I bought a kick boxing DVD to try. I did a kick boxing boot camp last summer with my sister and I loved it. Since I’m stuck at home at night, I thought I’d try to do something other than yoga.

The DVD I bought has a warm up and cool down and then six or seven intervals that have two sets of four exercises each. I decided I better take it slow and just did the warm up, two sets of intervals and the cool down. Good thing I decided to go slow. My legs were very very sore today! But tonight I’m going to try to do three intervals and the warm up and cool down.

The other change was yoga today. I was really looking forward to it. Because of this, that, and the other thing, I ended up working at home last week so there was no yoga, so it’s been a week and a half since I’d been to a yoga class (which is many times better than a video) and my body wanted yoga. And I was sore.

Our usual Tuesday instructor was away, but the sub was amazing! I’d love to have her all the time and I like the Tuesday instructor. The sub taught a more flow style of yoga and it was challenging in new ways. My arms will be sore tomorrow. I loved her style and her voice and everything about this class. I know it was one of the best yoga classes I’ve been to in a while.

Change is a good thing.

Really!

Well, in all likelihood it’s because I don’t want to feed her junk. Which is good and makes sense. But then I wonder, why, if I won’t feed my baby junk, would I think that junk is a good thing to feed myself?

After that light bulb went on, I thought maybe I should try following J’s diet. So, for the past few weeks that’s what I’ve been doing and I feel a lot better!

J and I have been having breakfast together since she was born and since I started back at work, most mornings we eat oatmeal cooked in milk with all kinds of yummy things in it – raisins, cinnamon, other dried fruit. We also typically have dinner together because, well, I’m home by then and Alex is off to work.

Which meant the biggest challenge for me would be lunch.

Because I HATE lunch.

Most days J gets a sandwich or some leftovers, a few little containers of fruit and I try to give her at least one vegetable – usually peas, beans or avocado. She usually has a homemade mini muffin or a home made (piece of) granola bar and a yogurt or some applesauce for her snacks and she always has a juice box with a mixture of about 1/5-1/4 juice and the rest water and one that is plain water. Those are accessible to her all day and get refilled with plain water by the sitter when they’re empty. J gets milk to drink at lunch.

I didn’t know where to start with my lunches. It’s my least favourite meal of the day and sandwiches, the lunch staple, are at the bottom of the list (I also don’t eat mayonnaise which makes sandwiches a little more difficult). Most days I take my whole lunch – usually leftovers or maybe salad (bean and quinoa or coleslaw are my favourite these days). Then there is usually a container of cut up veggies (usually I eat them plain, but sometimes I take some hummus), an apple and some other fruit and usually a yogurt or a hard boiled egg and a mini muffin. It seems like a lot when I write it down and often I bring at least a piece of fruit home. If I skip the egg or yogurt, I find my afternoons are super sluggish. If I only take part of a lunch it I pick up the “main” part of the lunch somewhere. And lunch places on campus are somewhat scarce. Healthy lunch places are pretty much non existent.

But amazingly (well, not really amazing but anyway), eating this way I feel better. I just need to make my lunches more interesting.

Any suggestions?

And I think I’m going to feel it tomorrow. We did a lot of abdominal work – something I need since I really don’t think that part of my body has recovered completely yet from the c-section I had almost two years ago! I have muscle tone there again, but my tummy is lopsided and certainly a little worse for the wear from the incision.

I was a bit apprehensive about having the instructor all to myself. I’ve only ever had a private yoga class once before and it was because no one else showed up and happened to be a day that our instructor was away so I ended up with a sub. It was okay, but I decided I preferred a group setting.

But after today’s class, I would love love love to do private yoga more often – I still really like the group setting because sometimes I feel like I push myself harder because there are others in the room, but today I really felt like the instructor pushed me harder than she normally would.

And that was totally great!

She got me to hold things longer and because it was just me, I knew she watching and when I started to shake or grimace, she’d make me hold just that little bit longer. And I could do it. I didn’t give in to gravity; I had to prove to her that if she pushed me, I could do it!

Since there’s no way I could afford to take private yoga classes regularly, I’m just to have to hope I can tell myself that I did this time, so the next time I should have no problem holding the plank 15 seconds longer or staying in a high lunge for a few more seconds without dropping my knee.

