We are a week in the New Year and I have been thinking long and hard about any “resolutions” I want to make this year. Instead of focusing on what I can do in January to make changes, I’ve been thinking of ways to constantly self improve throughout the year. See, I’ve been doing the Precision Nutrition Lean Eating program for the last 6 months (and we have 6 months to go). Best investment towards my personal well being EVER. Going into Lean Eating I thought the program would be based on the PN habits (which I thought I had a great grasp on) and other nutrition information that I would take away a few gems to practice and also teach. Little did I know that this program would dive into my personality, my psychology, my mental attitudes to not only nutrition but to life. It has been an eye opening experience. I find myself constantly reviewing old lessons (especially some at the beginning since I was in new mom sleep deprived coma) and learning from them.
We had a lesson this past week about changes and seeing how we’ve grown. It linked us to an old lesson in August where we had to define “who we are” and our identity. How do you really define who you are as a person? Who we think we are affects our decisions, behaviors, opinions, etc. so I had to think long and hard about this one and it was a really hard lesson for me. I’ve never really thought about this before. I talked along the lines about being a busy mom with a newborn and a business. This doesn’t really “define” me. My answer is August is quite different than what I’m reframing it be now. I’ve evolved so much as a person- wife, mother, friend, business owner, etc. So that’s how I came up with my big resolution for 2013. 2013 is about making decisions that I believe are best for me and MY family, not someone elses, that will help shape my identity and who I truly am. I read…I read a lot. Probably too much and can be easily influenced (working on that as well!) and that’s why I want to grow and evolve in this area. I’ve reworked the lesson from August and defined who I am and who I want to be. I’m building a vision board of what I forsee in the next year. I’m taking steps to be the person I want to be. Some day I’ll share…but in the meantime think about this yourself. Who are you? What forms your identity?
I was checking facebook this morning and noticed there were quite a few people posting workouts for the “12 Days of Christmas” so I figured with it being Kaden and Mommy’s day of fun, we would do our own 12 days workout. Kaden wasn’t much for working out this morning, so we started off our day of fun by meeting Uncle Tony for some keno. We were only there for 4 games…and unfortunately, Kaden’s numbers didn’t come in:(
Is 5 months too young to try out keno!?
After we left keno, we headed home to try out our 12 days workout. I set my timer for 30 minutes and did 12 exercises, as many rounds as possible. I was able to get through 3 times with the help and interaction of my little guy. Here’s what I (we) did:
- 12 swings
- 12 (6/6) lateral lunges
- 12 push-ups
- 12 jump squats
- 12 (6/6) 1 arm rows
- 12 plank jacks
- 12 jump squats to jump lunges (6/6)
- 12 floor press (6/6)
- 12 leg lowers
- 12 roundabout swings
- 12 skater lunges (12/12)
- 12 elevated split squats (12/12)
Kaden and mommy post workout! We are pooped!
~ Enjoy~
Kaden started day care yesterday (insert big tear here!) which was great for him and us, but incredibly hard at the same time. I can’t believe how much work we actually got done though! So it guess it does make a big difference in productivity when there’s no little one around. So yeah, it’s gonna benefit all of us in the long run. Since I didn’t get to see my babe much of yesterday, Wednesday is all about Kaden and mommy day!
To start the morning of, Kaden and I did a little training session. Him on his jungle gym and me doing a stack drill. Stack drill is exercise 1 for 30 sec, rest 30 sec. Exercise 1, 30 sec, 2 for 30 sec, rest 30. Keep going until you get through all exercises with no rest. I made it all the way through the up part of the stack but little guy wanted some attention on the way down. So I had to improvise and did some baby exercises, similar to what I did the other day. I got about 1/2 hour training session in and he had a blast! I think he loves being involved..he was smiling and giggling the whole time. Especially on the baby presses (except momma was a little worried about spit up coming down!!).
Here’s what I did on the way up (exercises in () are on the way down so I could play with Kaden!):
- Plank jacks (planks)—oh my gosh, these were HARD today! Trying to work on those baby muscles!!
- Burpees (bridges)
- Dbl bell deadlifts (squats)
- Alternating Row (chest press w/Kaden “flying”…he LOVED this!)
- Jumping Lunges (lateral lunges)
- SASW (no adjustment -he played on his own for this)
- Snatch (no adjustment -he played on his own for this)
After that we went for a nice long walk. It’s GORGEOUS out today here in Nebraska! Can’t complain about this weather for November 7th! Now we are off to go to the grocery store. Wednesday is my cooking day so I always try to find something fun and healthy to make, as I get bored easily. Will post later what I come up with.
But in the meantime, here’s a recipe we made the other day for black bean soup…oh my gosh, it was so delicious! Can’t wait to eat this again!
http://www.food.com/recipe/black-bean-soup-with-sausage-crock-pot-359534
This is going to be my first of hopefully many posts that I write about working out with Kaden to get him involved in my health and fitness, to keep me on track and to hopefully give some other mother’s ideas! Level 2 was an eye opener about how much my body really has changed and how much work I need to do after having a baby. My abs are still “sleeping”, so I hope to be able to share some ideas for others who are training post pregnancy.
If you are serious about your health and fitness goals, having a baby really shouldn’t be an excuse to lay off (at least for me, as I know everyone has different circumstances and that might not be the case!). You owe it to yourself and your baby to keep you healthy and strong!! (Note: If you are currently pregnant, check out my pregnancy diaries to tips and ideas of workouts to do while pregnant!)
