Dear Moms, I See You Finding Your New Routine in Motherhood
Before I became a mom, l had no idea how much cognitive energy it could take, just to make a workout happen.
Before I had kids, when a woman told me she didn't have time to work out, part of me thought:
"Just work out with your kid."
"Just get up before they do."
I genuinely didn't understand, what I didn't understand.
Then I became a mom.
Trying to make a 20-minute workout happen while…
Juggling kids
Being a business owner
Planning and preparing meals
Doing the laundry
Getting shitty sleep
Being interrupted
And a million other things, requiring my attention
And I realized: The workout might be simple.
But making the workout happen, is not always simple.
Knowing what to do doesn't magically remove everything that makes doing it difficult.
Time
Energy
Cognitive load
Competing priorities
Kids who suddenly need you, the second you pick up a dumbbell
A plan can make perfect sense on paper, and still be hard as hell to execute, in your actual life.
Motherhood changed the way I take care of myself, too.
Now, if I plan three workouts and only get one in,
I'm much less likely to think:
"What the fuck is wrong with me?"
And much more likely to think:
"Okay. I'll get the next one."
That shift matters.
And it completely changed the way I coach women.
When someone is struggling to follow through, I'm not immediately thinking:
“How do I get her to try harder?”
Instead, I’m curious about:
What's getting in the way?
What is she asking herself to do?
What does she have capacity for, right now?
What could make this easier to execute?
Most women I work with don't need another person telling them what they should be doing.
They've had plenty of that.
They need support figuring out how to take care of themselves, inside the life they're actually living.
Before I became a mom, I really had no idea.
When I had kids, I realized that there is a whole fucking level between knowing how to take care of yourself, and actually being able to make that happen in your life.
I learned this while…
Trying to squeeze in workouts, between work and nap time
Being touched out
Running through the on-going list of things I need to do
Starting a workout, only to be interrupted minutes later
Having time to work out, and lacking the mental encouragement to follow-through
Being a mother didn’t mean I cared less about my health.
Motherhood helped me understand how much skill, support, and flexibility is required to continue caring for yourself, when you have children who need you, too.
My experience in motherhood has given me the real life experience, to empathize with my clients.
It’s not about telling a client to, “Just make working out a priority.”
It’s about helping each individual discover what taking care of their health looks like, in their current season of life.
