Getting back into the swing of things…

Thank you all so much for reading my last post and for all the kind and encouraging comments I received. I was super nervous to put it out there, but I knew if I could reach one person, it would be worth it. Well, that post was the most viewed in the history of my blog, so I’m guessing I reached more than one. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, getting back to the business of sweating. 🙂

Texas is pretty much frozen solid this weekend…well, the north part of it at least. And since we live in Texas and don’t get to see much of this white stuff, the entire DFW area has pretty much shut down. That means lots of family snuggles, baking, sledding (on driveways since hills aren’t in huge supply here), and home workouts. Here is the one I’ve been doing. Its a good one!

 

Break up the exercises if you need to, do this throughout the day or all at once, but get this done and you’ll have yourself a good sweat. Oh, and I can’t find my jump rope, so I ran up and down my stairs for a minute. Little Man thought that was awesome, so he did it, too.

Stay sweaty, my friends!

Coming back from the brink…

It has been a long time since I’ve written anything. I had to take a break for a while, from blogging, from my FB page, even from working out. I haven’t worked out in almost a month. There was some stuff going on in my life that I needed to get straight. What stuff? Well, I’ve finally gotten the desire and the confirmation that is time to write this entry that I’ve been struggling with for a while. There are going to be some things in here that you might judge me for, but that’s not the point of this. The point is to tell women out there that they are not alone.

I have been suffering from postpartum depression. Yikes. We are all warned of postpartum depression when we get pregnant. “If you suffer from sadness, anxiety, anger, etc when the baby is born, make sure you get help.” What? Why would I be sad when my baby is here? I’ll be the happiest woman in the world. Isn’t that what society tells us we should feel? We should be glowing with excitement that we have this new, adorable life to take care of. Every waking moment should be filled with smiles and excitement and coos and staring dreamily at your baby that you’re totally in love with. If you feel anything less than that, you’re a bad mother/person. Babies=happiness. Hmmm. But what happens if you do start to feel any of those “ugly” feelings? The sadness, the anxiety, and horrors of horrors, the anger that you’re warned of? Are you really a horrible mother? The answer, my friends, is ABSOLUTELY NOT.

You’d be surprised at how many women actually suffer from postpartum depression. In a lot of mild cases, its just called “the baby blues.” The baby blues are defined as mood swings and tearfulness that last a couple days to a couple weeks after the baby is born. But, if  5 months after the baby is born, you’re still experiencing crazy mood swings, anger, tears, resentment, etc, you might have a more severe form of PPD. Again, you are not alone.

The first time I realized something might be seriously wrong was when Baby Boy was about a month old, I flipped out on Little Man (3) when he spilled the dogs’ water. Seriously. Flipped. Out. I screamed and yelled at him to not touch the water and get in the “damn house.” Whoa. Did I just cuss at my kid? That wasn’t normal. I’m a fiery red-head, but I also normally have tons of patience when it comes to Little Man. (I attribute that to teaching 9th graders for a couple years.)  It was just water for Pete’s sake. After this episode and until Baby Boy was 5 1/2 months old, there was lots of screaming, slamming doors, spankings, etc. Every time LM threw a fit, so did I. Then, at night, I would just sit in bed and cry about what I was doing; how I was the most horrible mother ever; that I was ruining my precious three year old. My hubby heard many times that I was a awful person and didn’t deserve my two little boys. The next day I would vow to not yell, but the tiniest things would set me off. I normally love to laugh, but I just couldn’t feel happy, I just felt rage. I couldn’t get joy from anything. The unbalance of chemicals and hormones in my head was making me feel totally crazy.  I was in a very dark place. In fact, thinking back I don’t really remember much about those first months of my baby’s life. I just remember the dark and the feeling of being alone.

My best friend was the one who started to pull me out. She and I talked and it turned out, she was going through very similar experiences. She had had a baby two months before I did. It was so crazy to describe a situation to her and have her say, “that happened at our house too!” I had thought, for sure, that I was the only one that was this awful. Then my hubby told me that his friends’ wife was feeling that way, too. Three moms suffering from these feelings. That can’t be just coincidence. I asked the ladies in my MOPS group, and most of them said they had similar experiences. I started asking what they were doing that was helping. My answers were a lot of praying and anti-depressant medication. I started with the praying. If you ask me, you can’t get anywhere without God’s help first. I actually began to feel better. There were about two weeks that I was able to laugh and be happy again.  Then one day, I got sucked back into the darkness, and I was basically just laying on the floor trying to grasp onto any happy thought in my head. I remember sitting on my stairs and just crying my eyes out. I had asked Tracy to pray for me because I literally could not get a happy enough thought to say the word God. It was then I knew I had to get professional help.

