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Be proud of me!
I'm finally kicking off my plan to eat better and start chipping away at the baby weight. In early 2010, I lost 35 pounds and was halfway to the 70 pound goal I had in mind. Then I got pregnant and that just kind of stopped. After she was born, I lost all the baby weight, and it's crept back up to where I started in 2010. I feel like a fat blob. When she was first born, I had a really hard time cooking anything, I was so tired all the time. There were a lot of fast food nights and eating out of cans and boxes.
One of my favorite things about having a toddler who can eat regular food now is that I am pretty much forced to cook, which means I'm turning into a better cook and I'm eating vegetables. I almost never eat vegetables, since there's about two that I even tolerate, much less like. I'm finding recipes I like, which is huge. We've been grilling a lot lately. I'm making fresh food, using frozen or fresh produce, and finding new ways to make them so that stuff actually tastes good.
Sooo, now I get to see how on earth I'm going to try to fit in exercising. Before kid, I was exercising six days a week, for 1-2 hours a day during my weight loss period. The weight melted off quickly in three months. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of time anymore. I already get up way too early (and our small house would mean waking everyone else up in the house if I tried to exercise) and since kiddo doesn't go to bed till 9 or 10 at night, it's not great to be exercising that late or I won't sleep. I could take her for walks, I suppose, but I just don't think that will do much. I took up the Couch to 5K program a few times, but I never enjoyed running, and I have an ankle injury that hurts too much to try. So I'm kind of stuck there, wondering what to do.
Anyways, this is more me thinking out loud and having a happy thought day that I'm going to start working towards wearing a bikini again without fear of scaring small children off the beach. And, I guess a little bit of AW since you should all be proud of me for eating vegetables. And liking them. :-D
Re: Be proud of me!
Yay for vegetables!
What kinds of things could you work into your schedule? What about a 30-45 minute evening run when your H gets home? Or a half hour video workout after LO goes to sleep?
H doesn't get home most nights until almost 11. Even on his "early" day he works, he then goes to straight to school and gets home after 10:30. His work schedule is so hard on both of us. I used to try to do exercise videos late at night, but I have a really hard time getting to sleep afterwards. If I can drag myself out of bed, I might try at least doing some yoga in the mornings and maybe walk with the stroller after dinner.
Hoping once he graduates with his business bachelor's degree this rotten schedule will finally go away and we can, you know, eat dinner together as a family once in a while.
Go Malibu! I am very proud of you for liking the vegetables
What kinds of exercise have you tried besides couch to 5K? Any activities you enjoyed that you could do with Toddler Malibu?
Oh, and I can't remember if you work ft, pt, sahm? Lunch break maybe for exercise? Mine's too short but I know a lot of people who get an hour and can make it to the gym and back or go for a jog at least!
I will tell you how I squeeze in exercise:
I pick one type of exercise per day, something simple like jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups, lunges, or squats. I do that one exercise as much as I can in one day. Playing on the floor with LO, 20 push ups right there. Waiting for water to boil, another set of 20. TV commercial, 20 more push ups. Even at work, I can usually squeeze in a couple sets of lunges or squats.
Now that it is nice outside, I have started jogging with LO again. I hate it, but it gives me fast results and I feel good after I'm done.
P.S. My LO loves to be my weights, just lifting him up and down while counting makes him happy. Or holding him while doing squats.
Andalso, the progress is slower than say a 5 day a week, 1-2 hours a day routine, but it still makes me feel good about myself.
I work FT. So I'm at work all day. I do get an hour, but I eat kind of slow (on purpose, one of my other problems was eating way too fast and then eating too much). If we had any way of washing up, I would try doing some exercise during my lunch break, but I can't stand being all sweaty at my desk. It's already about 75 degrees in the building most days.
When I did my weight loss program in 2010, I followed Jillian Michaels' customized plan when I joined her website. It was killer, but man, it worked. It was a lot of cardio, coupled with strength training and weights. I was just starting to get back on C25K when I found out I was pregnant (hence the feeling like I was going to puke every time I attempted to run), and the ankle injury just hurts too much to run on it, even with super expensive custom running shoes. I just don't have the time I did then to devote to the JM program again, as much as I want to.
Hey...maybe BBE can make me a yoga program I could do...hmmmmmm????
