Disclaimer: These are my thoughts. As they are. No rhyme or reason to their order.
It’s been quite the journey.
Like most things in life, fitness is a journey and should always be considered one. A journey does not include straight paths. There are highs and lows…all the time. Sometimes expected, most times unexpected. It’s incredibly important to build a foundation so that we are able to handle, to the best of our abilities, the unexpected moments. This includes surrounding yourself with a circle of friends who hold you accountable to your goals but also lend a shoulder when it’s just a crappy week and you’ve made no progress and you just need a trip to the ice cream shop to settle all your feelings.
This may come as a surprise, but bands can make her dance but likely won’t add any muscles to your legs.
Monique
How did I get here?
I started really loving working out right after college. I loved feeling strong. I loved the energy it gave me for the rest of my day. However, looking back, I had no idea what I was doing! Not until I hired a personal trainer. I paid about $3k for a year of training, and it was the best thing I have ever done. That one year of training helped me build the foundation of wanting to learn more. To make sure my technique was on point. To push myself outside of my comfort zone. From there, I wanted to find programs that would help me grow. At this point, this was the beginning of social media fitness influencers infiltrating our feeds. I started following all of the women who I thought were inspiring. It turns out most of them either made me extremely self conscious and/or were not authentic in their training styles. They had the big butts and abs, but yet were doing banded work in the right angles to grow their following. This may come as a surprise, but bands can make her dance but likely won’t add any muscles to your legs.
I wasn’t self-conscious until after I had my son. Oof…the snapback culture was prevalent and STILL is. Moms were expected to get fit as fast as possible. Easy right? I could go on and on about this but what I want any Mama who has made it this far to take from my post is to be kind to yourself. Give yourself as much patience and grace as you give your little one. Take the time to get to enjoy that first year with your baby. There is so much growth there and the weights and weight can wait.
Subtract the crap and add value to your life.
2020. I unfollowed all social media accounts that caused negative feelings to surface any time I saw a post from them. I needed to be more aware of my mental health in the middle of a pandemic. I encourage you to do the same. If you continually have a negative thought over someone you’re following, let that go. It’s not worth it if the end result isn’t making that moment in your life a happy one.
I now focus on accounts where I can find useful strength training tips and techniques on form. I know my personal goals. And note, all goals should be personal and determined by YOU! Your friends, celebrities, personal trainers should not be telling you what your goals are. When you let outsiders influence who you are, it’s hard to stay grounded. If you are interested in strength training and growing legs/glutes (a passion of mine :-), I’d recommend following @coachmarkcarroll, @laurensimpson, @coach_kassem, @bretcontreras1 and @FitgurlMel. I would even go as far as recommending you buy one of their programs. Mark and Lauren both provide valuable information that has a price tag much lower than a personal trainer. Feel free to follow me on ig (@mofit_626). I’ll be posting a lot more this year and hopefully taking on clients in the second half of 2021.
The Millennial Farmhouse 