Fact: Exercise is hard.
I totally agree. I don’t wake up every morning and bound out of bed because I’m so excited to kick my butt and get all sweaty. Nope. Not at all. Every time my alarm goes off, I’m 100% tempted to stay in bed and I have all sorts of ideas going through my head about how I can get out of exercising. No joke, it’s a total mental struggle I have – every single morning. I try to reorganize the day and figure out how I can work in my exercise to some other part of the day like right before dinner when the kids are screaming at me because they are hungry. Perfect timing right? Uh, no. That would never happen! But it sure sounds tempting at 5:45 in the morning when I’m still tired from getting up in the middle of the night – twice – because my potty-training son had to go poop (who does that in the middle of the night? I think he just wanted some candy…oh well). 
I am not one of those super-fit chicks, you know, the ones who can do one-handed handstands and have abs of steel (and they do these on the beach, I can’t even do that against a wall, let alone the beautiful beach…)? Deep down I wish I were. Really, I wish I was, and at one point in my life, right before I got married, I was probably the fittest I will ever be. I look back at those pictures fondly – and I reminisce about how great my arms looked in sleeveless shirts (I was really proud of my arms and shoulders – so silly of me, but I was – just being honest). I was also in my early 20’s, in my last year of college, and had tons of time on my hands to worry only about me. There was no late night feedings of a baby, there were no diapers to change, there was no school pick-up line to sit and wait in – three times a day, there was no daily dinner to cook to for five people, there was no grocery shopping trips with a toddler, or piles and piles of laundry to do every week. I had time back them to devote to myself and work on my appearance, and the funny thing is, back then I thought I didn’t have any time at all to do anything! I thought I was “soooo” busy! Isn’t it funny how we think, how our reality changes?
Now my everyday reality is that I’m getting older, have had three kids and my weight has gone up and down and up and down since the day I said, “I do.” I know one thing about myself; I’m a very planned person. I’m regimented and organized, I make lists and I really do follow them. When I decide something, I go for it, and I have an uncanny ability to stick with it and complete the job no matter how hard or how long it takes to do it. This proves why I can train for a half marathon for 16 weeks without missing even one workout. I know it’s only a half marathon, but it was so hard – oh let me tell you. But that’s another post in itself that I’m sure I’ll write about soon.
Back to my reality – so, as I was saying, I’m a fairly organized person that likes to compete with myself. This is helpful when dieting and with exercise, because I won’t quit, I’ll see it through, and I’ll stick to the plan. Throw in everyday life, kids, potty-training toddlers, sickness, and the fact that I had 2 surgeries last year, I know I’m just not the same person I was 15 years ago. I’m trying to accept my new reality and give myself a break. When you have a bad day and you don’t get up early like you had planned to exercise, it’s not big deal. It’s not going instantly make you gain 5 pounds instead. If you are a control freak like me, it’s tends to totally ruin my day – I will beat myself up for not getting up when in reality it’s just one day. Give yourself some grace. Who knows, maybe you will find the time later that day to exercise.
Some days, you just need a break too. Which was my day today. The hubs and I had totally planned to get up early like we always do to do T25, but I woke up with a pounding headache and he was just plain exhausted. Needless to say we skipped our workout. Instead of going back to sleep though, I got up and made a cup of coffee and curled up on the couch with my Bible and spent the next 30 minutes with the Lord. Was an excellent way to start the day even though I didn’t get to exercise. It’s a huge step for me to not beat myself up and realize that tomorrow is another day and another opportunity to exercise. Hopefully tomorrow morning is better and I’ll be right back to my routine.
See what I mean? Exercise is hard.
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