Fitness, Konstantin and I

I started to workout regularly when I was about 17. That is when I met my soon to be husband. Konstantin Selivanov, a trainer and a professional kickboxer. 

But having a professional athlete for a spouse dose not necessarily mean you will be in shape as well. He worked out with me when he had time, but as he got busier and busier I had to find way to keep up my workout routine on my own.  

I always loved working out, I knew it makes me feel and look good, I knew there are tremendous health benefits both physical and mental health, but a huge AHA! moment came right after I had our first child. Withing first week of birth I developed a mild case of "baby blues". I would become overly emotional and for some reason happen it would in the evening. 
For about a week i was trying to deal with my emotions and finally my Dr suggester antidepressants. I am absolutely against taking drugs unless it is a last resort. So I picked up my prescription meds just in case, but fortunately have not had to take any, as that afternoon something wonderful happened. 

Later that afternoon, before I started to get all sad and emotional, driven purely by a feeling I had, I took my jump rope, went outside and started jumping. I only did about 10-15 minutes. Amazingly that evening I did not go into my funky depressed mood... So I began my little workout routine every evening. 
Konstantin had to train every night and travel a lot, so I was all along with the baby most nights. I had no opportunity to go to the gym nor did I have much time for a work out, but religiously every afternoon, before he left I would go outside of our apartment and jump my rope. That was my cure.

That was 10 years ago and since then I looked at fitness with new respect. Just recently I had two consecutive pregnancies withing two years. Tree month after one delivery I became pregnant again (don't ask, but it was planned believe it or not). Now my youngest is 11 months old. I ended up having two C-sections with these last two pregnancies. Worked out throughout each of those pregnancies and started being as active as I possible as soon as I could after each delivery.

That is me at my 33rd Birthday, few months before my second pregnancy. With third one to follow three months after the delivery...

Below is a picture of me now, it is not a great picture, but you get an idea. I am the one holding the baby. Although I have a long way to go to get into my pre-pregnancy shape, today I consider myself to be in a great shape considering how much I put my body through. 


And I truly contribute all of my health, mental and physical, my strength, my body's ability to recover so fast, to heal itself while nurturing another human being (I am planning to continue nursing for another month or so) - all of that and so much more thanks to Fitness and to people like you giving us tools necessary to succeed. I believe it is important especially for women to realize that Fitness does not have to be an enemy, an inconvenience nor a time consuming effort. You can do as little or as much as your goals and your abilities allow, as long as you JUST DO IT.