18- 13 Fitness Lessons from 13 Years of Motherhood

Episode Summary: In this episode, Kat dives deep into the 13 invaluable lessons she’s learned on her fitness journey since becoming a mom 13 years ago. Whether you’re a new mom, a seasoned pro, or just looking for real talk about balancing fitness and motherhood, this episode is packed with insights that will resonate with you. From ditching perfectionism to embracing the power of small wins, Kat shares how she’s navigated the challenges of motherhood while staying true to her fitness goals—and how you can, too.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why perfection isn’t the goal—and what to do instead.
• The importance of adapting and modifying your workouts to fit your lifestyle.
• How to truly listen to your body, especially in those early postpartum weeks.
• The power of owning your journey and not comparing yourself to others.
• How celebrating small victories can fuel your motivation.
• Why getting clear on where you are right now is key to making progress.
• The importance of showing up and doing the work, even when it’s hard.
• The benefits of taking time off from your routine—and why it’s crucial for long-term success.
• A reminder that your best years aren’t behind you—your potential is greater than ever.

Key Takeaways:

1. Ditch Perfection: Stop waiting for the perfect moment. Use the time you have, even if it’s just 10 minutes.
2. Adapt & Modify: Life as a mom can be unpredictable. Learn to adapt your workouts to fit your day.
3. Listen to Your Body: In postpartum, give yourself grace and allow your body to recover.
4. Own Your Journey: Your journey is unique—don’t compare it to anyone else’s.
5. Celebrate Everything: Acknowledge every small step you take toward your goals.
6. Be Honest with Yourself: Get clear on what you can handle right now and adjust accordingly.
7. Show Up & Do the Work: Consistency is key, even when motivation is low.
8. Take Time Off: Rest is as important as the work—don’t be afraid to take breaks.
9. Embrace Your Potential: Your 20s weren’t your peak—your best years are ahead.

