We Did It! .... 5k Mastered!

Wow! What a weekend. So P and I finally completed our 5k! We chose to do the USA Swimming Foundation 5k!

To preface all of the 5k race, I must say I didn't "complete" my last week of training via the couch to 5k app. I came down with a nasty sinus infection, and then it rained a TON. So, my last week was kind of blah. However, we still made it to the 5k and although hadn't completed the training per say, we still ran!

Packet pickup downtown was a nightmare, thanks to the swim trials. I won't even touch on the hassle of getting all of that.

BUT, we managed to get up, out of the house and downtown by 7:45am for our race. P enjoyed seeing all the various people and such. He loves exploring and seeing new things. This was definitely up his alley.

At 8:15am, the shotgun rang, and we were off!

Overall it was a great race, and we did awesome despite not having finished our training. We came in at 29 minutes and 50 seconds. Our goal was under 30, so we did it!

Overall, I think going into our next race I will be better prepared in the sense that running in the neighborhood or on trails early in the AM is MUCH MUCH MUCH different than running with a LARGE body of people.

I think we could have came in at a better time, but much time during the first 2 miles was spent weaving in and out of people, trying to pass them. If this was just me running alone, it would have been no problemo. However, with the jogger. Wow. What a challenge.

Overall, I'm really excited about the run, and VERY motivated for our next goal of a 10k. We are all signed up for Corporate Cup on September 25th. This leaves me with a few more months to train for that! Worst case scenario, I might have to run sans little man and jogger. But either way, I'm going to do it!

Anyways. Hope you mama's out there find this somewhat motivating or inspiring or whatever! Keep setting goals for yourself and working at them! You can do anything you set your mind to!

Quick shout out to the husband for pushing me and helping me so that I have the time to workout and exercise!

Keep on, keepin' on, mamas!

C25K Update!

Wow - has it really been almost one month since I've posted a blog?!? That's nuts. Since summer struck, I've been a busy bee. As I am always preaching about prioritization and such, I suppose the blog took the back burner.

We've also been dealing with a teething child who has been trying to get on a 2 nap sleep schedule for the last 2 months. We've had some rough days and nights.

In regards to the couch to 5k program... we are rocking it! we are currently in week 8 of a 9 week program! We are tentatively set for a July 3rd 5k! So exciting. We've also gone a little rogue and signed up for a 10k in September. That should be interesting.

The past few weeks/months of this training have been awesome. I'm so glad I challenged myself to this. I can say that we have had great days and we've had really hard days. The great days are when P is sleeping the whole way. The not so great days... when he cries the whole way. I think the crying was in part to weather conditions (i.e. too hot or too windy). We changed up the time I run and he seems to be doing better. We've lost quite a few pacifiers on our journey.

P also has become much more mobile in the last two months. He's walking everywhere with his push toys and on the brink of walking by himself. I think him sitting in the stroller for 30+ minutes multiple times a week was getting old for him.

We also had a couple times where it rained ALL week long so I wasn't able to get a run in. Coming back from a week of cardio at the gym was a STRUGGLE. The hills are relentless.

Overall it's been a great time with P. We get to see so many exciting things and it gets him out of the house and fresh air. I think doing the couch to 5k was great because it helped build my stamina slowly, and kept me motivated!

I think if I had to change anything going back and redoing it, I would probably change my jogger stroller. I love my Graco. It is great. But I think if I am going to do this seriously in the future, something a little more aerodynamic would be great. However, the Graco is getting the job done.

Here is my progress along with a few photos from the past few weeks.... B even got to join us a few times!

Dieting Tips & Tricks

Apparently, God was laughing at me when I was trying to make an outside running plan (and stick to it!)... he does that ya know?! All of this cold weather and rain. ARGH! Just another test of learning how to be flexible, I suppose!

This past week I was clearly unable to take our LO out in the jogger because of the weather (lots of rain and cold) and because he had his first cold. I'm pretty sure doctors frown upon taking your sick kid out on the cold weather. LOL.

