Pity Party for One

I don't like to be a whiney pants, but...

This morning, I got on the scale after being very good for the last three days... What do I find? I am UP! 3 pounds from my lowest weight (which was about 2 weeks ago). I was so good yesterday that I even added a 35 minute home workout to make up for the one piece of banana bread that I ate. I've been stuck for a while now and I'm starting to get downright angry. This morning I weigh a whopping one pound less than I did when I joined the gym over 2 months ago. I'm officially stuck in a rut.

So, being the take charege girl that I am, I googled "breaking through plateaus in weight loss". The first site that came up is Mark's Daily Apple. I've been on this site before and knew that there would be some concrete advice - good!

So the blog post explains 5 ways to breakthrough your weight loss plateau:

1- Reducing carbs - Instinctively, I knew this, which is why we've have salad for dinner for the past couple nights, as well as a few nights last week. Not sure how I can realistically cut it down more than that.

2- Write everything down - I've been staying accountable with My Fitness Pal and already write everything down. I'm also VERY honest on MFP and even add in the calories for the extra bites here and there.

3- Switch up your workouts - As I read this, I was thinking about how sore I am from trying Antigravity Yoga yesterday... As you know, I've also added more running to my workout rotation. I think I've followed this suggestion too.

4- Intermittant fasting - Finally, something I haven't done. Over the past few weeks I've started phasing out cleanse days because I find that I end up restricting my exercise while I cleanse and I would rather give a harder workout at the gym. I was also under the impression that I was ruining my metabolism by cleansing. This post talked about alternate ways for cleansing/fasting - like eating within a 5 hours period in a day. Well that's much for feasible. I'm going to give this a try today and see how I do...

5- Keep on keeping on - This is true and I know it. I have no option other than to keep going. I keep thinking that if I make all the right decisions, eventually the weight is going to come off - right?

Weekly Wrap-up - August 28, 2011

In an effort to become more accountable, I’ve decided to start logging my progress on a weekly basis. As you know, I also use My Fitness Pal (MFP) on my phone in which I record all my food and exercise and input my weight (almost) daily. I find that there are certain aspects that are being missed - the small victories - that I would like to share. To this end, I have created a template of sorts to convey all of this to you.

Let’s begin!

Overall weight lost: -64.4lbs (I'm counting this from the last time I looked at the scale when I was pregnant with Maddie)

Weight lost this week: +0.4lbs

Work outs: Monday - Cardio (50mins) / Tuesday - Cardio(25mins) & Strength (30mins) / Wednesday - Cardio (15mins) & Strength (15mins) / Thursday - Cardio (45mins) / Friday - Yoga (1hr) / Saturday - Off / Sunday - Cardio (30mins) & Strength (45mins)

Accomplishments: My biggest accomplishment this week was running for 30 minutes straight. I was able to push through that mental barrier and am now excited to get back and see if I can do it again (a little faster this time!)

Challenges: Earlier this week, I learnt how to do some lunges using a bar for stability and a gliding disk. I did 10 reps of straights lunges, side lunges and speed skater lunges on each leg. It felt good as I was doing them, more of a stretch than a burn. Somehow for the following three days I was in A LOT of pain. I was completely surprised since I had been doing lunges in Body Pump, but apparently hadn’t been giving it my all… Finally today I was recovered enough to try it again. I’ll let you know if I’m still in as much pain the second time around!

Thoughts: After a slow start this week, I was able to re-gain control and managed to almost maintain my weight from last week. Yesterday I indulged a fair bit at our first International Dinner Club night (more on that tomorrow!) but today I refused to get on the scale and just went straight to the gym to burn off as much as I could. I will give myself a couple days to get back on track before I get on it again. Oddly enough, I actually felt thin and fit this afternoon. I should add that hubby is only 4.5lbs away from his 100lbs goal and so that has fueled my motivation!

Pushing Limits

You may remember my post here about running for 10 minutes straight.