I love this. This kind of stuff didn't even dawn on me. I am glad I decided to ramble on, you gave me these ideas! I'm so going to incorporate stuff like this into my daily routines!!
This is an awesome idea! Also, I wonder if yoga would have the same effect on your sleep as other stuff - maybe you would be able to sleep after it if you did it after TM goes to bed? For me it really peaces me out and I can fall asleep easily afterwards.
I love PS's "work it into your day" ideas! Awesome!
Have you considered a jogging stroller?
I can definitely help you put together a yoga routine - there are certain poses/breathing techniques that are energizing, and others that are calming. So if you create a "ramp up" and a "settle down" routine, then you can use whichever one fits into your schedule that day.
Also, squats while holding a baby are AMAZING for your glutes and thighs! Also swinging side-to-side lunges - babies LOVE that. And you can do a "dead lift" - hover them over the floor and then lift them over your head as you come to standing. Lunge up and down your hallway holding baby. Hmmm I'm sure I can think of a few more.
I'm proud of you for the veggies! The effort to cook them in a way you like it a huge hurdle to eating better.
As far as exercise goes, a half hour work out can be super effective if you focus on efficency. But, if you're not currently in a consistent exercise routine, even just taking your daughter out for a half hour walk is going to pay you back in spades. Bonus points if you find a walking route with hills. I know people who have lost close to 100 pounds through tracking calories and doing little more exercise than walking.
Put the kid to bed earlier!! HTH!
And go you!
And I highly recommend getting a jogging stroller.
You are the best! I would love both an energizing routine and a calm down routine. I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep at night, I think a calming yoga routine would do the trick. And of course that leads to being tired in the mornings, so a nice energy boost in the morning would be awesome. I've done the basics of yoga before, and I have bad joints (rhuematoid arthritis in my knees and ankles), and I'm semi-flexible. I don't know how many limitations those things would make on different poses, but those are really the only things that hinder me in any type of exercise.
A big thing that's also helping is that (warning, TMI ahead) I've had issues since K was born with stomach problems. When I was in for a follow up appointment last week, it was thought I may have to see a GI doctor for IBS (which, if you knew the issues I have with bathrooms and having to poop in public, you'd know that having IBS could quite possibly be one of the worst things to ever happen to me). So I'm hoping a radical diet change might help the symptoms. My H is totally behind this whole thing, too. He's gained quite a bit of weight over the last few years, he was in a pretty deep depression for a while that he's sought help for now, and our lives have been so ridiculously busy and full with work and school and kid, so we've both kind of let ourselves go. I think he is motivated to go along with me and that will help me immensely.
I didn't say in my other post that I'm SO proud of all your efforts! Good for you!
It's so so so much easier to have your H on your side too. Makes everything, from meal planning to scheduling exercise time, so much easier.
Go malibu!
Joaquin and I have a half an hour or more of dance time every day. We put on a radio station that's fun to dance to, I pick her up, and we just move to the beat. I throw her in the air, 'drop' her to the floor... it's really helped me get in shape. Kind of like Zumba, with a 20 lb weight, heh. And she always cries when we're done because she loves to do it so much.
I've found that having really good convenience snacks & meals are key, too. I'll get super ambitious on shopping day, but when we're in the weeds I'm like, did I seriously think I was going to make from-scratch won tons? Like, for real? So, I pre-make a lot of good easy things when I am ambitious (spaghetti sauce in particular!) and I pre-slice up some fruits & veggies. I always have stuff on hand for quesadillas, and I use up tons of veggies in there... Joaquin is super into dipping right now, so she gets a lot of veg from salsa, heh. We always have greek yogurt and lower sugar cereals (my rule of thumb is Life... less or equal to we buy; more than, no) for snacks.
We dance, too. I don't even think about stuff like that, but yeah, I am moving around. The girls are only a few weeks apart, so I suppose yours is dancing like crazy too? I just put the Fresh Beat Band album on my phone - the kid LOVES those songs.
I should remember quesadillas, too. I love those, and lower cal/fat cheese and dumping veggies in there is a great idea. I recently picked up a basket steamer - I had an electric one that was clunky and kind of a pain to use - and I've been using that for vegetables a lot lately. The one thing I need to get better about is flavoring vegetables. I'm never quite sure what spices go with which veggies. I've been eating a lot of steamed baby carrots and green beans with dill weed on them. So good!