This past weekend it really hit me that I am sitting now more than I ever have and I hate it. Don’t get me wrong I love being home with Edie but it seems 95% of my day is spent on the couch or in bed nursing or trying to work or sleep. I am trying to fit workouts and walks in when I can but it is a challenge with a baby who wants to nurse so frequently (I am talking every 1.5-2 hours; sometimes less) and lately she has been napping but will only nap on me. I am not sure what’s worse the no nap phase or the only nap on me phase.
I am not getting the workouts I would like in, I haven’t made it to postnatal yoga and I am feeling unhappy with my postpartum progress. I am also sitting way more than I want to so now I am starting Project Get Off The Couch.
That being said I am making more of a conscious effort to stand up, walk around and do something active when the baby isn’t nursing or sleeping in me. I am also working on making a concentrated effort to focus and finish freelance and blog projects rather than getting distracted with other things (Pinterest, twitter, Private Practice, Hulu, ect.) so that I have more time to move. Lastly I am going to bed earlier in hopes that more sleep will help my body and my brain.
If you’re a new mom or heck someone who is working an office job or computer job that involves you sitting for long periods how do you make time to stand more and workout? I know many people have switched to standing desks and I really wish that it was easier to stand while nursing but I haven’t found a boppy pillow that works for that (yet).
Today I received a review copy (at no cost) of Harley Pasternak Hollywood Workout and it got me thinking about my favorite Wii fitness games that I haven’t used in months…okay maybe more like a year. Now that I have this new game to test out I am really excited to get back to my other favorite games (all of which I purchased myself).
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games | This isn’t your traditional Wii fitness game but it is super interactive. I love the bobsled and my absolute favorite is the ski jump. Neil and I love to play this game and compete against each other.
Wii Fit | This was the second Wii game that we purchased with the balance board. Although I don’t use it as much any more I used to use this almost daily and my favorite activities were soccer heading, ski slalom, the plank challenge and the jackknife challenge.
Wii Fit Plus | When we originally purchased the Wii we bought the balance board and Wii Fit and really like it so when Wii Fit Plus came out we got ourselves a copy as soon as we could. I liked Wii Fit but the Plus is so much better. I love the yoga and strength exercises the most and I love that they suggest combinations of yoga and strength moves to do together.
EA Sports Active | At one point we were going through a Wii fitness craze in our house and so of course we had to get EA Sports Active. I really like this one because it creates 20 minute circuit routines for you and has a 30 day challenge (which I plan to try again in the upcoming months). I just noticed that there is an Active 2 ….hmmm might need to get my hands on a copy.
Wii Sports | This game came with our Wii and honestly is probably the most used out of our collection. I absolutely love the golf and the boxing. The boxing really gets my heart rate up and is fun to do. Just talking about it makes me want to start the game upright now.
On Saturday we spent nearly the entire late morning/early afternoon making our way through the RnR Montreal Expo. First stop at the Expo was race bib pickup and then on to t-shirt and swag bag pick up.
Once Neil had checked in and picked up all of his goodies it was time to make our way through the expo.
Our first stop was the Brooks Running game area where we had some fun playing a few games. We even played a competitive game skee ball which I won even with Edie sleeping in the Ergo (and no she didn’t even wake up!) I proudly wore my skee ball championship medal although after seeing Neil’s RnR race medal it wasn’t so impressive, but more on that another day.
After playing some games we made our way through the vendors and spent our time lusting over new running gear, trying some samples and of course getting our photo taken.
As much as I would have liked to have purchased everything in site Neil and I both held off since I am in need of new running shoes, which aren’t cheap. We did however pick up a few Bondi Bands which Edith just had to model for you (don’t worry she won’t be running for beer anytime soon).
Overall I thought that the race expo was really well done. The layout was perfect and we hit very few congested areas. I also loved the start of the expo where they had some fun games for us to enjoy. Now I have only been to the VCM expo besides this one so I don’t have much to compare it to but overall I thought it was really well done.
This past Sunday Neil ran the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in Montreal, Quebec this past weekend. This was his second half marathon and his first international half marathon. We headed up on Friday after Neil got out of work and checked into our airbnb rental which was in the perfect spot just 1.1 km from the Mont Royal Metro Station and surrounded by our favorite shops and restaurants.
We arrived later than expected on Friday night and with a sleepy baby and pouring rain we decided to stay in for the night. We ordered food from our favorite vegan restaurant Aux Vivres which unfortunately took nearly two hours to finally get because the online ordering/delivery service that they have on their website did not place our order because we were not using a local number and rather than contact us or update our order page we didn’t find this out until 15 minutes after the food should have already arrived which was an hour after we had ordered.
Tired, hungry and frustrated we decided to call Aux Vivres directly and Neil ran out to pick up our order this time. I was a little frustrated and almost just gave up on getting dinner but I was so glad we did because my Dragon Bowl was just as good as I remembered and the big slice of carrot cake Neil and I shared was delicious.
Neil ordered the Macro Bowl (photo from Aux Vivres site)
Unfortunately I don’t have much else to share when it comes to food and sites because the bulk of the weekend was spent at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Montreal Expo and race. We did stop into the Eaton Centre for lunch at the food court and then Saturday night Neil and I picked up a few things to make a pasta dish at the apartment for dinner.
Since this weekend was dedicated to the race we are planning on making another trip up (hopefully) in October so we can spend some time enjoying our favorite eateries and sites.
