Month: March 2019

These were brutal…I am now 17weeks postpartum.  I guess I was most shocked because I have not truly given myself the time to look at my body since having Davey.  So far everyone has been telling me how I look pretty good for just having had a baby and I went along with it, even though I was not feeling good physically.

I ache everywhere from the smallest amount of activity.  Today, after spending the morning bouncing Davey at church I came home with aching calves and shins.  We went for a walk up the hill afterwards to grab a family breakfast at Panera, just pushing the stroller through the park had me winded.

Aside from the generalized weakness  and fatigue from nearly a year of limited physical activity I am also coping with a range of now chronic aches and pains.  Prior to having Davey I was going to physical therapy for some pretty bad sciatic pain.  I think that the core exercises I was working on then are the only reason I am not in worse shape after delivery, too bad I didn’t keep them up.  Now if you look closely enough you will see my body is actually starting to twist, something I have struggled with my entire life but is definitely worse after this pregnancy.  I also have a diastasis recti (split in my abdominal wall) which has been there since childhood but has now doubled in size because of the strain of pregnancy.  My hips hurt from occasional bursitis flare-ups and we can’t forget the searing shoulder impingement from carrying and co-sleeping, leading to me waking up at least once a night unable to move my arms.

Needless to say, my body is a hot mess and it is time to make a change.  Davey is pretty good at entertaining himself for at least 20-30 minutes at a time now.  I keep reminding myself that I am doing this not only for myself but for my family.  Here’s to hoping Davey is on board with this plan and gives me a small chunk of the day to make this happen. Go Team BeachBody!

Wish me luck everybody! I will keep you posted this week with updates and reviews of the work-outs as I go.

Have you ever had one of those mornings where everything is going seamlessly, if not don’t worry they will come, if so you understand how special and rare they can be.  So of course, why would our brains not decide to ruin them with that perpetual nagging thought, “Did I forget something?” 

This morning things were going so well I even had time to sit with my coffee and play with Davey for a couple of minutes before hopping in the car to work; that is when the trouble began.  Sitting at my counter the foreboding slowly began creeping in, completely pulling me from the morning and leading me to run around the house double and triple checking everything I had already taken care of.  But the fun didn’t stop there, I then proceeded to call my husband, my nanny, and my mom (who lives across the street) to see if maybe they could help put my mind at ease and tell me what the hell I had forgotten…nothing.

A sane individual would have let it go at this point, taken the win for the morning and carried on with their day probably with a  little extra pep in their step.  Not this girl, I spent my morning going through everything I had done trying to find the mistake.  You see here is my problem, I love routines.  My life for as long as I can remember has been dependent on managing my time and goals to the minute, you can not live that way with a newborn.

So, I am trying to let go.  It is a process, working to let myself give up a little control and just breathe, but if it helps me not be a muttering loon wandering the halls of the hospital I think it will ultimately be the best.  Any suggestions?

Well, that was much harder than I expected.  So, yesterday Davey and I decided to take a whack at Baby Yoga, we just found a short video on YouTube.  It started out great with smiles for miles.  About ten minutes into this thirty minute work-out Davey decides he has had enough and absolutely loses it.  That put a pretty hard stop on the yoga session for that day, but I was pretty proud of myself for at least starting something.

This morning I woke up and felt like I had been hit by a train.  Honest moment, I have pretty much been a sedentary lump on my couch since I found out I was pregnant last March.  I had a very rough first trimester (I’ll talk about this in a later post) and it just had me fall into some pretty bad habits.  Then Davey came and sleep along with any thoughts of fitness went flying out the window.  All this being said, I was still very surprised by how sore I was feeling from only 10 minutes of pretty basic yoga.

No wonder work has been kicking my ass, if I can’t even manage a short floor routine how can I even think I am ready to be moving patients!  This experience really helped highlight why I need to take better care of myself.  Right now I can barely carry my son on our walks because he is too heavy, I ultimately end up handing him off to my husband and it makes me feel like crap.  So PiYo here I come!  I am sick of feeling this way, I am sick of being tired and sore.  I don’t need to be the woman I was pre-pregnancy, I just want to be able to play with my kid and do my job without worrying about hurting myself.

I’m sorry if this was a little bit of a rant, but I needed to get it out there why I am doing this.  

I seriously underestimated the difficulty of juggling working, Davey, and trying to launch The Mommy Motions.

Side bar on napping: Right now, I am only able to get this down because I spent the last thirty minutes lulling Davey to sleep.  We are trying to get him comfortable napping on his own, but like his Mama, he is a snuggle bug and likes to sleep close.  So, currently, this is being written from my living room floor.  Where, in the frequent event of Davey opening his eyes, he will see I am sitting right by him.  My first attempt at a post I had him snoozing in my lap, but as I said earlier, I am also a sucker for a good snuggle and found myself napping right along with him.  I have no regrets, this time is limited and one day he will no longer want to cuddle with his mom, so for now I take it whenever I can.

I meant to have everything up and running and starting BeachBody PiYo program this week, needless to say that did not happen.  As I keep pushing my launch date I am starting to feel the pressure of “how will I ever have time for this?!”  My answer to that is, I just have to make it happen.  PiYo is just 30-60 minutes of your day depending on where you are in the program.

Here are three changes I have made to my behavior to add an extra hour to my day:

Daily Life Hacks:

1) Pumping on my commute: It may not be pretty and sometimes it is downright  annoying but that alone has freed up 30 minutes of my day for working out

2) Weekly meal plans: Not only does this make me accountable to my diet, but having my dinners planned out ahead of time takes the stress off of what to make each night.

(You can see what the Zuck Crew is having for dinner this week at the end of this post!)

3) Using the dishwasher:  This may sound like a “Duh” discovery, but I had been washing all of my pumping supplies and bottles by hand each night then used the microwave to sanitize them.  This usually took me anywhere from 30-60 minutes each day!  Now, I simply load up the dishwasher and go.

So today, I am not starting my PiYo challenge, but need something to get moving…Baby Yoga?  We are going to give it a go after this nap, I will keep you all posted on how it goes!

Whats on the menu this week:

Monday: Spinach and Feta Chicken Sausage over Pasta with Asparagus

Tuesday: Steak Tacos! (I know we forgot the vegetable…fail)

Wednesday (Date Night!): Fillet with Potatoes Au Gratin and Green Beans

Thursday: Aldi Take and Bake Pizza

Friday: Lemon Dill Salmon over Couscous with Asparagus

Saturday: Meatloaf with Baby Baked Potatoes and Green Beans

Sunday: Crab Rangoon Stuffed Chicken with Broccoli

To all of us this week, hang in there and remember, you are absolutely rocking it!