However, I did get in another circuit workout followed by a 1 mile jog on Wednesday. Friday was also cold and rainy so I just walk/jogged 2.5 miles on the treadmill. My circuit did get me a bit sore. Holy moly! I haven't done a push up in about 2 years. So that was great fun. We've also been trying to transition P from three naps to two naps per day. That's a story for another day. Sigh. If only the act of parenting could qualify for physical activity or make you gain muscle :) ... my husband and I would be ripped!

Get It Started Circuit

• 50 Jumping Jacks
•  50 Crunches
•  45 Jumping Jacks
•  45 Squats
•  40 Jumping Jacks
• 40 Push Ups
•  35 Jumping Jacks
• 35 Crunches
• 30 Jumping Jacks
• 30 Squats
• 25 Jumping Jacks
• 25 Push Ups
• 20 Jumping Jacks 
• 20 Crunches
• 15 Jumping Jacks
•  15 Squats
• 10 Jumping Jacks
•  10 Push Ups
•  5 Jumping Jacks
•  5 Crunches
• 5 Squats
• 5 Push Ups

I also decided that since I met my goal weight, I needed a new fitness goal. My husbands work retains 2 personal trainers in their on campus gym. They do physical fitness assessments for free! So I had the hubby ask if I could get one done. The concept of this physical assessment is different than just weighing. They track body composition (weight, % body fat, circumference of arms, thighs, waist and hips). I'm going to go in quarterly to get this checked out and see my progress! My goal is to tone up a little more, rather than weight loss. I'd like to see some of my circumferences go down. I was quite proud of my accomplishments since January. I apparently qualify in the "athletes" body fat range. Ha! Long are the days I considered myself an athlete. Oh well, I'll take it! This momma needs it.

Now for the diet! This part of my post stemmed from a work weight loss/biggest loser competition that just got started. All my co-worker gals have been talking about the diets they are going to do, etc etc. Something that gets me every time is how people talk about how they did "this" or "that" and lost a bunch of weight, only to gain it back when they stopped the program. I've been asked a lot about how I lost all the baby weight and then some. I wouldn't say that I have done anything excessive or drastic. I don't spend hours per day at the gym slaving on various machines. I don't do anything crazy with my diet such as eliminating sugars completely. I PERSONALLY think that the best means to weight loss is something that will be sustainable for the rest of your life.

Sure various no/low carb diets, calorie restricting on alternate days (i.e. 500kcal/day), etc., will help you lose weight fast. But they are diets that don't allow you to eat the food that you actually like and want. How realistic is it that you are going to spend the rest of your life never eating pasta again? Never having beer again? Most people end up off the bandwagon because they allow themselves to eat something like pizza while on the diet, realize how much they miss it, binge, and then fall off the bandwagon for months or years. They regain weight, and then realize they need to get back on their diet again.

What if it wasn't that complicated? What if all it entailed was eating moderately, incorporating foods you like, having a cheat meal every once in a while, and moderate exercise?

The way I utilize my diet to lose weight is by calorie counting. I have determined how many calories I need to eat per day to maintain my weight and also the amount I need to lose weight. During the week (Sunday through Saturday afternoon) I keep track of every calorie I consume, not including fresh fruits and veggies. I give myself Saturday night to have a cheat meal.

I hardly deny myself something that I want. If I want a McDonalds cheeseburger, I eat a cheeseburger. I just make sure to look up the nutritional information, calculate the calories and adjust what I eat the rest of the day. Some days just looking up the nutritional information averts me from actually eating said desired food. Ha! is a 800 kcal chocolate shake really worth it? Am I going to feel full after that?

I also cook dinner for my husband and I on the nights I don't work. I never force "diet" things on him. We have things such as cavatini, spaghetti, pork tenderloins, tacos, etc. Normal dinner foods basically. I allow myself to eat those things. I just make sure to keep track of everything I put into the entire meal and then separate everything into servings so I know how many calories are in each serving.

For example, the other night I made burgers. I separated the meat out into patties and calculated the calories per patty. I added how many calories the bun and slice of cheese were and that was all! Maybe a little time consuming when you first get started, but nothing more than a few minutes.

Some may think it's tedious, which, at first it can be. But it actually becomes second nature. As human beings, we tend to eat the same few things every day. For example, my breakfast consists of either oatmeal or eggs with an english muffin. I use an app on my phone to keep track of all my calories consumed vs burned. It just becomes a matter of logging into the app and clicking the oatmeal item I have saved.

