Sweat

Sunday morning I went for a six mile bike ride.  I don’t bike very often and am pretty worried about the bike portion of the duathlon coming up.  Eek.

Also on Sunday we spent the afternoon with my family playing at the lake and on Dad’s boat.  I took my turn tubing that afternoon, hanging on as much as I could while Dad whipped Kris and I around.  I knew as I was tubing that I was going to be pretty sore the next day.  I don’t often use my upper body in that way!

Sure enough, Monday and Tuesday my upper body was quite sore.  My arms, back, chest, everything just ached.  Maybe I should start some strength training?

I’ve been thinking about training in general now that I’m back at work.  I think I might have figured out a schedule.  I’m thinking something like this:

Monday – 30 Day Shred

Tuesday – run (possibly at 5am before I have to get ready for work – either that or after Kris gets home from work at 8:30pm – there is literally no other time during the day!)

Wednesday – bike (possibly outside or on the trainer indoors but most likely after Kris gets home from work in the evening)

Thursday – run

Friday – 30 Day Shred

Sat/Sun – run and bike on one day and rest the other day

Or, you know something like that.  I need to make working out a priority though or I just won’t do it.  See the last couple weeks as evidence.

So, long time no write, huh? Unfortunately, it’s also long time no work out either. Bad me. Bad, bad me. My last week home was spent with the children as much as possible and then we did some home improvement projects that took some time too. It’s all excuses but it is what it is. Also unfortunately, I still haven’t been able to get my eating under control. A couple weeks back I joined an eating log with a few friends. It’s a simple Google docs spreadsheet where I log what I’m eating. The others do as well and there we can commiserate on how we’re doing, hold each other accountable (always friendly) and praise each other for good days or meals. Even this though isn’t helping much. I’ve been honest with that I’m eating but the others are having bad days here and there too and I take that as a “pass” to have bad days as well. Stupid of me, huh? The culmination of not working out and eating poorly is weight gain. Shocking, right? My weight this morning was up to 168.4. It’s time to get serious. Yes, I’m only 12 weeks out from having a baby but still chips, chocolate, soda and large quantities of food in general are really not necessary.

So, starting today I’m going to start counting calories again. In my eating log I’ve included a weight column to track my morning weight and also a column to track my daily calories. Since I’m breastfeeding I don’t want my calories to get too low but I also don’t want them to be too high either. Breastfeeding can burn between 250-500 calories per day. It’s hard to know which end of the spectrum I personally fall. But if I want to have 1500 calories for me plus 250-500 calories for Levi then I need to consume between 1750-2000 calories overall, not including workout out. I’m OK with a slow weight loss because my number one priority is maintaining my milk supply. So, my goal range for calories is going to be 2000-2200. It’s time to get the eating under control. Next up – figuring out how to get my workouts in now that I’m back to work.

I’ve been exercising, but not every day.  Every other or every third is more like it.  A run here, a bike ride there.  I don’t know that I’m putting out my best effort, but I’m trying to at least be out there doing it.  I feel more tired than anything.  Today my legs and butt are sore and tired though, probably from the bike ride yesterday or from the landscaping I was doing yesterday evening.  Either way I like the soreness.  The whole body tiredness?  Not as much.  While I wouldn’t wish away the newborn days for ANYTHING, I do wish Levi would stretch out his nighttime wakings a bit.  Last night I saw numbers on the clock that started with 1, 2, 3 and 5.  And that was after I went to bed at 11pm.  I guess number one is I should go to bed earlier.  I’ll do that tonight.

Along the increase in exercising I’ve also been weighing myself daily again and for about a week now I’ve been writing down what I eat in an eating log.  The weight is a motivator, especially since it’s been going up recently (highest number was yesterday at 168.6 but then today it was back down to 167.2).  Why?  Is it the crap food I’ve been eating (hello sweet cookies!)?  Is it the increase in exercise?  The lack of good sleep?  A combination?  Whatever, I don’t like it so first up I’m going to watch a little better what I’m eating.  I’m not ready to count calories yet but that would be the next step if the eating log doesn’t sort me out a little bit.  A good thing about the eating log is it’s a shared google doc with a few friends.  Nothing like some good “public” shaming to help you watch what you eat!  Don’t want to admit to others what you’re eating?  Don’t eat it!  And it’s not like my friends are being critical of what I eat, even though there is a spot for them to write comments.  It’s more that I don’t want to embarrass myself (too badly) by having to write down really awful things.  It’s helping a little bit at least.  Like, I make sure I get some veggies everyday so I can at least write that down on the eating log even if it is next to “tortilla chips with salsa.”

Anyway, that’s where I’m at.  Going up in weight, increasing my exercise and writing down my food intake.  Hopefully those last two will combat that ugly first one.

