Grumble.

I'm really making an effort toward some fitness, here. I've been doing arm and leg strength exercises almost every workday for two months, now, and going to the Y to swim or bike at least twice a week. (Or walked, but several sessions of walking have taught me that my foot problems are still not going to make walking for exercise a practical option. Any time I get going fast enough to raise my heart rate, I end up limping in pain for three days afterward. This is Not Progress.)

Anyway, I like going to the Y. Maybe it's the technogeek in me, but I like entering my data on the big computer on the recumbent bike, I like watching movies (well, Firefly episodes) on my iPhone while I chug along, and I could easily see myself cranking the difficulty level from 6 to 10 or 12 (scale of 20) and the time from 30 minutes to 45 over the next six months. It feels like progress. I don't like doing it, but I do like how I feel afterward. I've even started to want it, occasionally.

I wanted it yesterday. I was really looking forward to it. I got changed and drove over there... and the Y was closed. A massive cleaning operation, the sign said.

Well... damn.

Since I was over there, I decided to swing by the allergist's office and see if they'd let me vial test.

Rather to my surprise, I passed this time, and they gave me the actual shots. (Three of them. Weirdly, though the vial test stung like a bitch, I didn't even feel the official shots going in. I kept wondering when they were going to stop fiddling with my arm and do the shot already, and suddenly the nurse is slathering hydrocortisone cream on my arm and giving me instructions in case it flares up later.)

I happened to mention my plan to combine my exercise and the shots, since they're right next to each other, to optimize my travel time, and they shot me down -- since exercise increases blood flow to the muscles, they don't want me to exercise within two hours of getting my shots. Two hours before or two hours after. So much for my wonderful optimization plan.

So. Driving from either work or home, it takes me about 45 minutes, round trip, to get to the area where the Y and the allergist's office is. Exercise takes at least 30 minutes. In theory, the shots should only take about 15 minutes (except for vial tests, which only happen about once every six weeks) but I haven't been there yet that I haven't had to sit in the waiting room before getting my shots for 10-15 minutes, so figure about 30 minutes for that, too. Which means every time I drive up there, I need at least an hour and a half free.

I'd been hoping to increase my visits to the gym to 3 times a week, starting in September. And I should be getting my allergy shots twice a week. So that's five times a week that I need to find an hour and a half of free time.

I've got the kids with me until 8:30 in the morning, I need to be at work an average of 8 hours every weekday, and I have to be home by 5:30. The allergist is open from 9-5, more or less, and is closed at lunchtime except on Tuesdays. The Y is open weekdays from 6am until 9pm, but their childcare doesn't open until 8am, which is too late to be useful to me.

That's not to mention any other things, like other doctor appointments (there are no fewer than 9 appointments already on the calendar between now and the end of the year, plus three more I can anticipate) or days that the daycare or school is closed, or days I need to work late.

So my schedule is stretched so thin that it's practically transparent, and I'm hemorrhaging vacation time. My stress level is correspondingly precarious.

So.

The allergy shots are going to take bites out of my workdays. There's no getting around that. I'm hoping that if I time it so I arrive right as they re-open after lunch, it will minimize the wait time, and hopefully I can do those in an hour instead of an hour and a half, which prevents vacation time bleed.

I'm going to move one workout to Saturday mornings - those are usually mostly open, and I can upgrade my Y membership to the family level to take advantage of their childcare so I'm not saddling Matt with them.

The other two workouts... I guess they'll have to be in the evenings. Can I get away with leaving at 7 and having Matt put Penny to bed twice a week, or do I need to wait until she's in bed?

I'm researching crockpot recipes that will move most of my dinner-prep time from the evening to the mornings, so I could delay getting home until 6. But even that's only a stopgap; I can only really use the crockpot maybe twice a week.

How the hell does this work? How do other working mothers manage to exercise on a regular basis?

(They eat a lot of takeout, maybe? They don't spend any time with their kids? What am I missing, here?)