White carbs and sugar: the new drug

Why are carbs and sugar so addicting? My word, once you have one bite, you just MUST. GET. MORE. It’s just so hard to say no when you have the goods in your house.

I am almost 4 months post-partum and really starting to make more of an effort to get back into “fighting shape.” The first month or so after Sweet Pea was born, the weight just literally melted off. It was pretty amazing, considering I was not exercising at all. Now I have about 5-8 pounds left to get back to pre-pregnancy weight, and about 15-20 to get to my wedding day weight, and about 20-25 to get to my early college weight. You know, back when it wasn’t super embarrassing if my stomach accidentally showed. Right now that is SUPER embarrassing, due to extra weight, stretch marks (battle wounds as I like to call them), and “muffin top”- what my friends and I call that little poof of flesh above your jeans we all have since having a baby.

My 5 motivating factors:

1- Our upcoming trip to California to visit Keith’s family. We leave in 3 weeks and I refuse to buy new summer clothes, so I need to fit into my old ones!

2- Sweet Pea’s baby dedication at the end of April. We will be standing in front of our entire church and I would like to feel and look my best!

3- A wedding we are attending on May 25th.

4- A half marathon I am training for, which is also on May 25th. (The race starts at 7 am so I’ll be done in plenty of time to get ready for the wedding!)

5- The biggest one. I don’t want my daughter to grow up and hear me ask “Do I look fat in this?” all the time.

Exercise? Free Time? What is that?

Even though I thought I was in the clear to exercise as of January 2nd, I had a teeny setback in the postpartum healing and I was back on the no exercise deal. Fortunately an ultrasound revealed that everything was okay, just a blood clot that will resolve on its own, and now I am allowed to work out.

Of course Sweet Pea had been amazingly predictable for 2 days prior to getting the go-ahead, making me think that I could get to the gym before my husband left for work and/ or doing an exercise video during her afternoon nap. NEGATIVE. She was completely unpredictable. Nursing at all sorts of weird times, not taking a nap for more than 20 minutes, etc. So I have yet to get to the gym. If the morning and afternoon time slots fail, I am hoping to maybe go at night while my husband gives her a bottle (and yes, bottles are still battles with her). This way I’ll be out of the house during operation take-a-bottle-please-don’t-cry.

I am also starting to realize that once you think you have your child figured out, they go and do something completely different. So maybe it is best to just go with the flow of chaos for the next twenty years?

Sinus Knitting

A new thing to do while pregnancy rhinitus keeps you up at night:

Knit things for the baby! At least I am doing something that will prove fruitful in a short amount of time.

This only took me two days of knitting here and there. How fun are itty bitty projects? I found the yarn on clearance at Joann’s for 2.50. What a deal!

The stats:

Children’s Cotton Hats, from Last Minute Knitted Gifts

Sensations Belleza Collection Yarn, less than 1 skein

Size 7 DPNs

Started Monday, 9/10

Finished Tuesday, 9/11

This is my second hat from LMKG, though the first knit in wool. The other hat I knit I gifted to our friends who’s baby arrived 3 weeks early- last week! I hadn’t even cast on for the baby booties they had picked out when I called my friend last Wednesday to confirm our plans to visit the MOPS group in our area. She sounded kind of quiet and I asked her if I woke her up… and she explained that she was in the hospital- that the baby was born the night before.

Now our “buffer” is gone! The only other pregnant couple we knew now had their baby! It’s just us. Maybe we should pack our bag, huh?

Who else watched the Biggest Loser 2 hour opening episode last night? I am all about this show this year! I never have had a show that I watch every week, but my husband and I decided to try to have a show or two that we always watch, a fun date night at home to look forward to during the winter months. The Office is our other one

My question for the Biggest Loser is : Is all the people do all day is exercise? Because that is a little bit unrealistic for real people to do, right? I would love to have a few weeks at that campus after the baby is born!

Finally… the MRI results!

So I finally got my MRI results on my hip injury after all the chaos at the doctor’s office a few weeks ago. I only had to wait 30 minutes this time, as opposed to 2 hours. Good deal.

And.

I

Have

a

Fractured

Pelvis.

How does one fracture their pelvis? First of all, it could only be me, because I am the only person I know who has bizarre injuries like this. Secondly, the doctor said that it just wasn’t typical for a 24 year old to have a chronic onset of a stress fracture here… So basically we think it’s related to a bike accident that happened at my old gym at the end of December.

I was in a spinning class and after 50 minutes of class, the pedal felt weird. So, I figured I should sit down and not do the “Jumps” that the rest of the class was doing, slow down, and look at the bike. Before I could adequately slow down, the entire pedal arm came off of the bike. The bolt connecting it snapped like a twig. My leg kinda of jerked down, as the pedal came off and slammed on the ground.

And I’ve had weird hip pain ever since. Quite excruciating during January and early February, but getting better day by day. The doctor didn’t give me any restrictions- he said that the fracture showed to be healing and that I should be as good as new in 6-8 weeks. He hooked me up w/ some physical therapy sessions that start tomorrow to restrengthen some muscles that just have been too painful to use and he encouraged me to RUN AS MUCH AS I COULD- to let pain be my guide.

Woo HOO! I’ll be running on the treadmill tonight- maybe not 8 miles, more like  2 or 3. Gosh I miss that adrenaline rush.

Us runners…. a different breed!

Shape Up

My Shape Up Page is now up and running, along with a few other online tools to help me in my fitness quest for 2007! I plan to update that page once a month to track my progress.

Where I’ve been…

My weight has fluctuated quite a bit since graduating from high school in 2000. While in school, I was very active in sports and played one or two sports at a time all year long. Two - four hours of exercise a day was not uncommon for me as I trained for various track and field events and played travel soccer. My weight ranged from 125-130 during that time and I ate whatever I wanted (and alot of it).

That changed once I went to college. I no longer played varsity sports and adapted a sedentary college lifestyle of late night studying, eating, and little exercise. My weight went up to 140, 150, back down to 130, up to 140 and remained at 140 for quite some time. I married my sweetie in 2004 and having homecooked meals, coupled with a job that had gourmet (and fattening) lunches nearly every day, and stress eating brought me to my peak weight of 164. I was terribly unhappy with myself.

I decided to lose it all and joined my local chapter of Team in Training, an endurance training group that raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. During the training I ran farther than I ever thought possible and gained a newfound amazement and respect for the human body.

I finished the Nike Women’s Marathon with a time of 5 hours and 9 minutes in October 2006. I continued my exercise regimen beyond the race and by December 27th 2006, I was down to 144 pounds (20 lbs. from my peak weight).

Sadly, I suffered a hip injury that is yet to be diagnosed (I have an MRI today) on December 27th at my gym that has left me unable to run without extreme pain or debilitation. For the past 2 months, I have been pretty sedentary as I haven’t been able to run or bike. I gained 5-6 pounds in this time and ot having that time to exercise has taken a toll on me mentally!

Where I’m at…

So I can’t run much (or at all if I listen to my doctors). I have only run a few times since the beginning of January, each with painful consequences! Supposedly I am not to bike or do the elliptical either, leaving little cardio to do!

I joined a different gym and it is about a 2/10’s of a mile walk from my front door.

Where I’m going…

I am meeting with a trainer on Wednesday, one of the new member freebies the gym gives you, and will hopefully know more about my hip to create a training regimen that will not further aggravate my injury, yet provide adequate calorie burnage.

I am also using some online tools to track my progress. You can see these, my goals, and a monthly update on my Shape Up Page.