Fitness Cure

Last week I ran A LOT. I ran for my warm up – I ran at the park..I even ran up crazy bleachers at a local community college. I felt great. Right now, it’s incredibly  HOT in Sacramento so I’m not running so much this week. This morning, I had an incredibly long workout that included stairclimbing, an intense chest workout followed by a bootcamp class. I usually don’t take bootcamp classes,  but I had a meeting afterwards with the instructor, so I ‘might as well’ partake in the class! Right now I have a list of things I’m checking off – making calls, updating budgets, emailing…pretty productive day! The boys are asleep, which makes my life A LOT easier. In fact, I as laying with one of them (putting him to sleep) and I wanted to fall asleep right next to him! And I kept thinking: Should I sleep, or should I work??? I should sleep…and then I decided, MAN I NEED TO WORK!

So I got up and now I feel pretty good about not taking  a midday nap.

Workouts have been good. I’m consistently sore. I received a nice compliment the other day…someone said, “You were made to have babies!!!” (not the first time I heard that, but always nice to hear) My body does seem to bounce back pretty well. I was always fearful of childbirth, mainly  because of the weight gain, but  now I feel like I can do it 100 times over! However, I HATE the labor part! LOL. It’s officially a bit over four months since I gave birth to my Baby Nicholas. My belly is completely flat (I’m working on toning it now) and I have my shape coming back. I’m most happy about my butt. First go around, I felt like my butt widened and almost flattened, but this time around, it’s still bubbly and has some muscle tone. I think it has something to do with not have an Epidural? Possibly.?

Of course, there are things I feel I can ALWAYS improve on. That being the diet first and foremost. I don’t eat bad  – I just don’t eat in my mind what is considered ‘perfect’…which is egg whites and oatmeal, chicken breast and broccoli and 12 almonds , etc. I like to eat something ‘outside of my diet’ here and there. It can include three jelly beans or a sugar cone or SOMETHING that makes me feel like I’m not on a strict diet.

Once a week I do splurge. And when I say splurge, I mean I eat sushi, frozen yogurt and indulge in one glass of red wine.

Yep – I love those days. Gone are the days when I ’splurged’ eating in and out, chocolate bars, ice cream, cake (all in one day!!) LOL.

I am loving my body though. I feel it getting better and better every week. My goal is to try to eat cleaner, incorporate bleachers once a week and get more zzz’s!

Yesterday I worked out with my buddy Adrian and we did a few things I haven’t done in a while…or ever! I deadlifted 140 pounds and even did dips. (No, I’m not talking about tricep dips.) Besides working out with him, I also peformed some crazy lunges with my mommy fitness group the day before, making me sore, sore, SORE today!

I do plan on working out tonight though – Dance Class! I love dance class because it’s fun, I sweat a lot and it doesn’t feel like exercise. I will give my muscles a break today and not train anything but I will finish off my arms and chest Friday and Saturday.

I definitely feel like I’m leaning up. I really should be running more but I’m not (mostly because I’m sore everywhere.) I would say that my diet is an 8/10. While I keep a fairly clean diet, I know that it can always be cleaner. I find myself ‘picking’ at a cake here and there but I definitely don’t eat a box or fries or a bowl of pasta. My face is getting smaller (per my mother’s observation) and I can see my abs starting to come through again.

I’m trying to enjoy some recreational activities like swimming and walking to add some fitness in my day. Yesterday, it felt really good to get in the pool since my body really needed to relax and remove some weight from my sore joints.

Yesterday I also had a humongous workout cleaning out a storage unit with my father. I found ALL my old clothes, books, papers, albums, etc. It was definitely a trip down memory lane. I was so excited to even find my old workout clothes!!! I had a huge workout there as I was moving things, lifting bags and moving boxes.

So! this week I plan on staying active and continuing Saturday as being my ‘free day’.

working out with my students at my summer camp last week.

Yes! Most of this week I will be instructing at my nonprofit’s summer camp so my posting will be here and there and everywhere! I really enjoy working with my students and am getting so many great ideas on how to make the program better! Tomorrow we will be filming a workout DVD, which will be so much fun!!!

Today we had a great jump rope workout and discussed the basics of nutrition and fitness. Some of the things we discussed are:

- How saturated fat has NO function but to get stored into your butt, belly or wherever you store your body fat.
- How fiber helps you poop
- How it takes 3500 calories to burn one pound of fat
- How the combination of carbohyrates and fats is one of the WORST combinations of food
- How you need to minimize the sugar in your daily diet

So – since I have this camp all week my schedule is going to be off the wall…as soon as I left the camp today I had a doctor’s appt., then I finally came home to see the kids, then went out again to run errands, then came back to make calls then finish an article. My goal tomorrow is to train early in the morning so I can get it out the way.

Speaking of exercise – I unfortunately haven’t been training as much as I want. Mainly because I’ve been sick. Today was the first day I felt pretty good. (even though I had little sleep the night before) I didn’t have time to train today though…but I will tomorrow! It was great seeing my intern today (whom I haven’t seen my awards dinner two months ago) who looked at me and said, “You’ve lost a lot of weight!” I was shocked! And she was shocked that I was shocked. Of course, I see myself every day and hardly notice anything.

