Just because you’re a mom doesn’t mean you have to let go of a better you.
We’ve all been there, every day we manage every moment of everyone’s life only to look up one day and discover that we forgot ourselves. It’s easy to do – isn’t that part of the Mommy/wife job description? That was me a few years ago, I had thrown myself headlong into the Mommy gig. I wanted to do everything right, make all the right choices for my daughter from the start. I researched everything that she touched and ate, her feet barely hit the ground, she was easily the cleanest baby in town, etc. – I was the quintessential “helicopter Mom.”
[bctt tweet=”I was horrified when I saw FOR REAL the person I had turned into! #fitmoms #c25k”]
However, one day while looking at pictures that we took on vacation I happened across a one of my daughter and I on a swing and I was horrified when I saw FOR REAL the person I had turned into. Not the person I saw in my head, but what I REALLY looked like. I said out loud, “Oh my gosh – how in the world did I get so big!” I was obese. Not just a little heavy, not just a little baby weight, no this was full on, text book obese.
I knew right then and there I needed to take some time from the Mommy Extraordinaire role and make time for me to get myself back together. At the time I was struggling with debilitating migraines, hip dysplasia issues from an accident that required me to walk with a cane some days, I had high blood pressure, the list goes on – you get the point. I knew it was going to be an uphill battle, but one that I needed to fight if I was going to be here in the future for my husband and daughter.
Like anything else I started slowly by walking on the treadmill every day, then I started to run, then I joined a gym – I was rolling!
But the real change happened a year ago while I was sitting on the couch surfing facebook contemplating a belated New Year’s resolution and happened across a few conversations in my favorite Mom-2-Mom group about this new gym that was opening in town. The gist was that you pick a time that works with your schedule and every day for ten weeks you come to the gym and exercise with their trainers for forty-five minutes and you follow their nutrition guidelines. I wasn’t jazzed about the everyday thing, or the nutrition aspect, but I thought I could do anything for ten weeks right? I’d just suck it up and go. So I did it.
[bctt tweet=”What started as a ten week experiment turned into a life style change! #fitmoms #c25k”]
Fast forward through four ten-week stints to my one-year anniversary with the gym. What started as a ten week experiment turned into a life style change – I was now a gym rat (something I’ve never, ever been accused of)! On my journey I discovered that my migraines and hip pain were caused/exacerbated by the foods I was eating, I found that despite my lifelong belief to the contrary I enjoy running and have since ran several 5ks, an 8k, a 10k and have since signed up for a half marathon in the spring. I went from being the “fluffy Mommy” as my daughter lovingly put it, to a role model for her and an example of what a healthy lifestyle looks like and four dress sizes smaller. My point is, it took something as simple as a conversation on Facebook to pull me out of my comfort zone and propel me toward the woman/Mom/wife that I am today and for that I am thankful.
A friend of mine once told me an analogy that has stuck with me, she said, “On every plane the flight attendants demonstrate the oxygen masks saying that you have to put your mask on before you can help those around you. Life as a Mom is a lot like that. You have to help yourself before you can help those around you. If you don’t everyone suffers.”
The takeaway here is sometimes in order to be the best Mom to your kids and the best partner to your significant other, you have to make time for you and remember who you are first before you can give to those around you. My best me required an overhaul of fitness and nutrition in order to get my life back and dig out the person I was before life happened, but everyone is different and has different needs.
As I said my journey continues, and moving forward it’s my intention to take you with me! That’s right – I said take you with me. And guess what, it starts today! So, since my first race of the Spring/Summer is an 8K scheduled on Sunday, April 17th the training must begin now. For the next seven weeks, with the help of the exercise app SkyFit (which I absolutely love) I’ll be following the training schedule below. I challenge you to pick a race, any race and come with me on this journey – it doesn’t need to be an 8k it can be a 5k, 3k, mud run, walk/ramble – anything. Just get up, move out of your comfort zone and get outside! You can do this – I promise. Now let’s get going and chew up some asphalt!