Lately I just want to get moving, previously I had posted about a prenatal yoga routine I found and have been waiting for the okay to do it. Finally I have the okay so tomorrow morning it will be added to my morning routine. My mornings consist of getting Emma ready and off to school, taking meds, letting the dog out, feeding pets and vitamins and having breakfast. so nothing fantastic or difficult to do. It will be a nice change.
Honestly I am not looking for it to change my fitness level or get me in shape. There is a ton of work that will have to be done for that. What I am hoping for is a little more flexibility to develop over the next few weeks and some relief for the leg craps I have been experiencing every morning and night. Not sure if it would actually help but my legs not constantly falling asleep would be nice too.
My workout area in the basement is cluttered with stuff that had been moved after the basement had flooded but yoga does not take up much space so to the den I go. It will not take much to clear out my workout area but it will require a good amount of lifting heavy things so it will have to wait until after the baby comes. No biggie, it will give me something to do later on.
I may venture out today to get some of the things left on the Baby Registry. I have 20% off coupons, may as well use them before they expire and maybe grab some lunch with a friend. My neighbor is hospitalized so I have to wander across the street and feed, water and give meds to her kitties. That will pretty much sun up my day today. I lead such an exciting life
9 more weeks to go! Or less, I am hoping for a little less. So over pregnancy, I just want to get to the end result!
Here are a few week 31 stats:
The baby is around 16 inches long
Weight is on average 3.3 lbs (about the weight of 3 navel oranges), I am thinking it is actually more because I have consistently measured a few ounces ahead. I haven’t had an ultrasound in a few so who knows.
He is about to hit a growth spurt
He is very active, they say the head now can move side to side but I think there is a Cirque du Soleil going on in my uterus.
I have half of my hospital bag packed (just my clothes so far) I will finish after the shower and registry completion.
We picked the name Ian for Male Fetus. Sorry Kurt at Lost it Big no Kurt or MFer.
Yesterday I did a huge grocery shopping trip! Tons of great stuff on the menu for the next week. Pretty much everything is pretty healthy minus the calzone Emma requested I make. I was lazy and bought dough mix instead of just doing it myself. But all in all this will be my first complete week back to clean eating. I am just going to pretend the calzone is clean, or maybe I will make a salad for myself. Tonight Bulgogi, edamame and rice is on the menu. I need to get that started 5 minutes ago but I decided breakfast and blogging would come first, then dinner, then making cookie dough (not cookies for the house)
I am really looking forward to the baby shower this coming Sunday. Everything is set minus the fact that I need to grab gifts for the hostesses and the first place prize for the diaper raffle. Pat and I decided to host the diaper raffle in lieu of having a diaper party. I never know how I will feel day-to-day or if the baby is going to come early so we figured it would just be easier. I am all for throwing a party but I don’t want to clean my house to have a bunch of men and a keg in it then have to clean more when I am at the end of my pregnancy. i do have Emma’s gift, a locket necklace that I will take her in and let her choose how it is engraved and what picture she would like to put inside. She has been wanting a “real gold or sterling” as she says locket and that is quite the big girl gift so it is perfect for her. One of her grandmothers and great-grandmother and going to have gifts to present to her at the shower too. I love how thoughtful some people are. It is really nice! I have an activity bag for after the baby comes but I decided to give it to her when she goes to the hospital to meet her brother for the first time.
I should hear from the doctor’s office about the yoga I found, hoping I get a yes so I can do something. Been missing working out and I am itching to be a bit more active, even if it is only yoga.
I have my 31 week bump pick to post but I will have to do that later. I left my phone upstairs and it needs to be charged so look out for that later today!
Well, I actually do but sometimes I can’t feel them or they feel like pins and needles.
Happy Hump Day!
The election is over! I am so glad that I am no longer getting 40 calls a day to my landline phone. I was about to go postal! I kept Emma home from school today due to a fever and a cough, so my walk for the day is out. No way I can drag her out in this cold weather sick.
