Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Falling apart

My excitement over getting back into running has been replaced with frustration thanks to some serious knee pain and shin splints. The knees started hurting last week so I took a few days off thinking they would get better. On Saturday the weather was gorgeous so I decided to re-asses the situation and go for an outdoor jog. As soon as I started I knew it wasn't going to be good. Sharp pain started shooting from the outside of both knees. Every step made me wince. I slowed my pace and pushed on hoping the pain would ease a little once my legs warmed up. No such luck. I had planned on doing 3 miles but after a mile I knew I needed to save my legs and turn around. The mile back was awful. I probably should've just walked but my overly optimistic side stubbornly kept thinking if I ran maybe it would get better. Wishful thinking.

When I walked in the door Taber asked how it went and all I could say was "I think I really messed up my knees." The next day my fears were confirmed when I found myself wincing in pain just walking up and down the stairs. On top of the knee pain I also got some good shin splints from that little outing. Boo! It is so disheartening to get sidelined by injury again when I was finally starting to recover from my foot issues. I feel like my body is falling apart and I'm wondering if I'm trying to do too much too soon or what the deal is! I thought I was taking it pretty slow but my body sure doesn't seem to want to cooperate at all. It's very very frustrating.

So now I'm not sure how to get my exercise in. Can't really run and not sure if walking would be good for my injuries or not. The DVD's I normally do are tough on the knees since they have lots of squats and lunges. If only I had access to a pool...

While I wait for all this to get better I know one thing I definitely need to do is get some new shoes. Mine are over a year old and I put a lot of miles on them training for the New York half last year. I'm really hoping a lot of my issues stem from wearing bad shoes and not just me getting old and falling apart.

On a positive note my weigh in last week went well. Down another .8 for a total loss of 7lbs. I even got a sticker from my WW leader. Little ups to balance the downs. : )

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Running and Motherhood

So I'm on my third go around with a new baby. It's wonderful just like it was with the first two, and it's hard just like it was with the first two. This time though I have my running experience to draw upon and I have to say, running has given me strength and perspective when dealing with the challenges of having a new baby. I mean let's be honest, running, with all it's highs and awesome benefits, can still be really hard. Same with motherhood.

The other night I went to bed exhausted after a full day of taking care of all my little people. I told Taber I was so tired I felt like I was going to puke. Sounds dramatic but that's how I felt! Anyway it seems like I had barely hit the pillow when Cam's hungry cries yanked me out of dream land. I knew I needed to go get him and feed him but I was sooo tired. My body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. My eyelids felt like THEY weighed a thousands pounds. My mind kept saying, "get up and get the baby" But my body was launching a full on rebellion. I couldn't do it. It was like I was pinned down to the bed and just didn't have the strength to break free. That's when the running perspective came into play. I thought to myself, "you ran a marathon woman, a MARATHON! you made your legs move when they couldn't move anymore, you pushed past pain and fatigue for that, so there's no reason why you can't get your butt out of bed and feed that baby!"

And it worked. I drew on that same will power that carried me through those last miles of the marathon and forced my eyes to open. Forced my legs to slide out of the covers and pull my body out of bed. I walked to Cam's room and picked up my sweet little chubster and brought him back to my room for yet another midnight feeding. Just like running, taking care of a newborn is hard. But just like running, it's amazingly rewarding too. I can't tell you how good it feels to hold that snugly warm bundle in the middle of the night, when him and I are the only ones awake in the house and we just send our unspoken love vibes back and forth to each other while we cuddle. Pure bliss.

On the flip side, Motherhood helps me be a better runner. Lately I've been back on the treadmill and it's been painfully difficult trying to get back into shape. I've been doing about 3 miles 3 days a week. That used to be a really easy running schedule for me but it's been killer. I have to push myself through each quarter mile. "One more lap, one more lap, don't die, you can do one more lap." Then the motherhood perspective comes in. I think to myself, "You carried another human being in your body for 9 months. You pushed it out and it hurt like the devil. You juggle carpools, grocery trips, housecleaning, kid entertaining, cooking, laundry, sick kids and tantrums, if you can push yourself to do all of that, there's no reason you can't keep those legs moving for one more lap."

and you know what? It's working. I'm running, slowly but surely I'm pushing myself through it and every day I feel a little bit stronger and a little more confident. Running is great. Being a mom is great. I'm glad I have both in my life to make me a better and happier person.


Thursday, March 10, 2011

Non- Scale Victories

So today was my weight watchers weigh in and I was expecting good things. I did everything right last week, tracked all my food, worked out every day, drank all my water, got my 5 fruits and veggies, etc... When I got on the scale though I was only down .6 lbs. I was a little disappointed, but then the topic of our meeting was celebrating non-scale victories and it made me realize that even though I didn't have a big loss, I still have a lot to celebrate.

1) I worked out every day last week and even jogged on the treadmill twice! Finding time to workout with the three little ones is tough. Sometimes the only time I have is after 9 pm when the kids are all in bed and I'm exhausted. Still I made myself do it and I definitely feel my body getting stronger.

2) I actually wore non-maternity clothes to church on Sunday. Sure, I had to stuff myself into them like a sausage but it still felt good to wear something that wasn't designed for a pregnant woman.