36.3.  That doesn’t look like such an awful number, now does it?  It’s symmetrical.  It’s a fine number.  There’s nothing wrong with it…unless that is your body fat percentage.  Then that number is awful, no good, downright evil.  Guess what my body fat percentage is?  36.3.  Kris and I had our body composition tested today at Augsburg’s Bod Pod.  The professor running the test smiled at me and said I was cheating.  I asked if my nursing would throw off the numbers but he said just being this close to having a baby is enough to throw the numbers off.  Of course my number is going to be high.  He said he measured a volleyball coach at the school a couple months after her baby was born and she was in the thirties as well.  That comforted me because of course she was in pretty good condition before her pregnancy started.  He said I should come back in a couple months and he’d re-test me and we could see all the progress I’m sure to make.  Isn’t he sweet?  And apparently totally willing to re-measure me any time.  Awesome!  So, what’s in my body composition report?

Body Mass (Weight): 162.193 pounds (this is much better than the 165.2 the scale at home has been giving me for over a week now!)

% Fat: 36.3%

% Fat Mass: 58.886 pounds

% Fat Free Mass (Lean muscle tissues and such): 103.306 pounds

This means I’m 58 pounds of fat.  58!  Yuck!  Double Yuck!  Holy moly yuckola!  Well, that is icky and is bound to produce some goals, now isn’t it?

Oh, and my 36.3% puts me in the “Excess Fat” category.  Nice.  31-40% for women is “Excess Fat” which “indicates an excess accumulation of fat over time.”  Yeah, about nine months time.  Heh.

OK, goal time.  Back when I was a freshmen in college and at one of my lowest weights I had a caliper body mass test done (highly inaccurate, BTW – up to 8 percentage points off!) and was told my body fat percentage was 18%.  I weighed 125 pounds at the time which calculates out to 102.5 pounds of lean body tissue.  That’s very comparable with my lean body tissue I have now so that test was probably about right.  Of course now I have bigger boobs, wider hips (thank you child birth!) and all around more padding pretty much everywhere.  Last summer I had set my goal weight at 145 pounds and when I got down to 147 pounds I could definitely tell that 145 was not going to be low enough.  I still had more than enough extra stomach fat and while happier (much happier) with my appearance, I wanted to go lower.  And now with this information I want to shoot for a body fat percentage of 25%.  Why 25?  The scale for women is 23-30% is the “Moderately Lean” category which says “Fat level is generally acceptable for good health.”  It would be totally awesome to get down to 20% and be in the “Lean” category with this description “Lower body fat levels than many people.  This range is generally excellent for health and longevity.”  Maybe I should just shoot for something 22 or under.  Kris was happy with my goal of 25 so maybe I’ll stick with that as my “must meet this” goal and add 22 or lower as my stretch goal.  I think this means I should shoot for a weight goal of 135-140 pounds which puts me in the 101-109 pound range for lean body tissue (140 = 105 for 25% and 109 for 22% and 135 = 101 for 25% and 105 for 22%).  I’m not an expert so I don’t know if those are good numbers or not.  But I think 135-140 pounds for my stature is an OK range to shoot for.  And I think I’ll go back and ask to be re-tested when I hit 150 pounds and again when I get lower than that.

Kris was also tested and said it was OK if I shared his numbers too.  His body fat percentage was 17.1%  He weighed in at 166.494 pounds which gives him 28.523 pounds of fat and 137.972 pounds of lean body tissue.  This puts him in the “Moderately Lean” category for men which is between 13-20%.  To go down to the “Lean” category he’d have to drop down to a range of 9-12% body fat.  I think he’d like to ideally be in the 12-14% range so I’m sure he’ll keep running and biking and maybe occasionally lifting weights to help him get down there.

The professor who measured Kris and I today was completely open to measuring other people (I told him I had friends interested in it).  It was completely free and took less than 15 minutes for both Kris and I to be measured.  It was very simple.  I wore a swimsuit and sat in the machine.  It took 30 seconds to measure me and he did that twice to make sure the numbers matched and the readings were reliable.  The computer then computed and spit out my readings and he printed them and gave me a copy.  The test itself was a simple as could be – sit still in the egg shaped chamber, breathe normally, don’t move around and that was it.  If you want more details on how the test is preformed, what it’s like or the contact info for the professor, leave me a comment or drop me an e-mail.  I don’t want to publish his info here on the big, ol’ internet but I’m happy to share it with anybody.

ETA: I should probably note that this is just the test.  There is no fitness evaluation included in this measurement.  If you want any sort of “qualified individual” like a personal trainer to interpret the results you’d have to do that on your own time and dime.

