I Was an Unfit Mother

I know it's been awhile.  So sue me.  I guess I ran out of "funny" for a year and a half.  It happens to the best of 'em, right?  Let's just pretend it didn't happen and jump right back in, shall we…?

I have always been thin.  I am not boasting, it's just a statement of fact.  People find out that I have five children, and I will inevitably hear things like, "Did you adopt all of them?" or "How in the world did you have five children?!"  Note:  Even thin people feel somewhat awkward when people are gawking at them and looking at their abs rather than into their eyes.  At least I do. 

At a jewelry show years ago, my hostess' mother-in-law was in attendance and was a larger, rather gruff woman.  I loved her on the spot.  She towered over me not long after we'd met and boomed out, "'BOUT HOW MUCH DO YOU WEIGH?"  I mumbled a number and listened patiently as she informed me that I needed to have my cholesterol checked, that her daughter was thin like me and she had high cholesterol.  She was very convincing and scary, and I did have my cholesterol checked after that.  (Wouldn't you?)

As I said, I have always been thin (other than when I was 25 months pregnant with each of my children,) but I have never, I repeat, NEVER been fit.  Let me tell you, there is a huge difference.  I never had much use for exercise unless I was trying to get back into normal clothes after having given birth.  I, like most people, would do my time on the treadmill, then after a few weeks or months lose my motivation and go back to just dusting the treadmill from time to time. 

It was also unusual for me to eat well, at least for long periods of time.  I'd do okay for a month, then go back to standing at the counter eating cookies for lunch.  I remember eating out with a  friend of mine and asking her if she was getting dessert.  She said, "Ugh.  No!  I've had dessert for the past three nights!"  I laughed out loud and told her that I ate dessert EVERY day, sometimes in the afternoon, too!  (I may have left out that I would have dessert for breakfast sometimes.)

Back in February of this year, I took a good look at what was happening to my 35-year old body and decided that the warranty was beginning to run out.  I was eating like a child who has no adult supervision and doing absolutely nothing to take care of myself.  I could just feel the decline.  I knew that if I didn't make some major changes and if I waited until after age 40, it would be a lot harder to make the changes I needed to make.  (40 isn't old, so if you're over 40 and just got offended, please don't send me a nasty message.  Everybody knows that things change when you hit 40, and I'm almost there.)

So, where to begin?  I knew that as a homeschooling mother-of-five, there was no chance I would be able to start working out during normal daytime hours.  Major changes sometimes take major sacrifice, so I started getting up at 5:00am to spend some time on the treadmill.  I learned very quickly that I love a good runner's high, so it was no problem to begin my day that early.  I also was working with some light hand weights.  After a few weeks I was starting to see some small results.  I was losing inches, and if the light was juuuuuust right and if you squinted really hard, you could see the slightest definition forming in my arms.

I don't know when it happened exactly, but at some point I decided that I wanted more physical challenge in my life than balancing a toddler on one hip and a laundry basket on the other.  The problem was, I didn't have the first clue how to get it.  Then I remembered that our good friend, Brian, had done P90X.  Summoning my courage and setting aside my pride, I asked him if I could borrow it and waited for him to laugh in my face.  He didn't laugh at all, at least in front of me, and he brought it to me the following Sunday. 

I was a nervous wreck!  I had heard so many things about the program, not the least of which was that it was a form of torture that the government was considering using with prisoners of war.  I was shaking my head at myself:  What are you thinking?!  You can do, like, ten girl-push-ups on a good day.  This is for people who have actual muscles, not mothers who look like 12-year-old boys.  You know you're gonna die, right?

I was shaking a little when I hit "Play" on Day 1.  As I watched these incredibly muscular people cranking out wide-front pull-ups and dive-bomber push-ups, (I believe I said out loud more than once, "Oh, yeah, whatever") all I could think of was surviving to the end of the workout.  (But then I had to do the 16-minute "Ab Ripper X" routine.  I can't talk about that without crying, so we'll just say that it is a miracle that I didn't throw up all over the carpet during that fiasco.)  The next day it hurt to wash my hands.  On Day 2 I did the Plyometrics routine and was ready to quit.  Greg convinced me to get through the first week of workouts.  If I could do that, he said, then I could get through the whole 90 days.  By the end of week one I was so sore that I was fighting tears as I attempted to walk down the hall.

If I could go back to the middle of April, I would have been documenting this whole journey along the way.  What an adventure it turned out to be for me!!  I ended up LOVING P90X.  I LOVED it.  I loved working out for at least an hour every morning.  Yes, even at 5:00am!  I loved watching the progress I made as I got stronger and more importantly, healthier.  I finished the 90-day program without missing a workout.  I was icing body parts I hadn't known existed, and it was totally worth it. 

It is now mid-September and I am more than halfway through P90X Plus. There are still days when I am working out and trying to figure out which of my children is going to discover me collapsed on the basement floor, but I love every minute of it.  This December I will receive P90X2 and I am absolutely giddy about it!  They do push-ups with their hands and feet balancing on medicine balls!!  I'm trying to decide which of my arms is going to slide off of a medicine ball first and get broken.  I am so excited!

The best part of all of this has been having the opportunity to become a cheerleader for my friends who are wanting to make some of the same changes in their own lives.  Ladies who are tired of being tired, and want to do a better job of taking care of themselves.  The Bible tells us that we are to do just that. It's so much more than looking good in your favorite jeans, people!  I want to honor the Lord by taking care of the body He has given me.  I only get one chance.  And I want to be here to watch my children grow up!  There is an epidemic in this country, and I want to help turn the tide. 

If you are looking for help in this area, please, PLEASE let me know!  I have learned to love fitness so much that I decided to become a BeachBody Coach so that I can do a more thorough job of assisting people in their journey toward a healthier lifestyle.  (Don't' worry, I'm still your go-to girl for jewelry.:)  Get up and get moving, people.  You will feel so much better!!!!!