Get Fit Chicks!

Last night was another trainer workout in the gym…it was a good one! I still don’t 100% feel like myself but it’s starting to feel better. We’re not pushing anything but the movements we’re doing help with the back pain and getting strong again. And I also get to work on upper body more which is fantastic. Last year my Christmas goal was to be able to do one unassisted pull up. This year my Christmas goal is to do MULTIPLE unassisted pull-ups. I know this doesn’t really sound like much but it’s something I struggle with so I’m going to make it happen.

It was a good thing yesterday was a gym day because the rain was resembling a monsoon. It was the rainest day in 5.5 years in Vancouver – and for a city that gets a LOT of rain that’s saying something! Maybe this makes me a little odd but the rain actually made me anticipate running again soon. I LOVE running in the rain (when I have the right gear), it keeps you cool and focused and is a great overall feeling. It also made me anticipate fall and eventually SKIING so having it pour wasn’t all bad.

Today it’s RMT on my leg so no workout for me but tomorrow will be back to some light cardio – yay! and if the weather holds hopefully a bike ride (minus the meltdown) this weekend. Can’t wait!

One of the things I’m supposed to be blogging about (when I actually remember to blog) is my journey to get fit(ter) again since the birth of my little girl almost two years ago (ACK!).

Anyway being a mom (or a mom-to-be) means you talk about all kinds of crazy things with other moms and moms-to-be. I won’t even start to tell you some of the things we talk about…just know that poop is on the tame side! A friend of mine, Melynda, is pregnant with her third baby and she has been working very hard to minimize her weight gain in this pregnancy. She has chronicled her journey in a four part guest post. She has promised to write an update or two as times allows (she will very soon be the mother of three, all aged three and under!). You can read more about Melynda and her pregnancy and life as a mom at It Doesn’t Fall Off.

- Shannon

Here’s Melynda:

I have been asked to be a guest blogger on this site and to talk about my pregnancies and my weight loss and gains. To do that properly I feel like I need to start from the beginning.

The beginning of my weight journey started the summer before my wedding, June 2005. Having a boyfriend, then fiancé and co-habitator really expanded my waistline. I had always been on the bigger side but I was active and worked in a fairly physical job. At the beginning of 2005 I noticed that my weight had slowly crept up to 200lbs. I was astonished because I felt and thought I looked pretty much the same. I like to think that I am fairly lucky that I gain weight and carry weight well. I didn’t like the 200 number at all and with the thought of my wedding less than a year away. I needed to do something.

My fiancé, now husband, Mike has done several diets and had done Weight Watchers before and liked it. So we joined and I slowly got most of my family to join. It actually was a lot of fun going to meetings together and we would usually celebrate with dinner afterwards…maybe not the smartest choice when on a diet but hey you need to have fun. I lost about 40 lbs and I looked and felt great!

After my wedding in February 2006 we decided to start trying for a baby. I got pregnant in June. (I actually just celebrated my 4 year anniversary of growing children.) I have been pregnant and or nursing for 4 years straight. I was so excited to be pregnant and as soon as I could I dove into the maternity clothes. They are just so comfy! I love being pregnant and with my first pregnancy I enjoyed the cravings and Mike was very indulgent. I was also working at the time and I travelled around the city all day and didn’t really have a lunch break so I ended up eating out a lot. I didn’t worry too much about my weight gain because I figured that I would have lots of time to work out and nursing would help me to lose the weight. And after just losing 40lbs so well I was confident in my ability to diet. My midwives weren’t too concerned but near the end they did caution me. I had no negative side effects from gaining the weight like gestational diabetes. By the end of my pregnancy I had gained about 70 lbs. Amazing!

I quickly realized that a newborn is hard work. I also had significant breast milk supply problems. Ally was born by c-section, but I had hoped she would be born at home. I was okay with the c-section because it was really needed. But the low supply really threw me for a loop and I became a bit obsessed with figuring out why.

Over about 6 months I saw and did everything to ‘fix’ my problem. I was on domperidone, and several weird diets to help with supply. One diet had me eating full fat everything and the other was no white flour or red meat.

I dabbled in going to Weight Watchers again but then something would set us back and I would quit dieting for my milk supply. In January 2008 I also did Body For Life and lost about 10lbs. I somehow managed to get down to 200lbs before thinking about getting pregnant again.

Today is a VERY rainy day in Vancouver. And not a nice summer rain either – it’s our classic fall monsoon type of rain. Even though I love the sun fall like rain also brings a bit of anticipation. I love outdoor workouts in the rain – running in the rain (providing I have proper gear on!) is one of my favourite activities. So I’m hoping that by the time the rain is back to stay (this bout is only supposed to last a day or two – hopefully it’ll be October before we start to see REAL rain fall) I’m back in running form. Fingers crossed!

For now I’m sticking to my nice recovery workouts – low impact cardio which makes my back feel good and working with the trainers on exercises that will help strengthen what is now weak and get me back to where I was a few weeks ago. It’s coming along.

Last night was strictly a gym workout – everything indoors. Tonight will be a trainer workout so that should go a long way as well. It’s good times!

And since this rain is NOT supposed to last hopefully by Thrusday (or at least Friday!) I’ll be able to get out there and ride my bike. Fingers crossed anyway! In the meantime I’m looking out my office window thinking about fall and even anticipating winter…bring on the new seasons!

I am not a fan of running. Never have been. But, I’ve learned recently that running on the treadmill does have it’s benefits, other than the obvious health benefits.

I like running as part of my cardio routine because it doesn’t have to take as long as doing my full body strength training workout. I can spend thirty minutes on the treadmill and cut my workout time in half (of course the health benefits of cardio versus strength training are different). There are some days when I just don’t have 1.5+ hours to spend at the gym so I would rather do some cardio than do nothing at all.

