The Mommy Motions

The final PiYo results are in!  I ended up adding a week between the two months where I did a sort of hodgepodge workout program, so instead of 60 this turned into a 67 day program for me.  Needless to say I am very happy with the results.  I am now down to below my pre-pregnancy weight of 168lbs, my last weigh in was yesterday at 160lbs!  More important than the number on the scale is how much better I feel overall.  I feel stronger, sexier, and more motivated to take on new challenges.  It doesn’t hurt that, my clothes are fitting better and I am able to confidently wear outfits that I had been shying away from far before getting pregnant.

Truth time,  I started this journey and told myself that I was trying to get healthy to be there for Davey.  That was only a partial truth.  I have been progressively gaining more and more weight since graduating college and it was starting to weigh on me not only physically but emotionally.  I have gone through good periods where I am super motivated and able to drop back down but have not found anything sustainable to help keep me there.  I had turned it into a joke, so much so, that I even named my stomach, her name is Betty and she is one hungry bad ass bitch that when not kept in check can seriously mess with my life.  It got to the point where, I would hide behind the humor, instead of facing the facts that I was making some very poor lifestyle choices I would blame Betty.

I am proud to say that Betty and I now have a much healthier relationship.  I have embraced being more conscious about my food choices and really working hard to counter cravings with healthier snacking options.  I am finally committing to myself and this workout program.  I can say with confidence that I have made changes in my life that will truly be sustainable even when things get busy.

PiYo was not an easy program to maintain.  If you look closely at my calendar you will see I took at least 2-3 rest breaks every week as opposed to the 1 built into the program.  Physically I was not ready for such an intense program.  This being said I am interested to see how T25 is.  Ging forward I will have the support of my mom and my sister who are also joining me over the next month as my workout buddies, wish us luck!  I will keep you all posted as we carry on.

Go Team BeachBody!

Well, hello strangers!

I am sorry for being so MIA, things have been a little crazy over here at the Zuck house.  I know you are all anxiously awaiting to find out how my workouts have been going.  Don’t you worry I have surprisingly been able to keep up this past week just have not had time to keep up on the blogging.  I just finished my PiYo adventure this morning!  I am sad to be ending this program because I have become so comfortable with it over the past 60 days.  It is something I know not only works but is manageable for me both physically and mentally.  I am very excited however to dive into T25 again and see how it holds up 5 years after I first tried it.  Am I simply viewing it through rose tinted glasses or was it truly as awesome as I remember it being.  On top of all of that I will admit I am pretty nervous about whether I will even be able to keep up physically with it.

So, why have I been so absent?  Last weekend for the holiday and our anniversary celebration we decided to venture over to Michigan and introduce Davey to a place I have grown up with and truly love. He was able to dip his toes in the water and sand for the first time ever and it was as amazing as it sounds.  Because, he isn’t very mobile yet and we have this awesome travel jumper we were able to keep the sand to a minimum thankfully.  Our last full day of the trip we decided to continue on the tradition of our yearly fitness challenge and climbed the big dune at Warren Dunes State Park.  Last year I climbed with Davey the size of a small lime in my belly, this year he and all his 16lb glory was strapped to my back.  I am very proud I was able to manage it!

I wish I could say it has been all sunshine and sandy toes for us this past week but there has been a pervasive stretching challenging our evening routine…Davey has begun seriously teething.  Looking back I am laughing at us a month ago when we thought a little fussing a little drooling was what teething was…that was child’s play compared to this.  Every night around 4PM he begins crying requiring constant skin to skin and nursing for comfort.  Then right around his normal bed time he begins to get clammy and feverish, the Tylenol helps a little bit but he still have pretty fitful nights, which means we do as well.  I feel terrible for him but know that these are growing pains and will pass….but seriously, how much longer?

I do plan on posting my final pictures I just haven’t had time with everything to take them! I will keep you all posted.

Go Team BeachBody!

Well today was definitely not one of my best days.  I woke up still pretty tired, I have been exhausted the past couple of days I think the shifting weather is really messing with my allergies and or sinuses.  I have basically been calling it a night once Davey goes to sleep at 7PM.  Even then, Davey has been having more trouble sleeping at night so I am up quite a few times each evening with him.  So in my foggy brain, I forgot to take my medicine this morning…

I think the best way of describing how I was feeling this morning once I got into work would be, crushing dread.  Now I don’t know whether to blame this on the fatigue or missing my dose of Zoloft.  I have had many people caution me that stopping Zoloft would be a very difficult thing to do; I never thought to ask the follow up question of “why?”  This morning I wish I had.  I felt if I could just put a finger on what was bothering me I would be able to better settle.  Fortunately, as the day went on I found myself diving into my work which helps me to stay grounded.  After pumping I ran through a quick mantra and yoga flow which I put together to help me whenever I get stressed.  I begin by crouching myself into the tiniest ball I can make.  I then tell myself, “I am grounded, with an open heart, my head faces towards the sun.” During which I transition from my crouch into a twisting chair pose with my arm extending toward the sky, looking towards my hand.  I finish with, “Through the fire I rise,” where I come into a full stand pressing my arms through goddess arms into a full reach above my head.  It feels amazing, not because it stretches my body, but if I match my breathing with the transitions it really helps relax me if I have any racing thoughts.

