Back On Track, Post-Baby
After an almost 9-month hiatus from consistent workouts (babies are the best and worst excuses ever!), I have decided to ramp things up a bit so as to not be fat. That’s my workout goal and always has been – to not be fat. Seems basic enough and doesn’t require anything too too hasty, yet I’ve gained and lost the same 20-30 lbs like 3-4 times in my adult life. I commit, get to a goal, then slack off, gain some back, all the while telling myself I did it before so it won’t be an issue to do it again. NBD.
But it IS a big deal! Knowing what needs to be done is easy, but follow through is not. It’s not easy because it takes discipline, much like any type of success in life. Everyone knows they need to burn more energy than they take in to lose weight, yet 85% of the population is overweight. FYI, I made up that number, but it seems legit after seeing my fellow patrons during my last visit to Logan’s Roadhouse. I’m in real estate and every agent at my company knows what they need to do to generate business, yet 20% of the agents get 80% of the business. Some people do the work and others don’t, it’s as simple as that.
Ok, back to me. Because it’s my blog. I had a very healthy pregnancy…physically. Mentally I was as effed up as I could be, but that’s a whole other post. I gained 25-30 lbs total, which I was good with, and I worked out throughout my entire pregnancy. My awesome friends started an awesome Crossfit gym a couple years ago and I started Crossfitting and continued WOD’ing after I got knocked up. So maybe I never “told” the doctor what my workouts were, but she told me to keep doing what I was doing so I left it at that. No sense in inviting unnecessary restrictions – I knew my limits and didn’t do things when they became uncomfortable. The evening before my water broke, however, I PR’d my deadlift…I’m sticking to that being a coincidence. Teehee
After I had my beautiful screaming ball of flesh I got a couple workouts in here and there during maternity leave, but nothing crazy. Between nursing, pumping, and not sleeping, working out wasn’t very high on my list of priorities. I was happy to keep the kid alive and get my teeth brushed. Mostly just keep the kid alive – I could get dentures someday. Even once daycare time came, sleep was wishful thinking and it was all I could do to make it through the day. And I wasn’t about to wake myself and the kid up at a certain time if he was asleep so I could get to the gym. Hells no. More power to the badasses that have that kind of dedication on 4 broken up hours of sleep – I’m not that brand of badass. Sleep is my drug and best friend. I’ve gone from pressing snooze 7x to not even setting an alarm if I don’t have to. And I’m still up before I ever used to be thanks to the curse, I mean, blessing of motherhood.
I dunno if I’d say I was lucky to have had to cut out a lot of foods for a few months due to issues my little poopmonster had with nursing, but it did help with losing the baby weight and then some. At one point I was 12 lbs under my prepregnancy weight. I saw that as my free pass to eat like a wrestler between weigh-in and match time, and I still only got 0-3 workouts in each week, usually closer to 0.
So here I am after letting the scale creep back up after I finally threw in the towel on nursing and pumping and the nursing/pumping dietary restrictions. I’m still a pound or two under my prepregnancy weight, but things look a little different now than they did then. 😝 I was in the process of losing the last few lbs before I got knocked up, so I’m trying to get back to my happy weight. And much of my loss was muscle from lack of workouts and lifting, so trying to trade in some flab for tone, and hoping for a very generous exchange rate.
I haven’t made myself dedicated to getting back to the Crossfit gym, mostly because with the baby and real estate it’s difficult – or I’m just too lazy – to structure my day to make the scheduled class times work for me. But I do workout DVDs at home and have the $10/month membership to Planet Fitness. As far as diet, I’m a calorie counter. I don’t count carbs or protein or fat, and I don’t cut anything out of my diet so long as I’m under my calorie goal for the day. The MyFitnessPal app makes this super duper easy. I am also guilty of daily weigh-ins because I like to know my progress, or lack there of. It keeps me motivated by either pissing me off and keeping me going or rewarding me for my hard work and keeping me going.
I’m not big on posts or pics for every meal and snack or every workout, but just to keep myself honest I’ll probably make a blog post every now and then with more details on what I’m doing, some progress updates, and maybe the screenshots of my food and exercise logs. Feel free to follow and share your journey!
Oh and I guess I should include a disclaimer: I AM NOT A DOCTOR OR NUTRITIONIST OR PERSONAL TRAINER OR EXPERT IN ANYTHING RELATED TO ANY OF THOSE THINGS OR ANYTHING MENTIONED IN THIS POST. I’m just sharing my methods, opinions, and experiences, so if you feel what I am doing isn’t as good, healthy, or awesome as what you’re doing, well, know it probably isn’t and don’t be an @$$. If what you’re doing works for you, yay! Keep up the good work, you sexy beast.