Baby Steps
“Gym?” Her text woke me up as I half way opened my eyes to read it. I was so irritated by it that I pushed my phone away and rolled over. See, the day before was my first time back at the gym since I had my little one and I knew getting back in shape was going to be a process but gush, did I underestimate how upsetting it would be!
I had walked in super excited to be back. Baby was home with mum and it was time for me to get my Makkoy on. Haha. I walked to my favorite cardio machine- the stair master, hopped on it and was ready to go. Pre-pregnancy I did 30 minutes on level 16. The max was 20, so 16 was a nice challenge and an awesome cardio session. I knew my body had been out of commission for a while so I decided to start small: level 10 for 25 minutes. My music was blasting and I was hyped… let’s do this!
Soon after I started, my heart was racing as my body worked hard to keep up with the workout. “Wow, I’ve missed this feeling” I thought to myself as I made a conscious effort to ignore the timer. Before I knew it, I felt like I was going to die and my heart was about jump out of my chest… I looked at the timer and I had barely lasted 3 minutes. 3 minutes?! You’re kidding me! I looked away and tried to distract myself with my music, then tried people watching and even counting my steps. I felt like I was making progress till I glanced back at the timer and only 60 seconds had gone by. Exhausted and Irritated, I hopped off… 4 minutes and I felt like I just ran a marathon. smh
I considered just walking out of the gym, but decided to do some strength training and went for a swim after. It was easy to be discouraged but understanding how your body works is crucial. . Cardio is any exercise that gets your heart rate up for an extended period of time and the more cardio you do, the more you build your stamina. I mean it only made sense; I was so sick the first 3 months of pregnancy that I could barely walk, the next 3 months, I rode my bike a bunch and burned about 150 calories each time (the stair master burned about 400) and then the last 3 months, I worked out whenever I could. So literally, it had been 9 months since I had an intense cardio session. It only takes a few weeks to lose your cardio gains so imagine what 9 months would do.
That morning, I reached back for my phone and responded “Sure, see you soon”. Going in this time, my cardio goal was modest: last 7 minutes on the Stairmaster at level 10. Then the next time: Last 10 minutes. It sounded so mediocre but I was so proud to make it to 10 minutes and I was encouraged to know I would soon be back to my pre-pregnancy stamina and even exceed it. The beauty of fitness is that you will always get better if you just keep at it. .
Remember, you are your only competition and the goal is to always be better than yesterday. If you are just starting your fitness journey, or if you have fallen off the wagon, the most important step is to start now. It will take some time to get where you want to be and that is ok! The good news is the more you work at it, the better and more efficient your body gets to reach your goals. Baby steps… they seem small, but they’ll get you to your goals and even help you exceed it.
