Friday, March 27, 2015

Little steps, taken consistently, will take you far

Working out when you have small kids at home can be hard. If you're like me, you never have much time for yourself. Of course you could lock yourself in a room for some quiet meditation, but then you'd be leaving the kids free range of the house, and, as all parents know, that can be a disaster (or tragedy) waiting to happen.
So I usually pull out my yoga mat in the middle of the living room while the kids are playing or watching T.V. and try to get in at least a few sun salutations, some diastasis recti exercises, and some poses from the Instagram challenges...key word: TRY. As soon as that yoga mat comes down my two year old comes racing over, making circles around me Bobby's World style. *Sorry kid, I need this mat.*
Sometimes I can use his help, though. Little kids come in handy when you're trying to stretch; a little extra weight can be the difference between being perpetually stuck at a 30 degree angle and actually touching your toes. So be sure to request their assistance as needed.
My kiddos like to make a game out of me exercising and run past my legs as I do some scissors or leg lifts, or wriggle their way under me as I do downward dog.
But there are some positions/routines/flows which I just can't do with them on top of me.
So as much as I'd like to spend a good hour stretching and working out, working on poses and breathing and really getting deep into some stretches, and seeing daily progress, I just don't have that kind of time or patience to dedicate to it with two Mamma's Boys lingering.
But I've been doing yoga for about a year now and looking back at pictures and videos I can see the difference. Hell, I can FEEL the difference, and I haven't even dedicated that much time to it (though I have been consistent). I am so pleasantly surprised by some of the progress and when both my boys are in school I look forward to dedicating some more time to yoga and seeing/feeling bigger changes.
If you've ever seen someone doing a handstand and thought "Damn, I'd love to do that" followed by "I'll never be able to do that", start now! Little by little, but consistently, work on your stretches, work on your upper body strength, work on whatever it is you want to achieve, and a few months  ... a year ... five years down the road, instead of having done nothing to work towards that goal and still not being able to do a handstand (or whatever it is you want to do), you can look back at your progress and be amazed (even if you still can't fully do that handstand).



A year ago I did not think it was even possible for me to support my weight on my forearms.
This was a definite breakthrough.
I never had much upper body strength, so this right here is something I never thought I could do.
Let alone this! I still can't hold it very long, but #babysteps