The other thing that I like about my new friend, the treadmill, is that I can measure my success. I like being able to see how I did last time, how fast I went, how far I ran and how much time I spent and compare it each time. Some days are harder than others, but on the whole I improve each time and that’s encouraging. Some day I might look back a year or two and see how far I’ve come. I find that very motivating.

The final benefit for me personally, is that when I run on the treadmill, I’m 100% positive I run more and faster than if I were running outside. Last night I went to the gym and ran for 30 minutes (including warm up and cool down) with a solid 20 minutes at 5.6 or 5.7 speed. There is no way I could have done that on my own!

So on the whole, while I don’t like running, but I do think that I should look past that and see what there is to “love” about the treadmill

This weekend I got outside and went for a ride on my shiney new bike. I LOVE my new bike, it’s great, super responsive and a lot of fun to ride. Since the accident I’ve been struggling a bit with back pain but certain exercises (and whoohoo biking is one of them!) make that feel better – the elliptical at the gym, the workouts I’ve been doing with Devin and biking all seem to help which is great news. At the moment running is the one thing that hurts too much to attempt so that is off the table for awhile. I miss the running but at least I have the others to keep me motivated.

The one thing about being back in the saddle was getting over my new fear of intersections. On my ride on Saturday I found myself getting more and more nervous each intersection I went through until it got to the point where I was close to tears. The problem was that I was looking at the drivers around me and SO OFTEN could tell that they just didn’t see me – they were lost in their own world. So that was scary.

I’m pleased to say that the return trip was much more comfortable than the first half and I’m sure that the more I ride the more comfortable I’ll get. It’ll just take a little bit of time. In the meantime I’m happy to be out and enjoying the last days of summer and the sun!

Today I am SORE. Since the accident there have generally been good days and bad days…today is not so great. I have been instructed to do light cardio and range of motion exercises, etc. to keep my muscles moving, limber and to help them heal. It works, but it also means that I have more soreness the next day. ahhh, baby steps. On the plus side though I am slowing getting back to being able to do the things I love. I’m being patient and following instructions so that I heal properly and really it’s an opportunity to come out of this stronger in the long run.

So as much as I’m sore today I also feel pretty positive.

On that note I don’t have anything exciting to report in terms of activity – so how about all of you out there? What are you doing to stay active and enjoy the sun before it disappears and fall rain sets in? I’d love to hear all about it!

I’m finally updating the blog! It’s been tough to write anything since I had the bike accident because my activity level has been so very low. It’s been tough to get used to not being out and doing something everyday. It’s been several days now, for the first few I seemed to find a new bump or bruise every day but I think they’re all out now!

So now it’s time to start focusing on getting back to myself. At the moment that means doing some range of motion exercises to get blood moving through the injuries and to help them heal. It’s too early yet to start physio but that will come next week. I can also do some light cardio which keeps the blood moving and helps the muscles heal.

While it’s tough not being as active as I’d like (especially on these beautiful sunny days!) I’m also glad that it wasn’t worse. So if that means I have to WATCH my ball team play ball instead of playing with them and that I have to run slowly or ride at an easy pace I’ll do it – in the end it’s all worth it. And really, injury recovery is as much about attitude as it is about rehab. I’m confident that If I have a good attitude, work hard and don’t overdo it I’ll be back to myself in no time.

Update on how this goes daily now!

Have you ever had one? Come on, let me see those hands! Well, this was a topic raised at a recent WeightWatchers meeting I attended and I thought it was worth bringing up.

With BBQs in full swing it’s hard to not get carried away with the festivities of the summer and get off track with our healthy eating. It’s easy to do and it’s one of those things that can snowball so easily that you end up finishing a whole bag of chips and don’t know how you went so far.

Probably the best thing you can do is develop a plan for when you feel an eat-a-thon coming on. I know, I know, it sounds like work but it doesn’t have to be complicated. This past week my plan was to have a small (low cal, low points) snack that was my “go-to” instead of gorging on a bunch of food items and diving into an eat-a-thon. This week my weapon against eating too much was Laughing Cow cheese and Babel cheese. You know the ones, the small single portion cheeses. You can get them at Costco (no I’m not endorsed by any of those companies). I’m the kind of person that gets bored easily, so I’ll have to switch up my “weapons” but for now these little pieces of cheese are satisfying me enough to avoid eat-a-thons.

What’s your plan to avoid never-ending eating? You may only need to find one item next time you go to the grocery store and it could be enough to veer you off the non-stop eating path and on to the path of healthier living.

Well it’s been 3 days since the accident and it seems like a few new aches and pains (and bruises) settle in every day, not fun! Added to that – the weather is BEAUTIFUL and I would like nothing more than to be outside being active. Three days in and I’m already missing it.

I have a few assessments coming up and hopefully a plan that will have me working back towards what I enjoy most soon. In the meantime it’ll be patience, patience, patience and not rushing it.

I’ll keep you posted on how everything goes with hopefully positive news! In the meantime we’ll also feature some of our guest posters which will be fun!

Stay healthy!

When I started riding my bike more frequently (especially in the city) I was warned that it was probably a matter of time until I got hit – everyone seems to. Well on Tuesday my bike when up against a car and the car won, I was hit in an intersection in the city. I was extremely lucky in terms of injury, I’m battered and bruised and walking slowly but it could have been much MUCH worse. My bike is in two pieces so it’ll be awhile before I’m on a bike again. The paramedics were fantastic and so was the emergency crew at the hospital. Will post more details about what happened at a later date.

For now my training is on hold and once I’ve recovered a bit I’ll be focusing on rehab and range of motion. It will be quite a change from what I’m used to and will be interesting to track the recovery process.

More details and tracking of the recovery to come!