Her Time: Squeeze In A Sweaty Workout At Work
Editor’s Note: Welcome to Her Time where we share how people in Alexandria and around the Washington DC area spend their days. As women, we understand that time is precious. We do so much at home and work and are constantly balancing multiple priorities like finding time for self-care, scheduling a lunch with friends, attending a networking event, trying the new makeup hack, refreshing our skills, picking up the kids, and more. Sometimes we look around and notice someone else balancing it all so well and naturally wonder how she gets it all done. Her Time aims to share personal stories about how women schedule their days and make space for the things that matter.
Today we share a day from one of our small business owners who makes time to get dressed after a sweaty midday workout. Her shoes of choice are Veronica Beard sandals from The Shoe Hive and Nike Dunks her 13-year-old (and E. Todd) made her buy.
Age: 49
Family: A husband and two teenage boys
Home: Del Ray, Alexandria, Virginia
Education: Bachelor of Science in Education; Doctorate in Physical Therapy
Work: CEO & Physical Therapist at Mind the Mat in Del Ray and Arlington
Hobbies: Personal driver for 2 teenage boys in addition to trying to play golf, failing at tennis, listening to podcasts while walking my dog Sansa, and getting back into traveling. Traveling is my big goal after experiencing a pandemic…you never know when it will be taken from you. If I had all the time in the world I would learn how to sail. Some of my best childhood and adult memories have occurred while sailing.
What were your time management habits growing up?
I struggle with time management. I always have. Ask my friends. I am always the late one. And trust me, it is not that I think my time is more important than theirs or that I want to squeeze one more thing in, or that I am “busy” I really do not understand time. I have to tell myself repeatedly, “The opposite of early is late, so if you are not early Megan, you are…” It is truly odd because my mother is always on time and my father was in the military, yet neither my sister nor I have a concept of time. A strategy I have deployed recently has helped me become more punctual. I estimate how long it will take to get somewhere then I double it. I usually walk in just as the event starts so clearly I still have a long way to go.
Did you use those planners that they handed out in school?
I never used those time planners in school either and of course, this was way before iPhones and Google calendar. I excelled at turning things in on time as I was competitive in high school (not college, that was for beer) but I always procrastinated. I never asked for an extension on a paper or project, only because I didn’t think we could do that, I had no good excuse to ask for one! I pulled several all-nighters in college.
What are your time management habits now?
I have signed up for fewer tasks in my 40s and I say no much more often. With fewer responsibilities comes better time management! Plus, our Mind the Mat team is better oiled, with a skilled manager who keeps us on task. I still don’t write many things down, and if I do, I don’t refer to them. For example, I rarely put things in my calendar unless I know I will absolutely forget them, but 75 percent of the time I remember the events I don’t write down so maybe I need a new system!
Do you feel like you have enough time in the day to accomplish everything you’d like to do?
The days I am truly packed are some of my most successful days. Ironically, downtime tends to derail my productivity. This happened to me in high school too. The more tasks on my schedule, the more productive and successful I am at completing them. When I have downtime, I tend to get bored and my motivation wanes, and important to-do items start to roll over from day to day.
What do you do when you feel like you don’t have enough time, or you feel like you are sacrificing your me-time to get things done for work or family?
The best agreement Sara and I ever made as business partners was to have an open-door policy to come to each other and say “I am overwhelmed.” The symbiotic response is always, no questions asked, “let me take something off your plate.”.
Her Time
Thursday
6:00 PM APTA Advocacy Dinner After dropping a kid off at a birthday party during spring break, I hustled back home to dress in “business casual” attire for this advocacy boot camp event at the recently developed American Physical Therapy Association building right behind Target. It has a glorious rooftop view!
I was excited to hear that the APTA is lobbying congress this year for better health management to support Pelvic Health. Afterward, I spent some time replying to emails and texts.