3) My girls asked me to make sugar cookies with them last week and I managed to get through the whole experience and only eat ONE cookie. That is a true sign of will power for me since usually I eat a ludicrous amount of cookie dough, plus several of the cookies and way too much of the frosting. So yeah, this time no sampling till they were done and I stopped at one. (patting myself on the back big time for that)

4) I made it through the entire butt section on my Slim in 6 DVD without wimping out or stopping. Those who have done this workout (Naomi) Know that it is SOOOO hard to do without stopping.

5) Someone at my weight watchers meeting told me I look great for just having a baby. Who cares what the scale says? Hearing something like that always makes you feel good. : )

So that's the update for this week. Next week I'm shooting for 3 days on the treadmill and hopefully will work my way up to 2.5 miles without stopping. We'll see how it goes!


Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Hello Treadmill, My old friend : )

I'm back people! I'm BACK!! Well, not back to my former running shape but I'm back on the treadmill and MAN it feels GOOD!! I'm slow, like 12 minute mile slow. But I don't even care because I'm sweating and my heart is pumping and every minute I'm on there I feel stronger and stronger. Getting my sweat on like that reminds me that I AM strong and that I can STILL do hard things! Woot! (can you tell I just got done with my workout? Still riding the runners high I guess ; )

So yeah, I spent almost 8 weeks rehabing my foot and it's finally well enough that I can run on it. I'm still icing it and wearing my inserts around the clock but it's just doing tons better and I'm so happy!

I started my work out tonight walking at 4.0 mph for half a mile. Then I picked it up to 5.0 mph (12 min/mile) and jogged for a song (3 minutes or so?) then I went to 5.5 (10:54 min/mile) for a song, and back to 5.0 for a song. Every other song I'd rotate between the two speeds. The last song was J-Lo's new On the Floor single (awesome running song) and it really got me going so I ran at 6.0 for the whole song. I was sweating SO hard and I had to work my tail off to run that 10 minute pace for those 3 minutes but it just felt so good to push myself after being sedentary for the last 9 months.

Getting back in shape is really really hard, but I knew it would be so I don't feel discouraged. It helps to just keep my expectations realistic and not to compare myself to what I used to be able to do before I got pregnant, but rather to what I could do when I was pregnant. Two months ago I could barely waddle 10 feet without stopping. Today I jogged for 2 miles without stopping. I think that's reason to celebrate : )


Thursday, March 3, 2011

Slow but steady progress

Thursdays are my weigh in days at weight watchers so I'm going to try to at least post every Thursday to keep myself honest and hopefully motivated to stay on track.

Last week I only had a 0.4 lb loss and I wasn't surprised since I had majorly gone off plan and wasn't tracking my food like I should. After that I felt motivated to get back on course so all last week I wrote down every last bite I took. It really made a big difference and when I weighed in at my meeting today I was rewarded with a 3.4 lbs loss! My leader said, "Weight watchers is great because if you kind of do it, it kind of works, but if you really do it, it REALLY works." So very true.

I'm really loving the new program because there's tons of flexibility, all fruits are now ZERO points so you can eat them to your hearts content which means when you're out of points, you still never feel hungry because you can eat fruit. Also since I'm nursing I get a TON of points (43 a day) and it seems like I'm eating so much but the amazing thing is, I'm still losing weight, just slow and steady but that's fine with me as long as I get there eventually.

So yeah, along with being really good about what I put in my mouth I've also been working out consistently. I do this program called Slim in 6 from Beachbody.com and it's great because it has a 25 min easy DVD, a 45 minute moderate DVD, and a 60 min intense DVD. So far I've only done the 25 minute and 45 minute ones but I hope to work my way up to the 60 minute one in another week or so.

Finding time to work out with 3 kids is HARD. like majorly hard. I would do it early in the morning but the baby still gets up throughout the night to nurse so I'm just way too exhausted at 6am. I've been trying to fit it in while he naps around 9am but it's always such a fiasco. The girls are up by then so they're trying to do my workout with me, but they mostly just end up crawling all over me while I'm trying to do push ups and sit ups or hanging on my legs while I'm doing squats. It makes me wonder if I'm really getting a good work out at all but at least I'm trying right? Yesterday it took me an hour and a half to do my 45 minute DVD because I got interrupted so many times to change a diaper, wipe someone's bum, get someone a snack, break up a fight, etc... I just had to laugh because I guess this is my new "normal" now that I'm a mother of 3 : )

So that's the update, still haven't gotten back on the treadmill yet. The foot is improving but it's not 100%. I'm doing everything I can to baby it so I can recover and get back to doing what I love, running. Not that I could run right now even if I wanted to. haha! Pretty sure I'll have to start with walking but that's okay. I've started from ground zero before, I know I can do it again.

And just for fun here are some of the things I've been eating lately. Since lean meats, whole grains and fruits and vegetables have less points values that's what I eat the most of. It's been fun trying new things and when I do I get excited and take pictures (although some aren't that great since I took them with my phone)

Salmon, brown rice and stir-fried veggies

Slow cooker lasagna from the weight watchers recipe book. This was AMAZING! so savory and delicious and amazingly low in points. (camera phone pic doesn't do it justice)

Quinoa with squash, zucchini and grilled chicken on top and the famous weight watchers 0 point soup which is surprisingly delicious and easy to make.

And sauteed chicken over brown rice with broccoli, topped with Japanese ginger marinade. delish!