E212: You can do hard things and they are so worth it! Life update and a little Motivation Monday!

 This episode of Hot Mess Mom Health is all about embracing the pandemonium of parenthood and using it as a springboard to leap into a healthier you. I'm dishing out my personal story of post-pregnancy triumphs which includes dusting off my sneakers for the Broad Street Run and smashing my race time from my 20s! Along the way, I'm serving up some juicy nuggets of wisdom on how you too can create a ripple effect of healthy habits, all while showing your kiddos the power of perseverance.

Transcript

Finding Motivation for a Healthy Lifestyle

Speaker 1 0:00

Do you ever look back at something you accomplished and think that would be awesome if I could do that again? Is there something that you really want to do but don't believe you have the time, the energy or that your aid is holding you back from reaching that goal? Well, today I'm here to inspire you to believe in yourself more and give yourself credit, even for the little things. Thank you for tuning in to the Hot Mess Mom Health Podcast, where starting messy is always better than perfect. My name is Rebecca Santos and I'm a busy mom just like you, trying to level up my health and reduce stress in this crazy life Since becoming obsessed with all things health and wellness. My mission here is to share information so that you can finally lose the weight you want and feel energized, because us moms all deserve to feel good. Grab that iced coffee and listen in today for a little Motivation. Monday hey there, grab that iced coffee and listen in today for a little Motivation. Monday ideas and quick workouts.

Speaker 1 1:02

Do you wake up with big, ambitious goals, only to feel stressed out and disappointed when you fall back in your old habits? Drive to the Chick-fil-A drive-thru for the second time this week, all while the fresh produce you just bought goes bad. Hey, I'm Rebecca. I too am a working mom of two littles and self-proclaimed hot mess mom. All my life I've struggled with trying to maintain a healthy weight and feel good in my skin. I could add yo-yo dieter to my resume. After I packed on 50 plus pounds with two pregnancies, I decided to change for good. I wanted to stop obsessing about food, stay consistent and set a good, healthy example for my kids, but I kept telling myself that I didn't have the time, the energy or accountability to stay on track Until I changed my mindset and created one healthy habit at a time.

Speaker 1 1:47

In this podcast, you will find simple, actionable steps so you can create a healthy lifestyle and get relief from the overwhelm. Spray that dry shampoo. Grab your iced coffee, turn up the volume and let's get healthy. Hey there, happy Monday and welcome back to another episode of Hot Mess Mom Health. Thank you for tuning in with me. Another week, happy Monday.

Speaker 1 2:09

Like I said, I hope this week finds you well, and today what I wanted to do is give you a little inspiration, a little Monday motivation, to give you a kick in your pants, to have you go after something that you are reaching for, something that you wish, something that you long for, something that's been on your heart for a while, wanted to share a story of something that happened to me this weekend, and I think it's a good example of how we all do not believe that we are capable of hard things, how we do not give ourselves enough credit and I'm not one to brag on myself and I'm not going to sit here and say I'm some elite athlete by any stretch of the imagination, but I do try hard and I think that's the point. And you know, in trying hard and doing hard things, I think it's also setting a good example for my kids so that they know like not everything's going to come easy. Things are, you know, things require hard work and energy, even when you don't have time and you don't want to, that you have to still put in work, sometimes especially for yourself, to take care of your well-being and your mental health and your physical health and all of the things that keep us strong and there for our children in the best way possible and so that we can feel good about ourselves as well. So a couple months ago, me and my husband had signed up for the lottery of the Broad Street Run, which, if you were from the Philadelphia region, that race is only available by lottery. It's a very big race. It's a 10-mile run in the Philadelphia area on a road called Broad Street, so it's called the Broad Street Run and the last time I did that race was in 2007.

Speaker 1 3:41

So, to give you context, I was 25, right, and I ran it and you know, being 25 before I was married, before I had kids like I was running a lot and that was just I wanted to do it. I had a girlfriend that was doing it at the time, so we ran it together and it felt good and it was great. I got a time. I've done other races since then. I've done a couple half marathons. Again, I'm not sitting here getting any prize, money or anything. I'm just simply doing the races and using it as motivation to keep being more active and running and just to give you, give me, a goal. I want that medal at the end, like I want, you know. I want the medal to hang around my neck and to put in my office.

Speaker 1 4:20

And recently I realized, when we got selected for the lottery for this Broad Street Run, that just happened You're listening to this the day after the race that I realized I was like, oh, let me see if I can find my 2007 time, because I couldn't remember it. I had no idea. I don't even know where my medal is from that time, but I wanted to see, like how, what my pace was, how long it took me to run it, and I was like I wonder if I can do better than what I did when I was 25. And if I could, that would be a really great accomplishment. I am 41 currently. I've had two kids, I've been married, I have a full-time job.

Speaker 1 4:56

Life is crazy and of course, I'm always looking for ways to challenge myself and ways to move myself and motivate myself to do better. So what better way than to say like, hey, in my 40s I ran that race faster than I did in my 20s? So I used that as a little bit of motivation when I was training and maybe I didn't want to. I used it as motivation to get my husband around a little bit faster when he didn't want to and all the things, and to say that you know, looking at that number, I didn't know what was going to happen. You know, a couple days ago we realized the weather for yesterday was going to be very bad. You know, cold, rainy.