I have a date tomorrow with a Bod Pod. I’m kind of excited about this!  I’m excited to find out just what my body composition is and maybe even what my ideal weight target should be.  I am not so excited to find out my fat percentage though.  My jelly belly tells me it’s probably higher than I want to hear.

Kris is getting measured tomorrow too.  I’ll report back our experiences and my results (maybe Kris’s if he’s OK with me sharing).

For me, the hardest part of exercise is getting my butt off the couch, my binding sports bra on, my big girl lace up shoes on and getting out the damned door.  It’s so much easier to grab another granola bar and sit in front of the TV or computer.  But I’m still 15 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight and I don’t like it.  Granted, some of that is definitely in my chest.  But my belly is super jiggly.  Yes, I know, two months post-partum, give myself a break, yadda, yadda, yadda.  On the other hand, put down the granola bar and go for a run already!  So that’s what I’ve been doing.

I ran on Monday, another 1.5 miles with an 11:42 pace.  I ran again today – two miles with an 11:23 pace.  I’m getting there.  I can feel my running legs slowly returning.  My plan is to run M, W, F while I’m still on leave and get some biking in on the weekends.  At least, that’s the plan, subject to change, etc.

But at least I’m out there doing it.

Seven weeks after giving birth I did it.  I finally got outside and got my first official exercise in.  I went on a “run.”  I use the word “run” loosely here because, well, I’m slow as molasses.  I expected that though.  Ten months of no running will do that to you.  But I’m also proud of myself.  Because I ran 1.5 miles without having to stop and walk.  Oh, I wanted to stop and walk but then I pictured Jillian Michaels yelling at me and pushed on through.  I know, that’s corny.  (Um, maybe you don’t know me too well but I’m about as corny as you can get.  Big old nerd over here!)  But it’s also true.  I pictured a workout on the Biggest Loser and knew that if Jillian were out there with me, well, first she’d be bitching too because she hates running but then she’d be yelling at me to keep going, keep running, keep pushing.  So I did.  1.5 miles with an 11:45 pace.  And at the end I pushed myself to my “finish line” with a pace in the mid 10’s.  I finished strong.  Bob and Jillian would be so proud.  Now I just have to keep running and start biking so I’m ready for that duathlon on August 29th!

So, know how to lose a pound a day?  Apparently all you need to do is get a stomach bug, puke up your dinner, wake up dehydrated and still nauseous and weight yourself.  The result?  One pound down!  162.6 this morning and 163.6 yesterday morning.  I wonder how much of this water weight will return tomorrow?  I haven’t eaten much today (see that still nauseous part) but I’m guessing most if not all of it will be back.  I have plans tomorrow and Thursday and big plans for Saturday so I better get well!  I don’t want to back out on any of them!

Levi is four weeks old today.  And yesterday I started packing up all the maternity clothes.  I had boxes lined up on the bed and I began sorting between all my borrowed clothes (thank you Pam, Amanda, Laura and Carrie!).  There’s still a few items in the laundry so I can call myself officially “free” of maternity clothes yet.  And I’m not really back into my regular clothes yet either.  I have a couple items I can wear but most of it is still too tight.  Starting Friday though (the next couple days have plans) I’m going to start walking.  I’m feeling perfectly normal physically so I don’t think some light impact walking is a big no-no.  I’ll lay off the running and biking until I get the doctor OK.

Bod Pod.  Ever heard of it?  There’s one at Kris’s college and they’re open to measuring the general public with the device.  What is it?  “It’s a high-tech apparatus that provides fast, safe and accurate measurements of body composition, detailing fat and lean body mass.  It provides useful information for measuring the effectiveness of exercise and nutrition, fine-tuning top athletic performance, and tracking the progress of obesity and disease.”  I’m going to contact them to see if I can get measured.  Maybe it will tell me what my ideal body weight is so I have a true goal weight to strive for.

I wore my fat pants out in public today.  Did you hear that??  Less than three weeks after having a baby I wore non-maternity jeans out in public.  Uh, go me!  OK, I had to do the hair binder trick on the button so I didn’t have a muffin top but I’m still calling this a win.  My body is shrinking back down nicely.  I’m very pleased.

My weight this morning was 165.6.  Also a nice thing to see my weight creep down.

Last night Kris told me he wants to work out five days a week while I’m on leave.  Okey-dokey.  I told him I need to start working out again too (I have that duathlon in August I need to start preparing for) but that I shouldn’t for another couple weeks yet.  I should really wait until I get the all-clear from my midwife at my six week check up but most likely I’ll wait another week or two and then start slowly.  A short jog or a quick bike ride and work my way up again.  It’s going to be really hard to find (make) time for exercise when I go back to work.  I’m already thinking about strategy and schedules.  When I decide what that looks like, I’ll share it with you guys and ask for some feedback.

My back to work date?  July 21st – the day after my wedding anniversary!