eschewing chocolate

It's amazing to me that I can eliminate the chocolate snacking during the day and the nightly dessert ritual and make sure I eat enough fruits and veg and whole grains --- and my body responds. The jeans are fitting better, the scale is going down (7lbs from the post-cruise high).

Pilates is a breath of fresh air. I forgot how much I enjoy the concentration and feeling all stretchy and bendy afterward. I even enjoy the abs, oblique, and gluteal soreness the next day. I think the body awareness is helping me maintain my commitment to healthy eating.

I've figured out that I burn about 100 calories give or take on the ride to work (downhill) and about 200 on the way home (uphill, natch). That's not a huge amount, but added to the 30-40 minutes of gym-cardio on M-W and the 60-85 minute walk-jogs on Tu-Fri, it's working.

I haven't done the day-care drop-off routine since last I wrote because the last two Thursdays (my day-care drop-off day), the boy has SLEPT IN. Well, this morning, he woke at 5:30 for a snack, but went right back to sleep when I told him it was too early, too dark for little boys to be up and about. The Mr and I woke at 7:20 and got ready for work, letting the boy sleep. He finally woke at about 7:40 - too late for getting ready + the hour round-trip by bike. There will be other days, with better weather.

recommit redux

It's Spring and I'm back!

My fall and winter were filled with steps forward, steps back in my health and fitness journey. I had worked my way up to a decent exercise regime of 4 days a week (weights and elliptical on MW, 5-6 mile jog-walks - with stroller - up to Mount Tabor on TuFri). I was getting my eating under control (but not completely).

Then, in early Nov (the day before J's birthday, I threw my back out something fierce and couldn't stand up straight for two solid weeks (despite three visits to the chiro and a serious massage). Needless to say, exercise went out the window since I was unable to walk a block, much less a mile. I finally asked Dr. Google what to do and started a stretching program (psoas, hamstring, piriformis). The stretches worked and I'm able to keep the lower back issues at bay.

I got back on the wagon and had a couple of good weeks until an intestinal virus hit our household. J's childcare provider came down with the barfy-poopy flu, then J, then my husband, and finally me. (The upside? I did lose several pounds. The downside? They were mainly water and came right back once I started eating again.)

The holiday season was upon us. I kept up the exercise, but my eating went to shit. Once the holidays were over, I got back up on that wagon until heel pain hit. I ignored the pain for three or four weeks until one day I woke up with a swollen and painful Achilles tendon which sent me screaming to the podiatrist.

Diagnosis: Achilles tendinitis. Prognosis: physical therapy. My chronic post-partum hip pain appears to be related. Now I'm doing PT two days a week and exercising every day to strengthen lower back, hips, core.

In mid-February, we went on a cruise and bellied up to the dessert buffet all week long. No exercise to speak of (except silly PT exercises in the hallway while the boy was asleep) and a little walking (managed to avoid the elevators for the most part). Came home to a two-pound gain (over the approximately 12 pounds I packed on since giving birth - I'm one of the few who dropped all the baby weight in a month (thanks to post-partum depression) and then gained a bunch back the first year).

The weather here has been gorgeously springy, so we got back on our bicycles (with the boy in the chariot) about a month ago. Ever since, I've been riding to work on MW. Last week, we figured out how to get the boy to daycare a bicyclette, so Thursday morning, I rode up Mount Tabor to J's childcare, then downtown to work. The whole trip took 1:00 door-to-door (and burned 465 calories according to my HRM). In the evening, I rode all the way back up, picked up the boy and chariot, then over Mount Tabor and home. Homeward took 1:10 and burned 520 calories. The ride was hard (oh my god, at times my HRM had me about 30 beats above my target), but I felt a great sense of accomplishment.


A couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me that the PT exercises were so very similar to Pilates that maybe I should just ... uh... go back to Pilates (after a 2-year hiatus). So, I signed up for the beginning class with my former instructor which started Wednesday. So nice to be back in the Studio, breathing and pulling up the transverse abs and pulling down the shoulder blades. I forgot how hard it is to keep all that in my head and then do the exercise.

So, my current plan of action is:

Eating

• Body for Life (whole foods, good protein, not too much M-Sat, Cadbury mini eggs on Sundays only)

Activity

• M, W bike to work, weights, PT exercises, 30 minutes adaptive motion trainer, 10-15 minutes Cardio Wave, walk at lunch
• W Pilates
• Tu, F Physical Therapy, 4-6 miles walk-jog (hill training)
• Th Bike-commute with trailer (10 miles)
• Sa Swim lessons with the boy :-), easy rides to park, shopping
  

I feel pretty committed. In the last two weeks, I've dropped about 4 pounds and all my last-ditch pants (which were starting to feel tight) are loosening up. I still have a closet full of small 14s and 12s that don't fit, so that's my goal. 15 pounds or nicely fitting wardrobe, whichever comes first.

Happy daylight savings time!