And I feel awesome too! My day had been kind of blah, but that was exactly what I needed to make it way better!

Seriously I had no balance. I fell out of mountain pose (this is not difficult, check it out here if you don’t know what it is. Yes. I did. I fell out of that!), a high plank and side plank. I even fell out of downward dog. I think I probably would have even fallen out of child’s pose if I hadn’t already been pretty much all on the floor.

The instructor checked on me a few times because it was definitely obvious that something was up. Except I had no idea what.

I didn’t think I got much of a workout because I felt like I spent most of the hour picking myself up off the floor, but the next day my legs and abs were SORE!

I missed my first yoga class this week, but managed to make it yesterday. And I was very apprehensive. I did not want another class like last Thursday.

And thank goodness it wasn’t. But I still felt somewhat off balance and like some of the strength in my legs and arms was gone. But I managed to hold every plank. I even managed a modified eagle pose like this one except to make it harder you lean your torso forward until it’s parallel with the floor and the extend your arms. And it’s all on one foot. And I didn’t fall over.

And you know, that felt really good after last week’s frustrations. I don’t have any sore parts today, but my brain is definitely in a much happier place that it was last Friday!

I take a yoga class twice a week at lunch time. Since I started, other than days when I wasn’t actually at work, I’ve missed one class. And that was because I had a sinus infection that made my head spin like a top if I glanced down at the keyboard. It might have sent me spinning into space to try something like a downward dog in that condition. Savasana (aka corpse pose), that I could have handled. But only savasana and nothing else.

So the bug bit me today. And now I’m grumpy. It bit me because I had to miss my class. They’re finishing up right now. Unfortunately I have a big meeting this afternoon. At 2:30. And I’m ready for it. But the chair of the meeting. Yup. Waited until 11:30 to prep for it, so I just spent the better part of the last hour on the phone with her, walking her through the same numbers over and over and over again. She’s had the numbers for TWO WEEKS. Sorry. Rant over.

So now instead of being happy and relaxed and yoga-y during my meeting, well, I’m working on it so hopefully it won’t happen, but there’s a really good chance I’m going to be grumpy.

And I was thinking about that…and well, it’s probably the first time since I played field hockey that I’ve been grumpy because I missed a work out. And I think that’s a really really really good thing. And now, because I’ve missed yoga but I still have just over an hour until my meeting I’m going for a walk!

For the past, oh, seven or eight years, I’ve been fortunate enough to work for employers who provide extended benefits and those benefits have always included access to the EFAP program. I don’t know about you, but I always thought the EFAP program was just to get emergency access to a counsellor. Turns out it’s not. There are all kinds of interesting programs for all aspects of your life – resources for expectant and new parents, information about childcare and eldercare, support groups (online and in person) for people dealing with addiction, depression and other health issues and this little twelve week program I decided to sign up for.

It involved a work book, some exercises to complete and then a few telephone sessions with a lifestyle coach bases on the exercises. I checked it out on line and people seemed to have positive things to say about it. I was pretty excited – it looked really good.

And parts of it were great! The exercises were good – a health assessment, a stress map and goal setting. I’ve found that all three have been beneficial lately. I’ve taped my goals inside my notebook and when ever I feel like I’m stuck or going in the wrong direction, I take a look at those goals and find it’s actually pretty easy to get back on track, or that I wasn’t actually off track, maybe just plateauing…

The program focuses on making changes not just to your diet and exercise levels to help you lose weight but on changing other aspects of your life (stress levels, relationship and work issues, time management, etc) to become healthier overall. It sort of looks at weight loss as an inevitable, but positive, side effect.

But the lifestyle coach. Well she was just okay. And by okay I mean that I get the same, if not better, support and advice from my friends and husband. And coming from a lifestyle coach didn’t make me any more or less inclined to follow her advice.

And the work book. Well, it looks good. I’ve read it, but it really wants me to journal. And I haven’t. Not for lack of a journal. Because I have a whole shelf of blank journals screaming to be written in. But because I don’t have time haven’t made time to sit down and do it.

I was really excited because I thought I’d have lots to blog about by following this program, but so far, not really.