In other news I am having major issues with my leg falling asleep. It falls asleep while sitting, laying, standing and even walking! It is actually quite a nuisance and it is making me paranoid that I am going to take another tumble. There are only so many times I can fall without getting hurt. I have a baby appointment coming up in the near future so I will address the doctor and hope he has a solution. My guess is it is either prenatal carpal tunnel, a circulation issue or my sciatic nerve is pinched or has too much pressure on it. I really wouldn’t think there would be too much pressure seeing I am not that big yet and have not put on a ton of weight. I gained ten and then dropped 3 totaling a 7 pound weight gain since the beginning of my pregnancy. I feel like I gained 30 though (I may look like it too) Anyhow I won’t worry too much about it because the doctor will know best. Until then I think I may just have to boot everyone from the living room for a bit and do some yoga and see if that helps. I can’t work out in the basement still. The flood damage is all fixed and the water smell is gone, but now it smells like a pumpkin spice reed diffuser down there and that grosses me out. There is no pleasing this pregnant lady when it comes to scents!
Has anyone else had numbness issues during pregnancy? If so what helped you through it?
It has been too long since good workouts have been a regular part of my daily life. Even though it was due to my bum knee I feel like a lazy bum. The past two days it has been feeling like it is back to normal so I am ready to get started again. It is about time! I have put on a pound this week and that really is getting on my nerves. I have not gained inches in the areas that I measure but I know I have in places that I don’t, this is unacceptable. Now that getting back on track is possible I am starting today.
Where to start is my main question. Round One or Round Two? With it being weeks since working out full force has happened I am thinking Round One but doing the Les Mills Pump ULT cardio workouts on the cardio days and doing yoga on rest days. I seem to recuperate better with yoga, it is relaxing and helps with my aches so it counts as rest in my book. So here I am back to the drawing board at day one. Getting back is exciting but starting over is mildly discouraging. One step at a time though, no need to do something and end up with another bum knee because I decided to go balls to the wall with it.
So here I am Day One of Ninety! Wish me luck!
I should get my Color Run pics from the photo shop today. Can’t wait!
Oh and we can not forget my weigh and measure in. Here you go!
To commemorate the end of Week 1 of Round 2 of Les Mills Pump today I weigh and measure in. This week was a rough week so my workouts were not on PAR I missed a workout and two I only did my basic Pump portion. I did make up for it by doing a billion loads of wash and purging the house of a bunch of unneeded clothing so they could go to others who are in need. I have 4 bags ready to go and will have 4 more by tomorrow.
I leave for vacation on Sunday. Gozzer Ranch here we come My Mother in Law emailed me and had me send her my “diet” aka just how I eat now so I can’t call it a diet anymore, and is graciously providing me with the foods that I need. So food won’t be an issue, I am glad not to have to worry about that. As far as workouts go, I think I will take my Jillian Michaels Yoga meltdown and Les Mills Pump Hard Core Abs just in case finding someone to watch Emma does not work out. I can lock my self in a bedroom and do those and Yoga Meltdown offers challenging body weight exercises. The boys will golf early mornings so my runs are out in the a.m. So after dark is when those will have to happen. Yes, I will have cocktails in me but it’s all good. It is a vacation right? I want to try to get three runs in while I am there, for 7 days I figure that will not be so bad. I will be gone 9 but will be in Idaho for 7. I plan to blog a little while I am there but am making no promises. I do not want to take my lap top and I am not sure how the internet on my phone will run. Last year I had voice service but no data there. It is fairly remote so I didn’t really expect it to have data.
So here is what you all came here for:
Drum-roll please…..
Chest: 31.0 inches (- 0.5 inches)
R Arm: 12 inches (- 0 inches)
L Arm: 12 inches (- 0 inches)
Waist: 32 inches (- 0 inches)
Hips: 41 inches (- 0 inches)
R Thigh: 23.5 inches (- 0 inches)
L Thigh: 23.5 inches (- 0 inches)
Weight: 163 pounds (-2 pounds)
Pant Size: 12
BMI: 29.4% (- 0%)
Not to shabby! Maybe this is marking the end of my plateau!
