Fitness: Are you *Faking* It?
When baby #2 was about 6 months old and I was still holding on to all of the pregnancy weight and still eating like I was pregnant, I decided to take matters into my own hands and I joined a gym, hired a personal trainer and committed myself to exercising as much as possible. I became a gym rat, practically going every day. Over the next few months, the weight fell off, my body changed in positive ways, and I definitely liked what I saw in the mirror.
I continued going to the gym for the next year, on a regular basis, because it had become part of my routine.
Then I got pregnant with #3, battled horrible morning sickness, broke my toe (and had to wear that uncomfortable black boot) and exercising took a back seat for a while. When I was finally in the clear to exercise again, I had lost all of my cardiovascular fitness and was basically starting from the beginning. And 5 months pregnant.
After baby #3 was born, well actually, months after he was born, *The Sisterhood* came into my life. At that time, with three kids 5 years and younger, a husband who was unemployed, and all of life’s stresses, I was not in the right frame of mind to commit to exercising.
I *faked* it if you will.
Ya’ll know what I am talking about. I said I would exercise, but then would find every reason not to, or I would let any kind of schedule conflict override going to the gym, or I would find any ole excuse in the book NOT to exercise. Does this sound familiar to any of you?
Then, The Sisterhood started with the fitness challenges and because I was a writer, of course I had to participate, right?! However, I still felt like I was faking it. I did the fitness challenges, I did whatever exercises were called for that day yada yada yada, but my heart wasn’t into it and my brain was certainly not participating. I did the bare minimum in order to say that I was “doing the challenge”.
Enter the Virtual 5K challenge that we hosted back in the Fall of 2009. My newborn was now a year old, my husband was working again, and I had finally reached a point to where I was ready to tackle fitness again. That Virtual 5K challenge sent me back into the world of loving exercise, planning my day around my fitness activities, striving to achieve goals that I had once only dreamed about.
Yesterday when I was doing my run + strength workout ( a combination of running on the treadmill with good ole basic weight exercises like squats, push-ups, chin-ups, ab work, tricep dips, lunges, etc) and sweat was pouring off my body and I would have to pause every once in a while to catch my breath, I gave a lot of thought to this thing called fitness and exercise.
I thought: I want this workout to count. To mean something. I want to push my body even further. I want this to be a GREAT workout.
It was. I don’t have a lot of time for me in the day. My workout time is FOR ME and FOR ME ONLY. I have made it a priority in my life and I schedule all the things I have to do in a given day around my workout time. No, I don’t workout EVERY single day, but 4-5 days will have a workout for me. I want my workouts to feel good, like I pushed the envelope, like I am reaching for new heights and achieving new goals.
Sure, I have days where I don’t want to go, or where I am tired and yes, I have even been known to skip a workout- GASP. But that just happens here or there. I no longer fake it it. I am in it for the win- the prize being ME.
I have a goal: to complete my third half marathon on Feb 20th, 2011 and to register for my first triathlon.
My question to you is this: Are YOU faking it? Doing the bare minimum or participating with your entire being? Is there anything holding you back from reaching for the stars? Do you have a fitness goal in mind for the next few months?
The Power of One, this is some powerful stuff. What are YOU doing to achieve YOUR fitness goals?
Category: Fitness, Lisa, MOVE IT, Running, Uncategorized
