Aislinn takes us through her post-children fitness journey in the Mummy Tummy Chronicles. This is Lesson 2: Accept that some days will be tough.
To be more accurate, most days will be tough, some days will horrendous.
Even though I'm only back at it a couple of weeks there have been times I have wanted to call it a day because the start of a particular session knocked the stuffing out of me. To be honest, there have been times when I've found it difficult even getting off the couch.
Most weekends we try to get our exercise done in the mornings. The park is quiet for me, the gym is quiet for my husband, it fits in best with baby feeding and nap times and, from experience, we know if we don't do it then it's more likely not to get done.
Yesterday, I didn't bother with the early morning run. Not only that but my son threw us a bit of a curve ball with his nap lengths, so I didn't get out until the evening. I was in NO mood for a run to begin with, and as the day went on, I only got more lazy and lethargic. When I eventually did get out, even the warm-up had me tired. When I started running I felt achy and instantly out of breath. I thought it was going to struggle the whole time. I thought about how tired I was already and how hard the run was going to be.
Then I stopped (over) thinking and just got on with it. I ended up doing one of the best runs since starting back. I was working but it felt OK. I even ended up enjoying it. Being that bit quicker also meant today, I got to take it a bit slower too (double bonus). Even better again, while trying to go slow, I still passed my time targets each lap by a few seconds.
So there you have it, after a weekend which started off with me avoiding exercise, having suffered through it I feel like, for the first time, I'm seeing progress. It is a great confidence boost.
The point is, don't sell yourself short, even on the tough days. Especially on the tough days!
When things seem harder than you think they should be, remember, you are not just trying to get fit again... you are trying to get fit while being a mother. Life is now more hectic with busy days and sleepless nights. Obviously, any exercise you do will hit your energy levels that bit harder than if you had clocked up a nice eight hours.
If it was easy, everybody would do it.
Let's do this together!
