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Happy four month birthday Davey, I’m sorry to say today you were making me a little big crazy.  So, we started our day with Davey retching on the bed, thankfully it was already 5:30AM, I guess I will count that as sleeping in.

Afterwards, we had a pretty relaxing morning, until it came time to nap.  I think our longest stretch was 30 minutes without crying and this has not stopped since 10:30AM.  I’ve tried rocking him, changing him, driving around, burping, nursing, pacifiers, multiple teethers…I even got desperate enough to check his temperature (98.8).  Fortunately, my mom came to the rescue (probably sensing the desperation in my voice) and took him for a walk around the neighborhood.  For all I know he is still screaming his lungs out, but for this blessed break in my day it is no longer my problem.  This does not make me a bad mom, this makes me a sane person that needed to sit quietly with a glass of wine and calm down.

Don’t you worry though, I may have the wine now but only after I cranked out today’s workout.  Talk about momming-up!  I feel like a beast, a tired frazzled beast, but beast none the less.  I feel like the stress of today really helped fuel todays workout and I was able to give it 110%.

I now get to sit here guilt free sipping my wine and catching up on a quick episode of the Goldbergs.  Thanks for checking in everybody!

Go Team BeachBody!

Alright, back on track!  Today was our first day tackling PiYo Core, it was tough.  My back is still not 100% from last week when I tried lifting that patient but the workouts are helping me work through the ache as long as I keep following Michelle my favorite modifier. 

I am still struggling to figure out how my body should be feeling during the PiYo Pike, this is when I really wish I had a mirror to be able to see my alignment.  From past workout programs I know that as I get stronger this will become easier for me to tease out I just need to keep up with it and fight for every inch.

So, something we need to address for all the nursing moms following this.  You need to have a good sports bra, this is super tough to find though.  Depending on when your baby last fed will really change how it fits.  I do like my nursing sports bra but they require more care with washing so I use a standard sports bra I picked up but it never fits quite right, but I can just chuck it into the laundry.  Accepting that this is going to keep being uncomfortable for me  has been difficult. I’m grateful that there is not much jumping in PiYo, although the downward dogs can be problematic.

I know, I should just suck up the extra laundry time and embrace the nursing specific wear, but what they don’t warn you about when you have a kid is you will pretty much live in your laundry room.  Before Davey we did laundry once maybe twice a week, now I am literally down there every freaking day!  Partially my own damn fault choosing cloth diapers, but ugh.

Overall, the workout was really good my shoulders are absolutely screaming!  At the end of the workout Chalene subtly warns us we may be feeling a little sore in unexpected places tomorrow…I will keep you all posted.

Go Team BeachBody!

Sweat was sooo much harder when you pair it with 78 degree weather and a living room full of carpeting, I feel like we will be moving to the basement shortly.  Sorry to keep this section brief I am exhausted.

I have been a little overwhelmed recently, I don’t know if it is work or home but things have just started piling up around me.  I figured this would be one of the largest obstacles I faced as I took on a “transformation challenge,” where the hell would I find all this extra time?  Well, sure as shit it caught up to me and I fell off the wagon.  I wish I could say I am one of those people that has a small hiccup but then gets back to it, but I am the other type.  I am the type that says, “well, I already messed up there so why not go ahead and do this other thing (also detouring from my overall objective).”  It is a pretty terrible cycle that if left unchecked can seriously derail any plans I may have had.

It started with just pushing off this blog post, nothing major, I just wanted to relax into my “Friday” (this was actually a Monday…life in healthcare), so I put off posting saying I would do it this morning.  Of course this morning came and Davey decided that he needed 100% of my attention.  I was working on prepping a dozen healthy breakfast muffins I could then freeze to replace the sodium filled preservative laced breakfast sandwiches I had been having, I got 10 minutes into the prep work with Davey napping soundly in his swing before he absolutely lost it.  I tried transferring him to his carrier, this lasted another 10 minutes thankfully just enough time for me to get them in the oven, but blogging was out of the question. 

