I\u2019ll just go and look at the women\u2019s shoes,<\/em> I thought. And then the reality of two pairs of needed cleats stared me down. I couldn\u2019t swallow the cost of a third pair. Even if the family budget would allow for it, I felt guilty putting that kind of cash down on me, for what? To walk through our neighborhood at a slightly more brisk pace than normal?<\/p>\n We drove out of the parking lot with two pairs of new shoes \u2013 of the cleat variety.<\/p>\n A few weeks later as I tried to motivate myself once again to move from my sofa to the treadmill, the shoes came back to mind. What was wrong with spending a little money on my own exercise gear? Maybe it would help me feel excited about getting those workout clothes on if some of them were purchased in the last decade.<\/em> But mostly I knew it would be a symbolic purchase that I am worth taking care of too.<\/p>\n When my husband pulled in the driveway a few hours later I told him I had an errand to run. I got in the minivan and drove back to the big box store, this time running shoes for adult-sized feet were the mission. I bought a pair (on clearance, I can\u2019t help it I\u2019m allergic to full price) and a pink water bottle. Because who doesn\u2019t want to drink more water when it\u2019s shaded in pink?<\/p>\n Once home I put on the shoes and laced them up. There were no 10Ks in my near future. Spending money on myself wasn\u2019t going to give me more value as a person. But having a few new things just for me was a practice in prioritizing my needs and my health in the midst of my family\u2019s demands. A visual reminder that it was okay to put my name on my list of people to care for.<\/p>\n Alexandra Kuykendall<\/strong> I stood in the soccer cleats section of the big box athletic store, a retailer for any sport and any size person. The sale rack was lined with Nike, Adidas and a Diadora or two. I had no idea what made for a good cleat, I was just the mom who paid for them and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":3080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[418,115,419,70,402],"class_list":["post-3079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellness","tag-exercise","tag-health","tag-running-shoes","tag-self-care","tag-wellness"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.mops.org\/images\/cms_images\/alex-2.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n
\nAs a mom to four girls, Alexandra Kuykendall\u2019s days are spent washing dishes, driving to and from different schools and trying to find a better solution to the laundry dilemma.
\nShe is the author of\u00a0Loving My Actual Life, An Experiment In Relishing What\u2019s Right In Front of Me\u00a0<\/i>and <\/span>\u00a0The Artist\u2019s Daughter, A Memoir<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0A city girl at\u00a0heart, she makes her home in the shadow of downtown Denver. You can read more of\u00a0Alex\u2019s everyday thoughts and connect with her at <\/span>\u00a0AlexandraKuykendall.com<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"