Today is Day 4 of Round 2 doing Les Mills Pump. On the agenda today is Flow. Flow is in a nutshell the LMP’s form of Yoga. To be quite frank when I first tried it I was not a fan. i found it to be monotonous and pointless. Honestly, I will chalk it up to my not being familiar with Yoga and my apprehensiveness to try something new. I was already new into the Pump portion to the workout and I think I overwhelmed myself. When Flow came back up on my LMP schedule I did try it again and more open-mindedly I should add. it wasn’t so bad and it was actually enjoyable. Today I have found other forms of Yoga I enjoy and have added more Yoga to my workout schedule. I enjoy the peace, the stretch and so many other things that it brings.
A few of the benefits of Yoga:
Improve mental health: Yoga practice is calming. Regular yoga practice can reduce or eliminate the root of anxiety disorders and aid in controlling or decreasing depression and can lead to a more peaceful state helping you gain confidence, mental well-being and the ability to stay calm in more stressful situations.
Helps prevent diabetes: All types of exercise including yoga help to stabilize blood glucose. This is important in the prevention and control of diabetes
Prevent bone loss and osteoporosis: The low impact Yoga postures can be effective for post-menopausal women and older men in preserving and building bone density.
Backache relief and backache healing: I know I have already talked about this in a previous post, But this is one of the best things for my back issues. Yoga goes right to the physical cause of your backache helping you to recognize areas of chronic tension Overall fitness and muscle tone is essential to your spines health. The more aerobic forms of yoga provide your spine oxygen and helps to create flexible hamstrings and hip flexors in hand freeing-up your lower back.
Arthritis Prevention: The best preventions and/or relievers of arthritis are motion and exercise. Engaging all of your muscle groups in a yoga practice strengthens bone and improves your coordination and balance. Yoga is a low-impact form of exercise and yoga postures can improve muscle strength, joint flexibility, endurance, as well as range of motion.
Detoxification: Many Yoga postures massage the internal organs, this provides a natural form of cleansing which rids the body of toxins.
Gained flexibility: Few fitness regimens concentrate as much on flexibility as yoga does. In fact nearly every single movement in yoga can increase your flexibility
There are many other benefits of practicing Yoga also. I suppose I will save those for a later time. I still have house-guests to attend to and my Yoga to get in today, as well as a run after everyone has settled down for the evening. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
As you all know I have started Round 2 of Les Mills Pump. There is no hybrid Schedule out there that I have found that incorporated Running as well as the Les Mills Pump Ultimate Cross Training workout plans. Using the Round One Phase One Schedule I added the Running, UCT workouts, The Yoga I like to do on rest days to reset myself as well as a couple other things that I just plain enjoy doing. I kept the weight training segment part of the schedule exactly the same as it was before and just switched out the walking days with other things and added runs and other workouts seeing I am at a higher fitness level now and can push myself harder than I could when I started Round 1. Just to keep myself accountable here is my Round 2 Phase 1 schedule.
PHASE 1: TE WERO: The Challenge
Today is Day two, So….. it is time for me to get my Yoga in and I will run later this evening once it starts to cool down. I have found that I really like running and walking outdoors at night. It is serene. Happy Friday everyone and have a great weekend. I have a weekend of house guests again so it should be fun!! I am glad they don’t think it is rude when I disappear on them to work out. I have even gotten some of them to work out with me!
I threw my back out last night doing pretty much nothing. Oh the joys of Fybromyalgia! So today I am going to talk about stretching to relieve back pain. Even with a chronic pain disease I have found that stretching can make quite a difference in pain levels. Plus stretching daily can help lengthen and strengthen your back muscles, improve posture and make it less likely to injure yourself in the first place.
I know what you are thinking, my back hurts no way do I want to exercise, stretch or even move. Everyone knows that exercise is important for our overall health but people sometimes forget the importance of stretching. The back and spine are made up of muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments, it is made to bend, twist, and carry quite a bit of our body weight. Stretching on a regular basis helps reduce stress on joints, improves blood flow and adds flexibility. Also, stretching before exercise helps prep your muscles for activity and reduces the risk of injury.
Not everyone hurts their back during exercise or vigorous activity. I know this and I have hurt mine doing what? I have no idea, I was standing in the Little League Concession Stand volunteering, at that time I was bagging popcorn. Popcorn is not heavy, neither are teenie popcorn bags or the scoop I was using. It just happened. Maybe there was a moment where I twisted strange or maybe it is because I am a cripple. Either way, it hurts and it is improving because of stretching it out.
