Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Month 1 Check In


Ok, it's been just about a month since I started my fitness journey and I'm noticing some changes already.  Although I haven't lost as much weight as I'd hoped (largely due to a lot of traveling and too much indulging), I'm seeing my muscles again, feeling stronger, and loving the energy I'm getting from eating right.

The biggest challenge thus far is the eating, but I'm make some changes to better work it into my crazy schedule.  I worry a bit about the upcoming month because we are going on a 10-day family vacation up north which always involves a lot of eating (good Italian food and lots of desserts from Joe's side and tons of fresh, homemade food from my dad).  Plus, when/where am I going to work out?!  I'm going to do my best to fit it all in, and am even planning to run with my dad once I get to NH, but I just know I won't be able to strength train as much as I'd like.  It bums me out a bit because I know my time here is limited and I want to make the most of it because who knows where I'll be after September 30th.

The best part so far?  How much food I get to eat!  I eat every three hours...and not just a little snack, but a plate of meat and veggies or eggs or oatmeal, etc...  Sometimes I have to force myself to eat, but it's really helped cut down my cravings a lot.  I'm struggling at home mostly because Joe will sit on the couch and nosh on sweets after lunch AND dinner almost every day.  And since he doesn't cook and I work all day, I'm not always in the mood to cook, which means we go out to eat too much.  But I've been pretty good about watching my portions and ordering healthy items like lean steak and broccoli. 

Checkin' In on Those Guns

Well, that's about it...I can't wait until I'm done with another month so I can see the results!  Now if only I could find a good yoga place here...my muscles are tight!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

19 Months Old


Holy crap, my baby is getting big!  I know, I know, I say that every month, but this time it's serious.  He's totally turning into a little man right in front of my eyes and I can't make it stop!  ::insert dramatic music::

There's so much to update about, I fear this may be a long post!  I'll try my best to be succinct.

Stats
Height: 33.75 inches
Weight: 27.6 lbs
Clothes: 2T
Shoes: 7 toddler

 His vocabulary is positively blowing up this month.  He's repeating things we say, pointing things out in the stories we read (trees, puppy, train, daddy, wagon) and can tell us just about anything he wants/needs.  We can tell he's just tickled to be able to talk with us and we're noticing a decrease in his frustration due to lack of communication.  His favorite words are still juice, shoes and ball though...hehe...  He's doing really well at daycare and seems to really enjoy when he goes full days.  But he's been sick a lot, so it's been kind of frustrating for us.


His little personality is just off the charts this month.  He's giggling at things he sees, plays games with us, wrestles with us on the daily and definitely has opinions about things.  The funniest thing he's doing this month is making it known that he has to pick out his own shoes.  It doesn't matter what pair we pick out, he has to go back into his room at least once and switch them out.   He comes out of his room multiple times a day with different shoes, hats, sunglasses, etc...  My budding fashionisto!  Haha...  He's also bringing "friends" with him whenever we go on "trips" and wants to walk down the steps himself.  He's learning to undress himself and we've found him a few times without his diaper on (uh oh).

On a related note, he's starting to show signs of toilet training readiness, but only the beginning stages.  He's totally in tuned to when he needs to go (although he's usually going by the time he tells us), seems to be bothered by his diaper and having "poo" in it, and has shown a fascination with the potty.  He still can't undress himself and I doubt he can really control anything, so we're not moving forward just yet.  We're merely having the potty vs. diaper conversations and reinforcing him telling us whenever he has to go.  Baby steps, big man...


He's recently gotten the hang of The Itsy Bitsy Spider and the steps to Barnyard Dance and tries to copy the dances he sees on NickJr.  He copies Joe and I all the time - both the things we do and the things we say - and it's just too darn cute.  He's loving giving kisses now and we're trying to teach him, "I love you."  I asked him, "Where's Nash?" the other day and he pointed at himself and made a shy smile.  He's totally a ham for the camera and just about any crowd.  He'll start to jump around, fall on the floor, and look around to see if anyone saw him.  Speaking of jumping...we officially have "air," people.  He jumps from step to step or on the couch or just on the floor and gets at least an inch or two off the ground.  And boy, is he proud of himself.


On the not so cute side of things, he's still in this terrible screaming phase.  Pretty much anytime he hears the word "no" he screams.  Like, bloody murder scream.  Try to redirect?  Scream.  Nap time?  Scream.  No more crackers?  Scream.  Yeah, it's bad.  And nothing works.  We've tried ignoring him (tough to do when he's screaming at the top of his lungs inside a car and you're trying to drive and cover your ears all at the same time).  We've tried time outs (fail) or just trying to distract him.  Yelling doesn't work at all either.  So, we're just praying this is a short-lived phase.

