What’s your fitness goals? The question itself makes me cringe nowadays. Not because I’m unfit and not because I don’t like to exercise…. Because I do. I exercise regular, my mind and my mouth. Just kidding, Physically too. But once upon a time when I would be posed with this question, and I was, It would be from the gym instructor propped up against a stack of dumbbells. Everytime the gym had a special offer I’d be there like a flash, only for it to have worn off around 4-6 weeks in. In the long run the only pounds I’d lose were from my bank balance because I had signed up to a 12 month gym contract. Silly Kim.
This desire to go to the gym, no matter how much I would try to convince myself otherwise, was fuelled by the want of ‘looking good’ I could roll off my tongue all the ‘I’m doing it for myself’ reasons until I’d be blue in the face if I wanted to, however that was not the case. Every single thing about it was to keep up with the Kardashians so to speak. Ok well not them particularly, but it was all in vain. I wanted to look good in a bikini. I wanted to get into skinny jeans, I wanted to have a figure for ‘THAT’ dress. But it was always short lived. Never lasted long. I never looked like how I wanted to in the bikini, I never quite had a full day where I didn’t have to undo the top button of my jeans and I still put Spanx underneath the dresses.
And then you know on top of all that keeping up to looking good. You know what added the extra pressure? Motherhood. I thought maybe motherhood would be a release. That I would enjoy my body like I was meant to? But no, after all that miraculous stuff it just did, I started to compare myself to other mothers. The ones who didn’t get a stretch mark. The ones that worked out everyday, even the ones who wore make up through the whole of labour. I thought I’d done it wrong. So my fitness goals yet again were based on outside factors. As in, everyone else’s perception rather than my own.
The reason That I wanted to do this post here on mummy’s bubble, because I want other mothers to know this is not sustainable fitness. Fitness should not be about society standards or looking good in a crowd. Fitness, health, wellbeing and mindset should be all about what your body can do as a human being. Whether you have or haven’t carried a baby, our bodies are miracles and they need to be praised more rather than scrutinized.
So I ask you, please don’t beat yourself up when the scale isn’t telling you what you would like. Accept that your heart beats and your lungs breath in the air. Instead of aiming for a lower dress size, aim to beat your own time at walking to the shop. When someone asks you your fitness goals, let your answer be ‘to outdo myself’
REMEMBER OUR BODIES ARE AMAZING!
Catch up next time on Life with Kim and remember to tag us in @mummysbubble and @kewellbeing.
By Kim Whitworth
Images by Pixabay