We spent the afternoon roaming the town soaking up the beautiful weather but by the time I realized it the poor baby had only napped two hours all day!  Naturally he spent the whole next hour screaming at me in the car.  By the time I got home it was just easier to have a glass of wine and run out to a quick dinner with my husband while my mom watched Davey for an hour.

I do have a plan, it will suck, but I will have to make up todays missed work out this Friday instead of taking the rest day, that is called taking your lumps.  All I can do is try and be better tomorrow.

Well, the one benefit to having your baby wake you up at 6AM on a Sunday is you get a ton of shit done!  This morning we have already walked and fed the animals, done a load of laundry, and most importantly gotten a work out in!

Now I will admit, it was very very hard getting going initially. I went at this work out completely cold with no coffee and not very much time between out of bed and the starting point, so I was pretty sleepy.  It was definitely a different kind of tired than what I usually experience with my evening workouts.  After work it is much more of a general body fatigue as opposed to that I need coffee feeling when you first get up.

As it stands I think I get more out of the evening work out because I am able to push myself harder at that time of day.  I could probably get on board with the morning work out though just because I feel like I have already gotten so much done and it is not even 7:30AM!  I do know that whichever way I choose to go I will need to make sure I am consistent with it because otherwise they will both just continue being hard.

I was so excited about knocking this out this morning that I did not even realize I officially finished my first week of PiYo!  How am I feeling?  Pretty freaking good!!!  I am still pretty weak, and it has been hard making it work but mentally I feel so much better.  I can not wait until my physical fitness catches up to my mental wellness, the potential feels endless.

Off to kick this day in the ass, happy Sunday everybody!

Go Team BeachBody!

Oh yes, day six, sorry for not reaching out yesterday.  It was our rest day and I ended up enjoying an evening with the family and some Lou Malnatis!  We have now come full circle in the initial phase of this workout program.

This program was much more satisfying a second time around as I was more comfortable with the poses and flow.  This allowed me to go much deeper into the different poses and really feel it in my legs this session.

I was a bit of an idiot today at work and tried lifting someone much heavier than I should have so I ended up limiting most of my planks to on my knees and avoiding all of the “up dog” poses in the beginning of the program.  Chalene however, knew what she was doing because by the middle I was warmed up and much more confident I would not hurt myself.

This week I even gave the vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry Shakeology packs a try….I would have sworn up and down the vanilla would be my favorite, surprisingly it was the chocolate that took the lead, so yummy!

Go Team BeachBody!

I honestly don’t know whether I should be more proud of myself or Chalene for this workout.  I am absolutely exhausted, now I have been sick for most of this week which may play into it but I am definitely sleeping well tonight (pending Davey allowing it of course).  This workout had my ass and abs on fire for the first 15 minutes then finished off strong with a whole lotta push ups to burn out my arms.  I was definitely sticking with Michelle my favorite modifier this session!

A moment of truth, I was not my smartest self during this workout.  I was pretty orthostatic through the entire program, meaning every time I went from my head below my knees to standing I had a momentary “black out”.  We do this move a lot in the program and it was very hard to keep up.  I probably should have stopped working out but I am used to dealing with these episodes as I generally have very low blood pressure so after it happened a third time I began to modify heavily.  I have three theories on why this was such a problem for me today: 

1) I did not drink enough water throughout the day, I was swamped at work and did not even realize until I was in the car on the way home how thirsty I was.

2) I did take an Alka-Seltzer to try and combat being sick, this type of medication always makes my head a little funny

3) I have been getting less sleep this week as Davey is going through a growth spurt and eating almost every two hours throughout the day and night.

My take home point is I shouldn’t have and neither should anyone else workout if they are experiencing these symptoms.  I could have very easily fallen and hurt myself or my workout partner and no one needs that, working out it hard enough!  I am grateful for tomorrows rest day, and am making a commitment to myself to take better care of my body.

