Health/Fitness Week in Review

Right now this probably seems more like a triathlon training blog. It's not my intent but it's definitely part of my self discovery at this point.

Last week, I told you about my weight loss plan.  It's a little late but today, I want to recap how it's going. We did end up eating out a couple of times last week due to travel and lack of groceries.

My fitness week:
Saturday: Biked 7 with friend (mtn bike)
Sunday: Biked 23 miles with a tri club
Monday: ran 3 and 1/2 miles pushing two year old.
Tuesday: about 2000 m or so at swim practice.
Wednesday: off
Thursday: about 2000 m or so at swim practice.
Friday: 2.5 miles running. 1 mile walking.
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: Sprint Triathlon
Monday: swim (one of those keep moving for 40 min. types of workouts)
Tuesday: OFF (appear to be getting ill)

My training actually looks a lot better when I write it out than it did as I was doing it.  My plans are to include group runs, spin sessions, and hopefully a 3rd swim day in the future.  Some of this will depend on the local schedules of local tri clubs.

As far as nutrition, I need to make getting groceries a priority even if I dread taking toddlers to the store.

Weight report
My jeans appear to be fitting better overall. Although tempting when I went to the gym yesterday, I'm not going to weigh myself.

My Painless Weight Loss Plan

The tri-shorts CC wants to borrow

This morning CC, my skinny as a rail 11 year old daughter, picked up a pair of tri-shorts that I purchased two years ago.  My big toe wouldn't fit in them now.

"Hey Mom," she said, "Can I borrow these for my next triathlon?"

I looked over to see she was already trying them on and they fit perfectly.  Was I really that thin two years ago? I'm sure I stretched them out a little more than she did so I probably wasn't THAT skinny but it is a painful reminder of the 30 pounds I gained while pregnant with B that I never lost.

I used to dream of being one of the women that came out of pregnancy thinner than I went in but I always had a minimum weight gain of 35 pounds and most of the time it was much higher.    Add to that the stress of life since B was born which ultimately led to me moving to a new city and trying to juggle my telecommuting job with a baby and toddler mostly alone in addition to having two older children with me part time.  I've been easy on myself.  I've let exercise fall by the wayside in the name of being a busy, working mom and while I was still eating some good foods I was indulging in a lot of junk like the time I bought an entire box of Reese's Cups that I was going to give to K but ended up eating myself.

So what is my plan?  I'll preface the details by saying that there is nothing scientific about it as it is based on my previous experiences.

1. I'm tossing out the scales.
We have a scale at K's house. If I went back through the list of things that would be mine, this one of them as I think it was a gift a while ago.  However, I know that when I do things right, I lose an average of 5 lbs per month until I get to my ideal weight.  I also know that the scale causes stress because I appear to be at a weight loss stand still until all at once I lose 5 lbs.  I'm really after losing clothing sizes anyway.

2. I'm going to enjoy being active.
Everyone has or could have a sport that they really enjoy. I enjoy the sports involved in triathlon and that's what I'm going to focus on. I also like to exercise socially as opposed to alone and it must be something that gets my heart rate up. I discovered during my last pregnancy that running and swimming with a low heart rate are also no fun for me.

Now that I know that I'm in this location for the foreseeable future, this also means doing a bit of research to figure out a schedule for workouts that might work for me and how to work that around taking care of my kids.  I asked our local Roadrunners Club about bringing my double stroller to runs and they said they have lots of women who do just that.  Most of the tri clubs in the area seem to do a lot of workouts on the weekends so I plan to attend these hoping to enlist K's help watching the kids.  Our local YMCA offers childcare with membership so any of their classes are good during childcare hours. I am already committed to swimming there twice a week.  Overall my goal is to find a group workout of some type 5 or 6 times a week.

I would encourage everyone to find something they truly enjoy.  Exercise doesn't have to be alone and it doesn't have to be running on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or the dreaded walking.  There's kayaking, martial arts, yoga, volleyball, and sports of which many of us have never heard.  Pick something that you are going to look forward to doing and improving.  Keep trying new things until you find the one thing that you look forward to.  In my opinion exercise, should not be done for weight loss; it should be done for the love of the activity.

3. Eating at home.
We are going to commit to eating at home in both households.  This alone has caused a lot of weight loss in the past. Even eating at "good" restaurants seems cause weight gain for me.  As a family of 6, we really can't afford to eat out that often anyway so this should trim more than just our waistlines.  Next, I'm going to severely limit the amount of refined sugar I consume and commit to replacing as much as possible with stevia. Lastly,we as a family are going to commit to lowering the amount of processed foods we are eating.

A Busy Day with the Kids

I want to thank every for being so encouraging.  Over the past week, I've had messages from lots of women who've told me their stories.  I've had people who said they supported my posts and having gone public about our living separately.   Thank you. It means a lot to know there is love out there.

The most important piece of my life is my children.  We have four; 3 daughters and a son.  CC is 11 years old.  SS is 8 years old.  Little M is almost three years old and our youngest B is one year old.  Little M and B have primarily lived with me over the last 6 months as they have a few more needs that only a mama can really provide.  CC and SS had some activities they needed to finish up at the old house and for now the plan is for them to stay here with me on a more long term basis as soon as their activities are over.

CC was with us yesterday and we had so much fun.  The night before I made my first attempt at homemade ice cream.  I was discouraged from using the ice cream maker at the other house so I splurged and got a cheap one for my house.  I didn't realize I was supposed to freeze the bowl for 6 hours and so to prevent so much disappointment I promised to make it first thing in the morning and we'd have ice cream and pancakes for breakfast.  After a few more bumps in the road, we made the ice cream with coconut milk and it was so good!

Then it was time to head off to the pool for a swim practice in which I felt particularly good. I was late arriving as usual and this time that meant sharing a lane with different people.  To my surprise, due to a little miracle call drafting, I was able to keep up and even complete the longer distances on time.  It was a good feeling.

After a quick lunch, we were off to watch a soccer game in which CC played an awesome game of goalie only letting two by her in the last 5 min. of the game.  The last she played this team, the other team scored so many goals I lost count.

We dropped the little ones off at a child care center I use frequently so I can get my work done.  Instead of heading home to get my work done, we headed over to a local sports store to participate in a "scavenger hunt" in which CC and I ran/walked 3 miles to get raffle tickets.  We didn't win anything but we had such a good time together.  And that's the way exercise should be!

Then we picked up the little ones and headed home to work for real Thank goodness all days aren't so busy!