After finishing my work day I was mentally in a much better place but still physically exhausted.  I found myself repeatedly trying to find an excuse not to do my workout.  I did end up pushing myself through but it was not pretty and not very heart felt.  At least I pulled it together and stuck with it.  Here’s to hoping tomorrow goes a little bit better.

Talk about an awesomely difficult combo of workouts!  Yesterday, I absolutely fried my core with Chalene’s Hardcore on the Floor workout.  Despite following the modifiers I found myself incredibly sore this morning….good thing I don’t need to do another core workout right?….I wish, this is PiYo after all!  I should have realized there would be no rest, the entire programs foundation is increasing your core strength and stability. 

I did Buns today, it was not easy.  I was able to follow along with a majority of the kick through exercises but by the time I got to any of her plank finishers I was pretty much done and needed to rest in either Child’s Pose or Toe Breaker (one of my favorite resting poses to help me really get a good stretch through my plantar fascia).

Aside from having two awesome days of working out I have also been blessed to spend all of today with Davey and got to experience him trying to figure out how to crawl…it was amazing! I now realize there will be no more putting him on the floor and going to grab something real quick from the other room.  Within thirty seconds of being laid on his back he had flipped over and scooted backward all the way across the living room floor.  My favorite thing though has to be when he absolutely rages at the floor from a plank position!  He is trying so hard to figure it out.  This went on for an hour at a time today by the end of the day I was in tears and our dog Charlie had vacated the room.  After all of this we went for a family walk through the neighborhood and it was obvious I wasn’t the only one who had a good workout today.

Happy Hump Day Everybody!

Go Team BeachBody!

Just finished up my second round of Drench with ten minutes to spare before dinner.  Drench is a perfect description for this workout, despite having cooled off I keep having to take my glasses off because they are fogging up as I try and type this…SO MUCH HEAT!!!

I was initially very nervous about this workout when I saw it coming up and I avoided it for a couple of weeks in the program.  I dove in this past Saturday and was very satisfied with the experience.  By the twenty minute marker my lungs were heaving, face was sweating, and legs were shaking, so much cardio (I hate cardio).  It was also about this point I had an internal pull to just call it quits realizing I was just over the half way mark, but I was not ready to give up on myself.  Fortunately, the final half of the workout is primarily flow based working through a variety of yoga poses at a pretty quick speed to maintain the intensity.  She finished it off with some pushups mixed with stretching and my arms were basically screaming.  I tried to limit my use of the modifications but this is a very long very intense workout so that became pretty difficult.  It felt great to feel the power and potential in my body despite being utterly exhausted.

So above, that was my first day with Drench…today was a little different.  Yesterday was Mother’s Day and boy did we celebrate.  This time last year we said goodbye to my grandma so I got together with my mom and sister and we spent the afternoon reminiscing over old photographs and some wine.   It was absolutely lovely and I wouldn’t change a thing.  But today was rough, I was tired, weak, and unable to maintain my balance.  Giving up at twenty minutes sounded sooo good.  I’m grateful that I had done this program previously and knew that it would be tapering down.  I took so many rest breaks and generally felt pretty crappy. 

Tomorrows workout should be better.  To all the moms out there reading this I hope you had an amazing Mother’s Day.  No matter what your situation always remind yourself that you are amazing and doing God’s work.

Go Team BeachBody!

Today was one of those time to organize the mountain of paperwork I have been ignoring on our dining room table.  I’m sure you all have a dumping ground similar to this, a wasteland of unpaid bills, irrelevant mailers, and token reminder fliers for all the wonderful things you plan on doing (but lets be honest they have probably already expired if you are anything like me…)  My life is full of reminders on lists and calendars both electronic and hardcopy, it can get a little overwhelming.  So today I spent my morning organizing the mountain and recycling about half of it.  This is always the most cathartic part for me as I watch the pile of impending stressors slowly disappear and be filed away neatly until it inevitably comes back with a vengeance another month from now (but that is a problem for future Alex, today I am feeling accomplished.)  Even though after hours of work around the house I still only managed to scratch off two things on my to-do list, I am pretty easily distracted by life.

