I have been thinking a lot lately about what kind of person I was when I was younger – character traits that have changed beyond recognition, things about me that have been constant throughout my life and this has got me thinking about what I would say to myself, if I met “teenager me” in a parallel universe.
Me being me, I would want to say quite a lot about several things, so much so “teenage me” would be bored stiff! But the subject that leapt into my head was sport and exercise. I would say, “Don’t skip sports lessons or pretend you’re ill so you don’t have to join in.
”When I was teenager I didn’t really engage in any sort of sporting activity. I was in fact “Queen of bunking off games”. I am quite ashamed of that now. I guess I could blame my upbringing, sport was not prevalent, but I think it is far too easy to do that and I am not a fan of the blame game. I was quite wayward and mischievous – but is that really an excuse either?
The reality is I wasn’t naturally very good at any sports, so I didn’t try, so over time I accumulated absolutely no ability for anything sporty whatsoever!
What is interesting is I look to my kids, who perhaps wouldn’t thank me for saying, but before the ages of 10/11 they weren’t great at sport – but they had a love for it and wanted to be active.
As soon as they hit their teens - well - their sporting lives became very important and found their running legs spectacularly. Both of them have run for their schools competitively and are incredible. Proud mother – right here – and I can’t pretend these genes have come from me!
Through my kids I have learned about the excitement, camaraderie and competitive spirit that comes from playing team sports and representing your school in a vital match.
I wish "teenage me" could see what they are like and felt how they feel. Training sessions are non negotiable for my son and my daughter clears her head by going for a run at the end of the day. I understand the merits of all this now – but it didn’t enter my head to do it when I was younger.
I train quite hard these days 5-6 days a week for 8 weeks then I have a rest week when I concentrate on yoga and flexibility. But I am very late to the party. I only really got into exercise in my 20s when I was pregnant and then trying to shift pregnancy weight. In fact, at the time we used to live in Sydney, I used to feed my daughter at about 6am and go for a run along a path near Sydney Harbour - I know don’t fall over in shock!
I think the reason I started thinking about this, is sometimes I find it so hard to motivate myself and I’m not sure it any of it comes naturally to me. And whilst I am very accepting of how I am and look, I wonder if I had started getting into exercise at a younger age if there would now be a difference to my strength, aerobic fitness, physique and health – undoubtedly yes.
So what do you think? And what are your experiences? I love to know…