After talking to my doctor, I started taking Prozac. He also mentioned that calcium supplements would help, too. I have been taking these two things together for a little over a month now and I am totally back to my old self. Its really amazing. I thank God every day for modern medicine (and not so modern). Now, I still get upset at Little Man because he’s three, and three year olds are insane, but I can control my temper. I’m not “screaming mommy” anymore. I’m not “hurting his heart” (his words….ugh) anymore. Everyone in my house is a lot happier. (I do notice that when I take my “crazy girl pills” but not my calcium, I’m more irritable. If you’re not wanting to try the anti-depressants, try calcium. 1000mg. They seriously work.) The darkness is gone and has been replaced by light and beauty and love. Now I can enjoy my boys and remember my 7 month old’s milestones.

I wanted to write this and expose my experiences in hopes that maybe someone who is also suffering can read this and realize that she is not alone. It is ok to be feeling this way, its more normal than you think…than anyone tells us mommies. Its ok to get help!!! YOU ARE NOT ALONE. YOU ARE NOT A HORRIBLE MOTHER.

Training Tuesday

If you read my blog yesterday, you’ll know that I am doing Jamie Eason’s Live Fit Trainer. It is a 12 week strength training program by fitness expert and model, Jamie Eason. She gives you the workouts, and you do them. She gives you the meal plan, and you eat it. She even has recipes and a list of “clean” foods for you to use. She starts out by building your muscles’ endurance, then goes to building the muscle. At first, its just weights, then she moves to plyos and cardio with weights. You can seriously change your body if you follow her program. You can find it at bodybuilding.com.

If its not something that you want to try, bodybuilding.com has so many programs, exercises, recipes, pretty much anything pertaining to fitness. Whatever you’re looking for, you’ll probably find it there. Go check it out.

9/9/13 Workout…LEGS

Today is Baby Boy’s 4 month bday! Four months and I am one pound away from being my “pre-baby” weight. Woohoo. I am still seven pounds away from being my “pre-hubby-comes-home-from-Afghanistan” weight, but it’ll get there. For the last two weeks, I’ve been doing Jamie Eason’s Live Fit Trainer. If you’ve never heard of this, you need to check it out. Its for gals and guys. Head over to bodybuilding.com and you’ll find it. She tells you what exercises to do, what days to rest, what to eat, the whole nine yards. I haven’t been following the eating plan to a “t,” but I’m getting as close as I can. I still need extra calories because I’m still nursing Baby Boy.  Today was leg day and I literally can barely walk up my stairs. LOVE IT. Here is a glimpse at what I did:

• Leg extension machine, 3×10, 60 lbs
• Wide stance squat, 3×10, 95 lbs
• Barbell walking lunges, 3×10, 40 lb barbell
• One legged barbell deadlift, 3×10, 30 lbs
• Leg curl machine, 3×10,  40 lbs
• Standing calf raises, 3×10, 40 lb barbell

I was lucky that I could walk out of the gym. I almost had to have someone help me carry Baby Boy’s carrier to my car. If you’re curious about this program, I’ll explain more tomorrow in Training Tuesday, or you can just check it out for yourself. I love it because it is all about building muscle, and you control your own weights, so if you don’t want to lift heavy (which I don’t know why you wouldn’t), you don’t have to. Remember ladies, you will not get bulky if you lift heavy. In order to look like a body builder, you have to train and eat like a body builder. Do not let this fear keep you from the sexy, lean muscles that you can have!!! 

Stay sweaty, my friends!

7/31/2013 Workout…jump rope w/ full body strength

I had a busy day yesterday, so I wasn’t able to post my workout. I finally got annoyed at myself for slacking on the workouts and the eating right. So yesterday was the day I changed it. I ate pretty healthy (although, I was at a loss for what to eat at dinner since Hubby didn’t come home and I didn’t have anything to cook…ate oatmeal with blueberries and then some Greek yogurt).  This workout is great for beginners and if you’re more advanced, you can always add more weight/more sets/more reps, however you need to modify it.  Its fairly quick and hits all the major muscle groups.

• Warm-up (don’t forget to do this…move around your house, walk on the treadmill, do some squats, just move!)
• 1 min jump rope
• Squat with a shoulder press, 12 reps x 3 sets
• 1 min jump rope
• Lunge with a bicep curl, 12×3
• 1 min jump rope
• Dead lift with upright row, 12×3
• 1 min jump rope
• Tricep dips, 12×3
• 1 min jump rope
• push-ups, 12×3

It doesn’t seem like a lot, but my tooshie is screaming at me this morning! Remember to go as low as you can on your squats, and keep your back straight, shoulders back, and neck neutral during all exercises. 

Stay sweaty, my friends!

