Keep Going

Fitness. It’s a total buzz word and has a lot of feelings surrounding it. For me, I have always been a pretty active person. I played sports growing up and found an off and on love for running and going to the gym when I was in college. 

After I had Lizzie in August of 2017 I hit this weird place. I didn’t have time or energy to work out because instead of trying to find a time when one baby was asleep I was now searching for a time when both kids were asleep. Let me be real when I say that those times were the only times for me to sleep! I found myself just feeling bad mentally, physically, and emotionally. March rolled around and I knew I needed something. 

I found a free, amazing workout program by Bikini Body Mommy .  She has several 90 day programs, all free, and the workouts are only about 20-30 minutes each. That was doable for me. I committed to it. Once I got about 3 weeks in I realized I was making progress and decided to try to find a healthier way of eating. I follow fitnesscarli on Instagram and love her! She had a super simple, realistic meal plan and so I started doing that. It was quick to follow the formula and I was still eating normal, yummy food. The basic philosophy is nourish your body first — that means veggies! For me, that totally worked. Carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, etc. were my go-to and the rest of my meals worked around eating a balanced amount of the rest of our food groups (grains, fruits, lean protein, etc. This was not a diet plan but a lifestyle change. 

Y’all for the first time in forever (Frozen sing a long with me) I could see my abs. Now I am not boasting, but this was a big deal for me. Anyway, I finished my 90 day program, was eating way better, and then I joined an amazing local studio. My friend and I started taking barre classes and they were the best workout!

Day 1 versus Day 90

Insert annoying injury. I had been feeling some shoulder pain off and on. I gave myself a week off and it felt ok so I jumped back in. Bad idea. It got worse and worse. Like a really big dummy I just kept pushing through the pain. One day I was telling my mom about it and she said it sounded like her when she had torn her rotator cuff. I freaked out and called my doctor. She saw me right away (end of July) and in her opinion the rotator cuff was messed up. Great.... Now if you have had experience with getting permission from insurance you know the nightmare I am about to share. I had my first appointment, an X-ray and started at home rehab the end of July. She told me to stop working out my arms until we could get an mri. Goodbye Barre class. I basically started doing BBG with a lot of modifications and skipping arm day (mostly) and running a little. I was pretty upset about the whole thing. The insurance would not give me an MRI in September (that long!!!!) without a follow up appointment and a cortisone shot. So, in early October I got a shot and felt great for 3 weeks. My doctor said to work my way back into my normal routine. Hooray! Until later in the month, I did a BBG arm workout and I thought my right arm was going to fall off. Pain was back and I was miserable. My doctor is STILL trying to get permission for an MRI — it’s the middle of November. We started this process in July. 

Why am I sharing all that? Well here I am today. I am still continuing with my fitness journey. My 6 days a week are more like 3-5 and I am running a lot. To keep my spirits and motivation up I decided to sign up for my first 10K run. I’ve been training for a little over a month using Emily Jackson’s Running Guide. It’s really for a half marathon, but I have just taken the first few weeks and tweaked them/repeated them to get to the 10K status. It has been a challenge for me. I have concentrated on sprint work and trying to keep a faster, steadier pace. My shorter runs of 3 miles have gotten so much faster and my endurance has increased. I have never loved running as much as I do right now. 

I ran my 10K Saturday morning. It was snowing and freezing cold. I was really anxious. I am super competitive. Not with other people necessarily, just myself. I did not want to stop. I wanted to run the whole time, no matter what. Y’all can’t even imagine the hill we had to run. It lasted about half a mile and it was straight up. It came at mile 3 and guess what ... I ran it. I ran all 6.2. Almost everyone around me walked at some point on that hill. I was probably running just barely faster than their walk but I didn’t care. I kept going. Crossing that finish line with my family cheering for me was such a wonderful feeling. I finished under the time I had set for myself. Even if I hadn’t, I would have been satisfied with finishing. I showed myself that it was possible to do hard things. I freaking love Rachel Hollis and in her book she shares a little about her distance running. She said when she gets down that she tells herself, “you have done harder things that this.” I kept telling myself that, not just during the race, but those sprint runs where one minute at 8.5 miles an hour felt like 25. 

I am putting this out there because it is living, breathing proof that I and anyone else can do this! My kids have seen me working out and working hard for my goals. They have seen me persevere despite injury and setback. Brecken loves to do exercises with me (jumping up and down while I do burpees). I want my daughter to see that it’s not about being skinny, it is about taking care of her body, being balanced, and striving to be healthy that is most important. Yes all my baby weight plus some has come off throughout this journey, but more importantly, my mind, body, and soul feel like me again. It helps me combat the anxiety and depression I struggle with daily. It is “me” time in a world where I rarely get to go to bathroom without another human following me in. 

What is next: hopefully answers to my shoulder disaster and a half marathon. I’m just going to keep going y’all!