Taking Care of You

*Disclaimer: I am not a certified fitness professional.  I’m just a mom who found her inner athlete and feels better about herself and wants you to do the same!

After having 3 babies I found myself where most moms do.  Not liking my post-partum body and struggling to figure out how to get it back.  It wasn’t until I found myself back at work full-time, with an hour to kill for lunch, and a company provided gym, that I took steps to find that pre-baby carrying body…and I have never looked back.  My journey started on the treadmill, walking for 30 minutes, because who can’t walk?  That got boring, so I issued myself a little challenge.  Walk 29 minutes and run 1.  Every few days I added another minute to my “running”.  Before I knew it, I was running 30 minutes.  That was 5 years ago.  Now I’m 20 lbs lighter, a half marathon finisher, feel so much better, and cranky if I don’t get a workout in.  And you know what?  I’m a better mom, because I’m taking care of me too.

I’m not at the job with the corporate gym anymore, and I really, really like chocolate. So I’ve had to get creative with my fitness.  I wasn’t going to purchase a gym membership and I wasn’t going to hire a personal trainer.  But there is this thing called YouTube….have you heard of it?  The world of YouTube is huge and I had no idea.  In the privacy of your own home (*bonus!), you can find any type of workout, for any length of time, for any level of fitness.  There is no excuse, my mommy friends.  We’ve all got smart phones, iPads, and TVs.  And I’m going to venture to say, we’ve all got 10 minutes we can let the baby cry, kids wait, or lock ourselves in our rooms to take a little time for you. That’s what Netflix is for, isn’t it?  No one ever said, man, I wish I would not have taken that 10, 20, 30 minutes to get in a little workout.  But how many times do we beat ourselves up because we don’t? It’s time to make it happen, moms.  No more excuses.  I’m going to say that again.  No.  More. Excuses.  You can do this. If I can, you can.

Where to begin?  Here’s a few of my favorite YouTube resources::

• Bikini Body Mommy – Brianna is a certified personal trainer who had her own weight loss struggle after babies.  She is super transparent and easy to identify with.  She has 90 day challenges you can do for FREE on YouTube.  They are short 20 minute workouts you can fit into naptime or if you’re the early morning mama, right before the kids wake up.
• Popsugar Fitness – If you want a 5 minute workout, they have it.  If you want a 40 minute workout, they have it.  You can search hundreds of workout videos for whatever time frame you have available.
• Yoga with Adriene – I desperately want to be a yogi.  I have a long way to go, but Adriene isn’t crazy zen and makes it fun and has a lot of foundation videos to help the beginner.

And there you have it.  There are no excuses my sweet mommy friends.  Go out and buy yourself a super cute pair of workout pants and a tank top and start having more energy, feeling better about yourself, and as a bonus, shedding some of those baby induced pounds. Take care of you, so you can take care of them! You don’t need a personal trainer or a gym membership.  You just need to get up and DO IT!