Fitness Friday!

How's everyone doing with your fitness goals for the new year? My overall goal for the year is to get my stomach back, start running and lose 15 pounds. I'm going to be making monthly goals each month to follow that will bring me closer to these! For January I have a goal to do my Quick & Easy Workout at least 4 times a week. So far I have reached my goal!

I'm also doing the 21 Day No Junk Food Challenge which started on January 1st, so I'm on Day 10 of that. It's going great as well. Feels good not to be eating Christmas cookies and other sweets all the time. December really wasn't the greatest month for healthy eating.

Since I haven't really been doing good about working out in the last couple of months, I decided to start small. Next month I think I will be doing Jillian Micheal's 30 Day Shred video for my goal. After that I'll have to see what else I can do. Once the weather gets nicer outside I'm going to start running! I can't wait for spring to get here!

What goals have you set for the new year? I'd love to hear about them!

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September Fitness Update

It's been awhile since I updated on my fitness progress. Sadly I haven't been able to work out quite as much as I wanted to this month. We just run out of time at the end of the day and on the rare occasion that everyone is taking a nap at once in the afternoon, I usually decide to take one as well. It seems like these boys are getting worse and not better as they get older as far as sleeping at night goes and little man has started waking up once or twice a night. It's very tiring!

So I came up with this quick and easy workout that I can do wherever we are even when everyone is awake still. I do it once or twice a day depending on how motivated I am. It's getting harder lately because little man thinks I am playing with him every time I try to do push ups or crunches and comes to jump on me! Once these boys start sleeping better at night and I'm not as tired, I'm hoping to be able to start doing more during their afternoon nap. For now I am focusing on doing this easy workout when I can and the elliptical when we have time in the evening. 

How about you? How did your fitness/workout plans go this past month? 

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30 Day Fitness Challenge

Want to know some awesome news? I decided to try on a few more of my regular jeans this week and they fit this time! How exciting is that?! I haven't really lost any weight in the last few weeks, it's been about the same, so I figured my pants still wouldn't fit right. That is why I was so surprised. This working out must actually be working a little bit. It's very slow, much slower than I would like, but eventually I will get to where I want to be! 

I decided to come up with a 30 day fitness challenge. I'm starting today and very excited about it! If anyone wants to join me, feel free to check it out. It's really fairly easy I think, and shouldn't be too hard for anyone to do. I'm sure it is way too easy for anyone who has been working out regularly. I think last time I talked about doing sit ups I wasn't able to do one, but thankfully I am now able to again. Now this isn't the only thing I'm doing for a workout, but just a fun challenge for myself to try to do. It helps me to have a goal to work towards and who doesn't like a challenge? (Maybe that's just me, I'm way too competitive.)

I have also been eating more fresh fruits and vegetables than I ever have before and trying to drink one full glass of water before each meal. I even decided that I like cucumbers, which previously I didn't really care for. So here is my 30 day fitness challenge for myself and anyone else who wants to join me. If you have any suggestions about it, please let me know. Remember if you are working out after a pregnancy and your abs are still separated, doing sit ups and crunches will only make them worse, so you probably won't want to do this challenge.

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7 Important Reasons to Drink Water

Remember my 21 day no junk food challenge? Sunday is already the last day, these last three weeks have flown by. I've stuck to the challenge, even though it was hard at times watching my husband eat his candy and chips and soda all the time! I have lost a couple more pounds, but it's been going a lot slower than it was at first. I have about 8 more pounds to go to get to pre-pregnancy weight.

I've also been working out everyday and am starting to notice a difference. My muscles are starting to slowly get back in shape. I'm still trying to find a good ab routine though. It's going to be awhile before I can do anything too crazy with my ab muscles. I tried doing a few sit-ups the other day and that was pretty painful. 

I drink water all the time, it is literally the only thing I've been drinking (besides one cup of coffee a day) for months now. Sometimes it gets old, but I think it's been helping to keep my more hydrated. Here are seven important reasons why all of us should be drinking more water, especially if you are trying to lose weight:

1. Drinking water before each meal has been shown to help promote weightloss because you will feel fuller and probably eat less food. 

2. Burning calories requires water. If you don't have enough water it will slow down the fat-burning process.

3. We need to drink plenty of water to flush out the toxins in our body. 

4. Dehydration makes you tired.

5. Our minds tend to confuse hunger and thirst. Often, when you feel hungry, you might just be thirsty. Try drinking a glass of water and waiting 15 minutes before you snack.

6. Drinking a glass of cold water right away in the morning can help increase your metablolism for the day.

7. Even mild dehydration will slow down your metabolism as much as 30%.

One very interesting fact that I learned was this: when you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. It's important to drink water throughout the day to avoid this. There are so many other health benefits to drinking enough water every day and its free, there's no reason not to drink it!

