Malorie Drugg
December 2018
What did life look like before you focused consistently on nutrition and fitness?
To sum it up, life was busy.
I was a member of Life Time Fitness in Lakeville for nearly 10-years and an avid runner (averaged 20 – 30 miles a week!), fueled by a vegetarian and plant-based diet for almost 25 years. For a long time, I had it together and nutrition and fitness was a major priority in my life.
However, as a full-time working mom, it became harder and harder to find time for myself, let alone a long run or evening workout at the end of the workday.
Then in July/August of 2015 life drastically changed, my husband and I:
– Sold our house (in 20-hours!) in Lakeville
– Moved in with my in-laws (while looking for a house!)
– Had a not even 2-year-old
– Bought a house and moved to IGH
– BOTH started grad school (MBA for me and my husband was continuing his graduate work to get his principal license)
– Still worked full-time and thought, “hey, it seems like a really good time to join my long-time boss to start our own marketing and consulting business”…so did.
AND…
– Found out we were pregnant with baby #2
Then life got real. #Adulting
What made you decide to make a change?
Being a mom is hard.
Working full-time and being a mom is hard.
Working full-time, getting your MBA, being pregnant and being a mom is REALLY hard.
Baby #2 arrived in April 2016 and with everything going on in life, time to take care of myself was always at the bottom of the to-do list.
I canceled my Life Time membership and struggled to find a consistent routine that worked for not only me, but my family.
I bought a treadmill and that wasn’t motivating.
I bought Beachbody on Demand and that wasn’t motivating. I’m energized by other people and craved a place to go again where I saw familiar faces, inspired to push myself and reminded of that it’s ok to take time for myself. No offense to my treadmill, but it didn’t do much to motivate me at 5:00 AM!
Needless to say, I felt terrible, carrying an extra 10+ pounds of baby weight that just wouldn’t go away (thanks, Miles!) and SOOOO tired. Between work, kids, class and homework, I slept 5-6 hours a night and was literally a walking zombie most days. I looked forward to going into to the mother’s room at work to pump because I knew I could sneak in a 15-minute nap.
During the course of all of this, I watched my old colleague, Summer Bielke, post on Facebook about this “warehouse” she was working out in and how much she loved it. So, on some random day, I sent Summer a message and asked her what this warehouse place was all about. I came to a class, loved it, and then Summer gifted me her Golden Ticket to try it out for a month. In that month, I was able to try different class times and formats and see if the Warehouse was an option that would work into my schedule…and it did!
What has changed (race times, blood work, attitude, etc)?
What has changed for me? Everything.
If you attend 5:15 AM classes, you’ve likely seen me drinking (i.e. chugging) coffee in my car or the bags under my eyes from a night of sleepless kids, homework or working but I’ve continued to make exercise a priority for me and value the hour of “me time” I provide myself each day.
It took a solid year, but I finally feel like my old self again. The baby weight {ok, some it} went away…or at least shifted to new places and I feel SO good. While I still lack sleep at night, I have so much more energy and usually wake up before the 4:30 alarm goes off (cue the coffee in the car!).
I feel so blessed to have found the Warehouse (thank you, Summer!) and the amazing group of people that I get to start almost every day with — you all inspire me and appreciate those that push me to try harder on every killer, frog jump or race around the bag on Friday mornings.
Life is still busy but that’s expected with two boys, work and everything in-between.
And, I’ve learned that I’ll likely never sell a house, buy a house, start grad school, start a business and get pregnant all in the same month again! #LiveandLearn