Your Fitness Cheerleader, At Your Service

I love exercising in the morning, you know why?  Because then I’m all done exercising in the morning!  Summer is the only season where I can get up and workout because work starts 45 minutes later than during the school year, Phil is home, and I can’t stand running when it’s hotter than 75 degrees out, which pretty much makes early morning the only available time slot.  

After an early morning elliptical workout at the gym.  I'm smiling because it's ovah!

So, when the baby wakes up at 5:15 to eat, I psyche myself up during the feeding and mentally prepare what I’m going to wear and what workout I’m going to accomplish.  Then I just make it happen.  When you’re in the shower by 6:45 and can start your day feeling so much better about yourself, it’s an amazing thing.  Everything is Awesome, as the Legos say.  It does make me fall asleep by 9:30 pm but that’s also great because then I’m well rested to do it again the next morning.  Win to the win win.

When I was pregnant with Declan, I really focused on eating protein for my meals and it helped me feel great and kept my pregnancy weight gain right around 25 pounds.  Once he was born, I went a little nuts and ate like the ravenous breastfeeding machine I was and didn’t pay attention to what I was shoving in my mouth.  If it was close and edible, it was going down the hatch.  

I finally talked myself into trying to eat like I did while pregnant, and so I’m back on the protein bandwagon.  Breakfast is either two eggs or a protein shake, lunch is greek yogurt, fruit and a protein bar (the yummy granola kind, not the bodybuilder types), and dinner is some kind of meat with veggies and a side of carbs.  I still manage to eat cookies, peanut M&Ms, or chips every.single.day, and not feel guilty about it as long as I’ve worked out and am still breastfeeding.  

Not me, but she seemed so enthusiastic that I had to share.

You know how when you’ve gained weight and you get depressed and unhappy with how you feel, so you tend to just eat more junk and become more sedentary because it seems like it doesn’t matter anyway?  Well, once you are eating right and getting fit, the same trend happens in reverse.  You feel better, so you make better choices, and actually enjoy the treats instead of mindlessly swallowing them. 

We’re human, but more importantly, we’re women (well most of my readers are) and there will be plenty of hormonal and emotional highs and lows in our lives, so there’s no way to be perfect all the time.  It’s all about finding a nice balance.  I've been at both extremes, on the one hand eating whatever and not working out, and on the other hand, training for a race and eating healthy.  There’s dangers to be found on either side, addictions can appear that make that seemingly healthy thing suddenly became an obsession.  So balance, b-a-l-a-n-c-e is where it’s at.  And yes, we will never look like we did at 19, but who wants to go back to being 19 again anyway?  Dating, and school, and figuring out forever, and not having these sweet babies, no danka.  

I'm here to cheer you on, YOU CAN DO IT!!  Every morning, start over.  Make healthy and happy choices, pray for God’s graces to get through whatever life throws at ya, and do your best for that day only.  Tomorrow never comes, so no use worrying about it, right?  Every day is a gift, that’s why we call it the present :)