In all of this chaos I did manage to make sure I kept an hour of my day set aside for my PiYo workout, today I did Core.  I decided to try working out in our bedroom while the nanny stayed in the living room with Davey.  I figured we already have this giant tumbling mat in here.  Now some of you may be asking why on earth do they have a tumbling mat in their bedroom (what kind of crazy stuff are they into over at the Zuck house? 😉  Unfortunately, it is nowhere near as exciting as some of your imaginations will have made it.  We are a family that prescribes to the family bed and with Davey getting more and more mobile each day I needed some peace if he were to ever fall off the bed.  It will also come in handy if he is anything like his dad I predict a lot of rolling and tumbling in this kids future. 

The workout did not go so great because although the mat worked well the space was a little cramped and I was worried I would end up knocking something over or hitting my hand on the ceiling fan if I allowed myself to really stretch out.  Lesson learned, I guess next time I will have to try the office or just accept needing to go down into the basement.  I mean, Chris works out there every morning and he is still kind of sane, I should at least give it a try one of these days.

Thanks for checking in everybody!

Go Team BeachBody!

Last night I was feeling pretty great on my way home from work, super motivated to get to it.  The Davey had different plans, when I got home I was greeted by a tired hungry baby who spent his day refusing to nap or eat his bottle.  I did try and workout while Chris watched Davey but I could hear him crying in the back room and knew it was one of those cries that you know the only solution is to put him to breast.  We are pretty sure he is teething as anything soft in our house has turned into a drool bib, I’m pretty sure I felt my foot slosh on the carpeting just the other morning.  It worked like a charm Davey immediately had a small snack then fell asleep at 5PM!

Today I feel like I more than made up for it though, I was able to make it through the entire Sweat workout today and let me tell you….I pushed hard!  I am proud to say I was able to do half of the tricep pushups on my feet not knees and I even touched the floor during our Sumo Squats!  I did still modify the burpee because I was pretty exhausted by this point in the program.  I feel amazing, I have never had a runner’s high but I feel like this must be pretty close. 

Go Team BeachBody!

So, I have gone a little off book with this program, this past week in particular.  With trips and out of town visitors I found it pretty difficult to keep to the schedule and therefore decided that last week was a wash and I will start month two of the PiYo program today!  Now, this does not mean I skipped working out last week (although a rest week does sound amazing…) I simply switched in a couple of workouts from different programs (T25) and alternated some of the PiYo days.  Unfortunately, I have found that I have conveniently taken rest days and transitioned to different workouts each day I am lined up to do Drench.  At this point I don’t know if it is my subconscious avoiding this workout or it truly is a crazy coincidence, but I am not going to lie whatever it is I am very nervous about this workout (thank God it is not tomorrow!)

How am I feeling one month in?  The answer in short, incredible!  I feel stronger in my day to day and generally have more energy, now I do still have days where I am exhausted but then I remind myself “you have a baby no shit you’re tired!” and it helps me feel better.  I am also noticing fewer aches and pains, for those of you who did not read my initial post my body was pretty much a train wreck initially postpartum and I was dealing with a multitude of chronic injuries.  Now I do still deal with weakness in my core and find myself fatiguing when I carry Davey too long but it is nowhere near as bad.  I am also still coping with some shoulder impingement but the pain has gone away now all that bothers me is the occasional numbness and tingling when I am carrying him for too long.

Now the good stuff…look at that booty!  I feel my clothes fitting better in my legs and across my belly.  I can finally try on some of the outfits I wore pre-pregnancy without a level of dread what they may look like.  I feel like this program has helped guide me back to the person I was pre-pregnancy by helping me rediscover not only my physical but mental strength.

• 

Chalene, I doubt you will ever read this but I need to thank you, your positive energy throughout this program has been truly inspiring to me.  You have helped me through some dark days and your program is truly turning my life around.

Go Team BeachBody!

These past couple of days have presented some new and stressful experiences for our little family.  Davey developed his first fever, putting both Chris and me on edge while we waited to see what would happen.  Davey is doing much better, I did end up staying home with him today, but he seems to be in a much better place.  Fortunately, we have a pretty spectacular support system built of family and friends both old and new.  I was able to reach out to a fellow mom friend from high school who is also a nurse and she helped guide me through the logistics of what I should be doing.  Our doctors office had closed two hours before I caught the temperature spike and I was not ready to call this an emergency.  I was also very grateful to have a new friend, that was there to help provide emotional support, especially when I had to go to work and leave my sick baby at home.  We were lucky though, my husband had been set to stay home anyway as we had a contractor coming to do some much needed repairs.  I also have one of my dearest friends in from out of town and she spent my work day helping to prepare easy to make meals that Chris and I could cook from frozen down the road.  Then there is our amazing nanny, who since the very first time she met Davey I could tell had his absolute best interests at heart.  I have a pretty amazing team to lean on that allowed me to head into work at the hospital and know that my baby was in good hands.  Looking back at all of the support I feel truly blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.  Thank you all for checking in!

