My baby girl is 14 months old this week. She brings joy to our life and gives me purpose. She’s a ball of energy that keeps me busy all day. And the older she gets the more challenging it becomes to find balance between motherhood, business and training. I have the box to co-manage with my husband and I coach evenings, but most of my daily schedule revolves around her: her feeding times, nap times, and play times. If anyone thinks being a stay at home mom with a 1 year old is easy please tell me your secret! So basically my training has to fit in with her schedule and with our box’s schedule.
As time passed, somehow training at the box has become nearly impossible. So my only option is to train at home. I’ve got a bar, a kettle bell, a rusty old rower, and a pull-up bar attached to the doorway. When I do get the chance to train at the box I practice my gymnastics and olympic lifts or WOD’s that require me to drop the bar –because I can’t drop weights in our bedroom of course.
At around 9pm or 10pm after baby falls asleep, and after eating a light dinner as pre-workout, I warm-up and train. This was very enjoyable and managable… for a while. I didn’t have to constantly look around and make sure baby wasn’t getting into trouble, I was completely focused. A few weeks pass and my late night training, constant night waking to nurse, and early mornings at 6am where effecting my energy levels and I couldn’t keep up with my program.
I started to feel sorry for myself and let my excuses get the best of me. But if you know my coach, you know he doesn’t go for all this motivational speeches and pity parties. He makes me suck it up and do what I can with the situation I’m in. No excuses. Just put in the work. So…new plan, divide up training to be done through out the day. 10 minutes here, a quick lift there, some burpees during playtime. You get the idea.
Well, I have a thing with routine and wanting to set a timed schedule for everything! I had to give up that obsession because now training is snuck in at random times during the day.
Baby is in a good mood and busy playing…train.
Baby is watching Barney…train.
Baby is taking a nap…train.
Baby is being entertained by her father…train.
So I put all my faith in to my coach’s words and programming (not that I didn’t already before). Slowly, but surely I’m back to getting stronger with my lifts, I’m crushing weaknesses and I’m progressing with skill work.
You can spend all the time in the world trying to find balance or waiting for perfect conditions. Honestly that’s never going to happen, until MAYBE once baby is old enough for school (any mommies out there want to reassure me?). I’m not going to wait that long to follow my dream and to reach my goals in training.
Take care of yourself busy mommies and do what you love, because a healthier, happier you is a healthier, happier family.
No excuses.
Check out some of my previous posts!
Some tips for beginner CrossFitters: Train Smarter
My post-pregnancy CrossFit story: CrossFit, Pregnancy, and Everything That Came After
*title inspired by http://www.noexcusemom.com/
#CrossFitMom 