Buckling down and tightening up

So, kinda continuing where I left off last week, (I may have lost a couple pounds, which is cool, but I'm not shrinking much yet. More on that on Monday when I take stock and update stats at the end of phase 1) I'm still feeling pretty Grr and Meh about my progress so far, externally at least. I'm clearly not going to be a size 4, or probably even a 6, by the time we go to Emerald Isle. I have to be okay with that. My body is still recovering from Declan's birth, which in some ways was much harder than the average normal birth(and did you know the body takes at least a year to fully recover?). I'm breastfeeding exclusively, which is a huge factor, and I'm adjusting still to having two kids to take care of. I have to be fair to myself. 

There's not a ton I can do to make my body return to where it was a year ago quicker than it wants to, but there are ways to optimize my success and results. 

Food:Cut the processed stuff, especially sugar. This means no more protein powders, sugary yogurts, and processed snacks. It probably means I should give up or at least limit the veggie straws I'm so fond of lately. LOTS of greens and more veggies. Confession: I all but quit eating vegetables during both Lexi and Declan pregnancies. No grazing, instead eat 3 meals and two snacks while nursing, cut back to one when done nursing. 

Recovery: I can improve my recovery by consuming anti-inflammatory foods like ginger, turmeric, bananas, avocados, coconut water, and more. This is super important, as my productivity takes s hit when I'm sore or tired from training hard. 

Sleep: I need to go to bed earlier. 1130 is just too late if I want to be out of bed close to 6, and be done working out by 9. My record so far is having the workout done by 1030, btw. Im going back to drinking my magnesium every night for awhile too. That should be good for both sleep and milk production.

Mental health/self care: I've said this before, but I'm still working on it. Showers, a little makeup, a massage. Maybe some time in the sun. I need these things. 

Most of all, I need to celebrate consistency. I've done so awesome so far! I started exercising regularly when Declan was only 2 months old. That's a vast improvement over the 7 months it took after Lexi, and even then I wasn't consistent. Tomorrow is my last day of phase 1 and Monday I start phase 2. I can't wait to see how strong I'll get, and let's be real, I'm looking forward to some inch loss too!

Frustrations and comparisons

So I shared yesterday that I'm frustrated with my external progress. I really really am. I'm trying to be patient and lety body figure things out, and tweak and experiment with my calorie intake, but it's really tough to push and push and be tired and sore without the payoff. I've been here before and I got through it, and I will this time too, but right now I'm really struggling emotionally. This is compounded by the fact that we are going to Virginia Beach this weekend to see my family-which I'm really excited about-and that brings up my insecurities and struggles with comparison. My little sister, who has always been beautiful and thin, had a baby 8 weeks before me, and bounced back soooo fast-partly due to her super metabolism, partly due to being 24. We are totally different women and comparison isn't fair, but I struggle mightily with it. I work sooooo hard and am so conscious of what I eat, while she sends me pictures of fries and frosties. None of this is her fault, but gosh it's disheartening. I'm praying today for freedom from this insecure struggle and the ability to relax and enjoy the time with my family. Oh, and that I'll have shrunk a little by Monday morning. 😉

Almost three weeks down...

And I have yet to see any change in my physique. I know sometimes it takes awhile for me, and that I'm very swollen from all the hard work, but I feel gross, dumpy, and incredibly frustrated. My performance in cycle class has blown me away so far, and I'm doing far better than expected at my jmbr workouts, but I really want the external results too. Let's be honest, that's a huge part of why I'm doing this, and I really need some payoff to motivate me to keep going. I've got cycle class tonight, and one last jmbr tomorrow, and hopefully this weekend will be a good chance to recover and let the swelling go down. I'm really hoping to check in Monday with some good news. 

Starting JMBR Week 2

I'll be honest, I'm frustrated. I worked out hard and pretty consistently all last month, and I kicked major butt all last week, and I'm not any smaller. My performance is making me really proud, and that's great, but let's be real, it's not what's driving me most. I want to look strong and fit and feel strong and comfortable in my clothes. I know I just had a baby and a doughy belly kinda comes with the territory unless you have a killer metabolism (which I don't, I have a metabolic disorder, YAY!), and I'm breastfeeding exclusively, which seems to make my body hold onto weight rather than drop it. So, what's the answer? 