I personally use the Fitbit app to log my foods and exercise. However, you can also use other apps such as My Fitness Pal.

Also, Calorieking.com has pretty much every food you could think of and the nutritional information. Most restaurants have information for nutrition also. The fitbit app also allows you to save your foods, which makes it super fast and convenient the next time that food needs to be logged.

Little Man helping me blog! Cheat meal is in the oven!

Stay tuned for a future blog on figuring out the appropriate amount of calories you should be eating to lose weight or maintain it! There is such a thing as too little calories per day, which becomes unhealthy!

I'd love to hear your comments about what works for you in regards to dieting, exercise, and weight loss/maintenance! Lets hear it in the comment section!

Couch to 5k - Run #3

Well, after 5 days of the flu/strep throat, this momma is back in action, however, little man is not. :( poor kiddo. We have a pediatrician appointment today.

Today marked run number three of my couch to 5k journey with jogger and baby in tow. It's getting much easier to push that little dude around! I do need to look into an "elements protector" for the jogger and baby. It was super windy this morning. I doubt that helped the babe with his cold. Eek! Worst mom award goes to me today! I think they make clear, plastic covers to block the wind. I might need to check those out.

I'm also loving the C25K app that I've been using. A few features on the app that I just stumbled across are the distance graph along with the pace graph. The distance graph plots out the distance you've ran for each run, and shows the goal of 5k along the top. The pace graph shows the average minutes/mile for each run. Theoretically, if I'm improving as I hope to be, the distance graph should trend upwards and the pace should trend downwards.

So, one thing I wanted to talk about on here that I have been seeing a lot about on the mom blogs I follow, are comparisons of other moms. One mom posts about her messy house and how to keep it clean. Another mom posts a picture of her ultra clean house. I think as moms we all need to stop comparing ourselves and trying to "one up" other moms! We are all in this crazy mess together! Everyone has a different situation and just because one house is clean compared to another doesn't make that mom "better!" I think we all forget sometimes that at the end of the day, the most important thing is that we have a happy healthy child/children/family. Are our kids growing strong? Are they learning and developing? Are they having fun? If so, I say you are doing a great job at being a momma! Who cares about the mess? In 30 years when your kids are grown, they won't remember or care that the house was a mess. They will remember, however, you being too busy to play because you were constantly cleaning or organizing! So to all you mom's out there, I say grab that coffee mug, take a deep breath, and go sit on the floor and play with your baby... or play outside with your gradeschooler, or whatever!! That's a SuperMom to me!

Rain Rain Go Away

I think one of the hardest parts of becoming a mom (for me) is not the sleeplessness, the dirty diapers, managing schedules, having a dependent, etc. I would say the biggest challenge for me was learning FLEXIBILITY. Oh my gosh. Is it ever a challenge.

Prior to becoming a mom, I was your average type A, OCD, life.planned.to.a.t gal. (Okay lets be honest, I still am) Everything was planned out, schedules made, etc. Every morning I would get up, work out then eat breakfast (because who can workout on a full stomach?), do some housework, get ready for the day, run some errands, etc.

Life definitely changed when P came along.  The first few weeks I spent enjoying our new guy, dealing with postpartum "things." P grew, and so did I. We thought life was superb after 4 weeks. We had him on a schedule, he was sleeping through the night by 6 weeks, things were looking good. I  was getting a new routine down (because as I said before you can't work out with a full belly, and you can't workout with full boobs, but you have to eat constantly to maintain your supply - oh the conundrum). Then hit the 4 month sleep regression.

To all you new moms and mom's to be, JUST WAIT. It was rough. P went through teething, developmental leap, growth spurt, and sleep regression ALL at the same time. Nap times went from an hour and a half to 25 minutes at best, unless being held of course. Some days it took 20 minutes of rocking in the bathroom with the water running just to get him to actually fall asleep. Awake times were filled with a tad bit a lot more fussiness. Who was this child? Surely not the happy little child robot I programmed to fit into my perfect little routine? I was spinning out of control.

