P90X - Days 3 through 7

I’m still with P90X; it’s just been a hectic couple of days and computer time has been eluding me.

A quick rundown of my week:

Day 3 was shoulders and arms. By far, it’s been my favorite workout, but probably just because it is pretty similar to my gym workouts. For once, I didn’t feel completely weak. Unfortunately, I don’t have a huge selection of dumbbells so I used heavier weights than I should have on some exercises and lighter weights on others. At some point, I’ll be able to afford more dumbbells, but for now, it will have to do.

Day 4 was yoga. Um, about yoga… well, I haven’t done that yet. Not to make an excuse, but the baby came down with a cold and decided she wasn’t going to sleep. If baby doesn’t sleep, mom doesn’t sleep. If mom doesn’t sleep, mom sits comatose watching tv instead of working out. We were planning on getting it in on rest day, but after a week of P90X, we really needed the rest.

Day 5 was legs and back. The back stuff was pretty comparable to Day 1 — all pull-ups (or bands in my case.) The leg work consisted of lots of lunges and squats. I HATE lunges and Jason HATES squats so it was pretty much an hour of complaining. I have knee issues, so I didn’t go as deep as the people on tv, but that’s the great thing about P90X… you do what you can. I did enjoy the variety of exercises and Tony really did hit the muscles from different angles.

Day 6 was kenpo. Kenpo is basically Tae-bo with a cooler name. I’m sure I’m going to love this workout later, but for now, it sucks. The moves are complicated and Tony changes the tempo a lot. I’m not the most coordinated person so remembering 4 different punches while trying to kick without falling over is a challenge.

Day 7 was rest. Yay rest. My legs hurt. My butt hurts. My triceps hurt.

Anyways, it’s been an interesting week, and I know that it’s too early to see any changes, but I would still recommend P90X to anyone.

P90X - Day 2

Wow.

Just wow.

Day 2 of P90X was plyometrics. After one workout, I have a love/hate relationship with it. I got a great burn although I will probably have to invest in a superduty, industrial strength sports bra. There should be a warning at the beginning cautioning us busty girls. I spent about 90% of the workout holding my boobs in place. (The other 10% was spent yelling “Superstar!” )

P90X - Day 1

In my anxiousness to get my fitness back, I decided to go ahead and start P90X instead of waiting until 6 weeks postpartum. I passed the fit test… almost. I have never been able to do a pull-up and my abs are pretty much non-existant after 9 months of pregnancy.

Day 1 was chest and back. Lots of push-ups and pull-ups (or in my case, modified pull-ups with a band). I HATE push-ups. There is a reason they’ve never made it into my normal gym routine. I’ll do all the bench presses, pec flyes, and cable crossovers you want, but I completely wuss out on push-ups. P90X has you do like 30 varieties of push-ups too. Ok, well, it’s more like 6, but it still sucks. I’m not able to do a decline push-up or a divebomber yet, but hopefully that changes soon. Day 1 also involves ab work, but I’m going to wait a few more weeks before I start.

Plyometrics tomorrow. Fun stuff.

Harper Grace is Here!

This post comes a little bit late, but it’s very hard to type when you have the most adorable little baby craving attention. Harper is two weeks old today after a very surprising appearance (a quick 2 hour labor followed by an unplanned home delivery). She’s doing well, and the whole family is just in love with her.  (Click here for her birth story.)

Unfortunately, I gained more than I had hoped with this pregnancy — 50 lbs! I lost 14 of that at the hospital, then another 13 during our first week home. So even though I’ve lost 27 lbs so far, I still have another 23 to go just to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight (and 60 lbs total to get to my goal.) I haven’t “dieted” yet because I’m breastfeeding and cutting calories can interfere with your milk supply, but now that Harper is getting the hang of it and gaining weight well, I’m thinking about trying Weight Watchers.

Numbers on the scale aside, I’m really nervous about my actual fitness level. I stopped running in October and stopped going to the gym altogether in December when my shoes stopped fitting. Apparently, they frown upon working out in flip flops. I’m not supposed to do any vigorous activity for another month, but light exercise is okay, so starting tomorrow, I’m going to be doing the C25k program… again. It feels weird not being able to run for a minute since less than a year ago, I ran a half marathon with no problems. I know I have to start somewhere, but I’m really worried I won’t get my endurance back in time for the Marine Corps Marathon in October. Registration is in April, so I need to figure it out and fast! Sadly, I can’t get back in the gym due to child care issues, so I’m going to be doing 30DS every other day until I can start P90X next month with my husband. I’ve never had much luck working out at home, but I don’t really have many other options.

32 Weeks

Eight weeks to go — which, if you know anything about birthing babies, could be as soon as five or as long as 10. I’m hoping it’s not the latter, but given my history of late babies and my aversion to induction for non-medical reasons, I could very well be pregnant at the end of February. Yikes! I’m still going to the gym, but my quantity and intensity has really gone down. Plus, I’ve had two bouts of bronchitis over the last three months, so I’ve missed almost a month of workouts from that.

