How Beachbody Has Changed my Life in just 30 Days

This pretty much sums up life in the first few weeks of motherhood!  

Motherhood is rough.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s been the best 4 months of my life (13 if you include pregnancy…because that was awesome as well!)  I think I’ve said it over and over that I was made to be a mom, it feels natural to me.  But damn, it is hard!  It has been harder on me than I ever expected and I’m not just talking about the sleepless nights.  It’s the amount of selflessness involved.  I consider myself a selfish person, I like doing what I want, when I want so to flip a switch overnight and start giving 100% of myself to this little person has been emotionally and mentally draining.  I’ve been working full-time on developing this new part, this “mom-role” and I miss the other parts of me.  Before returning to work at 3.5 months I had no more than 20 hours separate from my little dude.  I had been a mom for 2,520 hours and only had 20 hours of “me-time”.  I miss being more than just a mom and I’m ready to start living a balanced, full-life.  I need to fill up my cup, so that there’s something to pour from!

I’m lucky enough that I’m typically driven by intrinsic motivation.  I get up and go for my run because it makes me feel good and that’s enough to motivate me to get out of bed at 5 AM.  I’ve also spent the past couple of years working with a running coach, Magdalena Donahue from Bun on the Run who has helped me immensely and on those days that my intrinsic motivation maybe wasn’t quite enough knowing that someone else would know I skipped a workout was that extra kick in the butt I needed to get out the door.  She’s also pushed me and made me a better runner, I’ve run farther and faster than I believed I could because I had to report my workouts at the end of the week and if I slacked she’d know.  Realizing how much of an impact this accountability has had on me making forward progress in my running led me to wonder if some sort of accountability could help me get back into a postpartum groove

After CRUSHING my goals in the Chicago Rock n' Roll 10K at 20 weeks pregnant

As a new mom I’ve spent the past few months aimlessly wandering through my days in a sleep-deprived haze, eating whatever was convenient (i.e. frozen meals and snacks) and fitting in maybe ten minutes of workout a day because that’s all I could find time/energy for has been unpleasant to say the least.  It’s just not who I was before baby and it’s really not who I want to be as a mom.  I want to be healthy and model a healthy lifestyle for my children.  I want them to see what hard-work, dedication, and sacrifice can bring.  And I’ve been struggling to be that example, even though he's young it's never too early to start showing him what mom can do!  I decided that I needed accountability for more than just my running.  And I found it through someone who was an old friend and teammate of mine and is now crushing it as a Beachbody coach.

Both of us LOVE our daily Shakeology!  AKA Chocolate Salad!

Since joining Beachbody I’ve noticed improvements in three areas of life: diet, fitness, and mindset.  My diet has a LONG ways to go before it’s perfect.  I'd call my diet habits 'good not great'.  But just being asked every day to assess my nutrition has motivated me to make smarter choices.  Skipping breakfast has been replaced with a nutrient, dense Shakeology and homemade Superhero Muffin.  Frozen meals for lunch have been replaced with Grilled Chicken and Quinoa Salads (prepped on Sunday for the week ahead), and afternoon snacks of Mozzarella Sticks have been replaced with apples and nut mix.  After about a month of making 1-2 small changes a week I’m noticing an increase in my energy, the ability to handle my emotions better, and I’m down to within 1-2 pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight with a goal of losing another 5-10. 

Sorry Friends!  This guy is my favorite workout partner!

My fitness jourey is a bit of a different story.  I didn’t really enjoy the benefits immediately.  I’d started to get back into running and had some pelvic floor rehab and postpartum friendly workouts that I’d been doing religiously.  I really didn’t need the accountability on this front, UNTIL I threw my back out.  This was hard on me for so many reasons.  I could barely lift Brooks, I couldn’t get on the floor to play with him, Rob had to leave work early so I could make doctors’ appointments.  On top of taking a forced break from running, I also felt like I was failing my family.  This would’ve been a perfect opportunity for me to start wallowing in self-pity and become a little bit depressed about this set back.  Normally I’d go swim with friends but with a newborn and a husband who goes to work at 6:30 AM there really wasn’t time to make that happen so even my injury-outlet had disappeared.  BUT…because I was part of this accountability group I felt like I owed it to my coach and the other challengers to show up every day.  So I kept walking, I religiously foam-rolled, I did my 3 sets of quarter crunches and bird-dogs.  I recorded those as my workouts and checked the “I did my workout” box every day.  And you know what?  I saw huge improvements.  In less than a week I was able to function like I needed to.  And in two weeks I was ready to add in more strenuous exercise so I looked over the Beachbody On Demand program that I’d purchased and discovered PiYo.  I’ve been doing PiYo for about a week and a half now and my mobility has improved ten-fold, I have zero pain in my back.  I can also tell I’m working on all those muscles that are so important to supporting me while I run and I feel ready to get back on the roads and start racking up the miles.  I felt stupid reporting that my workout was ten minutes of foam rolling and a mile walk, but that accountability kept me on track to do my rehab and heal myself quicker than I probably would have without having to be accountable.  I can tell that I’m on track to make my postpartum body my best body!

Third is my outlook on life, my mindset.  I didn’t know this when I’d signed up but a huge part of Beachbody is personal development.  In my challenge group we were reading “50 Ways to Yay” which has exercises to do at the end of each chapter.  These exercises reminded me of everything good I had in life and helped me to stay focused on making small changes to become the best version of myself.  At a time in life when I’m mentally drained, being injured, not doing what I want, going back to work focusing on personal development really helped me to keep my head above water and move forward.  You can have self-pity and wallow for a minute, but it gets you nowhere in the long run and it turns out I really needed this in life.

And finally, I would be omitting facts if I didn’t mention the financial benefits.  I’ve seen several of my friends on Facebook gain the ability to design the life they want because of this opportunity.  Whether that life is travel, better educational opportunities for kids, the ability to work less or stay at home or pay down debt.  I’m excited to be entering a company that can provide me with the financial freedom to design the life I want to live, the life I LOVE to live!  I don’t know exactly how I’ll design my life…but I know that in time it’s going to be amazing!

It’s for these reasons: the accountability, the improved diet, the delicious SHAKEOLOGY!, the positivity and support, the potential financial earnings that I’ve decided to become a Beachbody coach.  I’ve always wanted to use my passion for fitness to help others but there were no opportunities that fit into my life or made sense to me.  After experiencing Beachbody as a challenger and feeling the positive impact it had on my life over such a short period of time I know that this is the right place for me and that this is the right time to share my journey.  I hope that this speaks to some people out there and lets them know that they’re not alone in whatever daily struggles they face.  We all have mountains to climb, but it’s so much easier to make it to the top when you’re goals are supported by friends!  I hope to be that friend, that women, that mom who can help lift others up to live the life they want!  If you have questions about any of this or just want to reach out and share your own story please don’t hesitate to contact me, I’d love to talk and get to know you.

What has motivated you to move forward in the difficult times?