Friday, February 17, 2012

Firm Fridays: It's a Start

Ok, let's talk about it.

The post-baby bod.

Like, whoa.

I would classify myself as having been "in shape" most of my teen-adult life. I played sports and then continued to stay fairly active into and after college. Active meaning running, some weights here and there, hiking, kayaking, a short stint in swimming {which I would love to start again}, you know the miscellaneous activities that can keep a person healthy.

The activity I could usually stick to the most was running. I mean, I was no marathoner but I enjoyed a run with my dog. The thing with running though is I mostly enjoy it outside. Well, outside usually means I like fairly decent weather. Around these parts for a good part of the year our weather is 45 degrees and rainy. I don't enjoy running in that.

Rewind to last March when we found out we were going to be having a baby. The months leading up to March are the prime months of unfavorable running weather around here. So what had I been doing up until March? Not running would be the correct answer.

I had always thought when I got pregnant that I would work out the whole time and feel so great since I was in pretty okay shape before I got pregnant and as long as I started out working out while carrying the little human inside of me, I would be good to continue right up until close to birthing said human. Right?

Wrong!

First of all, I was in no place of continuing a workout routine since I didn't have one going in the first place. Second of all, the first few months I had nausea with vomiting that did continue mostly throughout the whole pregnancy. I had heartburn like the fire of a thousand suns and I just didn't feel overall that great.

Except for the occasional walk or two and yes I would try some light weights here and there and even some "pregnancy exercises" sometimes but for the most part the exercise I enjoyed most when I could was the exercise for my eyelids. If we do the math here, I was pregnant through summer so I missed working out and running during my favorite season to do so. Continuing the equation, I haven't had a good stint of running in over a year. Yikes. {Sidenote: there was a decent time right before I found out I was pregnant and I did my longest run I had done in awhile and was so proud and happy and motivated and then a week later I peed on the stick. Kind of funny.}

Like I have hinted, I have never been any kind of obsessed with working out or obsessed with my body in any way. I figured my post-baby bod would be just that and I would deal with it and it would work itself out. Obviously for the first few weeks post-baby I didn't give it a second thought. I had other things on my mind. I would say about 5 or 6 weeks post-babe I started feeling a little restless. I mean, I had been doing a lot of rocking, holding, feeding, soothing, sitting around. I started to notice the bod. Yes, at my 6 week appointment I weighed in and had lost twenty pounds which was great but like the midwife said, it would take the next nine-ish months for the next 10-ish to come off. But she said with exercise, I could speed it up.

The thing is with an infant that isn't quite on any kind of predictable schedule yet, it is hard to know when is a good time to exercise!

This week, I set a couple of goals for myself:

1. Get dressed everyday. It is really too easy to just sit around in my pajamas all day when I know I won't see anyone or go anywhere. Heck, let's face it there are some people that I don't mind them seeing me in my pajamas so sometimes even someone coming over isn't motivation to get dressed.

2. Do some sort of exercise everyday. I wanted to try to utilize the times Baby E is sleeping and even if they are just some quick ab workouts or a few lunges here and there, it needs to be done. The mush won't tighten itself. There, I said it.

I know, it's a slow start but I feel I have to start somewhere and I have always been kind of a slow-starter when it comes to working out so starting with ease will be good. I have also gone on some walks which feels great and come time for nice weather, hopefully I will really be ready to break in that jogger and see what she's made of.

I have been reading Kristen's Firm Friday posts and thought it was time to become accountable for myself so if you feel it's time for you to share your goals with others head on over!

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