Hi everyone
Although I have been following Maeve for years now on Instagram, I just gathered the courage to sign up here and for her spring queen challenge. I am going to get way out of my comfort zone with this post and the before pictures. However, I have been told to practice things that make me get out of my comfort zone to help with my anxiety so here goes and forgive me if it is too much personal information.
I mentioned in a comment already but my goal for this challenge is mainly a mental one. As for many, 2020 has been quite a bad year for my mental health. Unfortunately, the timing of a traumatic breakup and miscarriage of an unplanned pregnancy coincided with the first lockdown, so 2020 won against me at that point. However, over time, especially during the summer, I did find that exercising more again helped me slowly climb out of clinical depression. I used to be a pro volleyball player so my body is used to training 2-3 times a day but due to knee injuries and a broken leg a few years ago, my fitness has been slowly diminishing. I think I am still generally fit and due to my height/metabolism I haven't put on a lot of weight but I can still feel and tell the difference between how I am and how I looked/felt a few years ago, which coupled with everything that happened this year made me feel even worse about myself.
So my main goal is to set a healthy routine over the next three months, in the first quarter of 2021. I would like to try to do some form of exercise every day to manage my anxiety while also become happier with my own body (and accept the changes that have happened to it since I stopped being an athlete). Although setting 7 workouts (including yoga/stretching before bed) a week as a goal might be ambitious, I think it will help a lot.
To that end and to make myself more accountable, here are my before photos which were taken this morning (before and after this morning's workout). Excuse the quality and the lightning - I think I need to practice taking more photos of myself over the next three months 😳.
I think I will try to upload progress photos every couple of weeks. How often do you guys take them?
I am very excited to try the workouts every day. This morning's workout was amazing and although I was super nervous and I did the beginner version of most of the exercises due to my knee, I felt really proud of myself for completing the workout with everyone.
I am still getting used to 'being a queen'; I think it is hard to think of myself as one at the moment but maybe being able to call myself a queen 👑 will be an indication of feeling better in terms of my anxiety and self-esteem. I am really looking forward to the next few months and working out with all of you!
I can already feel that walking tomorrow will be interesting after this one:
