How & Why I Stay Fit & Other Thoughts on Parenthood for #c9attarget

It’s no secret my blog hasn’t been filled with posts lately. We’re all busy, I was busy before I had Olivia and I’m busy now…so what besides having an all consuming baby has changed? Well, my priorities for one.

When I was pregnant there were things I was prepared for and then things I wasn’t prepared for. People always shared their words of wisdom, and I nodded my head. Let’s just say I was cranky towards the end of my pregnancy and I didn’t want to hear whether you thought I was having a boy or girl, how tired I was going to be, or how fast it goes (OMG IT GOES SO FAST!)

I was prepared to be more emotional, completely in love with my baby, tired and have mom hair (check, check, check, check). In my head I would have a perfectly napping baby (which actually 85% of the time I do…night time is another story) and then I would get ALL my work done for the day when she napped. What I wasn’t prepared for was the disaster my house would be and how I would spend naptime to: 1. workout 2. clean up 3. do chores 4. eat/drink/cook for dinner. Down at the bottom of the list is work and even lower is blog.

I’m not apologizing or making excuses…I’m just being honest on how my blog is at the bottom of the barrel of importance. I also sometimes feel like I could blog…or I could sit here in silence for ten minutes. And silence is nice. And wins most of the time.

In the reality that is parenthood, I realized quickly that if I wanted to (get and) stay fit I had to fit my workout in. No excuses. Probably the number one question I get is “what does Liv do when you workout?” Sleep. During Olivia’s morning nap I workout. It’s non-negotiable. This has worked for me since I got clearance to exercise again. Sometimes she wakes up with ten minutes left, sometimes I can shower, get dressed, straighten up and have a second cup of coffee. I never know what I’m going to get. But I do know once I put her down I get moving.

Before I got pregnant, I worked out because I wanted to look good. I always loved exercising because of how it made me feel (endorphins), but I can admit to it also having to do with vanity. I’m not saying that it doesn’t have to do with vanity anymore (let’s be serious I would like my ab muscles to make a reappearance one day in the near future), but there is a larger focus on being healthy. Now I do what I need to do to be healthy. The hours of cardio (that frankly, wasn’t doing my muscles any favors) are gone. I have 45-50 minutes to workout. I get it done and I move onto the next thing in my day.  (P.S. Best Body Bootcamp is perfect for my schedule because the workouts are typically 45-50 minutes.)

Now I do it because I want to be healthy for my family. I want Olivia to have a healthy role model. I want her to see that I exercise and take care of myself. I want her to want to be active…and for me that’s reason enough to exercise mostly everyday (AND to take rest days too!). In the past I have loved exercise a bit too much. I’ve spent too long on cardio machines or doing multiple forms of exercise in one day because I really did love it too much. I’m glad that I got over that years ago because I certainly don’t have time for that now AND it’s not healthy. And I certainly wouldn’t want my children to see and think they needed to emulate that behavior.

This had been a nice, long post on my thoughts of lately. Why do you exercise? To look good? For your family? I would love to hear! 

*Edited to Add: Disclaimer: Target asked me to be a part of their series of helping to inspire people to get healthy. This post fit in with their writing prompt, so this will be a part of their c9 series. I always want to be transparent with you, so this post is sponsored by Target. I was compensated for this post. 

Tagged as: baby, bestbodybootcamp, Exercise, Fitness, Motivation, newmom