Early to Rise, and then Box it out
My body is used to waking early during the week, and after months of doing this, has now decided that I can’t sleep in past 6am, an hour later than my usual wake up. I legitimately tried to stay in bed, but my bladder and my restless legs would not allow such a thing to last long. I was out of bed at 6:30am.
I’m not entirely sure what my husband was doing last night in his sleep either, because he kept rolling over onto me, as if I were just a lump in the mattress. I kept pushing him back over, but I swear, 10 minutes later he would repeat the roll over and I would have to shove him back, again. We’re gonna have a chat about it later, he cannot be that rude while I’m sleeping.
Despite my early wake up and disturbed sleep, I was energetic when I woke up. I checked my Eat Like A Valkyrie page to make sure my recipe drop happened as scheduled, and of course that was a kerfuffle that I wasn’t anticipating, and I had to fix that. All the new recipes are now posted and live. The butternut squash soup is literally heaven in a bowl, I’m anxious to make that again.
So anyway, I was energetic and awake, and everyone else was asleep, so I needed something to do. I didn’t want to do Motus drills, I wanted an actual work out. So I got back to Day 2 of Blade, intro to boxing drills. I really enjoyed this workout, its not super intense, but definitely one that if I repeat every so often, just helps smooth out the movements and fine tune the combinations. And for the first time, I did not cuff myself in the side of my head when I threw those up elbows. A moment of pride, and applause, please.
My youngest woke up towards the end of my workout, and she was mimicking my punches and knee drives, and even did squats with me. She wants to be a Valkyrie like mommy, and I’m so proud. My eldest wants to start Valkyrie Squad too, and I’ve promised her that as soon as I complete the next level, Valkyrie, that I will start Novice over again, with her, and we will move through training together. I’m so excited to train my kids alongside me for this. My son is also super interested in training and exercising with me too. He and my youngest are still very young for using weights, but we can absolutely incorporate some of Novice and the Motus drills into a kid friendly variation that they can do with me. I love this evolution in our family.
Speaking of Evolution… I did a thing yesterday. I signed up for Certified Personal Trainer courses through ISSA. I spoke to Sam, and discussed with her some ideas I had, some feelings I’ve had, and how wrapped up in Valkyrie Squad I have become, how it’s changed my life and how I want this for the rest of it. I’m really great at being a hype girl, at motivating people, and I’ve never known what the heck to do with that skill. She told me that, ever since I joined the Valkyrie Discord, and I’ve been hyping and motivating my fellow Valkyries, she’s thought that I would make a great trainer, I just have that energy. And getting my personal trainer certification, will give me a functional place to put that skill to use. I’ve loved all of these workouts and how they’ve given me life, they woke me up, they’ve made me strong, and they’ve give me hope. So much hope, for a life without so much pain, without depression and self loathing being the first thoughts I have when I open my eyes. I was shaking throughout our conversation, and every time I thought about it yesterday evening. I still can’t believe it.
And it all started with a book.
A book I picked up because I was so depressed and so lost in my own head that I felt like I needed to escape. So I resorted to my favorite method, a fantasy novel. And I loved it all the way through, but A Court of Silver Flames snatched me by the soul. That’s the one that gave me ants in my pants, that made me feel like I’d been asleep for my whole life, and I needed to get up and get moving. And over the next few weeks after I finished it, I would develop my own exercise plan, 15 minutes a day. Only to stumble on Sam’s tiktok and see that she was a professional, who was making an entire program. And she never once made it about weight loss or fitting into an aesthetic, and I thought to myself…. could I do that?And after countless let downs with every single fitness program, diet rules, supplements, I was tired of failing. I was tired of not being successful. But something was different here, I could feel it. I watched her Valkyrie Squad videos over and over again and something inside me shouted at me to just give it a freaking shot. We were so broke and had zero funds, but I kept saying to myself, I can squeeze $12 a month, I can be worth at least that much, right? Over the last 5 months, I’ve proven it to myself over and over again, I am worth so much more.
Just typing that up brings tears to my eyes, because I never believed it with so much of my heart like I do right now. Never, in my life, have I loved myself as much as I do now, and it still feels so small on most days, but it’s there, an ember of self respect and love and power that grows in my chest every day I hit the mat and sweat it out. I was meant for this, for something more than being a sad girl. And this is only the beginning, I know there’s so much more to come, I can feel it in my bones, that bigger and better is still on it’s way. I’m ready. I believe, in the good things coming, coming, coming.
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