2025: The Year I Fell in Love

I grew up as a stereotypical, "nerdy" child in the 90s - I would finish my homework and pack my bag on Friday evenings, look forward to visits to the library, and prefer spending time indoors pouring over books than sweating and playing a sport. P.T. classes during school were great to spend time with friends and we were always looking for excuses to skip any physical activity (On your period? Caught a cold? Great. No need to play). Was some part of it also due to the gendered nature of sports clothes and how they could sometimes be exclusionary for girls with more conservative dressing styles? Probably, since that is what I felt when I was on the throw ball team during high school and was extremely cautious about what I had to wear while playing. Dance was the one thing I always enjoyed - locking my bedroom door to play fast numbers and dance along to them was the one form of "exercise" I indulged in, though not periodically.

So when I started reading up more and more about women's bodies, hormonal changes, likely challenges with perimenopause and menopause especially after having become a mother, I began to feel a mindset shift. Real, authentic voices on Instagram of regular mothers (not influencers) and a peer/ex-colleague in particular started positively impacting me. After months and months of mulling over it, I finally reached out to the ex-colleague, a mother herself, after years of not having had a proper conversation with a "Hey, you look like you're in great form and I've been wanting to start with workouts. Do you have any guidance for me?" That conversation turned things around. 

With her guidance and support, I began to work out at home for the first time in 3+ decades. Low impact workouts would tire me out within 5-10 minutes and I was amazed/disappointed at my abysmal energy levels. I kept at it, working out every other day for however long I could. Slowly, the low-impact workouts turned to HIIT ones. HIIT workouts then turned to strength training with basic 2kg weights. I then started working out 5 days a week and began including cardio as well. Protein powder as supplements were also added to the mix in the middle of all this for a more holistic approach to well-being and fitness. 

It has now been about 7 months since I started and the mindset shift is huge. I look forward to working out, can manage 30-minute workouts with a warm up and a cool down, and miss working out on days when I am either sick or on my period and have low energy (or days that my toddler refuses to let me out of his sight and work out). With cold winter mornings, I find myself working out when the sun isn't even up, and my work out puts me in the right state of mind and keeps me pumped. 2025 is the year I fell in love with exercise and it has been the highlight of my year. I now get creative and look for ways to work out even while traveling and am enjoying the slow progress. I cannot do a push up or a pull up and I take considerable time to go up in my weights for strength training, but I am also beginning to see mild fat loss, muscles coming in, and greater strength and stamina which helps in my daily life, be it picking up heavy groceries, carrying my toddler, or being able to slowly make my way towards a chin-up on a pull-up bar at least. Excited to take this energy into the new year and build on the progress!