My Husband’s Trying To Kill Me!

That’s what I thought when he told me that today’s workout was 400 metres of walking lunges. 400 metres?!?!?! That’s more than 400 yards for you, Americans! Okay, so it turns out that’s the workout suggested on the Crossfit website my husband follows. Crossfit is about short but intense and varied workouts. We ended up doing only a block of walking lunges but it was enough to almost cripple me a day later.

I haven’t been fit all my life. It’s just another thing my husband introduced to me. That’s not to say I’ve witnessed maximum (or even close to) fitness yet in myself but I have tasted the sweet taste of my body in great shape.

It takes energy to make energy and since being pregnant with Leif, I haven’t had a whole heck of a lot of energy or drive to do more. Of course there’s more to it than just what’s going on inside of me. Getting two kids and a dog geared up and out there on my own isn’t exactly motivating. As time goes on, I’ve been feeling more and more like a lump.

As much as I wish this wasn’t true, I think part of it for me is the Prince Rupert weather. Prince Rupert is literally a global mecca for people allergic to the sun. Seriously, there are people here because they are allergic to the sun and it’s dreary and wet enough to suit their needs. It’s said that if you don’t get out in the rain, you’ll never get out. I don’t always let rain stop me but I think sometimes I do.

I finally had enough and asked Cam for help. A bigger move than you might imagine. There is a voice inside myself that would prefer to be left alone. It often tells me that things are hard and I should ease up. It tells me I’m week and pathetic so why try. I need help showing this voice that it’s wrong but I also need the know how. Having been a bike racer in the past, Cam’s really knowledgeable about fitness and training. He’s also someone who never sits still so there’s no lack of interest in moving his body.

Something important to both Cam and I is that we do this as a family. We’ve never been the kind of people who leave our children behind. I might pop out to the store for groceries, leaving the kids with Cam but we don’t generally go places unless we can take our kids with us. How can it be fun without them?

I briefly thought about doing a weekly workout plan like my weekly meal plans. I might do that if there’s interest in reading or if it seems I need to get it down or hold myself accountable.

This week so far we’ve done:

• Yoga and stretching everyday
• Run 3-4 km
• Walking lunges for one block
• Run 2 km (maximum effort)
• Crunches on ball
• Dumbbell hammer curls

It’s equally important what you put in your body as what you do with it. Of course we want to eat healthfully. To us this is eating mostly plant based whole or real foods with as much variety as possible. I also drink water and fresh dried herbal tea. Some of the nutrient rich herbs I like to use are nettle, yarrow, burdock root, dandelion leaf and root, red clover, marshmallow leaf and root, yellow dock root….

This whole week I’ve felt sore but in a good way and I don’t feel hurt. That’s important too. There’s even a small part (very small) of me that’s looking forward to hearing what today’s workout is going to be.