I'm going to start expressing my thoughts on weight, fitness, diet and exercise, trying to raise healthy kids, and i'm sure a whole lot more.
I feel like my journey through health and wellness is always in strife, and just when i think i have things under control something comes along and changes my perspective. I feel like i have always been an athlete. My parents didn't really have the money or the time to sign me up for every sport and league growing up, but somehow i was lucky to have some natural skill. When i'm at the gym and the trainers shout, "take an athletic stance!" i naturally know what that is, while some people look around confused. i have just been really lucky to be coordinated and to actually enjoy being a physically active person. I say lucky because i never played volleyball and then as a freshman in high school my sister told me i needed to go try out so i did. low and behold i made the JV team, and i had no knowledge of the sport. volleyball like most competitive sports there is definitely proper form, there is a sequence of events, there is specific movements, rotations, rules and all sorts of things that make it challenging. I remember i just showed up with some tennis shoes and a t-shirt and then BAM is on the team. I grew to love volleyball and i idolized Gabrielle Reece and had her pictures hanging up all over my room. (ok i still have them hanging up but now they are in the garage)
me then 2007
I am the youngest of 6 kids and i think that it helped that i saw my older siblings on the track and cross country team. and they were really great athletes, they always came in first and their picture seems to always be in the town paper. I also remember going to the local BYU indoor track with my family as a tiny kid and jumping on the high jump mats while my parents walked. Fitness and being strong is just in my roots. My parents are active, especially my dad, he has run several marathons even qualifying for boston, and would still be running if he didn't have horrible unforeseen and tragic health problems (i'll talk about that in another post).
What i'm getting to, is that i have been lucky. i enjoy being phsically active, being competitive, being the star on the court, winning, being challenged, feeling sweat drip down my face, lifting an obscene amount of weight at the gym. I've been lucky because i like all of that. but there are people out there who don't like it. who don't want to go to the track and see how fast they can run. (even if its the slowest i've ever run) they don't want to get a pass at the local gym because that sounds scary and by no means enjoyable. there are people who don't want to play sports because it was never fun, their bodies never got used to the repetitive movements. I feel bad for those people, and that is why i have always wanted to teach fitness classes and to be a personal trainer. to help people that can't help and motivate themselves.
Because of the set backs i have had in my own level of physical active, whether i've chosen to just not push my boundaries any more, or from a medical health stand point of being pregnant and at risk, or due to pain from an auto immune disease, or just simple shin splints. being physically active has its challenges. my sister once told me, "nothing good is ever easy." that is true, having a healthy and strong body isn't easy these days. we no longer work on the farm using our muscles in a daily routine to keep them strong. now i have to pay $80 a month to go to the gym and have someone tell me how to move my body so my muscles don't atrophy. i always laugh about that, how we humans are in a gym trying to keep our bodies moving because outside the gym our lifestyles are so dormant.
having the twins practice hand stands
when i lived in Ghana, Africa a couple years ago my two girl friends and i still tried to run every day, so we could be active and get a great tan! while Adi, sarah and i jogged the local african's would ask, "what are you running from, are you ok?" and we would laugh and say, "oh we are fine, just need to get some exercise." the africans didn't go for a fun little jog, they work hard all day on their farms, basket weaving, raising kids, walking everywhere, fabric making, they do everything with their hands and feet. while we drove around in a car village to village, they walked miles a day. we are, "crazy bruno's" as they would say. because we needed the physical challenge because our everyday life doesn't make us physically active.
Because being active is challenging, i am so grateful that i have a history of being active. so when i find myself still 20lb over weight and a little embarrassed with how i look. instead of giving up i relay on my past to pull me though. i'm grateful that i come from a family who is always doing something active, training for a marathon, a triathlon, the NY masters swim team, walking the dog, farming, building a house, working on the car, planting a tree. my dad has always shown me such a great example of how to be active and to move each day. its in his blood too, as a boy raised on a farm. all his hard work from such a young age is still in his blood and he has taught me that hard labor and sweat is a great thing and i'm now teaching it to my kids!
Be active. be active each day. walk the dog, mow the lawn, do 5 sit ups each night before you hop in bed. be active with your kids. reconnect with your fit self. I have to do this all the time. i am not in great shape right now, i am still 25lbs over weight and it kills me. it kills me because i am trying to get the weight off, i am trying to remember who i am. even though i don't look like the girl who ran a marathon, or blocked a spike in volleyball, i am that girl. and i will be able to do those things again soon. little by little each day i move and i try harder and harder to be more active, i will gradually become closer and closer to that girl. i need to keep moving in the right direction, we all do.
set some goals to be active and to reconnect with YOUR fit self. here are my goals for the next two weeks.
1. do a five minute ab work out each night. (my abs are so weak, if i'm not careful i'm gonna get a back injury because they are so weak)
2. if the weather allows (remember we're in Texas so the weather is still pretty good right now) take the kids for an afternoon walk.
3. stop eating at 7pm, nothing else but water can go in my mouth after 7pm.
4. keep up with my current routine. (gym m/w/f, run t/r/s)
5. never doubt yourself.
me now, with the fam. a work in progress but i'm
moving in the right direction.
we have a tradition to go watch my husband and the local weekend warriors in a turkey bowl at the local high school football stadium. its great! we bring the kids bikes and the baby stroller and we jog around the track while daddy throws touchdowns! being active as a family is the best way to spend a holiday!
