Each week, Debbie will share her goals, challenges, successes and tips on how to fit in fitness when caring for a rambunctious toddler.

I hate my elliptical trainer, there is no way around that. Exercising indoors (with the exception of yoga) causes an immediate response of an inner scream within me, until my sanity begins to teeter and I must relinquish all thoughts and actions of exercise to prevent a total breakdown.

Do I exaggerate? Sadly, only slightly.

This post was originally going to be about adding in a few quick bursts throughout the day, but I'll be coming back to that post. As I was experimenting with these supposed metabolism boosters, I started doing five minutes on the elliptical as soon as Owen went down for his nap each day.

There was actually a legitimate problem with this, other than that inner scream thing. By the time he'd nap, I'd be so hungry that I would shake with weakness while trying to exercise. A late morning snack is already part of my routine, so that wouldn't help solve this problem. So I would get to do the elliptical maybe twice a week if the timing was right.

So now I am off to brainstorm different ways to add quick bursts of exercise to my day, at different times. Maybe I'll think of some that I can tolerate for more than five minutes and that I actually enjoy doing . . .