In honor of tonight’s season premiere of Work Out, this is an open thread for your thoughts on fitness and motherhood, such as:
- Has motherhood affected your fitness level, either because you were pregnant or because of changed eating habits or lifestyle?
- If one partner carried your child(ren) and the other didn’t, were there any resentments about fitness or body image? Do you think lesbian moms handle this better or worse than straight couples, or about the same?
- What, if anything, motivates you to stay in shape?
- Any good books on maternity exercises you’d recommend?
- Any ideas for keeping fit post-children?
- Any ideas for keeping your children fit, at any age?
- Any observations about fitness, health, and society?
For myself, the primary impact parenting has made on my fitness is to restrict the time I have for it. I did structured sports of one type or another for about 20 years before I became a parent. (I was a varsity fencer in college, and competitive or serious about several sports after that, including taekwondo, rock climbing, and yoga.) My partner and I are willing to give each other nights out to continue such activitites, but I don’t feel right going out as often as I once did. In the past few months, I haven’t been able to go out on my own at all, since my partner’s been in another state at her new job during the week. (This will change in a few weeks when we close on our new house.) Right now, I’m just about managing to get in a cardio or weight session during my son’s increasingly short naps.
I’m hoping that as my son gets older, we’ll be able to do more athletic activities together, whether this means helping him practice for a team he’s on or simply taking a family hike. I hope I’ll be able to keep providing him with an example of a healthy, fit lifestyle. I’ve always been motivated to work out when I watch Martina Navratilova, Jackie Warner, or any of the women who compete in the Olympics, WNBA, Grand Slam tennis, or other professional sports. Now, I find I’m motivated by one little guy whose major sporting achievement has been leaping from the sofa to the armchair in a single bound. Citius, altius, fortius, my son. Whereever those legs will take you.
I was a slow-but-sure distance runner before my son arrived. I can’t blame pregnancy for the fact that I stopped training for marathons, since we adopted Jeremy. The challenges of raising an infant and toddler has made it impossible for me to sustain any kind of disciplined running routine. Since I am the primary mom, I am mostly limited to when the sun is up and the weather is good enough to throw him in the jog stroller and when I have had enough sleep the night before and when I have remembered to drink enough water to stay hydrated and….
On the positive side, my upper body strength has improved from schlepping him and all of his things around!
In my web search for other fit moms I came across this post. I’m not a lesbian, but I’m fairly certain that all moms–gay, straight, bi–share the same issues when it comes to balancing motherhood and fitness. I assumed (mistakenly) that because fitness was a priority before kids, fitness would assume the same place in my life after they were born. Having three kids in less than two years set me straight:-) Seriously fitness did rebound, but with lower expectations. My favorite fit mom solutions: I ride my bike on a trainer on the driveway/back porch while kids play; walk while pushing/pulling/hoisting children along; yoga or exercise with a physio ball while kids “exercise” with me on their exercise ball (hippity hop ball per kid required). I think making fitness a priority takes creativity as much as determination. Having goals and motivation help too, so hang in there for those WNBA games!