Thursday, March 24, 2011

Selfless vs. Selfish

I've always heard that being a mom is one of the most selfless acts a woman can perform.  As soon as our child is born we want everything for them and we tend to forget about ourselves.  However, there have been times in my eleven years as a mother that I've found myself wanting to be selfish.  I want to watch a good television show without interruption, I want to watch a movie in silence, I want to type on the computer, I want to read a book, I want to write a book and I want to eat a snack or drink something without having to share it with anyone else.  I hide candy in the house just so I don't have to share it!  Yet other times I don't mind dropping everything no matter how much I'm enjoying what I was doing to listen to one of my kids tell me a story about their day or to fix them a snack or to share my snack with them.  Motherhood is definitely a balancing act. 

Recently I've been finding myself getting selfish again.  I have all these goals I want to accomplish but at 3:30 p.m. my day stops completely for my kids.  We've got homework, supper, bath time, and now sports practices and games.  I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish all that I want to accomplish.  However, I constantly tell myself to relax and enjoy the children as much as possibly because they grow so fast and I'll have plenty of time to accomplish my dreams once they are in college. 

Even though I feel selfish I know part of me is still selfless because I'm still making sure they have everything they need and are getting to where they need to be even though I'm getting run down, tired and sick.  I know I need to take care of myself or I'm not going to do much good for them but sometimes in the whirlwind of things a person can forget to slow down.  I'm at that point right now.  I need to slow down for a minute and get healthy because there is no time to be sick.  I really enjoy my young mothers group because you realize that all moms go through very similar feelings and emotions.  We are normal, a lot of us hide candy in the house and a lot of us hide in our house.  We all need a moment of peace and quiet, we all need a moment to ourselves and we all need to remember that it's okay to be selfish once in a while.  It's what gets us through this crazy life of motherhood!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Workout Queen

I will admit I am one of those people that does not motivate easily when it comes to working out.  I can find a million excuses why I don't have time.  I am a busy mom of three children and there just aren't enough hours in the day.  Well this year for my new years resolution I decided that I was going to work out and I intended on sticking to that goal for once.  I bought myself a Gold's Gym workout DVD and thought I'd do it three days a week to get started.  It only took about 30 minutes in the mornings and I loved it.  I told my best friend about it and she too was going to start a workout DVD.  She decided to buy me the same Jillian Michael's DVD she had and if we did it together, at our own homes, on our own time it might motivate us to keep doing it.  It was a six week program and we had to do it five days a week.  We started on the same day and after our work outs we'd call each other or email just to say we did it for the day.  We could compare notes and talk about the exercises we liked and the ones we didn't and it was fun.  It was as if we were holding the other one accountable and we didn't want to let each other down.

We were so proud of ourselves for getting to week five of the DVD and after the next two weeks decided that we were going to both buy the same DVD again and continue this.  So Monday morning I got up bright and early to start week five of our workout and when I pushed play on the DVD player the movie The Other Guys appeared.  My face dropped in disappointment as I realized I must have accidentally sent my Jillian Michael's workout DVD to Netflix!  I have subscribed to Netflix for the last few winters and Friday nights we like to watch a movie and then put it in the mail Saturday morning so we get a second movie by Tuesday.  I remember putting the movie in the Netflix sleeve and dropping it in the mail but I was NOT aware I had picked up the wrong DVD!  Needless to say The Other Guys did not help me get my work out done that day.  I quickly called Netflix and since Jillian Michael's was not in their library of movies they would be sending it back to me but it could take a week or longer.  I put in the old Gold's Gym workout DVD but it wasn't the same.  I'll continue to do that DVD five days a week until I get my Jillian Michael's back and then I'll do two weeks of it to finish it off.  All I know is I want to go back to doing the same DVD on the same schedule as my friend!!  It is crazy how much that motivated me.  I no longer had excuses as to why I couldn't fit my workout in because it became important to me, it became a priority.  I wanted to get it done first thing in the morning and it was a great way to start my day but knowing a friend was doing it also must have been to main motivating factor.  It's almost as if it made working out FUN!

I suggest that if you want to workout but are unmotivated like I was to try this.  Recruit your favorite person or several people, go out and buy the same DVD and get to it!  You might be surprised at how much fun it can be!  Also another tip would be to take the DVD out of the player and put it back in it's case and put it far away from any Netflix or rented movies!