This past weekend we made our first international trip with Edith up to Montreal for the RnR Montreal Demi Marathon. Neil and I are going to do a recap of the race and expo this week but until then I’ll leave you with a few photos. I’m exhausted after our weekend away and have a load of dishes and laundry to do but I’ll be back tomorrow!
The first month or so of parenthood was pretty easy and relaxed. We didn’t do too much and Neil was home for the first four weeks (one paternity leave week, one vacation week and two working remotely weeks) so we were able to work as a team. We were sleeping well, for parents of a newborn that is, and we were able to get out for walks and our individual workouts. Then we went on vacation, Neil’s work schedule became more demanding and our weekends became filled with various social/family commitments and to do lists a mile long.
Last night Neil and I finally had a chance to talk about how things were going and where we need to make changes. We both came to the same conclusion that we need to sit down and create a weekly lists of tasks to accomplish both around the house, with our blogs and other work and most importantly do a better job of planning our meals and making time for fitness.
My goal for this week is to create a tasks binder with a list of household chores that need to get done daily and weekly so that we can check them off as they are accomplished. The intention behind this is that all tasks for the day must be checked off before we can do anything fun such as play a game, catch up a TV show, watch a movie or read blogs/mindlessly surf the internet.
In addition to the household chores I want to set up a weekly blogging schedule so that we both can stay committed to our family site and me to my personal blog. I’m also going to throw in there some designated time for Neil to help me improve RWT and my health coaching site as well.
Next thing to make the list is meal planning the one thing I have been horrible at the past two months. Part of this I want to blame on our CSA however I say the same thing every time we do one that I hate that it arrives in the middle of the week. It screws up my meal planning which I like to do on Fridays or Saturday mornings and because the CSA comes in the middle of the week it throws off my planning. I have to say unless we can get a CSA that delivers on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday that we really shouldn’t do one again. I hate having to wait to see what we actually end up getting and unfortunately the CSA we did this year was new to us and the produce has been really lacking in quality so we often end up with unusable produce. What can I say as much as I love the concept of the CSA I am better off shopping at farmers markets where I can buy what I need and want for meals for the week.
The last thing that is going to be part of the tasks binder I am making is designated workout times for the two of us. It has been a bit of a challenge to make time for workouts due to a number of excuses such as Neil’s work schedule, his training schedule and Edith’s lack of napping or now sleeping at night (read more here). Lately Neil has been getting home later and later from work to turn around and have to do more work after he puts Edie to bed while I make dinner. By the time he does get home and Edith has nursed and is ready for bed it is often going on 7pm and after a day of her not sleeping or a night of of her not sleeping I am exhausted myself and it is really challenging to get myself motivated to workout especially when I still have dinner to make.
Mornings are tough because Neil ends up working most nights until 10p-12a I try and let him sleep in a bit while I hang out with Edie and by the time he gets up and showers he has to go to work which doesn’t allow me time to get a workout in, or lately he has been doing is half training runs in the morning which also doesn’t allow for me to have time to workout. Now during the day I was getting in workouts while Edie was sleeping or we would get out for a walk but when it comes to naps she is hit or miss (a lot of misses lately) and when it comes to walks she is currently hating the car seat i.e. stroller and is hit or miss when it comes to being in one of carriers. Needless to say it has been a challenge and one I’m not happy about.
I love to workout and I miss it so much. Neil is running is half marathon this weekend and will be done training which means (hopefully) that I can get back in to a better routine that doesn’t revolve around Neil’s training schedule. I also plan to start going to postpartum yoga which is something I can take Edie to and they have a baby bouncer there so if she fusses someone else can bounce her while I do my practice! Also starting at the end of the month I am committing to Best Body Bootcamp, just what I need to get back in the swing of things and work on getting back in shape post-baby.
Ever since around week 16 of my pregnancy, when my morning sickness had finally subsided, I have been itching to get back to running. I considered starting back up in my second trimester but between a busy work schedule, not running for about 12 weeks and the fact that it was the middle of winter I chose to focus on other ways to stay active during my pregnancy like prenatal workout videos, prenatal yoga and lots of walking.
I was happy to be able to stay so active during my second and third trimesters, I even thought that because I had been that my body would bounce back fairly quickly after giving birth…but boy was I wrong. Staying active during my pregnancy really helped me while giving birth but to my surprise it took me much longer than anticipated to get back to being active postpartum.
I tried to get out for a walk around day three and after about 15 minutes I was sore and ready to go home. Then I thought I was super woman and decided to go out to the farmers market at five days postpartum- I was in so much pain after. Over the next few weeks I got out for walks almost daily ranging from 15-25 minutes each but I was still really sore. A few times I was so sore (and more) that I had ended up making panicked calls to my midwives office, each time I was reassured that things were normal. Finally, around week five, I started to feel a bit better and increased my walks to 25-35 minutes. I slowly added in some strength and ab workouts but wasn’t feeling ready for yoga or running.
Finally at seven and half weeks postpartum I felt ready to run and I started back at seven weeks and five days. I have been out for 3 run/walks since getting back at it and I surprised myself with average 15 minute miles. Now for me that is pretty good considering my pre-pregnancy mile was around 12 minutes. I am looking forward to making running part of my regular routine and to run a race soon.
Q: Running moms when did you get back to running and when did you run your first race?
Not a mom? Have you ever had to take a break from running? How long did it take you to get back at it and when did you run your first post break race?
