I am a mom of 2 young children (8 and 2) and I'm married and work fulltime with a 1.5-2 hour commute. I want to lose the weight but haven't a real clue as to where to start. I have gym membership and I had a few free sessions with a trainer that works there, but I don't think he was the best fit for me. I need to know where to begin. I know cardio is great, but I also want to tone while I lose. I'm 5'8" and I wear a size 18. When I started I was wearing a size 22 so, I have lost some with a change in my eating habits. But it's not going fast enough. What can I do???

Post up what you eat on a daily basis-

The important thing is you're getting the gym on a consistent basis.

Would you have any problems doing exercises like deadlift, squat, benching, etc?

Why not start at your house?

Try to get more protein in every meal. Keep the carbs to minimum; only when you need them the most (at your breakfast and before your workouts). Have some healthy fat with every meal.

Stop eating out.

Have a lot of vegetables with every meal. Have a fruit a day.

Teach your kids the importance of eating healthy and enocurage them to eat healthy.

Try to walk more everyeady at your workplace or at home. Try lifting weights atleast twice a week.

There you go. You have a start and a lot more.

First off, that’s great work getting down from a 22 to an 18 with all that other stuff going on in your life

2 years ago when I first joined a gym and decided to change myself I was in your position too, I would commute for 7 hours a day (worked 150-200 miles from home) and had a young daughter. It’s really hard work but I managed to get my training in by going to the gym in my lunch hour. Do you have a job where taking a whole hour for lunch is possible and are you near a gym?

If you can then I’d suggest a mix of weight training and cardio spread over the 5 working days, so you’d be doing an FBW (full body workout) on M,W,F and cardio on T,T and either using the weekend as rest or adding a bit of cardio in there too.

Read the weight training 101 sticky in the weight training section for tips on how to create a balanced routine. Once you think you have one then post it on the site if you want it checked over. A little tip though, if you go in your lunch break and don’t have much time, try and put a couple of exercises together in sets and perform them back-to-back to get in sufficient volume in a short space of time

As for diet, post it up here if you think you need help with it

Good luck x

You probably should forego the idea of any exercise during the week right now.

Unless you can work out at lunch as Typhon suggested (if your workplace has a shower, you can probably sneak in :30 of cardio (walking/running) and still have a few minutes to eat), and/or have a stay-at-home or very helpful dad spouse/partner, it is gonna be extremely difficult for you to work out on weekdays. With 24 hours minus 8 for work, 1 for lunch, 4 for commuting, a couple of hours spending with the young'uns in the evening, leaves you 9 hours which you need for sleep and eating. So, don't feel bad about not working out on weekdays.

You can help yourself by watching your diet carefully and continuing to improve your diet and hitting the workout as hard as you can on weekends.

hey a great way to start getting in shape is by using this awsome new product called the strike trainer! it will give you an awsome full body workout and with the rigt eating habit..you are garunteed to losse wieght! I did!
check it out at striketrainer.com and see if you like it!

This iqboyiq seems like a knowledgeable fellow. I think you ought to listen to him!

That or you could read the stickies. But let's not get crazy.

This is how the spammers work. They post a "question" then someone comes along and posts an "answer" like what happened here.