Well it's clearly not to give up in defeat. I'm going to keep ripping through my workouts, and I'm also going to make sure I'm eating enough-because isn't that usually the problem for me? Maybe if I eat a little more, my body won't be so uptight about letting go of some chubs. Also; I need to be intentional about going to bed earlier. Less sleep inhibits weight loss too. So, here I go, launching into week two of body revolution and resolving to eat and sleep more. 

Recovery tips

Ok, so we know generally about how to eat healthy and exercise, right? (Posts to come on my approach to those!) There's a third important factor that I think we forget all too often, and that's recovery. The soreness we feel after a workout is tiny tears in our muscle tissue, which results in stronger muscles when they heal. In order to optimize the improvement from this cycle, we need to recover effectively. I'm a mama of two, and new at juggling 2 kids, let alone working out while juggling them (that's a funny mental picture!) so I really needed to make sure my systems were in place, so I sat down a few weeks ago to strategize on how to fuel, train, and recover well with limited extra effort and time. Here are my top tips:

Rest day: I take 2 days as  active recovery days, where I go for a walk, but don't do any strength work or intense cardio, and one total rest day where I don't usually even go for a walk. I train as intensely as I can the other four days, so I need to give my body the best recovery I can. A few years ago this would have sounded insane. Only work out half the week? If you overtrain, your muscles won't recover enough to get stronger, and your risk of injury increases, so really, this is necessary if you're looking for expedited results. 

Recovery aids: 

-I eat a few ginger chews each day to help aid in my recovery. They are delicious and make a huge difference. There's science behind this, but tbh, I don't remember exactly what it says. 

-coconut water. This stuff is awesome. It has electrolytes, sodium, potassium, and far less sugar and none of the chemicals of sports drinks. Plus I love the taste.

-potassium rich foods- bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, squashes...all these things help your body heal. 

-hydration-the coconut water helps, but I drink a ton of water too. The muscles need water to repair. Sometimes we swell up after a tough workout, and that's why-but drinking adequate water actually makes you de-bloat faster! 

-extra protein- I usually try to up my protein on rest days especially while I'm rebuilding, in the form of nuts, chicken, beef. Fish, and eggs. 

-SLEEP! I try to take a nap as often as I can, but especially on rest days. Your body does the most healing when you sleep! 

Hope these tips help you find some sweet success of your own! 

 

Starting Body Revolution

Today I started Jillian Michaels' Body Revolution for the fourth time. It was tough, but that's good. I feel like I'm starting at a reasonable level of fitness, and am looking forward to to experiencing lots of progress in performance and I hope hope hope I'll get to see some external transformation over the next 12 weeks as well. 

Here's where it gets tricky: I can't slash my calories. We already learned almost 2 years ago that I have to set my net calorie goal and make sure I eat back anything I burn that puts me below that, or my body will just hang onto fat like it's starving. I'm also exclusively breastfeeding, which burns between 350-500 extra calories a day. Sooooo...I think I need to be netting 2000 calories to start? I'm not as concerned about the scale number exactly, but more about fat loss as I build muscle. So, we will start at 2k and see where we are after 2 weeks? 

My goal for the next 12 weeks is to lose 2 (maybe even 3!) pant sizes. That seems doable. Three would put me at least at the size I was when I got pregnant, even if not the same body composition.

 Here's my day 1 shot:

It's...a starting place! And I'm 14 weeks postpartum, not 6+ months like with Lexi, so YaY! 

Self Care and Normalcy

Those have been my key words and cravings since Declan has been born, and I think I'm finally almost to where I want to be with both, but boy has it been a battle! 

Normalcy seemed impossible. 