Well, today I decided to up the ante. Today I ran for 30 minutes straight. That's right. Half an hour of running without stopping. I slowed my pace a fair bit compared to how I usually run, but found a rhythm that felt as though I could run for hours. I haven't really been training for anything like this. In fact, I actually hadn't run on the treadmill for a few weeks other than once last week. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't even sure when I got on the treadmill this morning that that's what I was going to do today, but 10 minutes into my run, I said it out loud to Katie, my personal cheerleader beside me, and once it was said out loud, you can be sure that I was going to follow through on it.

It got me thinking about how crazy it is that here I am, 6 months after the birth of my second child, 6 months after reaching my heaviest weight, I am in better shape than I was in my teenage years. Sure, I am still carrying around an extra 20, 30, or 40 lbs depending on how you look at it, but I can't remember a time when I was ever able to run for 30 minutes straight.

Today is about more than just reaching a goal. It's about realizing that I didn't need to focus on that specific goal for weeks or months. I didn't need to follow a training plan that gradually increased my running time by one minute everyday. That may work for some, but for me, I just had to do the right things and in the end, my body is capable of doing it, I was just waiting for my mind to catch up.

Tomorrow I challenge you to set a goal beyond your comfort zone and achieve it. Don't think about it, just do it.

They're gone.

Today we ran out of pull-ups for Cate and collectively decided that she has exceeded her diaper quota and we will not be buying anymore. We are done.

So far, there has not been any accidents, but we have also been forcing her to sit on the potty every hour or so. It feels like we've been through this before...

I've also decided that I'm not doing a song and dance about it. There will be no jelly bean, no timbit, no sticker or goldfish cracker as a reward. Normal people use a toilet and now she will too.

It's time to grow up little girl. Mommy's done.



P.S. I really hope that I am not spending the next week cleaning up after her.



P.P.S. Wish me luck.



P.P.P.S. Wish me patience too.

Have you taken a photo today?

In honour of World Photography Day, I trucked my camera equipment and the kids out to a little private park just down the road. I dressed them both up for the occasion. I actually bought Cate's dress a few months ago with the intention of doing a little photo shoot just like this...

Here are a few of the gems that resulted from 20 minutes of goofing off with the girls.

I really should do this more often.

Redemption

Life has a funny way of working sometimes.

I think that after allowing myself to admit my short comings in my blog post yesterday, the universe has forgiven me and this morning I woke up and weighed less than my lowest weight so far! The fact that today was a planned cleanse day was even better.

Also, today being Wednesday, I headed out to the Saunders Farm Family Fitness Class. Last Wednesday was a bit of an off day. (TMI Warning)It was that time of the month, and any woman who has had a baby before understands that the first time of the month after delivery is, well, inexplicably horrible. Between the cramps, bloating, and everything else - I thought my lady organs were going to fall right out onto the jumping pillows.

Thankfully, I redeemed myself this week. I kept a good warm-up pace, ran some hill sprints, stretched out in some new challenging yoga poses and carelessly bounced around for my favourite part of the workout. Considering it was a cleanse day, I gave it my all and felt great about it.

Today was proof that everyday is a new day. It's important not to get bogged down in the negative, but to celebrate the small triumphs.

Focus

Hello again.

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur. A fun, exciting, indulgent blur that has left me in a bloated, lazy, carb coma. Why does something that tastes so good do such bad things?

Hubby has been on holidays since the day after my last blog post. We packed up the kids and headed east to Quebec City for a few days to visit some friends. We had a great time and were glad to find out that there were other parents out there just like us - desperately seeking adult conversation and a few wobbly pops, without compromising the kid's bedtime routines. Luckily, we found it :)


On our way home, we stopped in Montreal for a day to meet up with my brother and do a bit of shopping. It was so nice browsing around Ste Catherine Street on a beautiful day. I convinced hubby to buy me my first lululemon outfit as a gift for my birthday ;) This has prompted a bit of an addiction. If anyone is looking for a Christimas gift idea... (hint, hint, Mom)



Cate found a C in Montreal.



We spent a day at home trying to catch up on laundry and then we were off again. We pawned Cate off on Grandma for the day and headed states side to do a little cross border shopping. I found a few good deals and am looking forward to wearing them once the weather turns.