So (and internet you need to help hold me to this) this week I have resolved that I will start journaling just like the book wants me to.

Really. Wish me luck!

Well, something actually.

I just finished her book Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair and while I laughed, cried and cringed along with her, one sentence struck me. On page 82 she says, “Deep down inside, I knew it wasn’t about picking a diet or counting or measuring so that I could learn the proper way to eat. Any woman who has ever had a weight problem usually knows more about dieting and food and calories than anyone else you’ll ever meet. We know exactly what to do, we just don’t do it“. (Laurie talks about this idea on her blog as well)

It’s that last sentence.

It’s so true and I don’t think it just applies to eating. It applies to exercise and it applies to aspects of our lives that aren’t physical, but that are just as essential to being fit – in mind and body. I’ve been doing a lot of decluttering at home lately and one thing I discovered was that when I started throwing out things I’d been holding on to for no good reason (that means no reason at all or some unhealthy reason) other things got easier. I don’t know what, but this week (with the exception of one horrible day) eating properly and sticking to the plan we’d worked out on the calendar for meals was easy. So easy. And I think it’s partly because I just did it. I just hunkered down and chopped up those vegetables. I carved the time out of my day to go for a walk. And when I read those words of Laurie’s last night, I got it. And then was surprised that I’d been getting it all week.

Anyway, I’m off to just get some more stuff done while small toddler sleeps. And if you’re looking for something interesting to read, check out Crazy Aunt Purl. (I guess Nike knows what they’re talking about when they say Just Do It!)

Yoga finished almost two hours ago and my legs are still shaking.

I’m exhausted today. I haven’t been this tired at work since I was 8 1/2 months pregnant. I even had a quick cat nap before yoga. I know the exhaustion is mostly caused by someone (that would be me) not eating very well this week and a drastic change in our daily routine that has me going to work an hour earlier in the morning. Need to work on the eating well thing – because, yoga kicked my butt today.

Yes, my legs are still shaking. And while it’s partly to do with a more intense workout (for the third time in the last two weeks, someone fell asleep during savasana, so it’s not just me, plus I could see the grimaces on other people’s faces) I know it’s a lot to do with what I did or didn’t eat in the last few days. So today I’ve been concentrating on more water and more vegetables and fruit and avoiding what’s on the avoid list of the crazy diet. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have more energy.

(Oh yeah, having a teething toddler doesn’t help the rested feeling much either!)

I am not flexible. I have never been flexible. I don’t ever expect to be really flexible. But, yoga, or stretchy-bendy as my co-workers call it, has made me more flexible. I’m still less flexible than the average person, but I can almost put my heels down in downward dog now! Maybe one day I’ll be able to touch my toes without bending my knees. I think I was about eight the last time I could do that!

Besides the increased flexibility, I LOVE my lunch time yoga. It makes the rest of the day so much more pleasant and calm and wonderful…I wish I’d discovered there was lunch time yoga (right in my building) a long long time ago! Oh, and the increasing muscle tone in my arms and stomach is great too! Yay! I’m getting somewhere!

Coffee. I am drinking way less. Not that I usually drank lots of coffee, but I don’t get up in the morning and wonder whether I set the timer on the machine the night before because I really only feel like having one cup and then it’s only two or three times a week.

Sleep. I didn’t sleep poorly before. And I did get eight hours most nights because I’d force myself to bed at 10:00 so I could drag myself out of bed at 6:00. I’m still getting eight hours and I still have to remind myself eighty-three million times that it’s after nine now and you have to be in bed by ten, but I get there. I’m NOT dragging myself out of bed anymore. So I think maybe the quality of sleep has changed.

Stretch Marks. Ugh. They improved over the first six months after I had J, but that was it. Then they stopped. Nothing. And a year later I started acupuncture and now, well, WOW! The angry red marks are now much more subtle slightly pink marks. And my acupuncturist is trying a new treatment just for the stretch marks…I’m her guinea pig. She was surprised as I was that there was such a remarkable change, but she puts it down to gathering the energy in my abdomen for the hormones and that was probably just a really positive thing for the stretch marks too!

So yeah…I’d say just for the added benefits the acupuncture was worth it!