I switched doctors a couple of weeks ago and was given the typical stack of papers explaining what I can and can’t do, medicines not to take, food not to eat, etc. There was also a sheet about staying physically active during pregnancy. Yay, I thought. Then, I actually read it. They encourage walking for 30 mins 3-4 times a week. Ok, yes, walking is good exercise. I’ll agree with that. No biking, skating, skiing, rock-climbing, etc. Um, ok. Yes, I don’t think someone who is 9 months pregnant wants to be balancing on inline skates, and obviously sedentary women probably shouldn’t pick up rock-climbing as a hobby. I’m not biking right now because my stomach gets in the way, but I imagine that most healthy, fit women wouldn’t have an issue.

No weight lifting. Do not lift anything more than 10 pounds.
…

Really?

Again, someone who has never lifted a weight before probably doesn’t want to pick up a barbell and rack up 80 lbs and start benching, but no weight lifting at all? I think weight lifting is an excellent workout for pregnant women, even if they are beginners. Of course, as you get bigger you have to make modifications, but what’s with this nothing heavier than 1o lbs thing? Sorry, ladies. Don’t pick up that crying toddler of yours. Let your husbands carry in the groceries. Be careful lifting that gallon of milk — it’s eight pounds!

Weight lifting really has gotten me through this pregnancy. I define myself as a runner, but between the pressure on my bladder and the pain in my pelvis, I haven’t run since October. Honestly, I haven’t really run since I got pregnant because I was just so danged tired during the first few months. It’s amazing how quickly your cardiovascular endurance goes out the window when you aren’t using it. Anyways, weight lifting is great. You get to sit down and resting is encouraged! I haven’t been taking bodyfat measurements, but I’m sure that I would have lost a lot more muscle tone that I have had I just been doing cardio. Recently, I’ve had to lighten the load, but I’m still lifting a lot more than 10 lbs.

Maybe in the next month or two, I’ll be confined to the cardio room walking, REALLY REALLY SLOWLY on the treadmill (the retired chief with an amputated leg walks faster than me), but for the time being, I’ll be trying to maintain what fitness I can.

Now Why Did I Go and Do That?

Four days of good eating. Not perfect eating. Not even great eating. But definitely good eating.

Then I had McDonalds.

The husband came home today and wanted to go to Applebee’s since they were having free entrees for veterans and active duty. I’m not a huge Applebee’s fan. If I’m going to eat out, I want to go to a restaurant I enjoy and not just use my calories because it’s cheap. After about half an hour of going back and forth, we decided not to go. Instead, we got McDonalds. So much for the not using my calories because it’s cheap.

I feel like crap, and it’s not because I feel guilty for eating fast food. Rather, I feel bloated and tired. It didn’t even taste good. Nine hundred calories and practically no nutrition.

I need to keep fast and healthy food in the kitchen so we can avoid the temptation of the base McDonalds.

Yikes, How Long Has It Been?

It’s been almost 3 weeks since I’ve posted. Actually, let’s be honest… it’s been almost three weeks since I’ve taken any sort of active interest in my health and weight.

First of all, the bedrest. I had my appointment on Thursday and I’m no longer confined to my house. In fact, the doctor I had this time told me I should never have been on bedrest anyways. I guess that’s what happens when you go to a practice with more than one doctor. So, um, yay! (And what the hell have I been doing laying on the couch for three weeks?)

In addition to the bedrest, I had a terrible cold that turned into bronchitis. Of course it was viral, and there was nothing they could do for it other than the typical rest and fluids. I finally kicked it and felt great for a few days, but then on Friday, just as I was clear to go back to the gym, Jason so lovingly gave me ANOTHER cold. Yes, I know you can work out with a cold, but my energy was zapped. It’s also hard to do cardio when you can’t breathe and I don’t want to be that person at the gym coughing all over everything. I was all set to go to the gym this morning, but now Kaelin is home sick and the gym is eluding me again.

I don’t know if it was the bedrest, the cold or just Halloween, but I’ve been eating like crap. I didn’t keep a food journal most of the time and when I did, I was averaging like 4000 calories – most of it junk. Did I mention that the commissary is already stocking Christmas candy?

But it’s ok… I have a plan!

1. Get back to tracking. Whether I like to write down the can of Pringles or bag of candy I inhaled, my body know I what I ate.

2. Drink, drink, and drink! I’ve been slacking in the water department when I need it the most. Between being sick and going into the third trimester, I have to make sure I’m getting at LEAST 8 cups of fluids.

3. No more diet soda. Before I got pregnant, I rarely had any sort of diet drink, but a few months ago I started having headaches and the doctor recommended adding a cup of coffee or soda into my diet. Since I don’t drink coffee, I started having a daily Red Bull (sugar-free). Of course, that daily Red Bull turned into two Red Bulls and a Diet Coke. Diet soda is bad. It has no nutritional value, it leaches calcium from your body, and it makes you crave sweets.

4. Limit my fast food. I’ve been eating out way too much and not only is it affecting my health, it’s hurting my wallet. Jason and I have decide to limit ourselves to twice a week.