How Fitness Changed my Life

I want to take a break in this chaos of moving to write how much fitness has changed my life. And no this isn’t just going to be about the fact that I partnered with Bodi and their programs. This is going to be about how getting into fitness changed my identity as a mother.

My Lazy Era

I was NEVER a gym person. I didn’t work out; I didn’t play sports and I had no interest in ever stepping foot in a gym. Growing up I did Irish Step Dancing, which is absolutely a workout. But after high school I dropped that and all through college and vet school I did…. Nothing. Miraculously I stayed relatively healthy and in shape. Probably that super broke starving vet student diet I was on.

Even if my friends were going to the gym, I wanted nothing to do with it. I started running when I joined the Army and I HATED it. Absolutely hated it. Still do. It just feels like 20 minutes of straight torture to me. No thank you.

I did have a brief stint after I lost my heart dog of doing the machines at a planet fitness and mostly walking on a treadmill but I lost way too much weight and then I got pregnant with my first and quickly dropped that habit.

I suffered through PT but for the most part I would just prep for a PT test about a month or so before test day. Going to a deployable unit was the most physical fitness I had ever participated in in my entire life.

After each of my pregnancies I did walk a lot. It was a way to get out of the house and kill an hour with a baby. After my third baby during Covid I walked every single day. Strapped the baby to my chest, put the other two in a double stroller and we did about 3 miles every single day. A lot of times I drank a Mike’s Hard Lemonade while walking. It’s all about balance, right?

The impending change to a new PT test, the ACFT, scared me. I have never been super athletic and there was a lot on this test that I didn’t know if I could ever do. We had moved to Arizona and there was no group PT and I was still supposed to take this test. So in February, 1 year after my third kid, I joined a gym.

And this is where it changed my life. I worked it into my day so I would leave lab a little early and go straight to the gym. I felt justified because I’m in the Army and an hour of PT is part of our work day. But it very quickly became more than just for the Army. It became a part of me.

My Gym-rat Era

The stress and mental energy of grad school and preparing for a comprehensive exam in pharmacology with NO coursework… I quite literally taught myself EVERYTHING from textbooks and papers… the gym was my separation between work and home. I realized it was giving me mental clarity, and removing some of the stress and anxiety from exam prep and learning so much in the lab. By the time I got home from the gym I wasn’t as worked up and I could just relax and be a mom. Plus, the endorphins. I came home in a much better mood on gym days.

More than that it was giving me an identity again. When you become a mom you don’t necessarily have to give everything up but your hobbies change. You don’t always have a babysitter so you can’t do EVERYTHING you used to. I don’t mind- I have my whole life to do those things, but I missed having a life outside of work and motherhood.

Also, mom guilt is real and it hits me hard. The more babies I have the worse it gets. Probably because my attention is already so divided between them its hard to justify leaving them. But the gym was one thing I COULD justify. I was bettering myself. I was getting healthier and stronger, I had more energy and better moods, I had more patience. All of that made it easier to be with them and play with them. It gave me the energy to take them camping every month and. I didn’t yell as much. It gave me clarity on my neurodivergent daughter (as much as one can have with raising a neurodivergent kid). I didn’t feel mom guilt for gym time.

So it became my hobby. Next thing I knew I was researching work outs and watching gym tik tok videos constantly. I was challenging myself more and more. And somehow, I had the confidence to step WAY out of my comfort zone and make a friend. I have NEVER met someone off the internet before and next thing I knew we were working out 3-4 days a week together. And not just machines – real workouts with bench press and squat racks and all. We weren’t afraid to try. Chatting about everything- husbands, kids, work drama, family drama. We had nicknames for everyone in the gym, we sent each other tik tok videos and we pushed each other every day. Next thing you knew we were at our kid’s birthday parties and picking stuff up for each other just because it made us think of them. How cool was this- now I had a hobby outside of my home, that made me healthier and happier AND I had an AMAZING life long friendship because of it.

My Baby Era

There are seasons of life. I had never felt more in shape and healthy physically and mentally before in my life. I got pregnant with number 4 and spent my whole pregnancy in the gym because that schedule still worked for me. When I had him, and I couldn’t be apart from him, I went walking every day in the beautiful Arizona winter weather and climbed HARD mountains once a week with my mom, my son strapped to my chest. I took up yoga from youtube. I missed the gym but I was still active.

This was the point where I joined Bodi. I was seeking a more well-rounded fitness and enjoying everything I explored. I actually combined it with gym workouts and often would do a shorter Bodi program at the end of my weight lifting.

My 5^th pregnancy plus my 1 year old and writing my thesis had me so exhausted and drained each day that I prioritized sleep over exercise. And that is okay. That is what I needed during that time. But now she is here and I am so excited to have my body be my own again and the freedom to move it how I want. My fitness continues to change with me. With temperatures well over 100, 2 under 2 and the impending move the gym is not an option for me right now. And that is also Okay. I’ve embraced the at home workouts and I am giving them my all and I feel just as good after them as I did at the gym. Just as successful, just as challenged, and just as much mental clarity.

The point of all this is not to get you to join a gym or join Bodi or sell you anything. I don’t care about any of that. I want to encourage you to explore. To find SOMETHING that you can do outside of motherhood that makes you feel as good as I do. Something that gives you mental clarity. Something that brings you joy. Something that makes you feel strong and capable and powerful. Something that gives you the patience and the energy to truly enjoy your children- and gives you the energy to ‘balance’ it all. Something that fills you with a passion that makes you research it in your spare time. And something you can do without ANY mom guilt.

And if you have that something, or you want to talk about fitness… I definitely want to hear from you!