I’ve started my day off in a pretty bad mood, the amount of content I need to revise today makes me just want to go back to bed, a continual stream of emails from estate agents informing me that they don’t offer short term lets is giving me a headache as the house search continues and lots of laundry and house jobs to do is not ideal. It’s safe to say that exercise is not at the top of my list of priorities.
The third main area that This Girl Can has identified that women in Britain are worried about being judged for, is seeming to not have their priorities in order. The top reasons are that women feel they should be prioritising spending time with their family, friends, working/studying or doing other “more important” jobs than exercising. This is certainly how I feel today, surely I should be prioritising my exams over a session at the gym right? But when I stop and think about it, a gym session is exactly what I need to get out of my bad mood and into a more productive head space. Because let’s face it, the thought of studying critics of the British Empire is not filling me with joy right now.
I’m sure you have been told lots of times that you shouldn’t be doing exercise or some sort of leisure activity because you’ve got more important things to be doing. However, if I don’t go and train I’m going to be in a bad mood all day and I won’t actually get that much work done. It’s all about self-care and knowing what’s best for you. What does it matter if people think you should be spending more time studying or even just half an hour more with your family. Yes spending time with family is important, but not if you’re sacrificing time for yourself that you need to de-stress.
I guess I’m off to the gym then…
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So, it turns out that we didn’t go to the gym but we went bouldering (rock climbing) instead. Sometimes I don’t fancy climbing because it takes brain power to think about the routes but it turned out to be a good choice today! I had a great time, working my muscles, jumping around a bit, we even did a bit of hand stand ‘practise.’ I say ‘practise’ because I really can’t do them, not even against a wall but I’ll figure it out eventually (I hope!).
When you think about whether or not I should have been revising or climbing, you would immediately say revising. But if I hadn’t taken that break out of my day to myself to do some physical activity I would have got very little work done for the rest of the day. By giving yourself time to exercise you boost your brain and body and help yourself with the tasks that you need to get done.
There is a lot of stigma around women having time to themselves to do exercise, this particular applies to pregnant women and mothers. One of our Leeds Girls Can ambassadors’ role is actually to help families to get active. Her Facebook page is Emma Young – Leeds Girls Can Ambassador if you would like to find out more. With two young sons Emma demonstrates day in, day out, why exercise is important to family life and mothers in particular, and should not be demoted on your list of priorities.
Eat, Sweat, Play by Anna Kessle looks into this and actually demonstrates why it is good for women to continue doing sports when they are pregnant. It also looks into how mothers can be active when they have young children to look after. Dare I say it, it is a very old-fashioned way of perceiving women, to tell them that if they do exercise or physical activity they have not got their priorities in order. Eat, Sweat, Play makes it very clear why this point of view is outdated and simply wrong.
Eat, Sweat, Play is a book that I cannot stop recommending to people. I mentioned in my previous blog post that Leeds Girls Can are offering the chance to WIN a copy of Eat, Sweat, Play. We have three copies up for grabs that have kindly been gifted to us by Pan Macmillan publishers. To be in with a chance of winning, keep your eyes on our Leeds Girls Can social media platforms. There will copies that you can win on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, one copy for each social media platform. You can enter this giveaway on all of the platforms, not just one if you want to. I can’t wait for the lucky winners to read it!
Em x
Facebook: Emily Ankers – Leeds Girls Can Ambassador
Instagram: @active.em.blog
Twitter: @active_em_blog
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