Insanity: Yes I am

I am an athlete. I have always been an athlete.

But following Hannah's birth, I had to wonder: Will I always be one?

During Sidge and Abigail's pregnancies, I stayed in shape. I kept my body healthy.

But Hannah's pregnancy spun me for a loop. I was so incredibly sick -- and ultimately so incredibly depressed -- that I was physically unable to exercise. 

At all.

I couldn't walk up and down stairs without dry heaving. 

Seriously.

As a result, my body post-baby was shot. I honestly finally understood what people mean about their core. I never really understood what a core was because I always had one.

Not any more.

I realized: you can't do high knees without a core. You can't even get up and down off the floor (easily or gracefully) without one either.

I spent from my pre-teen years until my twenties being physically pushed and basically forced to stay in shape. I had known nothing but being in shape.

No more.

For six months following Hannah's birth, I took things easy. Honestly, I had spent so many months unable to eat anything, that I decided to eat everything in sight. 

The result was ten stubborn post-baby pounds. Nothing terrible, but something I knew I wanted to get rid of.

Only, I didn't want to do the work to get rid of them.

I had myriads of excuses. And truthfully, they were good ones. I had four small kids. I could no longer exercise with them by throwing them in my jogger. It rains a lot here. My windows of time, and therefore my windows of options, were slight.

Enter a gal here on Base. She was organizing a Facebook "Motivational" group to help woman get in shape.

We had dinner in a mutual group one evening. She mentioned the group. I got excited.

I joined.

I decided to do Insanity since my husband had that on his computer already. I took the initial fit test, and while you don't get a grade, there was no doubt that I couldn't have earned above a D. I was shocked how utterly out-of-shape I was.

That was only two weeks ago.

Today, I repeated the fit test and my scores went up on every single exercise.

I have lost about 3 pounds, and while I haven't remeasured, I imagine I have lost some inches centimeters in some places too.

While I am not "dieting", I am trying to watch what I eat. The "motivational" group is focusing on a different food group each week and offering tips and suggestions of how to improve our food choices.

I want to encourage anyone out there who is thinking about getting in shape that YOU CAN DO IT. If I am managing it with four kids five and under, trust me YOU CAN TOO. You just have to decide that you want to get it done.

It doesn't have to be big. Start small. Start with just 10 or 15 minutes a day and trying to cut down on snacking. Little steps will make big differences.

Good luck!