Yesterday Mark and I went to our gym since I have taken the WHOLE ENTIRE week off (which was hard for me but knew my body needed it after RKC Level 2), so I was ready to get my sweat on! Sometimes Kaden is not super fussy so we let him play on a mat or his playpen while we do our thing…today was a different story. Of course if he’s fussy, I want to hold him and comfort him and that’s what he needed today. I wanted to do a circuit style workout- 6 exercises, 30 sec each continuous, then rest for 1 min, do a different set, rest repeat x 3. The circuits consisted of a kettlebell exercise followed by a bodyweight exercise. I can’t really swing a bell holding Kaden, so Mark and I decided I would hold him for 3 min and just do body weight exercises, then he’d hold him while I did KB stuff and switch on and off. So instead of body weight, I did baby exercises:)
Here’s what I did (3o sec each x 3 rounds):
Circuit 1 (with Kaden, my 17lb baby)
- Baby Squats
- Baby Leg Lowers
- Baby Lunges
- Baby Plank
- Baby Bridges
- Baby Pushups
Weighted (baby!) bridges!
Kaden watching mommy do a plank!
Circuit 2 (w/0 Kaden):
- Dbl bell swings
- Roundabout swing
- Dbl bell snatch
- Dbl bell deadlift
- 2 arm swing
- Roundabout swing
There were some modifications on the KB exercises, but for the most part, that’s what we did. Kaden LOVED it! He had a blast and boy do I LOVE seeing him with a big smile on his face!! It was a great way to get him involved and for us to not have an excuse to not train!! I’ll try to do more video next time!!
This last weekend Mark and I went to St. Paul, MN for the RKC Level 2 Certification. Mark completed his in April of this year and now it was my turn (since I’m not pregnant this time!). It was soooo hard to leave Kaden for 3 whole days though. Oh my gosh, my heart just ached not being able to see him- I never EVER thought I would feel like this for one small tiny wonderful person. Thanks Mom for being awesome and watching him all weekend!!
Anyways, enough about that before I get too gushy! I was able to focus on the task at hand, which was going through the cert and passing! We had a small group, which was kind of nice. I think we had 26 people in attendance total, so there was a lot of individual instruction and coaching. I’ll have to admit, I was petrified going into the weekend as we received the schedule beforehand and we had 4 HOURS of instruction on the pullup and pistol, 2 exercises I was not even remotely prepared for. The instruction and the drills we learned we WONDERFUL and will definitely be used in the future when my body is ready, so I did a lot of observing during that section and did the drills that I could do.
The rest of the weekend was AWESOME! Geoff Neupert, Captain Complex as Pavel was calling him, is AMAZING and teaching double kettlebell drills. We spent a ton of time just on proper set up and I can’t believe how on fire my abs got just getting into the “right” position. I’ve never felt them so much during swings–I felt totally “lit up”. We did some bottoms up work as well, which was fun. I’ve had this hand issue for over a year now on my right hand where I’m sooo uneven on bottoms up drills. We really worked on locking it all in and I was able to bu press the 16kg on the right side, where as of last week I was on the 12kg and it was shaky! I’ve still got some work to do to strengthen up that grip, but it’s coming:) Lots of new drills to teach our clients and to practice on myself!
I learned a lot about myself this weekend and how far I’ve come in my training and how far I still need to go. I’m really proud to say that I was able to attend and PASS Level 2 (and get recommend to assist!) after having a baby less than 4 months ago. I think that’s an accomplishment in itself. Is it something I would recommend? Probably not. I trained all throughout my pregnancy (under doctors supervision of course) and started training once he cleared me. I spent a lot of time really listening to my body and tried to keep it fit and healthy for myself and my baby. I took time off when my body needed it, but really worked hard to get to where I was going. I hope to be able to inspire other pregnant and postpartum mommas that you can be fit, you can be healthy and you can reach goals you want to attain if you put the effort in (and your body ALLOWS you to!). I’m fortunate enough to have a husband who is around enough to help take care of Kaden and let me sleep and train when I needed it:) Am I where I want to be yet? No, absolutely not, but I’m getting there. I take it one day at a time and I’m making decisions that not only benefit me, but also benefit my son.
I was strong enough to be able to pass the Level 2 skills, but definitely not where I want to be (24kg press, 16k snatch test, all Level 1 skills w/16kg except TGU was w/22kg, 16kg windmill, dbl 16kg jerk, push press and snatch). I could have taken a few more months to be in tip top shape, but I really wanted to be in attendance for Pavel’s last RKC Level 2 Cert he was teaching. Geoff was great in helping me realize what my body is capable (and not capable) of doing right now. I think I have pretty good body awareness, but he was pointing out things that I couldn’t feel, so once again, super grateful to have such a small group to be able to get some of that attention. I’m going to spend a lot of time in the upcoming months to really work on strengthening up my core and pelvic floor area as I could tell the strength I needed was definitely lacking in those areas.
I have to give a shout out to my partner, Shannon, who was fantastic! She is probably one of the strongest women I have ever trained with and it was truly inspiring to see what she could do—gives me something to work towards! She bent press the 36kg like it was nothing! It was fun having someone to partner with who has similar training styles and goals as me. If you are ever in Seattle, make sure to check her out. She’s a great instructor!
Now what’s next!?? I’ve got to think about what I want to do next in regards to training, so stay tuned. I know I’ll be focusing a lot on nutrition and eating right for my body type in the next few months to get rid of the rest of this baby weight, as my weight and body comp is too high right now, so more on that later!
Here’s some pics from the weekend!
