Don’t like admitting it,but…

Despite me getting my degree in p.e. & health, I really don’t like working out. I prefer playing sports where you happen to be working out but are so distracted by the game you don’t think about the sweat or muscle burn. Being out of high school and having kids too young yet to join a rec league, sports have pretty much disappeared from my work out routine. So I have been toughing it out at a gym on cardio and weight equipment.
I don’t like admitting it, but….it has worked for me anyways. I have been working as I can with Husband’s crazy hours. So as much as I complain, it works the good old fashion way of getting your booty moving.
While losing baby weight and fitting back into pre-baby jeans feels great, the best result of the hard work is playing with the boys eventually all the kids. I can run with them and not have to quit before them because I can’t breathe. We can chase, tickle to uncontrolled giggles, and frankly just enjoy playing. Their smiles that don’t diminish are worth the muscles cramps, the lung burn, and all that work out crap. As a result I think I just have to continue to suck it up and keep facing the gym.
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Ps- I got my dad to join me in the foam run! We are t-minus 9 days from 3.2miles of foam, mud, and more foamy mud!

Me time

I don’t really like posting about myself because I don’t the focus on me. I want the focus to be on my kids and how we are trying to be the best parents we can as we learn along the way. But I admit I have written about my hate relationship with running and how hard it is to lose that baby weight. This will one of those times again.
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I still hate running. I have move past the think-every-bad-thought-about-myself stage and into the I-just-plain-get-bored. Yes my gym has tvs to help me from going crazy distract. I still get bored. I go about 2 miles jogging and then I just get bored with it. I don’t find a happy place or a sweet relief pushing farther or any of that. I get bored with the jogging pace and end up getting off treadmill and onto another machine (elliptical/bike/etc). Help. Is it a phase that I need to push through? Or is that just gym running at its finest?
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Is it just me or does other moms get this: I have intense mom guilt if I am away from my kids for more than hour when I work out. I feel like I should be there at home and not doing a long work out. It is just me?
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Ok. It isn’t all bad. It has been almost excruciatingly slow but it has worked. Since starting the exercise routine in January, I have lost all but 5 pounds of the 30 I put on with pregnancy! Yeah! While I am kinda scared to do crunches/sit ups-I think the tendon connecting the abdominal muscles has stretched out too from all 3 pregnancies being so close;which I know that if you work out those muscles wrong you can actually form the muscles out instead of flat. But either way, the scale is dropping ever so slowly and I am into the second smaller (of three) set of non-elastic banded pants.
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And lastly, I had some “me” time and got my hair (highlights) touched up-and I got bangs! I needed a change and went for it.

Next deadline

Back in January, after I got clearance to resume exercise, I agreed to do the Survivor Mud Run with Husband. I needed a goal to work out towards. I know myself and my love for food. I needed a goal other than getting back to pre pregnancy weight/health to push myself to work for.
So we survived. I met that goal (plus a couple bonus goals of ten pounds lost and back into a smaller size jeans!) But now I have make a new goal and deadline. So I have officially registered for the foam run on Sept. 8th. I am doing with a cousin and her teenage son. It will be interesting and fun. I also looking forward to it with it being more family oriented-means the kids can come, hang out, play in the foam pit, and of course tell mommy how muddy/foamy she got.
And on tougher note/goal: lose another 10-15lbs and tone up things. I just want to be confident in how my body looks.