 
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Fitness Update

This was supposed to be up yesterday, but I got too busy and ended up not posting anything. So now I'm writing this today instead. Five weeks postpartum this week and it seems that my weight is stuck with 10 pounds to lose. I haven't really lost anything all week, that's ok though because I've been doing really good about working out every day. The no junk food challenge is still going great as well! Today is day 13 out of the 21 days. Even after the 21 days are up, I still plan on sticking to it for the most part. There is really no reason to eat very much junk food or soda.

I have been doing an easy beginner workout for the last week and a half to get back into things. Today I started doing the elliptical as well and Monday evening I hope to start doing the couch to 5k running program. I am going very slow because my entire pregnancy I didn't work out at all, just tried to take it easy. Before this pregnancy I had about 4 months in between my previous pregnancy, two of them were spent in horrible pain and then I had a second abdominal surgery when my first baby was 2 months old, so I never got to get back to working out or anything back then either. 

So basically I've been pregnant for two years! It's so nice to not be anymore and I'm very excited to get back in shape again! 

Post Baby Slim Down: Getting Your Body Back

Post Baby Slim Down: 30 Days Progress

Our fitness room/library

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Post Baby Slim Down: 30 Days

Well it has been 30 days since I had the boys today! Seems like a lot longer than that for some reason. Probably because I've been so tired lately! It's also Day 5 of the 21 Day No Junk Food Challenge. The challenge is going great, it hasn't really been much of a challenge yet. I guess I don't eat as much junk food as I thought I did. 

Here's an update on how weight loss and getting back in shape is going:

My last weight before having the boys = 187

Pre-pregnancy weight = 140

Weight as of yesterday morning = 152 

I've been slowly starting to do a little bit as far as working out goes. We have been taking lots of walks as often as possible with all the boys. I've also been trying to remember to flex my abs as often as I can. I'm taking things easy though, since I had a c-section and I don't want to hurt myself by doing too much too soon. I have my check up next week though, so I'll see if my doctor says I can start doing more. 

I have been finally able to start wearing some of my normal jeans, which is awesome! Here's a look at my progress in the first 30 days. Also a front view where I look super happy, as you can see. Apparently I need to work on smiling for these pictures!

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Post-Baby Slim Down: Getting Your Body Back

 
This was my second pregnancy and it seems to be a little harder to lose the weight than it was the first time. Having twins might have something to do with it. Or the problems I had the first time where I couldn't eat for a couple of weeks and had to eat a no-fat diet for awhile. This time I had zero problems and can eat normally. Here are some tips for getting back into shape after you have a baby.

Reclaim Your Pre-Pregnancy Stomach

Crunches don't always work. During pregnancy the outermost stomach muscles have to separate to make room for your expanding uterus. Even after the uterus shrinks back down, they may still be separated (diastasis recti). If this is the case, crunches could do more harm than good. To find out more about diastasis recti check out BeFit-Mom.

One thing that you can do right away after birth to strengthen your abdominal muscles is to sit up straight, shoulders down. Draw your belly button in towards your spine. This is an easy exercise you can do anywhere, sitting down or standing up. It will help prevent back pain and make your abs firmer and flatter. 

Wait until your doctor gives the okay to do other, more strenuous, exercises. This will usually be about 6 weeks postpartum. If you are just starting an exercise regime, remember to start slowly and build from there.

photo credit: mikebaird via photopin cc

 

Ways to Get Rid of Bloat and Excess Fluids

Drink lots and lots of water. Eat high fiber foods as well as foods that are high in potassium, such as bananas, apricots and spinach. The potassium will help to counteract the sodium that is helping to retain water. Also avoid foods with lots of sodium. 

Cardio exercises are very important in getting rid of belly weight. This can be as simple as a power walk with your baby in a stroller. Keep your abs pulled in and your spine straight.

photo credit: quinn.anya via photopin cc

 

Healthy Eating Tips

Don't cut too many calories after you give birth. You still need the energy, especially if you are breastfeeding and cutting too many can make you keep or even gain weight. 

A good idea is to get rid of all the junk food and soda in your house. Make a list of healthy snacks you can eat if you feel hungry. 

If you are breastfeeding you do need extra calories, but make sure they are healthy calories. You should aim for 1,800-2,000 calories a day and an extra 500 if you are breastfeeding.

photo credit: Bruno Girin via photopin cc

Breastfeeding can help you with losing weight as well. I know it helped me the first time, and I'm sure it's helping this time as well. It doesn't always work so easily for everyone, you might have to add in some exercise and make sure you eat healthy to see a big difference. It's hard to be patient when you want your body to be back to the way it was before. I know it is for me. I know everyone says this all the time, but it took 9 months to gain the weight and it might not come off immedietaly

Remember that nothing is the same after you have a baby. Go easy on yourself and feel proud. You just made a human being (or two)!

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