Declan's birth took far more of a physical toll on me than Lexi's did, and that started me out a bit weaker both physically and emotionally. Plus the nursing struggle. Ohhhh the nursing. He had trouble in the hospital, but I figured it'd just take a few days, and he'd get it. No, it was a roller coaster for a very long time, and now, eleven weeks after his birth, it's still not easy and totally natural like it was with Lexi, but we are making it work in a way I can live with. I won't bore you with the details except to say that I'm not sleep deprived because Declan is up all night, im sleep deprived because I'm not yet comfortable enough with how much he's eating to allow him to sleep through the night, because he would.  We are finding a rhythm of systems that allow us to begin to go out and do things, and I'm beginning to be able to give Lexi more than the bare minimum of my attention, and we are creating our new normal. We aren't quite there yet, because Scott and I have got to find a way to go to bed before midnight so I can start my day earlier without robbing my body of the sleep it needs, but I feel we are close. It's a bit frustrating when I have an idea of a routine in my head and I can't get it rolling quite as smoothly as I'd like right out of the gate, but I'm learning to just keep moving and eventually we will get to the place I'd like to be. And I'm a heck of a lot better at it now than I was when Lexi was a baby and I just lived in my euphoria bubble. The key to getting even this far though, has been: 

Self Care. 

Even before I had kids, back when I did what I wanted all day long (which honestly sounds so boring now!) I periodically took a day and called it a spa day. I took a long bath with bubbles and candles, did a long series of treatments on my face, gave myself a mani-pedi...and it refreshed me. In 2011 while we were actively pursuing having a baby, self care became more focused on my health and fitness, and that year was life changing. I fell in love with eating clean and moving my body. Then something crazy happened.  I unlocked something in me that is never knew was there, first through swimming, then through cycle and yoga. I'd barely gotten to scratch the surface of my athleticism when I found out I was pregnant with Lexi. Self care wasn't really something I struggled with during that first year in my pink Lexi bubble. Though I was unhappy with how my body looked and felt, I was not ready yet to stop snuggling long enough to do what it took to reclaim my health and really discover what I had inside me. I discovered Paleo halfway through that year, and that was awesome, but only half the package of a healthy lifestyle. In August 2013 though, it all clicked, and I began pursuing my health and working to become my best, strongest, and happiest self. It's funny that from August 2013-June 2014 I went through some of the most painful emotional and spiritual challenges of my life, but the knowledge that if I kept on course with self care, which had come to mean daily devotion, consistent exercise and physical challenges, good food, and a little makeup, I would not only survive, but thrive. I wasn't able to keep nearly as active as I wanted to while pregnant with Declan, and the difficulty sleeping robbed me of my early morning bible study time, but I was determined not to let 6 months go by before I started taking care of myself postpartum and definitely not a year. Even with all the challenges, I have to say I'm proud of myself, because I started walking fairly regularly when Declan was 3 weeks old, I started doing yoga when he was 6 weeks old, and I started HIIT training when he was 2 months old. With Scott's help, I'm putting self care habits in place that are already making me the best mama for my babies. Here's what self care looks like for me now: 

- a realistic schedule mapped out that I can work toward making a daily routine for our family

- hands free pumping bras so I can have devotions during those overnight feeding/pumping sessions, breakfast and coffee during the morning one, and the ability to read and blog, and make that time not wasted. 

-good food that is quickly and easily accessible during the day so I stay fueled

-support in making my fitness a priority. My workouts are my medicine, and they must happen. Scott's support and facilitating this when needed is huge

-tools and products to keep myself looking and feeling pretty-this sounds silly, but the main room of our apartment has a mirrored wall. If I look like crap, I'm gonna see it all day and that's really depressing. 

-this one is new: a membership to a spa where I can get a massage or facial regularly. Best Mother's Day gift ever! 

I'm way behind on my schedule today already due to needing to sleep in and a baby that needed cuddles, but I'm going to keep rolling forward. 

If you are a mama who struggles with self care, if it sounds silly and selfish to make time for your needs, please take it from me-it's not. It's putting on your oxygen mask so you can help your family with theirs.