The following day we celebrated my birthday by going out to sushi with the extended fam, followed up by watching "Antony and Cleopatra" produced by A Company of Fools as a part of the Shakespeare in the Park series. It was fabulous, and I am very grateful for hubby and our friend Ryan for taking the girls to the park several times during the play so I could take it all in :)



Maddie started sitting up this week.



The fun doesn't stop there. On Saturday, we decided to use our Air Miles to book a weekend getaway to NYC for our 5th anniversary coming up at the end of September. I'm so excited since I've never been, and yet it's exactly the type of trip that I love, where we can just wander the streets and window shop at all hours of the day. Please leave your NYC advice and recommendations in the comments below!



By Sunday, I was vacationed out and ready to come back to our weekday routine. Unfortunately, hubby came down with a bad cold and ended up taking Monday off in order to save the people at his office from contracting this crummy virus.

 

I had big plans to (somehow) stay on track during all of this, but ended up indulging in Quebec City (think Table d'Hote at St-Hubert). Oddly enough, I was only up one pound once we got home, however, I think that knowing this, I OVER indulged on our day trip to the US and am still making up for it 5 days later - sometimes life is cruel.

Hubby and I were both feeling pretty drained from the hectic schedule and bad eating and so we have decided to re-focus our efforts and get back on track. I am 9 lbs away from my pre-baby weight and hubby is about 7 lbs away from a total 100lbs weight loss and so we've decided that we will work very hard for the next 4 weeks to try to get this weight off before our anniversary weekend in NYC.

I've also decided that I need to become more accountable which means:

1) Logging all food and exercise into My Fitness Pal;

2) Blogging about my ups and downs;

3) and no over-indulging! - We'll leave that for our weekend away!

Wish me luck...



This Is Not An Ordinary Workout

As a part of my new "exercise friendly" lifestyle, I am on the lookout for new ideas to keep things interesting. I admit that I'm still in the honeymoon phase and still find just going to the gym and getting on the treadmill for an hour appealing, but I know that this will not always be the case and so I'm keeping my eyes and ears open. Luckily, so are my dear friends and family and I am grateful for it :)

I got a facebook event invite a couple weeks ago for a Family Fitness at Saunders Farm. It's a weekly fitness class open to anybody 6 and older. What a great idea! The first class was tonight and my dear friend Katie tagged along as my ever faithful workout buddy. As expected, we had a blast.

The workout started out with some stair work on the lookout tower. We ran up and down the stairs and got a chance to check out the mazes from an aerial view so we could plan our next step... that's right, we moved onto running through the mazes. We made it through the circular maze, the spruce hedge maze, the cedar hedge maze (where we got a little lost, but one of the young girls showed us the way out!) and finished up on the pedal cart track.

We stretched it out with a little yoga and headed over to Windmill Hill (sounds like a Dora episode...). On our way there, we stopped for a quick slide down Witch Mountain. Once we got to the hill we did a combination of dips, push ups and step ups, while running down around and back up the hill a few times. Definately a heart pumper.

Finally, we headed over to the most exciting part - the jumping pillows! If you've never seen them, these are the coolest. They are essentially giant trampolines built into the ground. i went on with Cate a few weeks ago, but was scared to squash a small child, so I didn't stay long. Today, we spent about 25 minutes on the pillows doing all sorts of exercises including squats, jumping jacks and burpees - yes, they were VERY hard! It was exhilarating to bounce just like the kids do, and better that there weren't as many people, most importantly no small children!

Ready for the jumping pillows!
(please ignore my flip flop tan lines...)

The craziest part was after we were done jumping, the instructor asked us to try jumping on solid ground.... I don't think my toes even left the ground! It felt like I weighed a ton.

We finished off the workout with a bit more yoga to stretch it all out. They even turned on the sprinklers at the end for those who wanted to cool down - I must remember a towel next time!

I want to send a big thank you out to the folks at Saunders Farm for letting us do this. It was by far the most fun I have ever had during a workout.