhausted, you see other moms and they’re going through the same thing… You’re in good company here. You have someone to share the great times with and the really tough times.”

Should a mom feel guilty about getting that time in? Both moms say, “no way!”

Levenberg says, “I always tell my kids that it’s like me having a playdate. I need to go do that too... I remind them that they’re going to go and do their activities and this is my chance to go and have her fun and get her ya-yas out.”

Levenberg adds that it’s more than just checking off another box on the never-ending to do list.

“You feel like you got exercise in, you feel like you’ve got the rest of the day for giving, whether it’s your job or your kids or your neighbors. You just feel like a better person.”

Local expert and Strength Studio owner Susan Slater-Cotter recommends making exercise the first thing you do in the morning.

"Get up early, get it done. Whether you're leaving the house early or going to the gym to take an early morning class or you get up and you're watching a video at home, get it done early. That way, the rest of the day, you've fueled yourself with that energy, you're going to have more energy throughout the day. "

Strength Studio is a group fitness and personal training gym in Portage Bay. Fit4Moms Stroller Strides has local franchises throughout the state and is offering free classes all week for new members, in honor of Mother’s Day.

We asked viewers on the Q13 Facebook page to submit their own ideas about fitting workouts in. Here is a complete list of their ideas. Check it out to find a location or group working out near you.

• Fit4Mom (local franchises): Stroller Strides, BodyBack, Stroller Barre, Fit4Baby, Running Club

• In Home Workout Programs: Beachbody, 21 Day Fix, p90x, Les Mills Pump, WiiU Fit, Bodyrocktv.com, PiYo, Pump, T25, Wraps, Jillian Michaels, Bikini Body Mommy, The Firm, Jackie Warner, Pop Pilates

• Local group fitness: Emily’s Extreme Water Aerobics, Christina Barnard’s Custom Training Solutions, Baby Boot Camp, Happy Hour by Marisa, Indo Yoga Board, Urban Boot Camp, Starting Team

• Gyms: YMCA, Fitness 19, Mommy’s Fit Zone, Whidbey Island Time Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, Fuelhouse, Cappy’s Boxing Gym, Limitless Fitness, Anytime Fitness, MI Athletic Club, Curves, Strength Studio, Community Fitness, Sync Fitness, Kokofit Club, The Fitness Lab, Running Evolution, The Fuel Plan, The Sweat Shop, The Valley Athletic Club, 20 Minute Fitness at Pacific Wellness, Milton Activity Center

• Crossfit: Composite Crossfit, Lake Washington Crossfit

• In Home Tips: multi-task, workout during lunch hour, workout before family wakes up, workout after work, walk stairs

Are you a helicopter mom? Or a free-range parent?

Starting today, I am going to be working on some parent-focused content for the station I work with, Q13 Fox News in Seattle. Although we are talking to Seattle families, the ideas and messages ring true to families across the country (and around the world). Today we aired a story about a family who some would describe as "free-range" parents. Take a look at the coverage and the expert who came on to answer questions. I would love to hear what you think!

Are you a helicopter mom? Or would you consider yourself a “free-range parent”?

The concept of free-range parenting is making headlines after a family in Maryland let their 6 and 10-year-old kids go to the park alone. A “concerned citizen” called the police, getting CPS involved and separating kids from their parents for hours.

In Maryland you can leave your child home alone at 8-years-old. In the state of Washington, there’s no law about children being left alone. The only guideline from DSHS is that they shouldn’t be younger than 10.

Scott Sciuchetti, from Covington, Washington, says he doesn’t love the label, but he says he’s been a free-range parent for years.

“It sounds like chickens, but more on the free-range side. I figure you need to give the kids responsibility when they’ve earned it. It’s part of parenting to teach them to be responsible adults.”

His oldest daughter, Gabi Sciuchetti, says this freedom is what encouraged her to start college at 13-years-old. Now she is a 15-year-old Sophomore at the University of Washington.

“I don’t think I would have been able to achieve anything, like I have, without very much freedom.”

Freedom for Gabi started at a young age. She was allowed to go the store, the park and the playground without her parents. Often with her little brother in tow.

When she was thirteen she began riding the light rail, train and bus alone, commuting up to an hour and a half by herself.

Her dad, Scott, says if he had been a helicopter parent, she wouldn’t have been so successful.

“Getting her and my son to learn what the world’s really like, how to make good decisions, and if I’m there hovering over them all the time, then they won’t figure things out for themselves.”

Critics say kids are snatched up, raped or hurt by strangers every day, which is why someone might call the cops on a child or a teen who is alone.

Scott says, “You might get struck down by lightening tomorrow, come down with some sort of disease, whatever, there’s those sorts of risks everywhere.”

Gabi admits that independence can be scary at times and she has run into trouble on her commutes.

“There have been lots of scenarios where people have tried to talk to me on the train, or talk to me on the bus, that I’m not completely comfortable with.”

But she says her parents have prepared her for the unexpected.

“Part of the really great things about the way my parents raised me is that I’m self-sufficient enough to say, ‘okay, I’m uncomfortable, here’s a way I can deal with this’ or ‘I can go talk to the bus driver.’ Or move away. Or switch buses.”

But she does agree, she isn’t ready for anything.

“Well I don’t know that my parents would agree with that, and I don’t know if I would agree with that universally to any situation, but I think in most situations, I have a way that I could get help if I needed to.”

Tracy Cutchlow, a parent and local Seattleite, answered viewers’ free-range parenting questions on Q13 Fox This Morning (5/1). She wrote an article for the Washington Post, “Would you call 911 on another parent?”. Her approach brings family and community to the forefront of how to handle a situation where you, as a parent, might feel uncomfortable, and how to help. Check out the Q13 Fox Facebook page to see the questions she answered after her live segment.

For more parenting advice, follow Tracy on twitter and read more about her book, Zero to Five.