As far as workouts go, I have decided to go a little bit off book the next couple of days (I’m sorry Chalene!)  I jut wanted to take the opportunity to introduce my friend to as many of the amazing trainers and programs as possible while she is here.  Last night after work we did our own version of Throwback Thursday as I got to hang out with one of my favorite trainers, Shaun T, and do one of my personal favorite T25 workouts Speed 1.0!  It was pretty much as challenging as I remember it being and very cardio intensive.  As I had anticipated the jumping was a bit of a problem after recently having a baby.  I am glad I put off starting T25 until this June, hopefully once I finish PiYo I will be more fit to participate.

Today I am debating whether or not I want to introduce us to The 21 Day Fix with Autumn, it is a program I have never done so it may be fun, or whether we should try a little X3 with Tony.  I will keep you all posted.

One a side note, speaking of switching routines, I have a couple day stretch of days where I am home and decided it was time to help Davey get a little better at self soothing (especially having my friend in from out of town to help support me) I am really struggling as I try and transition Davey into napping in his crib instead of my arms.  I really need to be able to get some work done on days I am home with him and it is nearly impossible if four hours of my day I am stuck on the couch with him to make sure he gets a nap in.  So now I am sitting in the rocking chair in his room listening to him absolutely loose his mind despite trying to assure him I am still here.  It is absolutely heartbreaking to sit and listen to this, I feel like I am going a little bit crazy, but I know at the end of the day this will be so much better for all of us.  Send prayers for strength and patience please.

Go Team BeachBody!

So a bit of content backlog, I’m sorry for those of you keeping up, things have been surprisingly busy recently and I am having a bit of trouble staying on top of it all.  This past weekend we packed up the car and headed out for our first out of town adventure as a family.  This turned out to be much more complicated than we had initially thought.  Fortunately, I had already packed clothes for Davey and myself from our visit up to Crystal Lake so all we had to do was fit Chris’s bags into the car.  I drive a 2007 Toyota Matrix, I like to call her Icarus, I bought the car because of its ample storage space.  She car has served us very well making countless back and forth trips from Kansas City to St. Louis and Chicago.  She helped move our family over half a dozen different times before we finally settled into our home in Chicago.  I was absolutely shocked to see how quickly and completely every single nook and cranny was filled as we prepared for our one night adventure up to Grand Rapids, MI.  I think we may need to start considering an upgrade sooner than anticipated…

The initial car ride over to Grand Rapids went amazing, Davey slept the entire three hours!  We made it in the knick of time to see a very dear friend of mine get married, you have to love those Michigan drivers, they definitely know how to get where they are going.  The wedding was absolutely beautiful!  After which we made a short stop at Founders Brewing Company for some lunch before checking into our hotel where we handed Davey off to our sitter and headed out to the reception.  What a blast, Chris and I spent the night enjoying some much needed baby free time filled with dancing and general merriment.

Unfortunately, the ride back home to Chicago did not go as smoothly.  Davey decided to cry the entire way.  We gave ourselves a small break in Three Oaks, MI where we stopped at Journeyman Distillery.  I got to try a pickle gimlet (it was amazing don’t knock it until you try it), Chris got a fig based old fashion (also super yummy) and we shared a plate of some smoked trout spread with horseradish!  After which we hopped back in the car, turned the volume up on Tech N9ne (don’t worry Davey is still way to young to understand Tech’s lyrical genius) and tried our hardest not to lose our minds the last hour and a half home.

Once home I was able to fit in the days PiYo workout Sweat.  It felt great to get the blood flowing after such a long car ride.  It was also pretty nice to take a moment out of my head and focus solely on the workout at hand.

The following day I got to dive into PiYo Sculpt, Chalene was not messing around with this one.  It was immediately clear that this was going to be much more intense than anything we had done previously.  By the end I was a sweaty tired mess and just wanted to lay on the floor and not move.  It was challenging but at the same time very exciting to realize that I was able to participate in a majority of the program without taking any breaks.  This workout does require a chair for tricep dips so make sure you have one that is stable enough to support your body weight.  The “cooldown” section should really be called a “burnout” in this workout because it is pretty much a constant grind from beginning to end.  Overall, it is a solid workout that I can tell will lead to some pretty significant results.

Today, I spent my day at another continuing education course, “Calming the Overactive Brain” presented by Dr. Sieber, hosted by IBP Seminars.  I will delve more into what I learned in tomorrows post.  I want to give myself the night to process a little bit more and get my thoughts straight. 

After the course I came home and jumped into PiYo Sweat!  This is a routine I am very familiar with at this point so I was surprised by how difficult it was today.  I quickly realized that maybe my muscles were more fatigued than I thought from yesterdays Sculpt workout.  I was very grateful when we finally made it to “pigeon town” for some much needed rest.

Go Team BeachBody!