Trying to stay healthy and active was my priority (after the more important things like family and faith). This meant finding a new rhythm. Pumping and eating was done while the babe was awake. Workouts were now completed on a full (or partially full) stomach. After P would finally get to sleep. I'd run to the treadmill, hop on and go until lil' man woke up. Some days I would get 20 minutes of running in, some days maybe 40 (if I was lucky). Some days I would workout for 20 minutes, and then finish my run a few hours later during P's next nap. It may not have been ideal, but at least I was getting my workout in!

We are hopefully (knock on wood), getting to a point where teething is slowing (we have two already!), the developmental leap is leveling, the growth spurt has stopped and naps are maybe trending back to normal (we have had two days of hour and a half naps).

Tuesday marked the first day of my 5k training with P and the jogger. Of course, I was up, rearing and ready to go on Wednesday. I took a peek outside and pure down pour. Of course. I looked sadly at the workout calendar I posted on my door and realized again, flexibility. It rained and rained with no hopes of getting P out in the jogger for a run. I modified my day and did an "at home" circuit instead. I decided I would move a few days around and do my other two runs for the week Friday and Saturday. All will be okay. I'm typing to you now from the comfort of my couch with a raging Strep Throat infection and no hopes of running Friday or Saturday. The (recently) old me would have had a tizzy. The fairly new, attempting to be flexible, mom says ITS OKAY.

Life is funny like that always throwing curve balls. Flexibility is key to surviving this new mom thing. I'm sure all you moms with 2+ kids are laughing at my realizations :) Do the best you can moms! Just keep momma-ing on. It will all work itself out. You are awesome!

Here's the rain day workout I did:

100m run (equates to .06 miles on the treadmill) ***
10 burpees
10 push ups
10 mountain climbers
10 full situps
10 sumo squats

Repeat whole workout 5 times.  Afterwards, I walked on the treadmill for a bit until I got bored ;)

*** If you don't have a treadmill, you could always jog in place, high knees, jog up and down the stairs, etc. The 100 m run took me about 35-40 seconds, therefore just jog in place for that amount of time.

C25K - Jogger Mom Style

So today marks day number 1 of my quest to complete a 5k with baby/jogger in tow.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am using the Couch to 5k app on my phone to help guide me. It is pretty awesome. The app gives you the workout and you simply press start. Lets be honest, all of us mommas need a little simplicity in our lives, and this my friends, does the trick.

The first workout consisted of jogging for 1 minute straight and brisk walking for 90 seconds; alternating those for 20 minutes. I'll be honest, for a gal who can run 5 miles, I thought this was going to be a little too easy. However, with the jogger and my 16 pound, 6 month old, it was definitely appropriate. I was shocked at how hard it was to run up hill while pushing the babe. Through the 30 minute workout, I ended up going only 2.11 miles. I felt like I had a lot more energy to give, and wanted to go more. However, I decided that it would be best to stick to the program so I don't get overly sore, develop shin splints, etc. I want to do this right so I can actually make my goal.

So reviewing the app afterwards, it has some pretty cool features. Like I mentioned in my last post, you can listen to your music and the app will still give you the "commands" over your music. Also, afterwards it gives you a nice little summary. The distance the app calculated vs what my Garmin said, were identical!

For those of you who are real AR like me, and LOVE checklists, this app also gives a little "checklist" for progress. 

Overall, I'd say day one went fairly well. I have a feeling it's going to be a bit of a struggle trying to coordinate runs between naps, bottles, solids, and pumping (it's way more fun to run when the tata's are NOT full!). I don't know how moms with more than one child do it! I feel like my head is constantly spinning! Some days it's a constant struggle of trying to prioritize my faith, friends, family, and health/fitness. Hopefully I can stick with it!! I think the biggest lesson I have learned (so far) to help me cope is being okay with saying "no" to people. I have this odd sense of guilt that everyone will be mad at me for not putting them first. I don't know why I am surprised when people totally get it and are okay with me being MIA for the time being. I have a (fairly) new baby! Duh! I think all of us moms (new and experienced) need to realize it's okay if we aren't perfect and we don't have to do it all! We are all just doing the best we can and that's gotta be good enough.