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Transcript

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Have you ever felt like you're juggling a million things, kids, work, life, and wondering where your fitness fits in? You're in the right place. Today. I'm sharing 13 hard lessons learned in for my own fitness journey as a mom and an athlete. These are the insights that have helped me transform my mindset, my body, my life. So whether you're struggling to find time motivation, or just a reminder, That you are not alone. Stick around. You won't want to miss this. Welcome back to miles from review. I'm Kat, a mom of two boys, an ultra para, an avid lifter, and a career strength and conditioning. I'm obsessed with all things outdoors, food, fitness, and I'm on a mission to pull back the curtain on what true fitness for women and moms really looks like beyond the perfection seeking models pushed by the industry norms. Today's episode is a special one for me. Not only is it packed with some hard earned wisdom, but it also coincides with a pretty big milestone in my life. My eldest son's 13th birthday. But before we dive in, let's catch up a little bit. So how are you doing? You know, if you're like me, maybe you are in a similar situation. It's the start of the school year. There's a lot going on. Trust me. I'm in the hectic mode right now of navigating the school schedules, the fall sports schedules, and everything that comes with it. And speaking of which, I'm also transitioning back from an incredible vacation with my family. This one was another milestone trip that my husband and I had planned to take with our kids. And we've pushed the envelope on that. We did six national parks, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, Mount Rainier, Olympic and North Cascade 12 days. Flew into Jackson Hole and we drove. everywhere and ended up in Washington state and flew out of Seattle to land back home in the Philadelphia area. It was a whirlwind. It was a lot of fun. It was back to back days that were 12 to 14 hours soaking in so many beautiful, peaceful places that the mountain has to offer. And There was also a lot of stressful moments. We own them. We all had them. The coolest thing was that it reminded me of just such the importance to take breaks, no matter if life feels chaotic. Now, was it a relaxing vacation? Absolutely. And it was a really cool thing to see that no matter how packed our days were, we all had these great moments. Whether it be on a rock and a lake at a glacier, just to sit there and listen to the silence around or ocean side at the Pacific ocean on a beach that was empty and just splashing in the waves or other mountain lakes that we skipped hundreds and hundreds of rocks. So life is a little chaotic. Take a break, pull back, recognize things around. So, as I mentioned earlier, today is my son's 13th birthday and I'm feeling all the feels. Like, how did we get here so fast? It's cliche, I know, but the days are long and the years are just so short and is truly hitting home right now. I vividly remember the moment he was placed in my arms thinking, Wow. I'm a mom, but I also remember being scared, like scared of the BS that people told me throughout the pregnancy about how I'd never be me again, how my life would solely revolve around my child, how my hopes and dreams would be on hold until he went off to college. And maybe I would never do those like gone are the days of me. Spoiler alert. None of that is true, but I won't deny that things did change. And today I want to focus on the 13 lessons I've learned through my own fitness journey as a mom over these years. While these lessons are rooted in fitness, I think you'll find that they also may apply to some other areas of your life. So let's dive in. Lesson number one, ditch the perfection. Okay, starting off with a tough pill to swallow. And I will have to say, and maybe I should have prefaced this before, these lessons, I'm not speaking from a pedestal of I have mastered them, these lessons are ones that keep coming up in many different forms. So, Ditching the perfection. I used to talk myself out of so many workouts because something came up and I didn't feel like I could adjust my schedule or Because the 40 minute workout I planned just got reduced to 10 minutes It was like what was the point of doing the 10 minute workout? I used to want to wait for like oh The perfect time or whatever it was It was if i'm not doing it exactly how You And oftentimes in those early months, I compared to not having a child, then it would stop me. So what I learned was use the time you have, stop searching or waiting for the perfect time, the perfect energy, the perfect feeling, or the perfect outfit, just show up and get it done. Because perfection keeps you in the same place and feeling lesser than. Lesson two, adapting and modifying is your new BFF. As a former college athlete, I love a good plan. I love to see everything spelled out like do a, then do B, do C, and that is going to equal the end result. However, as a mom, You need to adapt and modify all the time. So as quickly as your plans are put together, they can just go up into smoke. The more I adapted my workouts to my time, my energy and my body, the more I went from barely surviving to thriving. Lesson three, listen to your body. Okay, I'm gonna say that again and I want you to seriously listen to this listen to your body This is tough and especially those early postpartum weeks when you get that clearance at six to eight weeks and those months We are told We need to snap back, bounce back. You need to listen to your body, especially always, but especially in those first couple years, there is so much under your skin that is changing and moving in that your body did the nine, the nine months, 40 weeks, 42 weeks, you know, plus or minus all of the, that jazz that you just don't know what's changing. And there's no one size fits all. Look, look. on how you should be and there's no expiration date. Rest, scale back on workouts and know there is no time lost in easing back in to moving your body. Ditch that notion of the snapback culture. Your body is not, it's just not meant to snap back. Bodies are different for everyone and it needs your support. The more you work with and listen to your body, The more you're going to be happier and see results. Lesson four, own your journey. Your journey is yours. There's no timeline for where your fitness journey should be or your body should be. No one has your life, your body, your story, own it. It is unique to you. Lesson five, don't compare yourself to another person. I get it in the world full of social media. It is so hard to compare, but remember your 24 hours is yours. Your journey is yours. Nobody has your body, your story, your journey, your life. Everyone's journey has its struggles and setbacks, whether or not it's portrayed in that little square on IG or not. When you catch yourself comparing pause and remind yourself of all the things you've overcome to get to where you are. Lesson six, celebrate everything. This may sound cheesy and it may sound like that notion of everybody gets a participation trophy, like just, you know, acknowledge every little step and a little woo, but honestly, If you are not the first to cheer for yourself, especially in that beginning when you are restarting a workout routine, if you are not acknowledging every last thing, there's no one else who's going to be cheering for you. The action of laying out your clothes, blocking off time on the calendar. There's Even maybe reaching out to a fitness professional or say having that constant conscious notion of thinking about, I want to start a workout routine, celebrate that you are choosing yourself in a high pressured situation of parenting in a very fast paced life. Own