It has been over a year since I have exercised, as in strapped on the running shoes and got all out-of-breath in some form of intended workout.
I was never an exercise kinda person. I tried Little Athletics as a youngster but it ended up more a social outing than a physical exert of energy. Oh and a brief stint in a High School Aerobic team that lasted all of three sessions, we were not great!
My interest in exercise came from a flyer doing the rounds at school, a Personal Trainer Mum was going to start a weekly session to whip us all into shape! By this stage I had dropped most of the weight from my pregnancies but had ‘floppy bits’ and time to fill, so I went along.
I almost cried, I very nearly spewed many times but I grew to love it and a second weekly session was added. In between sessions, I would go for a run along my road and even do burpees, situps, squats and the like to complete my workouts at home. I kept it up for over a year and a half. Combined with a clean eating lifestyle, I toned and lost more weight .. perhaps too much.
That’s when the comments started, not said out of concern but in an outright hurtful manner. ‘You look awful’ can not be interpreted in any other way.
I look back at photos from this time and that image is not the one I saw in the mirror, at all. I now see what they were seeing, I really do but their approach was ‘off’ by several interpretations of the word.
Top Left: between Bub#2 & #3
Top Middle: 9mths after Bub#3
Bottom Left & Middle Left: At my lowest weight
End: Me NOW
I just do not suit a size 8. My solution, to cut back the exercising which eventually stopped altogether. Juggling in sessions between kidlets had always proved difficult but it became increasingly more so and with the comments ringing in my ears, it was just easier to stop ..
I miss it. The energy it gives you and the tone, I want that back. That does not mean I want to be that skinny looking again, because I don’t. Learning from my previous experience, I should be able to exercise and not let it get that far again.
So, this Monday just gone, I thought I had better pull out the old running shoes and see if they still ‘work’. No running, just wearing. And you know what? I don’t know if it was the bounce in my step that day, or the fact that running shoes make you move faster but by end of day, my calves were hurting .. that’s how out of shape I am. It felt good, next step is to get out there and pound the pavement again.
I am easing myself in, in the hope that I can do this at an even pace, no extremities – I’m counting on you guys to keep me in check 1) to do it and 2) to not over-do it!
So TEAM, what’s everyone else been up to this past week?
What has motivated you, energized you or made you cool this week?
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