I have spent the past few months feeling like this panda.

I haven’t completely stopped exercising or anything, but I also haven’t been training for any marathons or races, I’m coming out of a fairly significant bout of depression, and I’ve dealt with that and the stress of other stuff by eating. And eating. And eating.

Except I haven’t exactly been eating carrots.

Then I kind of subconsciously told myself all bets were off until Christmas.

I ate more crap in December than I did in the eleven months preceding it.

I felt like total shit by the time last night rolled around.

Yesterday Number 4 asked me if I’d take her to the pool today to swim.

She has set a goal for herself to qualify for Zones, which is a big swim meet in the end of March/beginning of April, and in order to make it, you have to be one of the top three kids in the state in each event.

She has been practicing six days a week for the past couple months with this goal in mind. There was no practice yesterday because it was Christmas, and then we had no practice today since Christmas fell on a Sunday.

Number 4 didn’t want to skip two days in a row. So I told her I’d take her to swim, but since it was my day off from coaching, I wouldn’t write a practice for her. And she’d have to swim on her own because if I was going to go to the gym with her on my day off, I was going to do something for myself, and I was going to work out on my own.

She wrote a practice for herself yesterday when we were at my parents’ house for Christmas.

I told her if we were going to go to the gym, we’d have to go early, and we’d need to get to the pool by 8:30.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty tired. I had told the kids no one was allowed to come out of their rooms before 7 a.m.

Number 6 was downstairs at 7:02 a.m., followed by Number 5 a couple minutes later, then Number 3, and then Number 7.

There was no sign of Number 4, and to be honest, I was kind of relieved because it was really cold out, and I had made a fire and it was warm and cozy inside and I was in my pjs and I wasn’t feeling very motivated.

Number 4 emerged from her room around 7:55. I was certain she’d decide to bag the swimming.

“Do you still want to swim this morning?” I asked her.

“OF COURSE!” she told me.

Fuck.

Once I told her we’d have to leave in less than fifteen minutes, I knew she’d reconsider.

She sprinted upstairs while yelling, “I’ll be ready in ten minutes, Mom!” on her way.

Dammit!

Number 4 wasn’t changing her mind, and I wasn’t putting anything off.

So I got dressed, and at 8:30, Number 4 and I arrived at the pool.

I walked onto the pool deck with her and made sure she was all set.

There were two college girls swimming in the lane next to her.

And then there were about ten other people who were at least thirty years older than her in the other lanes.

She hopped into a lane with a guy who was five times as old as her.

“Okay, Mom!” she said.

And off she went.

And then I went and worked out for a solid hour. And now, I’m motivated and refocused and ready to get some discipline back in my life in the working out and the eating departments.

I’m ready to not just work out consistently, but to set some goals for myself.

Not weight loss goals, but fitness goals. Strength goals. Running goals. Triathlon goals.

Overall health goals.

I think without goals, it can be easy to fall of track. In any area of our lives.

I talk about this with my swimmers all the time. But I kind of forgot about it myself.

I’m going to spend this last week of  2016 assessing and reevaluating and thinking about what direction I want my life to take in 2017. And then I’m going to set a couple (manageable) goals for myself.

You never know where you are going to find inspiration.

Today, I was inspired by my ten-year-old daughter.

And I thought maybe you might be inspired by her, too.

 

Check out this super cute set and and tons of other cute stuff out at Betsy Boo’s Boutique — my fave place to shop online!

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