OPINION: Balancing your activities and kids an extreme sport

IT’S no secret. When you have kids everything you used to take for granted – long baths, exercising, even going to appointments – becomes a distant memory.

IT'S no secret. When you have kids everything you used to take for granted - long relaxing baths, exercising, even going to appointments - becomes a distant memory.

That long bath with a book is now a shared bath with bubbles and toys "up your butt" (not literally).

Your weekly walk is now so slow with a determined-to-ride-his-own-bike-toddler that you might as well be going backwards.

And appointments - no more sitting in the waiting room, quietly reading the free gossip magazines (the only time you ever get to read them) - you're trying to entertain bored children in a sterile and small space. Tick, tick - boom!

Now I'm not complaining. I've said in almost all of my opinion pieces how many years of IVF I did to get my two children.

So I now revel in the shared bath - listening to my daughter laugh at my son splashing bubbles at her is the best sound in the world.

Doing push-ups with my three-year-old on my back - well, he's just helping me out, isn't he?

And getting my eyebrows waxed with the two of them sitting on my stomach - now I have an excuse for why one eyebrow is a different shape to the other.

I'm just pointing out the facts and how when you have kids, balancing your activities and your children takes on a whole new level of patience and organisation.

Me - I love to box. Picture: Barry Leddicoat

I used to box and I've recently decided it's time to get serious and get my fitness back after having my daughter six months ago.

My gym trains at night so that rules going back there out. It's just smack bang in the middle of cactus hour - bath, dinner and bedtime.

So I looked at joining a fitness club but been there, done that and honestly if I'm going to be "slogging my guts" out I don't want it to be on a treadmill, I want it to be doing pad work or sparring in the ring.

I looked at Kayla Itsines - Instafamous personal trainer who's made a motza off her 12 week Bikini Body Guides - but with multiple 30+ minute work outs a week - my kids just don't have the patience for that.

So I'm trying something new - targeted 10 minute low/high intensity work outs designed by yours truly. I'll let you know the results but so far doing the work outs, because they're only 10 minutes, I can entertain my son with his own skipping rope and my daughter will quite happily sit in her pram and watch me.

It's not the type of work out I'm used to - afterwards I'm ready to do rounds in the ring - but, the way I see it, it is better than nothing. Down the track I'll get back to my boxing gym.

How do you juggle your activities and your kids?

Alexia Purcell is APN Australian Regional Media's social media editor.

Connect with Alexia on Twitter or on Facebook.