Is your gym closed? Fitness classes cancelled? Are all of your kids' activities and sports done for the season? Can't get to the pool? Fearful of going to the gym?

Use this forced downtime as an opportunity to focus on yourself at home. And get your family active in new ways. There are plenty of things that you and your family can do to stay active while you are on this forced break from our busy lives. I will be posting several at home workouts, challenges and outlets to get outdoors as we can.

Instead of rushing from activity to activity, over-scheduling ourselves, eating on-the-go and planning, planning, planning -- use this opportunity to be together at home and create opportunities to connect, do less and move more!

At this time, I will still be leading small group fitness classes, personal training and outdoor running groups. I look forward to helping women and mothers stay in shape - both physically and mentally - during this difficult time. Many of us will become pretty sedentary during this period of time and will be consuming all of those foods with a longer shelf-life from our stockpiles. Try to also stock-up on fresh, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, consume more water and remind family members that the stockpile doesn't need to all be consumed during the first week!!

Here are twenty-five ways that you and your family can stay active and healthy together during your forced downtime:

  1. Create an "active chore chart" for the family and rotate chores that will help keep everyone moving: walking the dog, raking the yard, cleaning up the garage, vacuuming.
  2. Complete this Cardio Challenge.
  3. Go on a hike as a family and explore a new trail or state park.
  4. Prepare a healthy, colorful meal together - with the produce you have on hand.
  5. Have a family dance party after concluding each at home school day and when business hours conclude. Have each family members choose one song.
  6. Challenge each member of the family to drink half of their body weight in water. Or multiply the number of family members you have by 75 or 100 and team up to complete that many ounces of water each day.
  7. Take 10 mins and have each member of your family walk the stairs in your home in between Netflix shows or do core work together in the living room.
  8. Use this as an opportunity to focus on portion sizes and share the MyPlate graphics with your family. Take paper plates and have the kids create the various sections and fill them with colorful drawings of their favorite foods. You can also take plain ceramic plates and design with colorful, permanent markers.
  9. Create a rewards system on the refrigerator for 30 mins of movement. Reward family members (adults, too!) with a prize or experience after each week.
  10. Go for a family walk around the neighborhood and stop by to visit the park.
  11. Start each day with breakfast, morning coffee, getting out of your pajamas and into some comfy clothes and complete fifteen minutes of a morning stretching routine together, along with some relaxing music.
  12. Complete this Core Challenge.
  13. With several small businesses, centers and activities being closed or cancelled - be creative with active outlets: the zoo, nature center, botanical gardens, state parks, hiking trails, dog park.
  14. Use those old cookbooks or Pinterest boards to choose some new, healthy recipes.
  15. Use this as an opportunity to sit down together and have a meal together. Have a healthy conversation and ask questions. Use a chat pack or have each member of the family ask other members an intriguing question of the other family members.
  16. Take 10 min active breaks throughout the day in between school work.
  17. Visit the library if they are open and rent family fitness videos, mom and me yoga videos and cardio dance videos.
  18. Make that pooch happy and go to the dog park as a family.
  19. Create standing desk opportunities for children and spouses to work from home and complete their school work.
  20. Work together to make a one, two or four week family meal plan with that stockpile that you now have. Start some habits now that your family can continue when life picks back up again.
  21. Dust-off those fitness videos and complete a workout together in the living room.
  22. Complete this Squat Challenge.
  23. Have the kid design a menu and make a healthy meal for the family.
  24. Dust off those yoga mats and find a yoga video on Youtube to complete together.
  25. Join a virtual challenge group. I have several coming up!