My goal this week is to train EVERY day this week (since I missed Sun, Mon and Tues) and continue eating as best as I can!

With my Uncle Eddie at his eighties themed 40th bday party!

Aren’t we cute!!!! My sister Angel dressed like Madonna,
my sister Christine (who is 21 weeks preggers) had her take and
I was flashdance!

If anyone had the opportunity to be a fly on my wall throughout a day in the life of ME then they would certainly be exhausted. Every day is going…going…going. Even when sick. (which I have been this past week) It is 5pm and I FINALLY got the opportunity to sit down and devote ten minutes to this website. I had 4 meetings, went to two care homes, shopping, etc. My day is still not over.

Yesterday I had my mom-me fit club. It was great as I have been so sick, I haven’t been working out. Not only is getting out and training outside fun, but I love meeting new moms and new children that my boys can play with. (well, technically, just one boy)

In this past week I had my son’s Baptism, a horseback riding field trip, mom clubs, care home stuff…and David’s kids were in town from Mississippi…which meant an activity almost every day. (on top of my other stuff.)

My favorite time spent with my step kids was going to the gym. The eldest accompanied me to my favorite dance class and she did so well! We danced, we sweat and we had a ton of fun. Afterwards, I led her around the gym floor and showed her how to perform different exercises. She was like a sponge! I think all parents need to get their kids up, moving and educated while they still want to…by the time they are in high school, it’s really hard to motivate them.

As for my personal fitness, I was running for a bit – I even did some hard core training at Midtown Strength and Conditioning with my friend Adrian! At that gym they focus on kettlebells and other crazy stuff like tire flipping. I didn’t flip a tire, but I felt like I did the next day! I haven’t lost to much weight as I have been sick, not working out and hosting events. BUT, I’ve still lost weight. I hear compliments from people I haven’t seen in a while so that’s always nice!

Today is Wednesday and I think I will start feeling better tomorrow (hopefully)…if not, I am completely fine resting for an entire week. My neck has been in a lot of pain, I’ve been getting chills, first a stuffy nose, now a runny nose and lots and lots of fatigue….which bears the question, “should you train when you’re sick?” I say…listen to your body. If you think your immune system will be on overdrive because of the additional stress you place on it, then no, but if it’s as simple cold and you can endure more stress then yes. For me – I can’t.

I can’t wait to start running soon. I have ten pounds left until I make it to my pre-pregnancy weight. I know I can get there within two months (I give myself around 5 pounds a month which is completely realistic)

Right now, my goal is to eat clean, drink lots of fluids (for my sickness) and sleep!!!!

“kiss the baby” abs workout!

At Midtown Strength and Conditioning.

There are a lot of weddings going on during the summertime – and many that will  be occuring in the fall (including my long awaited wedding!) So if you are in a wedding, going to get married or planning to attend a wedding…then I think this is a wonderful incentive to get into some mad shape!

I knew that I would only have approximately 6 months to get into great shape after giving birth since our wedding is slated to be on November 27th. Right now, my progress has been good but slow since my body is re-calibrating from being pregnant for two years! Some of the things that I am incorporating is protein shakes (which I drink every morning anyways. But I am incorporating a second shake during the day). I am also working out 5-6 times a week and focusing on INTENSITY. As soon as I have a more stable schedule I plan on incorporating running as that burns a ton of calories.

One big thing that I think about when trying to create a program that works is FIRST getting my body into a program. That means waking, eating, sleeping, even sh%ting at the same time every day. When my body becomes more predictable I know that I can tweak any part of my day and create a result. If my schedule is sporadic and my eating is sporadic, then I know that my body is not going to respond to any stimuli I place upon it because the entire time it will be thinking “wtf are you doing to me??!” LOL

This is what I call making my body into a ‘fat burning machine’…and since giving birth, as you can imagine, it’s been tough with the babies schedule, my work schedule and finding time to put in workouts and food whenever I can. However, I’ve been really putting sleep as a priority as well as eating. Today I finally felt like my body is getting back on schedule. Firstly, my body felt lighter, I woke up feeling good, however my appetite is still low but I am forcing food. Usually I try to workout in the morning, but I didn’t get the opportunity today as I woke up later. I usually end up working out around 6ish in the evening if I don’t get my workout done in the morning. (It’s just so hard to leave two cute babies when they just woke up from sleeping!! Those are my favorite moments with them.)

So – right now, I’m building back my strength…which is getting a little better every week. I am starting to do push ups again and have done some running one day a week.

If any of you guys are getting ready for a wedding check out my good friend’s website: where-I-do.com It’s a great site for those especially living in the Northern Ca region and are looking for a venue to have their wedding and reception. There are a lot of places to wed outside of a church, a country club or a hotel ballroom. This website gives you all the details of awesome locations that are affordable and beautiful.

Training at Thunder Valley Casino and Resort Sunday morning. I only had 20 mins
so I did quick training on my favorite cardio machine: Cybex’s Arc Trainer! Here I
am posing it up 11 weeks after giving birth to my second baby, Nicholas!