I love my children dearly. I love them when the fight. I love them when they giggle. I love them when they help me with daily activities. I love them when they make a mess. I love them even when they tell me that I look pregnant in that sweater...............really I do.
Two weeks ago my wonderful, 8-year-old son, Ethan, stood next to me, looked straight at my belly and said, "Your belly looks pregnant in that sweater, Mom." As he stared at my belly and patted it before his statement I knew exactly what he was thinking. Unfortunately, I was thinking it too. I can't deny it, he was right. My belly was looking a bit pregnant. It wasn't though, unless you count pregnant with Christmas delicacies. At least he was sweet enough to blame it on the sweater. I knew better though. It wasn't the sweater. It was the overabundance of food that made it into that belly.
Monday morning my lovely, 9-year-old daughter, Gabriella, walked into the living room as I began my exercise DVD and said, "Mom, why are you doing such a low-intensity workout?" I tried to keep it calm as I answered her, "This is what I need to do right now." It was a bit of a buzz-kill on my mood. I was thrilled that I was exercising at all. Exercise has been almost void in my life lately. I reminded her that I still have a callus on the ball of my left foot that is quite painful and my right knee still hurts too. My kids were then inquisitive. They have seen my do everything to try removing my callus. They were home to see my tears the night that the doctor tried to freeze the callus off of my foot. They knew about the callus. They had no idea that I have also had knee pain for the past couple of months. I had to explain to them that I probably injured my knee by walking funny from the pain of my callus. I explained that exercise is good for my body and I really need to do it right now but I can't do anything too intense or I will injure my body. They seemed to except that explanation and went on with their day.
The funny thing is that after completing two 10-minute beginner workouts that were "low-intensity workouts" I could barely breathe. I definitely need to start with this beginner workout right now. It's a new DVD set that I bought from Weight Watchers. It has several workouts at different levels so I chose to start out slowly. I did two of the 10-minutes beginner workouts on Saturday, two on Monday, two on Tuesday and am getting ready to my two for today. So far I am loving it. It is working me at just the right level, not hurting either of my injuries and getting exercise into my day again. The DVD may say beginner for the workouts that I am choosing but I am feeling it in my body big time. Yesterday my muscles were incredibly sore. I commented on that soreness several times yesterday so when I finally got a chance to do my exercise DVD my oldest son, Jason, said, "Why are you going to exercise when you are so sore?" I truly do love my children. His comment made sense though. All of the comments do because of their brutal honesty. Thankfully, I didn't let his sensibility into my brain because I had a crazy busy morning and it was very tempting to skip my workout. I told him that if I kept exercising every day then eventually my muscles would get strong enough that they wouldn't get sore anymore. I also chose 2 different workouts than I had done the day before so I probably wouldn't be working the exact same sets of muscles. The set I bought has five different beginner workouts.
I'm sore again today but I'm still looking forward to working out and waking up some morning with strong muscles that are used to exercising. As for my children, I look forward to answering their brutally honest questions and comments. They can be motivating if I am willing to hear them the right way. After all, children are a blessing.
Corinna
P.S. Thanks to Christmas money, we were able to get a new computer so all I need to do it carve out the time to blog more often. You should be hearing from me more now.
"He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ask heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren women a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!" -Psalm 113:7-9
Like me, there may be many others who are in your situation, but for different reasons. I've been dealing with the "crud" going around and have not exercised for 10 days. I feel confident that I'll go back as soon as I feel well enough, but have some concerns about the difficulty and the pain. Your plan to get back to it easy and consistently is a good one. I'll try it - soon, I hope! LW
ReplyDeleteI hope you are feeling better and back to your exercise LW.
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