Fitnescipline

Lord knows when it comes to exercising, I’m the most undisciplined in the household. Leroy would wake up early to do push-ups, my brother uses our home gym in the basement every other day, my dad spins and practices yoga some days, even my mom does her walking exercise thingamabob from YouTube videos.

Don’t get me wrong, when I’m on my fitness wagon, I’m ON IT! I would exercise 4 days a week with my exercise group. Eat my salads, drink my smoothies and practice yoga on weekends. I would have a strict routine going and I’m good! However, let me only have to work late one day or feel sick one afternoon and my “strict” routine turns to mush. All of a sudden, I have excuses as to why I can’t make it to exercise and before I know it, I stop going altogether.

While pregnant, it is advised that the expectant mother does some form of exercise to further prepare her body for the extra weight it will be carrying as well as for the intensity that is labor. Ok so I need to find something and stick with it, at least until baby girl is born. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions (and for my own safety), I couldn’t rejoin my exercise group. Bleh! What should I do? Thankfully, my FBI agent was listening and one day while scrolling through my Instagram feed, I came across an ad to practice prenatal yoga virtually. It felt like a sign! I mean, I already love yoga, I used to practice it before so this should be a breeze! On top of that, who else would be leading the yoga sessions? None other than our friend Lori who was actually my doula for the birth of baby girl! I signed up without any hesitation. The sessions were amazing. It was a group of about 5 or 6 of us expectant mothers on Zoom. I actually used to look forward to getting home after work to join the class because it helped me get to learn this new version of my body. Poses that I could’ve done with no problem before pregnancy, I couldn’t do anymore or at least, not as well as I used to. I had to re-learn how to balance my weight (with this new addition in front of me) and re-find my center of gravity.

Now that baby girl is born and I’m gradually getting the hang of this Mom life, I find that I’m now struggling to find the time to exercise. I’ve decided to continue practicing yoga and I’ve even downloaded a yoga app that I can follow and paid for a full year membership (an incentive for me to keep at it), but to find the right time to practice is still a challenge. I’ve set alarms early in the morning so I can practice while the sun is rising, but I end up using that time to catch up on sleep since baby girl is still waking up at nights. I’ve tried to squeeze in some time during the day but that’s a fail now since I’ve started back working and even when I get home after work, I just want to relax and spend time with my princess.

What I’ve learned? No time is the perfect time to exercise once you’ve got a young child, especially one that depends on you for sustenance. For now, I'm throwing routine out the window and just trying to get some (any) exercise in. Will I eventually get myself into some form of routine - definitely! Will I stick with it? Who knows? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z! Lol!