I left off with the beginning of the present day. The athlete inside finding her way out again. It was a bit trickier at this present stage in life because things had changed so much. The key for me was finding a way to exercise at home, which took awhile for me to figure out because I always thought that would never work for me. I had made myself believe that working out at home would be boring, or I'd be too distracted, or not motivated enough. I was used to being a gym rat. The gym had worked for me in the past, so why was it not working now? One word...childcare.
First of all, it was a constant struggle to even get to the gym with two kids in tow. Then once I got there they would start crying because they didn't want me to leave them in the childcare room. That made me feel bad, both for my children and the workers. Then there was the fact that I was paying by the half-hour for childcare, so I felt rushed (not energized) throughout my workout. I was constantly watching the clock. And if I happened to run into a friend, well forget about talking, I had to get this workout done because I had not a minute to spare. It was not, in my opinion, what the gym is made for. I found that I was very inconsistent with my exercise because of all these issues and when I did make it in, low and behold, nine times out of ten, my kids would catch some sort of illness and that would set me back even more. The cycle of inconsistency went on and on and on. Plain and simple, it wasn't working! But in my mind I had already decided that working out at home wouldn't work either...I needed to be outside.
So I strolled. Occasionally jogged, but mostly walked. And that was good, it was something. It just wasn't enough. I knew it. My body knew it. But I wouldn't give home fitness a chance. My mind was made up...so I thought.
Then one day my husband decided he was going to try P90X. It was the new craze and people were getting insane results from this program. He set up a little home gym in our garage with some dumbells, a pull-up bar, and the laptop to play his DVDs, and then he went to work sweating. He invited me to join him. I declined. Over the next three months I continued strolling and taking my fitness level no where, and I watched my husband completely transform his body in 90 short days. But not only that, he started eating healthier. He was in a better mood. He was energized. And I noticed.
Well, summer came, school was out, and my, then, five-year old was home. Strolling had finally taken it's course. My son was simply too big to be pushing around in a stroller. I wasn't going to ask him to do that. Upon realizing that my one consistent option was out, I knew I had to do something. So I decided I would just do the P90X DVDs. I mean they were just sitting there while my husband was at work. I thought I would probably hate them. I was wrong. I loved them! And for the first time in five years I started feeling muscles I had forgotten about. I started feeling motivated. This program wasn't boring, it was energizing, and it was doable! I could do it at home while my children played. If there was an issue I could press pause. I quickly started seeing results and that motivated me even more. I knew I had finally found what I needed.
So I started looking into the company Beachbody (the one who sell P90X). It turns out they have tons of workout programs, and basically everything I needed to get on track and start living a healthier life...to start being the best ME that I could be. I was hooked! "Brilliant, why didn't I think of this sooner," I thought. I guess in life that's just how it goes sometimes...at least for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment