Last year, at the beginning of the stay at home orders in Louisiana my gym, Evolve Studios, did the quickest pivot I have ever seen and immediately had daily live streaming workouts and rapidly built a library of pre-recorded workouts for its’ members to do at home. The first couple of weeks I would try to do “a little something” everyday and sign-on to the live workouts as often as my schedule allowed. On Saturday, March 28th, after a pretty good week of at-home workouts, I decided I would take it easy and not workout. My day was TERRIBLE. The kids drove me crazy, Matt drove me crazy, I had no energy and we had nowhere to go. I decided that night I would not let another day of quarantine pass without getting a workout in. I had to do it, for my mental sanity and to show my girls what a healthy momma looked like. I was determined to not sit on the couch, eating or drinking thru this entire process of being quarantined for who knows how long. The first week or two was hard, but I eventually fell into a groove. Ruby naped at 9:30 every morning, the older girls got their snack and tablet time, and I worked out. No exceptions. Didn’t matter if the house is a mess, dishes need to be done or the laundry needs folding. It’s my time. Then, I decided I would challenge myself to go 90 days straight of working out. I had to do something from the Evolve online library every day. 30 days seemed too easy at this point and if I did 60, I could certainly do 90. So, that’s what I set my mind to.
I wanted to share 10 things I learned along the way, some of which have absolutely nothing to do with working out.
Listen to Your Body
I had several days, especially after crossing the threshold of 50 days of consecutive workouts, that something was hurting or my body was just tired. I have had to dial it back at least one day a week and take it as a recovery day. Before this challenge, I would think, my knee is killing me, I shouldn’t work out today. And I just wouldn’t do anything. But now I think, my knee is hurting, what can I work on that will help that? Thankfully, I also had access to several yoga recovery videos and have started incorporating them into my routine. I would do a hip opening series, shoulder opening or a foam rolling class once, sometimes twice a week now. I chose to count these days as part of my 90 consecutive days, because it still fulfills my ultimate goal of doing something for me at least once a day. I still get the benefit of checking out as a mom and concentrating on taking care of my mind and body for a small portion of my day. These were lifesavers toward the end of my challenge.
The Tiny Humans Are Watching
This is something I have always known, but became so much more obvious to me over the time of constantly being home together and seeing how much they imitate everything we say and do. I could probably share dozen videos of them teaching a workout class to each other and setting up the yoga mat and doing stretches. I became so much more aware of this because of watching them do their “workouts”. They would use the exact phrases the teachers use on the videos and they do some of the exact moves we do. It blows my mind. Lillian and Stella like to play house and be the mommy and the daddy, Lillian is always the mommy and she talks to Stella EXACTLY how I talk to Matt. This has made me stop and think before any sarcastic comment comes out of my mouth. I want my girls to see (and hear) how much I love and respect their daddy. Never thought that a personal workout challenge would make me rethink the way I speak and react to the other people in my life.
Ask For Help
Asking for help so that you can take care of yourself is not a sign of weakness! Let me say it again, ASKING FOR HELP SO THAT YOU CAN TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF IS NOT A SIGN OF WEAKNESS. Being a momma is hard and exhausting work, harder and more exhausting than I would’ve ever imagined. And in order to not lose my mind I have to have a few things every day that are just for me. These things include early morning coffee in the quiet, walking around Target aimlessly, getting a mani/pedi, going to the gym, writing my thoughts out on paper, having dinner with my friends, teaching dance, etc. I didn’t realize how much I needed these things until most of them were taken away during quarantine. Then one day it dawned on me that all these things that were part of my routine were therapy for me, and when I couldn’t do most of them I wasn’t able to take care of my girls, Matt or our household as well as I would’ve liked. But in order to commit to doing something for myself every day, that means I have to have help. During quarantine, that meant Matt helping with the girls in the middle of the day, now that looks like a babysitter coming over so I can go to the gym and go to the grocery alone. Whatever it means for you, it doesn’t make you less than or not a good mom. We all need something for us, and if you cannot figure out how to get it, ASK FOR HELP! ASK FOR HELP!
Don’t Make Your Distractions Your Excuses
During quarantine, I had 3 kids 4 and under, a husband that worked from home for way too long and a dog that is rapidly losing control of her bladder. You name a distraction, I’ve got it. Oh and did I mention the never ending pile of laundry? I could occupy my entire day with things that “need” to be done. It is so easy to tell myself, I just don’t have time today, too many things to do, especially once life started to moving forward again. We have places to go and even more things to do and finding the time for workouts got much harder. I’ve had to get creative with my schedule, sometimes working out super early in the morning before the girls are awake or doing a quick 15-minute HIIT or 20-minute ab challenge in the middle of the day in the midst of all the things that need to be done. I’ve had to hand out snacks during my workouts, break up fights, work around piles of toys and laundry. I’ve never once regretted taking the time to get it done and the distractions are all waiting for me when I get done. Plan your “me” time into your day and no excuses. The laundry can wait, the dishes can wait, the kids can get a few more minutes of screen time if it means I get some time for me! Stop what you are doing and carve out a few minutes for you. Even if it is just 15 minutes.
I Live For the Little Moments
Most of the workouts I do at Evolve are timed. In Pilates you do a specific move for a set amount of time and the instructor always gives you the 5 second countdown to finish a move. In our HIIT classes, we normally have timed rounds of workouts and get a 5 second countdown to the end of the round. I may have to take a break at some point in the workout or round, but I go all out the last 5 seconds and work till the end. Something about those last 5 seconds just gives me life… I get such an extra boost of energy and think to myself, every single rep counts, every step counts and every second of a held plank counts. It makes me think of all the little seconds we can enjoy in our lives now that we are returning to a bit more of normalcy. During quarantine we had time for everything, time for bike rides, family walks, swimming, sidewalk chalk, bubble blowing, ice cream and all the moments in between. Now that life is turning back into our normal busy days, I am doing my best to cherish the little moments. The extra long hugs Lillian likes to suddenly give me, the sweet side-eye smiles I get from Stella and the baby snuggles I can still enjoy from my almost 2 year old Ruby. Enjoy every second, they are what make the days good.
Find Something You Love
I have worked out on and off my entire adult life. I’ve mostly done a traditional big box gym, but found little success. Treadmills, elliptical machines, group fitness and weights are great and certainly get the job done, but I don’t really love it. The times I’ve been successful there is when I am working out consistently with a friend. I even did a brief stint training at a Crossfit box, again, I was most successful when I could go with a friend. In both instances, I loved the small classes they offered and the comradery found when going with friends. As I have gotten older, married and had three kids, it’s almost impossible to match up my schedule to a friend’s to work out consistently. I started with my current workouts because it was something I hadn’t done before, and it was close to my house. I loved that you had to pre-book the specific class you wanted to go to and were penalized if you cancelled within a set time frame. And now I am hooked. I’ve made friends and just love the classes. I literally get FOMO anytime I drive by and see a parking lot full of cars and I’m not there. So find your place, get into it, make friends, workout at home, run for hours on end or whatever works for you. Keep trying till you find it, cause when you do, it will change everything. Apply this to everything, keep trying till you find your thing, cause when you do it’ll change your life.
The Value of Making a Promise To Yourself and Keeping It
I actually got a little emotional in my workouts toward the end thinking, I did it, I am going to do this. When I only had 3 workouts left, I thought I might cry in the middle of it. How many times do we say to ourselves that we are going to start doing something and never keep up with it? I don’t know about you, but I do this ALL. THE. TIME. Setting out to do something and finishing it is the very best feeling. And doing something that is a really hard challenge makes it even better. So set yourself some goals and stick to them, even something small, because the pride you will feel is unmatched.
We Are Not In Control
I had a really hard day towards the end of my 90 days. This is something I have always known, but it became really evident during this challenge. As much as we would like to believe that we control the things that we experience daily, we really cannot. We can control our reactions to life and how we choose to move forward. Sometimes our promises to ourselves don’t look the way we want them to, like the day I had to workout in my room, next to my unmade bed, a pile of laundry, in my pajama pants and sports bra. It was only a 15 minute quick HIIT, but I got it done. I didn’t want to do it, I was pissed thru most of it, but I was so happy I kept my promise to myself. That is life, things happen and plans change. Concentrate on what you can control, your reaction and how you move forward. And remember, tomorrow is a new day.
Motivation Is Crap
There, I said it. Motivation will only get you so far. My motivation is I want to have energy, I want to feel better, I want to be healthy, I want to look better in a swimsuit, blah blah blah. That’s always been my motivation, for most of my adult life. So why all of a sudden was I able to “be motivated” to complete this challenge. HABIT. Creating this habit at a time in my life where I had nowhere to be for an extended period of time was the perfect storm. I am very type A, habitual and live for a schedule. This was the perfect opportunity to create this routine. My hope was if I could make this a habit during a time where nothing (other than 3 kids and a household) could get in my way, this would become part of who I am. And I feel like it really did. Although, I still had days that I just really didn’t want to or I had other things that need to get done, I know now more than ever the benefits. And now it just became habit. As much as brushing my teeth or putting on deodorant. (both of which I forget from time to time). Figure out a way to create a habit, not motivate yourself. Habits will get you through when you lose sight of the motivation.
The Value of Treating Yourself
Celebrate your accomplishments and make them special. I’m a firm believer on treating yourself to something special after you accomplish a goal. So, at the end of this challenge, I sat down with a cocktail and took myself shopping on Lululemon’s website. It was so exciting and I looked forward to it for weeks. I am so freaking proud I did it.
