Structure, Preparation & Mom-Guilt
Today on Making FIT Work, I chat with Laurie Dionisio, who works full-time as a Speech-Language Pathologist, has two kids at two different schools, is an avid CrossFitter and mind/body blogger. Laurie loves structure and routine and attributes being consistent with her health and fitness to building a set routine for herself throughout the years. Although she was never an athlete growing up, that didn’t stop her from dabbling around at the gym in college. And as she has evolved and grown, so has her love and overall knowledge about health and fitness, helping her create a routine that feels good for her.
What I love is that Laurie talks about how even though she would prefer to stick to a very set schedule week in and week out, she also realizes that life happens, and to live a strong, healthy life consistently...you need to be able to roll with the punches and be a little flexible. And this is something that is not intuitive and definitely takes reminding. So here’s your friendly reminder to be good to yourself! ;)
From Wii Fit to building an at-home gym, her workouts looked and felt like they surely changed over time. It wasn’t until about 5 years ago, when she was introduced to CrossFit that she could take her workouts to the next level.
But before we unpack that, I loved and really connected with the fact that she mentioned getting a trial membership to the local box felt like she was being permitted to go and take time to focus on that. I think every mom can relate to that. We know it’s important to take care of ourselves and take care of ourselves, which means we have to spend some time away from our children. And that’s hard! Mom-guilt is real, and sometimes you do need your significant other to validate that for you. To remind you that you have their support to do things that make you feel good, even if it means more time away from the kids. A big thanks to Laurie for sharing that aspect of her journey!
Now let’s get back to fitness….her trial membership at CrossFit Dartmouth was a humbling and eye-opening experience that allowed her to take her fitness to another level. The ability to be coached and pushed by someone else rather than relying on her own physical and mental limitations as you do when participating in group fitness classes was everything she didn’t know she needed.
Since then, she has been committed to her CrossFit workouts and schedules 3x/week. She goes on to also thank her husband for understanding and being respectful of her need to move her body and allowing her the space to get out of the house for an additional 3 hours/week. Mamas! Just a reminder….you deserve that time. Take it!
We shared stories on mom-guilt, what it feels like and why we hope more women will realize that although those feelings are strong and real, we need to fight the urge to let it hold us back.
As we all know, fitness is only half the battle! So what’s the key to making it all work? Laurie says, “Preparation is 100% of my success.” Although Laurie spends a good amount of time meal prepping every Sunday, the amount of aggravation it saves her throughout the week makes all the difference and is totally worth it.
One of her big takeaways is that all of it (health and fitness) “is a learning process, and evolves” She recommends not trying to do it all at once. Pick something that feels easy at first and focus on that….” taking small bites of the apple.”
We end this episode with Laurie encouraging and reminding all of us that we get one life & one body...treat it well!
Although we didn’t have enough time to dive into it today, Laurie has an amazing blog that I have enjoyed reading called Chose The Light Side, which I encourage you to check out. http://choosethelightside.blogspot.com/
As always, we hope that you found this episode to be helpful and would love to connect with you further in our Making FIT Work community on Facebook or Instagram at @fitwith_nina. Until next time...be strong, be healthy, be happy!
