{"id":26505,"date":"2018-11-09T15:22:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T22:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/?p=26505"},"modified":"2023-02-24T10:03:26","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T17:03:26","slug":"moms-motivation-being-active","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/moms-motivation-being-active\/","title":{"rendered":"A Mom\u2019s Motivation to Being Active"},"content":{"rendered":"
I read a great quote the other day from Bridget Miller that said “How I respond as a mother usually has more to do with how I’m FEELING than what my child is DOING”. That really resonated with me because it is so true in 99% of cases in my house! It reminded me that in order to be the best mom I can be, I myself have to be happy and feeling good and one thing that does that for me is working out.<\/p>\n
I feel this way because I have been active my whole life. My parents put me in swim lessons when I was just months old and from there I swam competitively until high school. After that I taught and coached swimming for 3 years, followed by 4 years of coaching gymnastics. My passion for living a healthy lifestyle motivated me to get a Bachelor of Science Degree in Kinesiology (the study of the human body) and once I graduated I moved to Calgary where I got a job in a Recreation department of a large organization. I worked there for six years and during that time got other certifications like my AFLCA and MOC barre. Also during that time, I had two kids, 19 months apart and a husband who kept moving up in his career (aka he got busier and busier!). By the time I got pregnant with my second, I felt like maintaining my active lifestyle was nearly impossible. I had to get creative because I couldn’t leave for 3 hours to go to my favourite yoga class on the other side of the city anymore! I knew I couldn’t be the only one who felt this way, so I decided to share my experiences from over the years and how I apply them now as a busy mom.<\/p>\n
So here it goes!<\/p>\n
Working out. Those two words can mean something totally different to each of us. Some may associate the word with alone time, fun or friendly competition and others many associate the word with intimidating, boring and maybe even hard. Like I mentioned before, it is something that makes me feel good and something I think is fun, but for those of you who feel different it could be from a number of reasons. One being because you assume working out has to be done in a gym and gyms can be intimidating. Heck, I worked in a gym environment for SIX YEARS and I still get intimidated by it. But even more so now that I am a mom and I haven’t been as involved as I once was. “I’m not fit enough”, “I don’t fit in here”, “I wish I looked like her in my outfit”, “Am I doing this right?” and “People are probably watching me thinking that my work out makes no sense” are all thoughts that pop into my head.<\/p>\n
Another reason could be that going to the gym feels like a big time commitment. As a mom I have very little time for myself so any chance I do have to work out, I’d usually rather be relaxing or getting something productive done like cleaning or prepping a meal. Which ties into the last reason, Guilt. There are a million things to do as a mom (add a million more with each extra kid) and it is hard to put yourself first. Sometimes cleaning the kitchen seems like more of a priority then working out. I would feel guilty if I chose the dishes and I would feel guilty if I chose the work out. It feels lose lose. Then there is also the guilt I feel when I leave my husband to ‘fend for himself’. Is he fully capable with the 2 kids? Yes. Does he care that I go? No. But I still can’t help the feeling that I should be there spending time as a family and helping out. Who can relate to that!? ?\u200d\u2640\ufe0f<\/p>\n
To combat these feelings, I have found other ways of working out, I have redefined WHY I work out and I have figured out HOW to work out in my new busy life. I have also changed my language from WORKING OUT to just BEING ACTIVE. To me, changing the term made it feel more achievable and feeling like you can do something is a big part of being successful.<\/p>\n
So now you some ideas of WHAT you can do to be active and something that could work for you, but now I need to tell you WHY it is so important that you do.<\/p>\n
Phew, that was a lot of info! Thanks for sticking with me.<\/p>\n
To wrap up I want to say that being active won’t always come easy and you will hit road blocks. But just remember that there is no end in your fitness journey. It shouldn’t end when you hit a certain weight, or look a certain way or get to a certain age. It is something that you should work on forever. Just always try to remember WHY you are being active and WHY it is important.
So whether this is you taking the first step in your fitness journey, or the 500th, go get em! You DESERVE this.<\/p>\n
? Michelle<\/p>\n
This Guest Blog is written by\u00a0<\/span>Michelle Thompson<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>aka\u00a0<\/span>The YYC Mom<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Michelle is a stay at home mom of 2 who has always been devoted to living a healthy and active lifestyle. Her background has educated her on the importance of healthy living, but once she became a mom that took on a whole new meaning. Now she navigates life with 2 under 2 and shares her experiences and new fun finds with Calgary parents on her blog, The YYC Mom. Through her adventures she has found different ways to be active, she is teaching her kids healthy habits and she is dedicated to always having fun.<\/p>\n Be sure to follow her journey for awesome Mama Tips!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Facebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theYYCmom\/<\/strong><\/p>\n Instagram: @theYYCmom<\/strong><\/p>\n Website: https:\/\/www.<\/strong>theYYCmom.com\/\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I read a great quote the other day from Bridget Miller that said “How I respond as a mother usually has more to do with how I’m FEELING than what my child is DOING”. That really resonated with me because it is so true in 99% of cases in my house! It reminded me that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":26514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[402],"tags":[446,448,449],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26505"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29003,"href":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26505\/revisions\/29003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolutionvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}