8:00 PM E. Todd’s House
I swung by the house quickly to check on the boys (Did they eat food? Dog walked? House not burned down?) and headed to The Queen of Old Town’s house for a glass of good wine, her favorite Lena’s dinner picks and to watch the basketball game. Afterward, more emails.
10:30 PM In Bed
Tomorrow is a doozy. Emails.
Friday
7:30 AM Wake Up Drink Coffee
I am so lucky that my husband brings me coffee every morning. It started during lockdown, and he hasn’t quit. Today it was from Grape and Bean.
It’s Spring Break so both of my kids are asleep. Normally I would be corralling a sophomore to rush out the door but I get to sleep in. On the mornings that I teach class, I immediately start my playlist. I make a new playlist for every class I teach unless something comes up, so I dig deep into my list of 1,103. Follow me on Spotify! Emails.
9:30 AM HAWT Pilates Class
This is my one and only hot class at Mind the Mat, we have so many amazing teachers and this particular style of Pilates tends to be the most popular. It is far from the traditional Pilates mat series as we add loud-ish music, mobility moves, a bit of cardio, and lots of heat. We heat the room to 95 degrees and pump in humidity. The first time I did Hot Pilates (now lovingly called HAWT Pilates, come see why!) I realized my cold, old, boring Pilates days were over. Emails, texts.
10:45 AM Home For A Quick Turn Around
Over the years I have gotten good at this one: the post-sweaty workout quick turnaround. This advice is not just for the Pilates/yoga teacher, but also for people with packed schedules who can’t figure out how to squeeze in a sweaty workout. Here are my tricks: I hop in the shower for a quick rinse off and tie up my hair after spritzing with a good primer spray (on this day I used Bumble and Bumble Prep)
The key is don’t wash your face! Keep your makeup on (yes, I wear makeup to my classes…I’m at work!) The steam from the shower dampens my hair a bit so I can run my new Dyson Airwrap through it and my hair looks like I had a blowout but it took 5 minutes. I highly recommend the Airwrap, it’s worth the investment. It’s raining but I’m excited I get to wear my Veronica Beard trench coat from The Hive and my new Nike Dunks. Emails, texts.
11:30 AM Opening Day of Afrofuturism Exhibit at the National Museum of African American History & Culture
I am so excited to write about my friend Tasha. I met Tasha at Mind the Mat, she started coming to my Saturday Pilates Bootcamp class while I was on maternity leave. She wasn’t sure about me when I came back to work, but I sure loved her immediately. She is snarky, funny, talented, and loyal. Tasha is also a big deal. She had a huge role in delivering the Smithsonian’s beautiful new museum.
Tasha reached out to me the week before, excited to invite me and Luke, my 16-year-old, to the opening of Afrofuturism, the brand new exhibit that, “expresses notions of Black identity, agency and freedom through art, creative works and activism that envision liberated futures for Black life.” (from the Smithsonian). We thought we were surprising Luke with the display of the Black Panther suit, donned by the late Chadwick Boseman, but the kid looked up the exhibit beforehand and said “I read about it, mom.” Read with an all-knowing teen-toned voice. Emails.
2:30 PM Weekly Programming/Development Call
I made it back from D.C. and settled in for this important call, but I was prepared to take the call in D.C. if Luke wanted to stay at the museum. We recently hired in-house for an important role here at Mind the Mat. Each week we meet to discuss how this role will continue to develop into a community liaison to spearhead change in the way out prenatal and postpartum patients and clients navigate the current healthcare challenges. I remind my family, Instagram followers, and clients as often as I can that the maternal death rate is going up in the United States. That means people are dying, unnecessarily, at a higher rate in the U.S. than in other developed nations just from pregnancy. Again, these are unnecessary deaths. Mind the Mat is on a mission to create change in this arena and many other specifics in healthcare surrounding pregnancy and the postpartum period. Stay tuned for big things. Emails.
4:00 PM Kid Doctor Appointment
When on Spring Break you’ve got to get in those doc appointments! Now let the weekend begin.
