I am trying to find an hour. It’s harder than you think.

I am hunting under the couch – where I am often collapsed, tapping at my laptop or with my eyes glued to the television – searching for the 45 minutes a day I need to reclaim my sanity.

And I just can’t find it. Between my two small children, my job, my partner and the occasional rushed drink with people who were my friends in a quieter age, there isn’t TIME.

More on Holly’s day: “A comprehensive list of the things I did before 9am.”

The time I’m looking for is the time to exercise.

Deep down, I know where that time is. Jodi Meares has got it. Because while I’m struggling to find a lousy 45 minutes, Jodhi is exercising for at least four hours a day. Every day.

Jodhi Meares at ‘The Upside’ studio. Image via Instagram.

And it shows. Jodhi Meares is the impossibly slender and effortlessly glamorous founder of The Upside, a sportswear brand that is so fabulous that there’s no way I would ever dare sweat into their exquisite yoga pants.

Because, in all seriousness, there ain’t no way you put a spin-class crotch anywhere near this:

Jodhi’s fancy yoga pants.

Jodhi revealed how she makes time in her day for exercise in a story with Harper’s Bazaar earlier this year entitled ’24 hours with Jodhi Meares’.

And reading it, I can see exactly where I’m going wrong.

She gets up at 5am, every day.

And then she spends an hour walking to her first yoga class.

An hour in the yoga class, and then an hour walking back.

I like to wake up early, too. And I usually manage it, because I often have a small child balancing on my head, sometimes whispering in my ear, sometimes yelling, “Mum, mum, mum, mum, mum. Is it time to get up? Is time to get up? Is it time to get up?”

It’s like my own personal mantra.

And then, when I should be stretching and pulling on my workout gear and heading out the door for my hour-long walk to my hour-long workout, I selfishly find myself making school lunches, listening to the news, and trying to find clean clothes that aren’t completely concertinaed at the bottom of the washing basket.

Then it’s breakfast, for them, and out of the door in time to catch my bus (BUS! So lazy, so decadent), to my office, where I eat Vegemite toast.

I have hot water, too, but it has a lot of coffee in it, and a tiny bit of milk. And then I work, pretty much all day without so much as a walking meeting, until around 6pm or so.

Another yoga class?

Johdi with Jon Stevens.

I’ve just spent a pretty long day sitting on my arse, which isn’t good (my arse, or the sitting all day), until it’s time to travel home on the bus (why aren’t I walking, where’s my inner Forrest?) to make two lots of dinner, get my kids in the bath, into their pyjamas, read two lots of bedtime books (that’s about six books in total, and none of them are improving or Zen), get them into bed and back into bed and back into bed until finally they  stay there and I can look at my other half and say… “Hey. How was your day?”

Meanwhile…

When I finally go to bed around 11pm, having managed a few snatched conversations with my partner, folded 25 baskets of washing, done some work, watched Game Of Thrones, wolfed down some dinner, tried to tidy the house – I can barely find my pillow beneath the piles of washing that I still haven’t folded and put away in my one, chaotic wardrobe. How is it possible for one family of four to have so much washing?

It’s hard to know.

But I do know that I need to channel my inner Jodhi and get some more zen in my life. Some more yoga-pants wearing, street-pounding, two workouts a day, lemon-in-hot-water drinking zen is exactly what my life needs.

Jodhi, I can’t find an hour to exercise. Can I borrow one of yours?

How do you make time to exercise? 

Inspirational moments from Jodhi’s Instagram:

Jodhi Meares

#LordBuddha #Laugh

Jodhi Meares

LA- thank you for your sunshine and your powerful yoga and for show so much love for THE UPSIDE- taking care of business #THEUPSIDE #yoga #LA

Jodhi Meares

What ever the question love is the answer. What ever the problem love is the answer. What ever the fear love is the answer. What ever the illness love is the answer. What ever the pain love is the answer. Love is always the answer because love is all there is - Gerald Jampolsky #love

Jodhi Meares

Don't mess with the boss haha #boss xx

Jodhi Meares

Happy international woman's day. #internationalwomansday #rise xx

Jodhi Meares

#Confrontthetruth #vegetarian #pleasebemindfullofwhatyoueat #pigshavetheintelligenceofathreeyraroldchild #truth

Jodhi Meares

Happy 30th birthday my beautiful baby sister- I love you Boo xx #boo #happybirthday #babysister #beautiful

Jodhi Meares

I'm with Albert #einstein #science #religion #science&religion

Jodhi Meares

Re gram @glutenfreelance #glutenfreelance #health

Jodhi Meares

Be you xx

Jodhi Meares

BEER- Happy Australia Day #beer #australiaday #lucky #havefun

Jodhi Meares

Always stand up for what is right #standup #truth #bebrave

Jodhi Meares

Don't forget it ladies #boss #leadership #skills #dontletanyonepushyouaround

Jodhi Meares

Horse love xx

Jodhi Meares

You are free xx #lordbuddha #free

Jodhi Meares

#karma- our greatest teacher xx

Jodhi Meares

Re gram @sharonbingle #heartandbrain

Jodhi Meares

Lunch with team UPSIDE XX

Jodhi Meares

#dignity #AlberEinstein #LiberatedMindIsTheGreatestGift #LordBuddha

Jodhi Meares

Just be you and have a loving heart, practice forgiveness and kindness, especially to the people that cause you suffering because they are the people who suffer the most. #love #kindness #forgivness #lovingheart #lordbuddha

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