Yesterday was Alyssa’s first trip up the 1000 stairs in Ferntree Gully National Park (she did want to go alone with all the other kids from my family reunion, but I had to insist on accompanying her). Anyway – and apologies for the joke attempt, it’s early early early – doing that beautiful outdoor trek for perhaps what was my slowest time ever, brought home an important point for me -

Exercise doesn’t always have to be about smashing yourself. About going hard or going home. And as tough as it is to admit this, it really was very enjoyable just fast walking up the stairs rather than being the crazy person trying to elbow all the Sunday tourists out of the way as they try to better their sprint time. Not that I’ve ever done that, you understand (ok, 7:19 in case you’re wondering, although that was many moons ago!)

The funny thing was, as much as I feel generally awesome when I do punish myself with any sort of extreme workout, yesterday I noticed that I felt pretty damn fantastic as well. At first I couldn’t figure it out. And then I realised – I felt relaxed. As though my soul had been rejuvenated. And I had to wonder why I don’t make more of an effort to enjoy outdoor activity in this beautiful city. It’s probably something I’ll naturally do more of as she gets older, but in the meantime it wouldn’t hurt to remember that being in great shape does not have to begin and end at the gym with an 85% max HR.

And it’s occurred to me that the same lesson could be applied to life. I mean how often do you rush through the days, weeks, months, eyes not really on the prize, but instead focused on getting to the next thing on your list, or on feeling some sense of success based around accomplishment, or – worse – around busyness and not even necessarily productivity? I recently wrote a post about this over at Dumb Little Man, and the focus was on letting go of the rush and the must-do’s and finding ways to introduce joy into your life again. And when exercise is routinely more of a must-do (even if it is a want-to as well), and less about spontaneity and maybe even FUN then maybe it’s time to make a change. Don’t you think?

Body plus baby? Easy!*

Kat

*(We hope)

These are just my thoughts and musings, and they sure as heck make sense to me. I’ll be doing my best to find some research to back up or disprove what I’ve put forth here (and can most likely find both if I look hard enough and for long enough) but feel free to chime in if you know of any relevant science-based studies I’ve missed.

Are you currently on your own ‘body after bump’ journey? I’d love to hear from you. One of my main reasons for starting this blog (aside from keeping myself accountable) was to form a community of like-minded women. Women who refuse to become a dowdy mother figure and instead choose to embrace their new role with the exceptional health and energy that comes from being in control of their body from the inside out. If this is you then make sure you drop me a line in the comments section below!

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