I don’t know about you all, but as a busy mom, partner and worker-bee I’ve had my own challenge keeping fitness in my routine this year and I cannot believe the year is halfway gone.
I initially committed to getting at least 15 minutes of exercise a day, psyching myself out that once at fifteen minutes I would likely go more. In fact, that was the case. That is until I took a nasty fall and promptly cracked a rib.
Yes. Everything you have heard about pain from fractured ribs is true. It was around four weeks until I could do short elliptical bursts– running was out of the question.
Then, within a short couple of weeks after healing from the ribs and getting back into a regime I sprained my ankle during the second week of training for a half marathon I had signed up to complete this August; it would have been my second.
Yes. Everything you have heard about sprains being as bad as breaks to recover from is true. How can I attest to this fact? Sadly, I’ll admit that I had broken the other ankle 5 years ago when my youngest was a mere six weeks old. The MD’s blamed it on my ligaments still being stretchy from the hormones of pregnancy.
Throw in a new venture which has been consuming about eighty hours a week of my time in the past few months and a few other hurdles, and oh yes, the fact that we are the nursery rhyme with the line, “she had so many children she didn’t know what to do . . .” and yes, my exercise routine has been challenged.
But I am not giving up. My ankle remains puffy and sore so I’ve only played with running a few times to back down and get back on the elliptical, stationary bike and our tandem. I’m forcing myself to go to the gym and throw in some weights whether my ankle is puffed and sore or not.
It is so important for me, and many others based on conversations I have had, to fight that “all or nothing” thinking: Either I have to be capable of doing my full blown routine– or forget it, I’m injured (or busy or have too many things on my plate) and have to take a total break.
When it comes to financial health we are told to pay ourselves first. That is the exactly the mindset I must keep foremost in my mind no matter what is going on with myself and those around me. The phrase should be: If Momma ain’t happy and healthy, nobody’s happy.
This has been a year of side swipes and road blocks and the fact that I am still exercising at all at this point in the year after such challenge shows personal growth.
Maybe the phrase that gets me through the day and my busy life “expect the unexpected” needs to be my mantra with exercise as well.
Maybe this year is teaching me to always have a back up plan in place. Even if it is thumb exercises– I can always find a part of my body to move; I just need to make me a priority.
