Being fit was always important to me and I used to be at fitness classes or the gym, or playing netball every evening when I was in my early twenties. My friend and I would often go to a fitness class as a warm-up for our netball match! Whilst I was pregnant with my first baby, Joe, I ran a 5K race and was still going to the gym regularly right up until I was 6 months into the pregnancy. I think the combination of that and a bit of luck helped me get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes almost immediately after I gave birth. I got back into netball and the gym after a few weeks and my body hadn't really changed much from before. I even used to go to the gym in my lunch break at work!
Fast forward 3 years and things were different after I had my second baby, George. I was older, my body didn't bounce back to what it was before, I was more tired, had less time and my exercise naturally took a back seat. Eventually I got back into netball but that just wasn't enough. I put on weight and felt like I wasn't my old self. The old Tracy was fit and active but I felt like that was another me, in another time - so far away from how I felt right then. I felt lost without the exercise, like I wasn't really living up to who I had been before. My priorities had changed, and that was OK, but it kept nagging away at me. So I signed up for the gym again in the hope that it would kick-start my fitness. The trouble was that I found it very stressful rushing to the gym after work in the traffic, squeezing in a quick workout that really didn't fit my needs, and then rushing back home again to be with my family. Of course, the gym ended up dying a death and I cancelled my membership because I just wasn't using it and I was wasting our hard earned cash.
But then I discovered home workouts and it was just so much more do-able! I could fit a workout in around everything that was going on without the guilt. It suited me perfectly! The only thing with home workouts is you're on your own. There's no friend waiting for you at the local leisure centre and you don't want to let her down. There's no group doing a workout together pushing you through to the end. There's no instructor shouting at you to do one more rep! You have to have discipline to work out at home regularly. That was the catch for me - discipline. It's easy to not work out when the sofa's calling your name.....and we're back to the importance of the small stuff again!
Making the decision to make time for my workouts was important to me - they affect my fitness, health, and they help me to be who I really am deep down.
On top of that, it's empowering to hold yourself accountable for sticking with it. It means I'm still in control even when life throws me curveballs that I have no influence over. I am in control of whether or not I work out, and by default I'm controlling how I feel regardless of whatever else might be happening in my life.
I'm glad I'm taking back control. You only get one life, and I'm gonna live mine my way!
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