"What do married people 'do?'"

“Kelley, so, what do married people ‘do?’” This is my million dollar question since James and I were married June 2008. My standard answer to the question is usually something silly like, “not much has changed since marriage….married life is pretty much the same as before except I have a new last name.” However, sometimes I find myself thinking during different segments of James and my day, “what if people were watching us right now…I wonder what they would think?”


Well, what the heck…here is a sneak preview into the evolution of the Strout family’s “married life” morning routine…enter at your own risk…

Since marriage I noticed that I need more time in the morning to prep for the day. I start work at 8am, and since I live directly across the street from my office, I could easily sleep in until 7- but I don’t. I wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30am every day.

I spend about an hour in our office teaching my online nutrition class at University of Phoenix. Around 6 I hear James’ first alarm buzz, on most mornings he presses “snooze” at least twice. Once he rolls out of bed, he busts into the office with some crazy dance move or boisterous morning greeting.

One day, I turned to greet him as I always do, and I noticed something surprisingly different: he had defined pectoral muscles. I was quite shocked by this change in body composition, so I asked him, “have you been like lifting weights or something??” His face light up like a Christmas tree; I could tell by his devilish smile that he was up to something. I couldn’t imagine when, where, or how he had added a weight lifting regime to his daily routine. His response was shocking: “I started doing 30 push-ups every morning for the past six weeks….I wake up and do a set of 10, I make half the bed and do 10 more, and I make the other half of the bed and do 10 more….”

I always knew that working out didn’t have to be as tedious and time consuming as everyone makes it out to be…but, I never thought to bust out morning push-ups in between my morning responsibilities. So, I took his lead! I started doing a set of 5 push-ups while my tea brewed; 7 while my oat meal cooked; and 10 while I waited for my oatmeal to cool. Now, I am up to 10: 10: 10! James is up to 20:20:20, and we stared tracking our reps and sets on a calendar in our bedroom. The best part, this small random act of fitness only takes about 3-5 minutes!

Our breakfast has also evolved since “married life.” Since late January, James and I committed to eating a diet primarily filled with super foods. In order to comply with our debt snowball, we had to get creative with our food to keep our food budget low. We settled on an amazingly affordable and delicious breakfast:

 1. ½ cup oatmeal

2. ½ cup frozen blueberries (thawed)

3. 1 tbsp walnuts

4. 1 tbsp almonds

5. 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

James and I both take a few minutes every morning to snuggle with our babies. When we take the time to pet the kitties and listen to them purr, we feel peace and serenity. Duke is always happy, and he loves us unconditionally. His energized helicopter tail flips side-to-side and increases with speed the longer we pet him! His spunk and love of life helps us to start our day right. We love our animals; we hate to brag…but, we do believe that we have the best animals on earth!!

So, there you have it a typical morning for a married couple: wake up 2.5 hours before you need to, bust out push-ups, do a crazy dance for your spouse, eat a nutritious breakfast, mediate with peace furr balls, and energize with a giant mut…..