Speaker 1 5:33

After having this like gorgeous, beautiful week of weather, it, you know completely, rains on your parade, which is the way life works sometimes, and I was very nervous Like I always call myself a little bit of a bougie runner, like I only run under perfect conditions, and I wasn't prepared. I've never ran in the rain, I've never even walked in the rain on purpose, so I didn't know how it was going to go. So you know the race was, you know, a long wait time to the start and everything, and I was just like pretty much putting the PR behind me saying that it's not going to happen and it's okay, I'm still going to do the race and we're going to have a good time and try to hopefully stay as dry as possible. So it rained on us for the whole first hour during the waiting time, which was the hardest part was just waiting to start the race. It's a very big race, 40,000 ish people. So by the time we crossed the threshold, thank goodness the rain had stopped for the most part, so we both lost our ponchos and we were able to run a little bit more free.

Speaker 1 6:28

However, I was still probably dressed a little bit too warm. I had like a thermal, a hoodie and a raincoat, which is sounds, if you're a runner, that sounds completely absurd, but I'm always cold, but I was still dressed a little bit inappropriately. So, like by mile three, I'm like, okay, I'm going to start losing clothes at this point, like I'm like overheating, but I still. I didn't look at my time, I didn't look at my clock at all. I didn't want to psych myself out because, again, I didn't know it could start pouring on us at any moment. It was very cloudy, overcast, rain was expected on and off all day and I didn't want to set myself up for disappointment. I was like I know I've trained, I know I've done the work, I fueled my body ready for this race. Let's just kind of see what happens.

Speaker 1 7:06

Also, the added element of running with my husband who, of running with my husband, who you know did not train the correct way. I don't think he'll ever listen to this, so if you know him, do not tell him. But he didn't train properly, just saying, and he did a lot of the longer runs with me but definitely didn't do a lot of the shorter ones that you really didn't need to do to maintain and build up some endurance. So it was a little bit like, uh, and then we kind of got into it about him, me staying with him and me wanting to PR. So that's a little bit like off the record, like off the subject. But I told him that this is what I really want to do for me and that's just what I really want to do.

Speaker 1 7:38

So by mile eight I had finally looked at my phone and I realized, okay, I'm pacing a little bit ahead, but I knew that I had more in me and I was like you know what I need to do? This I got to go, so I left and I finished the race. Um, finished, and I'm again not an athlete that I'm like I'm not killing my times or anything but I finished in 2024, eight minutes better than I did in 2007. Eight minutes and to me that's amazing, right Like I'm, it's me against me, it's me versus me. It's not me against looking at all the thousands of other people that ran and how many people in my age group are better than me. No, it was always myself versus myself and becoming the better version of myself. And I did that and I just wanted to tell you that story, to encourage you.

Speaker 1 8:29

If there's something that you've done that you want to get back out there and do and you want to crush it so you can feel confident and that you can know that you are still powerful, you still have this and you might even have it better than you did before because you have all that experience and all that knowledge and you have maybe more whys to do things now, go for it. Don't let your dreams be back burner. Don't let your goals, your wishes, your accomplishments sit on the backside while you do everything for everybody else. It's okay to put yourself first every once in a while and although I do feel like my husband maybe thought I was a tad bit selfish when I left him at mile eight, I did it for me and, yes, that maybe is selfish, but you know what I think. That's okay sometimes.

Speaker 1 9:11

It is okay to want something for yourself. It is okay to push yourself harder than you ever have before and it's okay to look back and say you know what? I'm going to brush up my shoulders, I'm better than I was, this version of me is better and it's okay, and you should be proud of yourself, no matter if I beat that by one minute. I would still be proud of myself. If I beat it by 30 seconds. I would still be proud of myself Because this version of me knows that that version would be so proud to look back that many years later and say, damn, you crushed it. You can still do these hard things and that's amazing.

Speaker 1 9:46

So I know that today or yesterday really, when the race was encouraged me to just go after more things that seemed completely unattainable, that seemed out of reach, that seemed like you know what I can't do, that I don't have the time. I can't do that. I don't have the time I can't do that. I don't have the energy, I don't have the space, I don't have the money. Whatever it is, you can if you really want to. Those last two miles I left it out there. I gave everything I had and I know that and I can be proud of myself.

Speaker 1 10:14

And so often I think we give only half of ourselves to ourselves because we're too busy giving it all to everyone else. And I'm not saying be a bad mom, be a bad wife, be a bad employee, but what I am saying is why do we give 150% to everyone else and give ourselves 80% if we're lucky on a good day. So just a little bit of encouragement, a little motivation Monday to say go after your dreams, write yourself a list of things that you want to accomplish for the end of the year and say, gosh, darn it, I'm going to do it. This is the time, this is the year. No matter how silly it seems to anyone else, personal goals, striving for PRs, going after your dreams are never silly if they mean something to you.

Speaker 1 10:54

I hope this episode motivates you to go after your dreams, to feel more confident and to find something that you know that your little younger self and your future self would both be so proud. Have a great week. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to this episode of Hot Mess Mom Health. If you love this episode, please leave me an iTunes review. It would mean the world to me and it would help me get the word out about helping other moms reclaim their health. Thank you so much.