Also, he's become very picky about what he eats.  Most of the time, he just wants crackers and juice.  He'll eat toast and fruit and eggs, but just when you think he likes something, he turns his nose up at it.  Lots of food has been wasted in this house the last few months.

He also thinks it's hi-larious to spit, snort and sneeze - which is particularly troublesome when he has a mouthful of food.  He's taken to throwing water around during bath time, which means a lot of clean up and tons of screaming.


Overall, he's just the sweetest, craziest little boy ever, and I can't believe how big he's getting.  I love him more and more each day, and I can see his love for me and Daddy and it's just amazing.  Part of me thinks we shouldn't have any more kids because he's just perfect and I wouldn't want to take an ounce of my attention away from him, but then, you never know.  But for now, we've got our hands completely full (of love) with this little man.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Jacksonville Adventures - Part 1

Ok, we've been here about a month now, so I feel like it's time to do a little update on the Fleming Island/Jacksonville experience.  We've been here just long enough to feel comfortable and to have established a few favorite hangouts, but not long enough to really know our way around.  We still rely on google a lot to find the best (insert keyword here) around.  We've had some great outings and seen some cool sights.

Ok, ok, you got me.  Basically I just need to do a photo dump.  'Nuff said.


4th of July



Due to some very untimely bad weather, we weren't able to go see fireworks.  I'm so mad at myself because they had fireworks RIGHT by our apartment the Sunday before and we didn't go.  Ugh.  So much for checking "capture a great fireworks photo" off of my 30-Before-30 list.


Touring St. Augustine



Yayyyy for free passes to ALL national parks for military personnel!











It was super hot that day (notice Bubs' uber flushed cheeks), so we hit up a local gourmet popsicle joint that came highly recommended.




Trip to O2B Kids in Fleming Island

After a particularly rough day couped up in the house, we decided to check out this kids play around the corner from our apartment.  Little did we know, less than an hour later our kid would be strapped up ready to climb the rock wall.







Workday Adventures

During work one day, the guys said, "hey, let's go check out the machine gun range."  Thinking one of our units was qualifying and we'd get to see some bullets go downrange, we hopped into the GSA and took off.  After discovering they were already done and gone, we decided to just drive around and check out the area.  We found a bunch of cool, desolate lakes and old training areas.  Who knew all this stuff was here?!


Storms told us is was time to head back though.  This dark cloud would lead to some serious lightning that would eventually cause them to cancel Bubs' first swim lesson (boo).


Thanks for sticking with me through our early adventures in Jacksonville.  There are plenty more adventures (and corresponding pictures) to come, so stay tuned.  Next up though, Bub is 19 Months and oh, yeah, we're going on VACAY!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Fitness Update - Week 3

CAUTION:  This is a text heavy post.

It's officially the start of week 3 of the Get In Shape Girl Workout Plan and week 5 of working out/eating better.  I'd like to say I'm dropping some serious lbs, but I'm not.  Rather I'm building muscle and losing fat, for sure.  I also think I've dropped some water weight that I had accumulated from a lot of eating out.

Inspiration is critical.  Image via

Here's my opinion of each element thus far:


Strength Training
It's mostly circuit-style with groups of 3-5 exercises.  I focus on 1-2 areas each time I ST (which is supposed to be 3x a week), so I have plenty of rest.  The exercises don't require a lot of machines/equipment - which is nice because I can do them at home if I'm off from work.  I'm not pushing myself too much on the weight yet since I'm just getting back into ST, but I'm uber excited to see how much I can push in these next weeks. 


HIIT
Kyra has had me doing High Intensity Interval Training 3x a week after my ST sessions as a way to torch my extra body fat.  Basically I can do whatever exercise I want as long as it's pushing my heart rate for a specified period of time then relaxing for a specified period of time before pushing it again.  It's quick, but not painless.  I'm truly enjoying this part of the program because I KNOW it's going to work.  I know I'm getting faster, my cardio conditioning is improving and I'm losing body fat.  It hurts though...and since I've been sticking largely to sprints (to improve my PT test run time), I've been feeling a bit of shin splint pain.  Think I'm going to try rowing intervals on Wednesday so I switch it up AND I don't kill my legs after my Wed leg session.


