We’re Going on a Lizard Hunt {aka Mommy Needs Exercise}

JUNE is like…in a couple days and that means its summer. Summer means hot weather and…gulp…bathing suits. And for me this also means Hawaii in August.

Needless to say the eating-whatever-I-want-because-I’m-breastfeeding lifestyle is dwindling down and my favorite jeans are tighter than I would like. I have joined up with some friends to take part in a fitness and diet challenge and it starts TODAY! Eeeekkk! So to get prepared I started getting back into my power walking/jogging that I used to do for exercise. Except now I have two kids to push in the stroller!

And one kid who has become less patient on the 3 mile track.

I realized that to cut down on the whining I needed to get creative. Rather that “we’re going for a walk” we are now going for a LIZARD HUNT!

We live in a suburb that backs up to open space and we have some great bike trails that weave in and out, up and down, and beside lots of hills and creeks. There are all kinds of animal life that live along the paths including squirrels, quail, deer, blue jays, turkeys, and of course…lots of lizards. So I told my daughter that we are not going for a walk, but a lizard hunt. And this time there was NO WHINING!

E had a BLAST looking for lizards (Mommy! There is number 4! Now we need to find number 5!). We were also going to try to do a quail hunt, but apparently they are all sleeping in the mornings! Some other ideas I’ve come up with to help make my walks more enjoyable for the kiddos:

• Lizard hunt
• Quail hunt
• Turkey Hunt
• Yellow flower hunt (and then other colors)
• Duck hunt
• Bee hunt
• Deer hunt (best for evenings)
• Find things that are (insert color or another attribute here) hunt

I think we are going to start taking a notebook and crayons with us so E can start to learn how to keep track of our finds!

Do you go on long walks with your little ones? How to you keep them entertained? I’d LOVE some new ideas! Here’s to exercise! Do you have some getting-in-shape goals?