Evolving Motherhood - Health & Fitness

✅ Find your motivation.

For me, it’s Tumblr. Seeing fit moms, strong women, healthy meals, and people living a healthy lifestyle reminds me that it’s possible for me too—if I’m willing to consistently make the right choices.

✅ Plan your workouts ahead of time.

I follow a simple 3-day split plus at least one bike erg session each week for longevity. I always know what I’m going to do, how I’m going to do it, and roughly how long it will take. Having a plan removes the need to make decisions when I’m already tired.

✅ Choose a consistent time to work out.

For me, it’s right after I put my baby to bed. It’s part of my routine now: baby goes to sleep, I put on my activewear, and I head straight to our home gym.

✅ Accept that you won’t always feel motivated.

In fact, most days you probably won’t. You’ll feel tired, you’ll think you should clean the kitchen first, or you’ll come up with plenty of reasons to skip it. That’s exactly the moment when you have to remind yourself that your health and well-being deserve to be a priority, too.

✅ Just start.

Even if you only do half of your planned workout, it’s still better than doing nothing. Most of the time, you’ll end up doing more than you expected. The hardest part is getting started. Once you’re moving, everything becomes easier. 💪

That’s exactly what I realized over the past two days. Since my husband is on parental leave, my usual routines have changed. Ironically, I found it even harder to fit everything into my day. Suddenly, I felt stressed because I realized I couldn’t do it all.

So I had a choice to make.

Should I stay on the couch with my husband and watch the entire championship game or squeeze in my workout first and miss the first quarter? Should I take a nap while my baby is sleeping or use that time to study instead?

Then I asked myself one simple question: What would my future self be most grateful for? The answer was obvious.

So I chose the workout.

I chose the study session.

And looking back now, I’m so proud that I made those decisions. I’m proud that I’m taking good care of my baby. I’m proud that we’re eating fresh, healthy meals most of the time. I’m proud that I’ve been showing up for my workouts almost every day and getting stronger. And I’m proud that all those short study sessions helped me score really well on another self-made practice test.

None of those things happened because I suddenly felt motivated. They happened because I kept making small decisions that aligned with the person and mother I want to become.

Honestly, that’s one of the best feelings I’ve experienced in a long time. ❤️

Life won’t always give you perfect circumstances. Some days you’ll be tired, busy, overwhelmed, or simply not in the mood. But every time you choose the option that brings you one step closer to your goals, you’re becoming the person your future self will thank you for.

If you need to hear this today: you are far more capable than you think.

Since my hubby is on parental leave now, I was able to enjoy some sunshine on our balcony while sipping tea, having a snack, and just doing random things on my phone. I think it’s the first time I’ve been able to do that since last year 😂 It felt so relaxing 😎

I still need to find a way to fit my study sessions in again because I’ve definitely let that slide a little lately 😬 For now, though, I’m really proud of myself for working out almost every day. I honestly never would have thought I’d be able to do that.

Yesterday, I still wasn’t feeling quite like myself, but somehow I knew I wasn’t actually getting sick. After really listening to my body and checking in with myself, I realized that it was probably stress and overwhelm catching up with me. I knew my husband’s parental leave was about to start, and it almost felt like my body began to shut down a few days beforehand. That has happened to me before when I was stressed at work and knew that a vacation was just around the corner. I guess that’s just how my body and mind work 😂

Once I realized that, I decided to work out. And honestly, pushing some weight helped me release so much stress. Today, I’m already looking forward to my first pull day 💪

I also noticed some changes in my body yesterday. Even though my weight hasn’t changed at all, I can definitely see more muscle definition and overall less fat or softness. My core is starting to look really good again, and I can fit into some of my old pants, which feels so motivating 💪

Today was kind of a slow morning—well, as slow as it can be with an 8-month-old baby 😂 My husband took over with the baby so I could get another 20 minutes of sleep, and he also prepared her first solid meal of the day before heading to work. After going to bed on time, I managed to get seven hours of sleep last night ✅ I still need to work on my sleep routine, though.