Cardio
I've been doing cardio twice a week to (a) improve my PT test run time, which was one of my major goals; (b) train for my upcoming races; (c) burn more fat while giving my muscles a break; and (d) to keep my sanity.  I love running...especially on my own, outside, with the perfect playlist.  Want to sore through a tough issue?  Go running...it works.  I've been averaging about 3.2 miles each session and I can see my time improving already.

Nutrition
This is the area I'm struggling the most - and I knew it would be.  I'm having trouble planning ahead for all of my meals (especially when I get off schedule due to travel or whatnot).  Also, I notice I'm netting a very low number of calories.  I'm used to coming in at 1200-1300 calories, but with the exercise and the nutrition plan, I'm closer to 1000.  Because I don't work out on the weekends and that's when I tend to go off plan, I'm making up for those calories though.  And I haven't really felt tired or overly hungry.  If anything, I'm forcing myself to eat since it's a lot of protein and veggies and that stuff gets rather unappetizing after awhile.  But I know I only get so many calories, so I need to eat all of them.  I think this will get easier as I go along.  I'm definitely a creature of habit and do better when I plan ahead and eat a lot of the same things.   Best tip ever:  set up your phone to remind you whenever it's time to eat so you never miss a meal.  Funny, I find myself heading to eat merely a minute or two before my alarm goes off, so I know it's becoming a habit.

One day.  Image via


Overall, I'm noticing more muscles poking through (my abs are getting serious from all the core work) and I'm feel a lot less swollen.  On top of that, I just feel stronger.  I feel like I'm racing the clock though because I don't want my time on active duty to end.  This is when I'm the most focused on training and I just know September 30th is going to sneak up on me.  Especially since I have a 10-day vacation planned right in the middle of all this. FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS!

July 24th will mark my one-month milestone on the program, so I'll be posting progress photos and stats.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Getting Back on Track


I haven’t shared much about my recent return to the fit side of things (who am I kidding, I haven’t shared much about anything these days!), so I thought I would give y’all a little update.

Basically, I’m on active duty with the military for four months (June through September), so it’s really the perfect time for me to get back in shape.  I’ve really let myself go ever since having Nash, and I feel terrible about it.  I feel bad about myself, I have no energy, and I look like hell.  On top of it, I’m going to be 30 in October and I really don’t want to enter a new decade fat and miserable. I say “fat” lightly because I’m really not fat…merely out of shape.  Skinny fat, if you will.   Ok, don't judge...


So, what did I do?  I signed up for virtual personal training with my friend Kyra over at The Get in Shape Girl.  It’s $30 a month and she sends you a tailored meal plan, a workout plan that fits into your schedule (I’m lucky I get to work out 5 days a week before work), and all kinds of support.  She has this awesome website where she lays out all these workouts and sample meals…and she even started a Facebook group to keep everyone motivated, informed, and accountable.  On top of all that, I have to send her progress pics each month, a weekly review of my workouts and eating, and we do weekly conference calls.  With that kind of accountability, I don’t see how I won’t get results.

Starting Point – 24 June
Weight: 141.8 (I think)
BMI: 23.6 (upper part of normal)
Body Fat: 23.8% (per my scale)
Chest: 34 in
Waist: 29 in
Hips: 39.25 in

So, I’m technically on week one of her plan…I got all the info on Wednesday of last week, so up until that point I’d been doing my own workouts and just trying to eat healthy.  I log all my meals on My Fitness Pal, so I can tell when I’m eating a bunch of junk or missing certain macros.  This morning I did one of her leg circuit workouts and I was dripping…I mean, dripping…sweat.  I can run…I run a lot…but this made me feel really out of shape.

Funny thing is, just 3 weeks or so into working out regularly and tracking my meals, I’m already seeing progress.  My abs have reappeared, my muscles are peeking through, and I’m sleeping better.  I’m super excited about the changes I’ll see in the coming months…and it’s keeping me super motivated.

My only issue so far has been the eating.  I’m supposed to eat 5 meals of protein and green veggies and I’m struggling getting the last meal in…the green veggies in particular.  I can muscle down some protein later in the evening, but I haven’t been able to throw back some broccoli or anything like that.  I just can’t seem to stomach it.  I’m doing a little research though trying to find new ways to get that meal in since I need those calories.  

Five Meals of Protein-y Green Goodness
Throughout my journey, I’ll be posting pics and updating my stats.  I welcome any and all advice, comments, ideas…
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