Yoga with the little one.
Hi mamas! Get up and get that beautiful body moving! I know that being a mommy makes it extremely hard to find “me time” or any extra time at all. I understand that your head in spinning half the time and that life and all that it entails as probably taken over your sanity. I also understand that you might feel guilty finding time for yourself because you feel as if finding time for you is taking your time away from your children. This applies to any mama whether you work in or out of the home. I know from experience of working out of the home that time with your children is precious and we do not want to waste away the precious moments with our children. I also know from speaking with many stay at home mamas that because you are at home with your children does not mean that you have an outstanding amount of time, and that your day is just as busy, and your struggles are just as strong as the mamas who work outside of the home. We are in this together! We are all in the same struggles for time and the same want to be the best mamas we can be for our children.
I had always been a health oriented person, fitness and healthy eating are a huge aspect in our confidence and how we view life in general. While knowing all the facts about health and fitness I still let my fitness and clean eating lifestyle go. I quit working out and didn’t care about what I ate or how bad I felt after eating foods that made me feel sluggish. Could any of you mamas guess when this life change for the worse happened? Could any of you guess when in my life I felt as if I couldn’t find a single extra minute? I’m sure many of you guessed right, it was after I had my first child. I mean seriously who on earth has the time to work out when they have a small child? Who has the strength to eat right when you are snacking and eating with a picky toddler? I never understood how mothers found the time or the sanity to work out and eat right and I was far from being one of those mothers.
Working out was never a priority for me after I had my son. I thought about it all the time, I would even put in a video from time to time and try to get a work out in. My son was always with me when I did my workout and it would always end the same way, pure frustration. I was frustrated when I had to stop and tend to him. I was frustrated that when I was trying to work out has hard as ever like I never had stopped working out in the first place, my body was not cooperating. I was frustrated in the days to come knowing that I did only a short work out, and half way did each of the moves, and I couldn’t walk without hurting for three days because of muscle soreness. These frustrations forced me into giving up again, I repeated this trend over and over for years.
Finally, eight years and a second child later I hit a breaking point. I was not happy with myself, I was not happy with my state of mind, I was not happy with how sluggish I felt all the time. Looking in the mirror was not a happy experience for me. Confidence is something I have always struggled with, but this was a new struggle, I felt weak. Weak in a way that even the day to day was hard for me to handle. I started to realize how winded I was after walking up three flights of stairs going to work each day. I could barely control my two-year-old daughter’s tantrums because I felt as if she was almost as strong as I was. The worst part of it all was when playing with my children outside or inside was almost a chore because I was so sluggish feeling at any point of the day.
In all this realization I went all out in getting back on my path to a healthy life. I signed up for classes to not only to start working out on my own but to become a work out instructor. I felt that if I started in this direction there would be no turning back. Wrong again, I started studying hard and working out harder. With each workout I was working out nonstop for an hour, even with my children in the room I would not stop for anything. I surprised myself this time because I stuck to this ritual for a couple of months. Then, as always, I got overwhelmed with how much pressure I had put on myself and my body all at once. I was overwhelmed with the fact that I would ignore my children’s needs when I was working out, because my goal was to not stop for an hour. This way of going about a life change was not good for my children or myself. I then convinced myself that I didn’t need to work out, that my body looked no different and that I felt no different. Yet again, I quit!
A couple of weeks had gone by without working out. My clothing started fitting differently again and I felt a tiredness that no amount of coffee could cure. I felt all the dissatisfying factors that I had felt all the times before. It took a few days to put everything together and to realize what the difference was. My body was going back to its same sluggish state. It was a harsh reality for me, I couldn’t see the difference at first because I didn’t want to. Why didn’t I want to see the necessity in a healthy workout and eating schedule? I didn’t want to see what positive changes it was making in my life because finding the time and effort to get my workouts in and eating healthy foods was hard!
Keep your head up 😉
Can you relate to any of these scenarios? Have you ever gone through any of these ups and downs in your life? I will be the first to tell you that you are not alone, but do not give up. There is another way of changing your life without sacrificing your sanity or your time with your children. I am now a believer that easing your way into a workout routine and healthy eating habits is the way to go. Be easy on yourself, work at your own pace and you will set yourself up for success.
If you are at a point in life to where you are so stressed out and anxiety has taken you over so much so that you don’t recognize yourself or your mindset. I again want to tell you that you are not alone. Don’t let your mind drown you in negativity, do not compare yourself to others. Take your life change at your own pace and I know from experience that you will not be disappointed.
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