EXERCISE BALL BECOMES A BABY’S ROCKING CHAIR

A few years ago, after having spent too much time and money eating at the company cafeteria, I started to notice that I couldn’t fit into my clothes so well anymore. So I decided to embark on a weight-loss experiment that would combine a change in diet and exercise. It took a year, but I eventually lost all the extra weight that I had gained over the years and have been able to keep it off. I ate smaller meals and snacks several times a day (and, surprisingly, felt less hungry than before) and, for exercise, I mostly jumped rope and did push-ups and ab crunches.

While I was in the store one day, on a whim I decided to buy a cheap exercise ball—the big, soft, air-filled PVC plastic kind—to make my home workouts a bit tougher. It certainly made the push-ups and ab crunches more challenging, but I also used it to multi task—I would use it as a chair while I worked on my laptop. I eventually gave up the exercise ball for a more challenging pull-up bar.

The versatile exercise ball came into use again a couple of years later when my husband and I couldn’t get our newborn daughter to fall asleep at night. We tried everything short of taking her for a spin in the car, which was not a habit we wanted to form.

But, amazingly, she responded very well to being bounced on the exercise ball. We would hold her in our arms, while sitting and bouncing on the exercise ball, until she fell asleep. Not only did we get a workout, but we also got some much needed sleep. We even brought the ball with us on trips because it was so portable (in its deflated state, of course). It works so well that I’m surprised they don’t market it as a "baby bouncer." Retailers could charge $50 for it instead of $5.