Here are a few things to keep in mind while you are stretching:
Start at the top, if you stretch your neck then work your way down you use already stretched muscles in the rest of your stretching routine.
Don’t stretch until you are in pain, go slow and only until you feel a bit on tension.
Be sure to stand steady, no bouncing around. Think strength in stillness.
Hold in your stretch for 10 to 20 seconds and do not forget to breathe! Be sure to inhale before the stretch and exhale during.
Small sets of 3 is enough, do not over do it! You can always add more as you are more flexible.
Personally I stretch daily, more than once in the instance that I am stiff or sore. Today there will be a few sessions of stretches going on to get this pain worked out of my back. You do not have to do it daily but I really would recommend doing it a few times a week (personal opinion, I am not a doctor.)
Here is the routine I use. I do believe that I first found it on http://www.webmd.com. I do not have a link to their direct article, but the routine is now in my memory.
Neck Stretch
Stand with your feet flat , knees bent just a little bit.
Tilt your head slowly forward, bringing your chin toward your chest.
Turn your head to the left until your chin is lined up with your shoulder.
Do this again on your right side
Tilt your head to the left so your ear is to your left shoulder.
Do this again but on your right side.
Shoulder Rolls
Stand with your feet flat on the floor, knees bent a little bit.
Roll your shoulders forward 10 times starting with small circles.
Roll your shoulders 10 more times in large circles.
Roll your shoulders backwards 10 times starting with small circles.
Roll your shoulders backwards 10 times using large circles.
Hamstring Stretch
Lie down and bend your knees.
Grab one leg around the thigh and slowly bring it toward your chest.
Pull until you fee a light stretch.
Hold for 10 to 20 seconds.
Repeat with you other leg.
Hamstring Stretches 2
Stand with one leg out in front of you, straightened and put your leg on a table or chair, I use the stairs.
Bend the leg you are standing on until you feel a little stretch under the thigh of the raised leg. Hold for 10 to 20 seconds.
Repeat with your other leg.
I also like to do Sun Salutations for a sore back. Here is a video for you to check out that will show you how to do a Yoga Sun Salutation:
On today’s workout menu I have Les Mills Pump Step as well as getting back on the horse with my running. I know I may not have the best run (I usually kind of stink at it anyhow) but I am going to get out there and do what I can. Hope you all have a fit and healthy day! Time for me to go stretch out this sore back and work on getting my workouts in.
So yes, today was day 1 of 30 days of Les Mills Pump Ultimate Cross Training. On the schedule today was Step. I did not watch the video ahead of time so I was not sure what exactly to expect. Honestly I figured it would be a basic step routine. It was more than that for sure! Step of course began with a warm up, I found that it went through enough of the movements that would be used throughout the DVD to learn proper steps and form while moving through the rest of the workout. The entire thing was pretty intense. My legs are still on fire and I was sweating for over an hour after I finished. Even the cool down was crazy! i had to do a round of yoga afterwards to get my heart rate down and to stretch out my legs, and they are still on fire!! All in all I can not wait until I do it again and to try Combat and Sports Attack! Tomorrow is Flow and I will add some light cardio and maybe some abs on the balance ball or Hard Core Abs (we will see). To sum it up, I had to push to get through it, I wanted to quit at times but I didn’t. Getting through made me feel accomplished and I can see Step making a huge change in my legs and butt.
I want to thank all of you for all your kind words, words of encouragement and complements. It made me feel a little less embarrassed about the pictures. I am too shy about some things. Especially my body so it was nerve-wracking for me to do. Everyone made it easier for me and I love you all for that. Today the Les Mills Pump Facebook Page put up the link to my blog (I posted it yesterday, they re-posted) My blog has had major traffic from that. So now I feel the whole world has seen them so I am over it. LOL!As far as weigh and measure in I did not do one today I am just using my end results from my LMP 90 day challenge it was yesterday so I figure what is the point in a remeasure the next day. I will start posting results each Tuesday again starting next week.
So here is where I stand right now:
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