Lessons from a Mother Runner: Aisha Zaza
Mother Runners are tender and mighty, movers and shapers, a force of love both on and off the road. Owning this powerful identity comes with plenty of highs and lows, lessons learned, and advice from one wise mama to the next. We discuss it all with Aisha Zaza, a fitness and nutrition enthusiast, business owner, podcaster, and mom of two. You’ll also catch her as the model for this year’s collection, which now includes brand-new maternity fits.
The Mother Runner collection celebrates all types of moms out there. What does motherhood and being a Mother Runner mean to you?
When you arrive at motherhood, you really get to see what you're made of. All of the work that you've ever done in your life, personally, professionally, socially—it’s really on display now for this amazing journey. Motherhood is the most meaningful and impactful work I'll ever do. Because it is going to outlive you and live within your children forever. .
“Mother Runner,” to me, is the opportunity to feel proud of who you are as a person and be able to put all of those amazing traits and qualities and skills that you've learned your whole life into play.
Why do you want and choose to share about your life so openly on your social media and in your podcast, “The Mindset Mile”?
I want all mothers to be believed in the experiences and feelings that they have, through pregnancy or motherhood. You are now in a sort of time capsule for a little while with someone that you just love and adore so much, but it also is very lonely because you're left to experience a lot of these big feelings by yourself. And I think it's really important for people to know that even though you're by yourself, that the experience is shared, and you're not alone at all. It's really important for me to know that other moms feel like they're in it together.
What do you find is the most challenging part of being a Mother Runner? What is your advice?
One of the biggest things that I have had to learn is how to adjust my expectations of myself and what I can get done with my time. Learning to adjust your expectations is the hardest, especially when you have a high achieving personality. It can be really, really hard when you feel like you're not as productive as you used to be. When really, if you looked at the sum of how you spent your time in those early years, nothing was ever for naught. Because a day will go by where it feels like you did absolutely nothing, but, at the same time, you were absolutely everything for your kids. And you did do a lot. So it's about realizing that even on your “least productive day,” you were still doing a lot.
I realized that my the best shape that I've ever been in, mentally and physically, has been after I've had my kids, and I think it has to do with realizing that your time is valuable and precious, and you were just a little bit more intentional with it. You find ways to work smarter, instead of harder.
For athletes, especially moms, the question is often: how do you find a work/life/training balance? Does it get tiring having to find that balance, or do you enjoy it?
Yes, there have been times where I've felt frustrated trying to navigate all those things. I really tried to adopt this less-is-more philosophy. And so it doesn't feel hard to me to find balance when I know what my pillars, or values, are.
My five biggest pillars are: my family and spending time with them; exercise; [nutrition], making the most of my family's meals and knowing what is in our food; my relationship with my husband; and then also creating, finding time in my life to create.
It's really easy for me to say yes or no to things, if I can identify if they fall into one of these categories. When you don't know what your pillars are in your life, then you end up over-committing, and that's when it becomes stressful. The more clear that you are on what is important to you, the less frustrating it'll be.
What is the greatest part about being a Mother Runner?
I think the best part about it is that you get to be the best example for your kids, whether that's going to school or starting a business or being really proud of your work. You've learned so much. And you get to now show someone else how to build empathy and grit and work ethic. It's just a really cool thing to know that you're leaving a legacy by the things that you teach to your kids.
One of the things that I'm most proud of is that I truly do feel like I lead my kids by example; I am not a “do as I say, not as I do” type person. I think that is really rewarding, just being really authentic. And showing them, too, that everyone messes up. Nobody is perfect. You have the opportunity to go back and make something right.
How has motherhood changed your connection to your body and mind?
For one, I am way more appreciative of my body and its capabilities. You understand your whole life, like how a baby is born, but when you go through the experience, it's just mind blowing that you literally grew a person from cells and developed this human being. So it's just made me completely in awe of my body's capabilities. And that's after doing some cool, athletic feats before having kids. I was proud before of how strong my body was, but even more so after having kids.
It definitely has helped me stop picking myself apart the way that I used to. And maybe that also comes with age, but I feel like I can look at things that maybe I didn't always love about my body growing up, and lean into them—just own it and appreciate it. I don't want to really change my body anymore. I mean, I want to be in good shape, and I like being fit, but I don't look at myself or my body and wish that it was different. I've never been able to hate or wish my body into a shape that was something different than what it is right now. So I feel much less critical and much more proud.
How have running and fitness changed you as a mom?
It's literally therapy to me. It's my mental everything. I feel like fitness so often can be put on the back burner because there's so much to do all the time. But in my opinion, it's one of the things to do. It helps me be more patient. It helps me feel happy, productive, healthy, and energized. Like oh my gosh, you need as much energy as possible when you're a parent to young kids! It really fills my cup, so that I can turn around and be the best version of myself for my family.
What do you hope to teach your kids about their health and their bodies through your fitness journey?
I hope that they learn that working hard can be really fun. And what else are we doing in this life if it is not taking care of our bodies and taking care of our health? But truly, it's that old saying: if you don't have your health, you have nothing, right? But so many people act reactively instead of proactively. So I just hope that they get the hindsight of my age or wisdom that taking care of yourself is really cool. And it's fun as well.