7/23/13 Workout…on the track

I went and worked out at a boot camp in my neighborhood today. Besides the temperature being at a level that would make Satan cry, it was pretty awesome. It was the second time I’ve gone to this boot camp, and the workouts aren’t easy, but I feel like I am rocking them. In fact, I finished second today (yes, I am competing, I can’t help it). 

Here’s what we did:

• At one end of the track, 40 squats and 30 sit-ups (I can’t do sit-ups yet bc of the c-section, so I did knee raises…same movement, a little less ab)
• Run to the other end of the track
• At the other end, 10 burpees and 20 push-ups
• Run to the beginning

Do this 3 times. 

Once we finished, we had to walk the straights and run the curves while every one else finished. This is where I got super hot and I could feel my dinner coming up. I kept it down, but it was haunting me the rest of the workout. I know the ladies in my old bootcamp would be happy to hear that, since my workouts have been known to bring up dinner. 

They finished with an ab routine that I couldn’t do, so I did knee to chest planks and more standing knee raises. I’ll be super ready when I can do a normal ab routine. 

It feels really good to be working out so hard again. How are you guys doing?

Stay sweaty, my friends.

7/19/13 Workout…run plus fat burner

I ran again! Woohoo. This time, I took my friend Alexandra’s advice and ran in spandex rather than shorts, and I am happy to say I didn’t feel my thighs rub together. They may still have been, but the point is I didn’t have to feel them, and I didn’t have to do the tug on the hem of my shorts routine every 10 seconds. The run was good, although the air is so thick here, you can cut it with a knife. I made it farther before I had to walk, so that’s progress! Yay!

The rest of my workout is brought to you by FitMiss.

 

I had to cut some reps down to 10, but this is an awesome workout. Its a bit long, so make sure you have some time. Its also a good one that you can do at home. (I did).

I’m one tired mama.

Stay sweaty, my friends!

Motivational Monday

Hey party people!  So I had finally gotten myself on a good workout routine, and what happens? I got sick yesterday. Like, laid out in bed, can’t move, sleep all day sick. Thankfully I have an awesome hubby who took care of our boys and everything else around the house, but I couldn’t work out and I’m not 100% to work out today. There’s a heaviness in my chest, so I don’t think breathing hard would help me out very much. If it was just a sore throat, I would ignore it and get some sweat in today, but its a whole bunch of things. One more rest day for this mama. 

Have you ever had a sickness or something try to derail you from your goals? There are all sorts of external factors that try to hold us back when we really get our mojo going. Sickness, jobs, haters, etc. You just have to keep moving and ignore those things. Or, take a couple days off, regroup, and start again. Don’t get too down on yourself if you have to stop for a bit; as long as you start again, you’ll be ok. And as for the haters? Brush ’em off! You don’t need people in your life that put you down and don’t support your goals. 

 

 

 

Stay sweaty, my friends!

Wacky Wednesday

So the AMA has come out and said that obesity is now considered a disease.  I’m not sure what to think of this, but I’m leaning toward, “Really? A disease? Come on now.” That is why I’ve put this in the Wacky Wednesday blog. 

I have too many thoughts about this, so I’m going to let you decide what you think. Here are some articles explaining. I’m inclined to roll my eyes at the whole situation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/business/ama-recognizes-obesity-as-a-disease.html?_r=0

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/m-fat-fault-other-reactions-calling-obesity-disease-185246512.html

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/19/obesity-as-disease-what-does-it-mean-for-americans/

Motivational Monday

So, I have to be honest. I have been slacking on the squat challenge. I had Little Man’s birthday last Wednesday and party on Saturday, so I’ve just been putting them off bc I’m too tired. Ahhh! EXCUSES! I hate excuses and will be picking up where I left off today. I realize every day life sometimes can get in the way of our health and fitness routines, but that’s when we have to try extra hard to stay healthy. Since my 32nd week of pregnancy, honestly, I’ve gotten lazy. I didn’t feel like eating right, and most days, still don’t. I’m not motivated to start working out yet, even though I was cleared last Wednesday, and ate so much birthday cake on Saturday. 

Well, that all ends TODAY. I cannot let myself use breastfeeding as an excuse to eat badly anymore, and I can’t be scared (c-section incision) to start working out hard again. I WILL finish the squat challenge, I WILL eat more green stuff, and I WILL be healthier starting today. These extra 10 pounds of baby weight will be coming off soon. I have a tough mudder race to dominate in October. These are my promises to you guys and to my family and to myself. 

What’s your fat trap? In other words, what’s your favorite excuse for not being the healthiest you can be? Mine is “I just had a baby and am breastfeeding, so I can eat whatever I want.” I’m hoping by being honest I can motivate you to be honest with yourself. Find your “fat trap” and figure out a way to get out of it. You can do it, even if you have to claw, kick, and scream to get out. 

 

 

 

Let’s do this.

Stay sweaty, my friends.