Overall, I am feeling pretty good today.  My legs feel just fine and my core is still screaming, not surprised.  After having Davey I have noticed my core really is my biggest obstacle.  As they say “proximal stability leads to distal mobility” meaning without a strong and stable base ultimately you can not develop muscles further from your core.

You are no stronger than your weakest point.  This is why PiYo is the perfect program for me, with its emphasis on stabilizing exercises and poses found in yoga and the heavy focus on training your core muscles found in pilates this program truly addresses all of my weakest points.  I originally wanted to go back to T25, a program that has been very successful for me in the past, but I needed something a little easier on my joints after pregnancy.

I was a little confused at how heavy this workout focussed on core initially, so much that 10 minutes into the workout we had to pause to check and make sure we had actually chosen the correct video.  We did, and we definitely got it that final half of the work out…my poor triceps, that final bonus set was absolutely brutal, thank you Chalene!

On a brief side note, we decided to try the “Black Pepper Shrimp” recipe from the Fixate Portion Fix cookbook…ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!  Now, we both love food and really enjoy making dinner together so I was very skeptical about using one of these recipes.  I am so happy I gave it a go, they were so yummy!  I can not wait to try another recipe.

Go Team BeachBody!

This work out was fantastic!  I am not going to lie, I was a little skeptical going into it after yesterdays work out. I did not know what to expect from the actual program.  Now this may have been because I was very distracted by little Davey and missed some crucial points but overall I felt I was unsure what to actually expect going forward.

I loved the flow of the entire workout, but even more than that I really liked knowing there would be 4 reps for each exercise which really allowed me to push through.  On this note, when she is going through the initial warrior poses she doubles up on the right leg but then only does one set on the left side.  My work out buddy and I just paused to even out, not necessary we are just kind of technical like that.  I also feel like it was the perfect blend of strength and length allowing me to address many of my problem areas in a well rounded fashion.

No surprises here, but I am sore even from the hodge podge attempt at working out I had yesterday, mainly in my transverse abdominal muscles.  This is excellent news!  I forgot how much these motions help to strengthen your core which will ultimately make both my home life and work life much more sustainable. 

Here are a few hacks I embraced this week beginning this program:

-Workout buddies are awesome!:  Find a partner to work with that helps motivate you and can keep you accountable to the program.  It doesn’t hurt if they can make you smile through it as well, thank you Courtney!

-I love stickers!:  This may sound silly, but every program I have ever attempted has been much more fulfilling when I use a sticker reward system to follow my progress through.

-Make the room:  I found that when I put my mind to it, and let go of a few ideas I had about my living space I was able to turn my living room into a more functional space where I could have the space and means to crank out a good work out but still enjoy family time at the end of my day.

To everybody out there working to make it happen, keep it up! You are doing an awesome job 🙂

Go Team Beachbody!

That could have gone better.  On the upside I found a friend who wants to try and go through the program with me, on the downside Davey is pretty resistant to the idea.  True to his character, Davey allowed us about 10 minutes of working out before he decided he no longer wanted to watch from his swing on the sidelines but be apart of the activity.  So, I picked him up, dropped him down on my mat and began trying to work the poses around him.  This worked for about another 5 minutes (flash backs to my baby yoga fail, for sure).  After all of this I ended up trying to somehow work the poses with him in various positions in my arms or resting on my knee, I will feel this tomorrow.

Fortunately, prior to my pregnancy I did a lot of yoga so this workout being primarily a review of the various poses was easy for me to not be fully engaged in.  Which allowed me to be more engaged with Davey throughout the 40 minutes, as this was more of an educational session.  I really loved the modifier Michelle and was able to pace myself through some poses which had become too challenging for me postpartum.  I desperately tried to ignore the smiling woman in the back of the video who already had two kids under her belt and still maintained a top notch physique.

In this video Chalene took us through each of the movements that are going to make up the core of all future workouts.  I feel that if I had not been so distracted by Davey this would have been a very nice way to ease into the program and really focus on limbering up and prepare for the next 60 days!

So tomorrow, my husband will be taking Davey during the workout.  Wish me luck on day two, this is going to be intense.

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.