Let me start by saying, I am NOT super mom and I do not have all the answers. What I do have is a will power that is sometimes too strong for my own good. When I set my mind to do something, it is getting done.
So when I started getting serious about my fitness goals, nothing….not even being a mom of 3 kids with 3 crazy schedules was going become an excuse in reaching my goals. In fact, those 3 kiddos quickly started becoming the very reason I was working out, not my stumbling block.
I can more than empathize with those parents wearing a multitude of hats in one day, juggling a full time job, being a wife (of a firefighter at that) and being so tired you’re not quite sure what day it is. I have been there, and I am still there.
In all of the chaos, I still have fitness goals. I schedule my workouts and I don’t compromise. Sure, sometimes I have to be flexible and adjust my workout schedule around ball games and school activities but I still make it happen. I chose to not cancel on myself because I know when I take 1 hour and hit the gym, 5-6 times a week, I can better serve my family. Trust me, my kids don’t miss me for that hour. In fact, they are often working out right next to me! I cannot be a good wife and mom, when I am running on fumes. Working out recenters my mind and pumps up my endorphins. Heard of happy wife, happy life? Mmmm Hmmm, it’s up to you dear, to create that happiness within yourself.
While the gym is great for me physically and mentally, I’ll be honest, my greatest motivation for pursuing fitness is for family. My kids are my motivation, because childhood obesity is on the rise. I don’t have to give you a statistic to prove this. I mean, 79% of statistics are made up any way. Just look around!! Everywhere you turn, kids are moving less and eating more. Netflix and Fortnite are trumping bike rides and outside play.
If I am working out. If I am outside playing; running, riding my bike, walking the dog. If I am fueling my body well. If I am making healthy choices then maybe, just maybe I am instilling healthy values into my children and they will follow in mom’s footsteps.
Direct your children onto the right path and when they are older, they will not leave it. Proverbs 22:6
My prayer is for them to develop a healthy relationship with food and their body!
I didn’t grow up viewing my body as healthy. In fact, I hated it. I carried “baby fat” into high school. Okay, I don’t know if it was baby fat, but in an effort to look like the other size 00 girls, I would skip meals….for days. I would cry if I ate. I always felt like I was being judged when I did eat, and I would often eat in secret. I was “dieting” by the time I was 13 years old. This mental abuse I put myself through, carried well into my adulthood. I eventually overcame these lies, but I am not ignorant to think my own children will not be susceptible to the same lies. Afterall, we live in a society saturated with vanity! Society says we must workout to look “sexy”; to have 6-pack abs and Beyonce booties.
That’s all crap. Every bit of it. Jesus didn’t die for my mind, body and soul so that I could chase after the surface level garbage of this world. He died so that we might live.
He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
2 Cor 5:15
It’s time to live! My children are my motivator. I pray I am modeling a healthy lifestyle worth imitating. Never would I want my kids to see a woman that abuses her mind and body by trying to outwork a bad diet or directly correlating my self worth to the number on the scale.
I don’t know what obstacles are standing in the way of you and a healthy lifestyle, but if you think it is your kids, please think again. Yikes, did I say that? Yeah… I said it. Your children should be your #1 motivator, not your #1 excuse. Those little eyes are looking at you and they will do whatever you do. Live a life worthy of imitation.
I am strong, I am able.
….and you are too.