Working out

So I have been going to the gym 2-3 times a week for just about three months now. I have been doing abdominal and arm exercises at home as well. While I can jog farther and with less huffing and puffing, the scale couldn’t care less. And I ignore the scale and pay attention just to how my jeans fit, my stretched out belly still annoyingly bulges at the waistband. One positive is the thigh area is getting loose. Then again that isn’t too positive because the thighs are loose with a bulged out tummy…not too attractive or confidence building.
I am wondering though if my abdominal muscles have reshapen to a convex shape with having pregnancies so close together. I say this because when I do sit ups crunches and try to pull in my belly like pilates and yoga tells you to do, I feel like the muscles don’t seem to tighten flat.
All of this is kind of leaving me a bit discouraged. I want some movement on the scale. I want to not have to double up on spanx just to tuck tummy bulges into my pants to fit. I want something to keep me going.
Unfortunately I am thinking it will come down to track my food more closely. I eat a relatively healthy diet but maybe something is off. Maybe I eat more than I should or maybe my metabolism is storing food as fat so I should eat more lean protein and vegetables. Either way I am lazy horrible at tracking that kind of stuff. Mostly because I hate having to enter all the ingredients in the online databases to get nutrition facts. I like the freedom of cooking and adjusting recipes to fit our tastes;and having to enter all that into a computer takes the freedom away for me.
I know I have to figure it out so I can keep the motivation up to continue to exercise after I am done with the mud run in three weeks (which Omgoodness where did time go-I thought I had more time!). Maybe I will give in and sign up for the longer mud race with Husband in October.

A little crazy but doing it anyways

So I have never liked straight running or jogging. It always seemed like others talk about it as a way to clear their minds while I am the exact opposite. Every bad self conscious thought comes up when I used to run…your butt and legs are jiggling too much… Why can’t you go faster? You used to call yourself athletic…etc.
But far away are the days of volleyball and basketball practices and games or classes that participation is required for a grade. So now I am faced with the same thing most other former student athletes have to figure out: how to stay motivated to continue exercise. So despite my hate relationship with running, I have decided that I will give myself a deadline and goal of running a 5k. Then I can find the next race to run and continue exercising with that new goal ahead of me. Eventually I want to use it as an excuse to have a healthy girls getaway-or an excuse to visit with my sister and see a new city.
Next week I will start the post-3-pregnancies-in-a-row, couch to 5k work outs. My goal is April 15th to jog in the Sacramento Zoo Zoom 5k. (You may have to put up with exercise posts every once in a while. But I will do it. I will prove to myself that I can do this and who cares if my butt jiggles…ok maybe I do, but exercise is the only way to fix that problem.)

Wedding time

I have a dear friend who is getting married in June, and has asked me to be a bridesmaid. I am honored that she would ask me. She was one of my maids of honor (I had 2) in my wedding and was there for me if ever I needed her. She managed to help throw a bridal shower, get a dress, and then follow-up with a bachelorette party all in the very short  engagement time. She deserves the best and I know I will do everything to help her get it.

That being said- I am so excited for the wedding. “J” will be 2 1/2 years and “E” will be 1 which will make for some great dancing memories with my two boys. I am planning on getting them black cotton tees that have a tux outline printed on them along with black shorts- in effort to “dress up” but still be comfortable in the central valley of California heat (100+ degrees) Since I will be in the front with the wedding party, my parents are coming out to help. I definitely do not want my boys to be “those kids” who cry and interrupt the whole thing and ruin the wedding video.

ps- now I really have reasons to lose this baby/sweet tooth weight. Elliptical here I come!

Baby weight

Any mommy (unless the woman is freakish- and then I don’t want to know her cause that’s just not fair) will tell you that baby weight is a battle. When you are pregnant- moms, grandmas, and even strangers will tell you its ok to eat more because “you’re eating for two”. I think this is a subconscious way of trying to make you gain more weight so you become the “cute round pregnant woman”.  After the baby is born, there is the fat. The fat your body created and stored around the baby for cushioning, hormone production, and just because you ate more than you should have. Unless you are paid to look good, the new baby consumes your attention and sleep creating little time or energy for working out.

I say all this- not to poop in any pregnant woman’s wheaties- but because I know. I have been there and I am doing that.  Give you an idea of my person battle: after “J” was born I was able to get back down to 5 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight (miracle!) However, as soon as I got down to that I found out I was pregnant with “E”. “E” was a big baby. At my bellybutton two days before he was born, I was 47.5 inches (a stupid half-inch off of being 4 FEET AROUND!!!). “E” was 9 1/2 pounds when he was born…so a big baby (so while I was only carrying one- my pregnant belly and his weight was like having twins).

I have been able to lose about 75% of my pregnancy weight just by watching what I eat. The rest is going to have to come from working out. My battle starts not only to lose the weight, but to gain the health and energy to continue to stay active in my kids lives for a long long time.