it. Celebrate it. Okay? This isn't lowering your expectations. This is coming from someone who is a high achieving, high expectation person that if you are not cheering for yourself, it won't help build up that inner resolve. Okay? In how to keep showing up is recognizing the fact that you are taking the effort to put yourself first and it truly does build that inner resolve to keep showing up. Lesson seven, get really, really clear with where you are. This lesson is tough. This lesson requires you to be brutally honest with yourself. However, you need to do it in a compassionate way. What your body and schedule can handle now and present day, no matter if your kids are whatever stage you're in, whether they're infant and toddler or one child or your kids are in college today is not the permanent state of your life. But if you keep placing that unrealistic expectation on yourself, that you should be somewhere or you should be able to handle this. You're going to stay stuck, frustrated and full of shame. So you want to get really clear with where you are now and work from there. Because I, as I said, where you are today is not the permanent state, but we'll keep what, we'll, what will keep you in that permanent state is if you keep putting that unrealistic expectation on yourself. Lesson eight, own your choices, actions in action and learn. Okay. That's a lot right there, but you're going to make choices that don't align with your goals. That is going to happen. I do that. I still do that, but I own it in understanding that that is part of the journey. Everybody does it. Even that person who looks like they have the perfect body on IG and look like they have the perfect eating habits. Never miss a workout. You'd be a fool to think that behind the scenes that is not shown on that grid that they don't make. The perfect choice is all the time that they don't have days of inaction that they don't have failures Everybody does and if someone tells you oh, I always eat quote unquote clean I never miss a workout. I always Get my workout in at 5 a. m. They are lying to themselves black and white right there They are straight up lying to yourself Okay. So the best thing you can do to stay in this, in the long game is own your choices. Don't lie to yourself. Own those decisions, learn from them and move forward. You're human and that's okay. Lesson nine goes right into this. Drop the shooting and shaming that little voice, you know, in your head that pops up when you've made a decision that doesn't align with your current goals, that starts telling you what you should have done. Literally stop it in its track, tell it to shut up and leave because it has no business there. That voice, when that pops up, if you let it become that prevailing voice, you will not move forward. It goes back to you need to be your biggest cheerleader. So you had the donut over the apple. Own it. Maybe you're Understand why. Okay. You won't get closer to your goals if you're constantly shame shaming yourself. Let that just let that wasted energy go. And number 10 kind of ties into this is fitness is about curiosity, not absolutes. The more curious you are about how your body works, how to gain strength, how to challenge yourself, the more likely you're going to stick to your routine. This applies with nutrition to the more curious you are about why you choose the donut over the apple. The better you're going to strip away that, uh, I should, if, if only I, you know, motivated, I would have chosen the apple over the donut. No, that has nothing to do with it. There's a million reasons why, um, donuts are really, really yummy. So are apples, but you know what? Sometimes you just feel like a donut. That's okay. You know, but don't sit there shaming yourself, shitting yourself, be curious about it. That's going to lead to more consistency with your routine. Don't force yourself into these rigid absolutisms. Stay curious and adapt as you go. Lesson 11, show up and do the work. It's great to have these big goals. It's great to have them, but if you don't show up and do the re the work, the results don't come without effort. Show up, do the reps. Put in the work and even when it's hard, even when no one's watching, even when you don't see results show up because you are worth it, you're going to have to keep showing up day after day and doing the work and being okay with not every day is going to be a major milestone in the gym or wherever you do your workouts or with nutrition, there is going to be a lot of just showing up, putting your head down and doing the work. Bye. Do it because you're worth it Show up keep showing up and know it's coin like there's work involved. You don't get results without work Lesson 12 Sounds contradictory to what I just said However, take time off your fitness routine can and should include breaks I know I use the the bad word of should but In the fitness industry and the fitness norm is never take a day off. You got to show up 24, 7, 52 weeks out of the year. No, you need time off. You need time to scale back. I just came back from a 12 day vacation. Yes, it was an active vacation, but you know what? I didn't even schedule a darn workout the whole time. That was built into my plan over nine months ago. I knew I was taking this vacation that was built into my workout plan, my run training, my everything. And leading up to that, I wasn't overly working out because I was like, Oh no, I'm taking 12 days off. I have to overly push it. When I came back, it wasn't, Oh, I got to make up for last time. No, it was built into my routine that this was my time off. I'll be it. Yes, we were hiking and moving our body, but this was my time off. Did I lose fitness? I have no idea. Maybe. We're the first couple lifts and runs hard. Sure, they were when I got back, but that doesn't mean I'm out of shape again. It doesn't mean all the progress that I made and all of that has gone to the wayside. No, taking the time off in your workout routine will allow for more longterm success, and it will allow you to stick with your workout routine longer. So. Plan times to scale back. Plan times when life is really stressful for you to scale back. Maybe work has a really high time of busyness. Maybe that's the time to scale back. Lesson 13. Your 20s were not your best years. Or whatever the years prior to having your kids were not your best years. Sorry, they're not. Your best years? Oh my goodness. They're still ahead of you. Having a kid or being out of your twenties does not mean it's all downhill and it only gets worse. Oh, just denounce that BS. I cannot stand when I hear that like, Oh, it's all downhill. I turned 40. I had kids. Oh gosh, it's over for me. No, absolutely not. You are capable of so much more than you think. Your dreams, your goals, your athleticism, the challenges that you want to take, the aspirations don't disappear with motherhood or being in your thirties, your forties, your fifties. Surely they can look different. That's okay, but you are still capable and you can still make those dreams, aspirations, goals into a reality. All right. To wrap up. I know that was a lot. I threw at you. Those are the primary 13 lessons that I've learned, and I hope this resonates with you as much as they have with me. Remember your fitness journey is personal and it's worth celebrating every step of the way. If you've enjoyed today's episode, I'd love for you to leave a comment, rate the show, Follow us for more and don't forget to check out the show notes and get on the newsletter. It is a thank you for signing up. You'll receive a week free of workouts from me. Thank you for spending this time with me today. I'm so grateful for each one and every one of you. And until next time, keep showing up for yourself, keep celebrating those wins and keep being the bad ass you are.