"You have to MAKE the time for yourself. Schedule it on your calendar, just make time for YOU!"
I don't know about you, but I've heard this phrase (or something similar) so many times from just about every Workout Guru and Fitness Magazine out there.
They act like it's so easy. Just jot that hour's worth of workout down on your calendar and it will magically happen, exactly like you had predicted it would! PLUS, little fairies will come down and dry each bead of sweat glistening upon your forehead with little towels made out of sun-dried moss. If only you would just WRITE it on your CALENDAR!!!!
Um, right. Suzy Squats and Joe Lunges must not have small children. Little time-stealing monsters who are in constant need of snacks or dress-up dresses or markers or band-aids or plunk down on your lap with no intention of moving for the entire duration of that magical hour you have blocked off on your magical calendar.
Several years ago I purchased a book entitled What Mothers Do Especially When It Looks Like Nothing
Instantly Interruptable. This was a bit of an epiphany! This was the key to why my days had felt so lost and why I had felt so inefficient. It wasn't me, or the lack of scheduling - it was simply the career of Motherhood. Something that had been left out of the job description as I had originally perceived it to be:
Must be kind, generous and patient, ability to kiss away boo-boo pain a must, experience in crafting animal shapes out of food a plus, and instantly interruptable.
When I first began Tracy's program, I had attempted to do the workout in the afternoons.
And almost kicked Lil Miss Sunshine in the face.
What can I say? My kids LIKE being around me! (And would be horrible contenders for a show like "Wipe Out.") There are precious few years that I get to enjoy their company.
But I was very serious about committing to the Tracy Anderson Method. I had to find some sort of compromise. Somewhere, there had to exist an uninterruptable time slot. The one and only time slot that I had been avoiding for oh-so-many years - I set the alarm for 5:30 in the morning.
Ah, but I do not just SET my alarm. Oh, no, I set the alarm on my phone, then place said phone in the bathroom, all the way on the other side of the bedroom, so I am FORCED to get my lazy bones OUT of bed if I am going to shut the darn thing off. And I'd better run over there, or the sound might wake the children!
Once I'm up, of course, I'm UP! I used to have thoughts every so often of stealing back into bed, catching a few more zzz's beside my nice, warm husband.
Then I imagine how disappointed Hubby would be if he saw that I had not completed my workout that morning. "You skipped?" I could hear him saying in a disappointedly disapproving kind of way.
(Now, Hubby doesn't care one snit whether I get up or sleep in, but I have trained my brain to THINK that he would care, so don't ruin my delusion!)
Most mornings, though, I'm already up, clad in spandex, and downstairs filling up my water-bottle before I have had a chance to realize that I had, indeed, actually removed myself from my nice, warm bed.
And by 7:00 AM I am already feeling empowered because, if nothing else happens that day, there is one thing I can cross off my calendar....
Dance Cardio - Check!
Level 8, Day 9 - Check!
Before I know it, my workout is finished and I am on to the rest of my totally interruptable day.
