The Get it Started Workout

I am a little superstitious about my workouts on big, significant days. The first workout of the year has to be really awesome. My birthday better start off with a great one, too, because it kicks off my own personal New Year's Day! Any time I am embarking on something new, I want to launch it with a cleansing, therapeutic, and super-energizing workout. It's my thing. So, as today is the last day of my fit pregnancy, it was my "Get it Started" workout, maternity style. Meaning, heart rate low, energy high!

I could not have asked for more beautiful weather. High 50s, clear blue skies, really gorgeous. I only had time for about a two-mile walk, but it was enough to get out there and feel the energy of the day. Knowing that for the immediate future most of my runs will include a baby in a stroller, and thus no headphones, I set out for a walk with some really loud music.

My Get it Started playlist:

Duh, "Let's Get it Started," by the Black Eyed Peas 

Then, Smash Mouth: "Then the Morning Comes"

"Suddenly I See," by KT Tunstall 

"Walking on Sunshine," by, don't hate me, Aly & AJ

"Invincible," by Ok Go. Sooooo hard not to run when this song is on!

And no new chapter can begin without hearing R.E.M. and, "It's the End of the World As We Know It" 

.....and I feel fiiiine. 

Better than fine, actually. I feel awesome. When I got back home, I had gone through a roller coaster of emotions: sadness that this pregnancy is almost over, trepidation at the road ahead, excitement over finally seeing what this little munchkin is like, and laughter over just how much more amazing my journey is about to become. 

My Get it Started workout is in the books and now this new chapter can start! Do you have a new chapter starting in your life? Kick it off with a Get it Started workout to make sure it is positive, high-energy, and started in a healthy frame of mind. And then, you know the rest: get out there and get healthy!

Pregnancy Fitness: The Final Countdown

It's the final countdown...well, kinda. I technically have a month left. But, every morning when my alarm goes off and I roll (literally) out of bed, I wonder if this will be my last trip to the gym. I waddle off to brush my teeth, nearly suffocate trying to tie my shoes, and then make my way to the gym where I set the elliptical on level 5 and mosey through 30 minutes of cardio. Then it's off to weights.  As one of my workout partners slams through pull-ups, speed work, bench presses, and who knows what else, I take it easy with seated free weights: bicep curls, lateral raises, lat pull-downs, cable rows...it's all good and it's what I can do right now.  I feel very lucky that I have made it this far.

Then I waddle back to my car, and within 90 minutes I am at my desk, exhausted. Like, completely pooped, ready to take a nap under my desk at 8:30 in the morning. And I wonder, should I stop going to the gym and sleep more? 

I knew there would come a time when I'd have to stop, but I'm so close!  I can handle the workouts, it's the fatigue during the rest of the day that is getting me down.  I'm honestly not sure what I will do, but one thing is for sure: I am so glad I've been active during this pregnancy and feel so incredibly lucky to have gotten to exercise this long.  Here's why:

1. Staying active has made it so much easier for me to maintain proper nutrition. With my first pregnancy, I wasn't able to exercise, which made me depressed, which made me eat sour cream on everything. It wasn't pretty. This time I've been eating well and it has made a huge difference in how I approach everything else.  When you fuel with fresh, everything is better. Even a head-butt in the bladder.

2. I've only gained about 27 lbs and am on track for about 33 lbs by the end of it, which is spot-on for a healthy pregnancy. At first I was worried I wasn't gaining enough, but it turns out that gaining 27 lbs in the first trimester, like I did last time, was actually a little bit frowned upon. Okay, a lot frowned upon.  As a result of my manageable weight gain, I have more mobility and energy than I did last time, which makes me glad that all bad memories of being pregnant, delivering a child, and having a newborn are magically erased from our brains over time because I must have been m-i-s-e-r-a-b-l-e.

3. It will make getting back into shape so much easier. I might not be lifting much weight or running sprints, but at nine months preggo I'm still doing more than the average American does for physical fitness.  That's pretty sad. But, I'm glad I won't be starting from scratch when I go out to reclaim my past self.

Pregnancy is a blessing, and I feel very lucky to have gotten to experience it twice.  If I do take a knee on the remainder of my pregnancy, it will be worth it.  I'll have to repeat that about a million times a day to convince myself that it's true. :)  Get out there and get healthy today! 

And if you hear someone snoring, just keep walking. :)

Pregnancy Fitness: It's happening here!

I'm baaaaack! The little smiley face stickers are lining up on my calendar because I am back in the swing of things at the gym and seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.  I'm really looking forward to post-baby fitness, and instead of longing for the workouts I can't have right now, I'm appreciating the good health I have and anticipating the fun I will have later when I can seriously hit the weights again.

It feels good to be back.

Last week, after an upper body strength workout, I was caught off-guard by soreness in my pectorals. But you couldn't wipe the smile off my face when I realized it was from my workout. I'm back, baby!

What's really hit me this week is that I'm doing it. For weeks I have feared that the healthy pregnancy I had so much wanted was slipping away from me. But, as I see my healthy and strong self in the mirror I am realizing that I was completely wrong about that. I am almost giddy over it. I am doing it. I am having that healthy, fit pregnancy I always dreamed of!  And, that means that I will also bounce back higher than ever.  

So, yeah, there was a little twinge of yearning when my gym buddy was curling 25 lbs and I was with my little 15 pounders. But, it's good to have something to look forward to.

I have roughly eight weeks left, and I'm glad to be back in the gym. But, while I am relishing the workouts and embracing every day, I'm also looking to the future. This week, I'll be focusing on something really fun that I hope you can also get into: creating a vision board for the months following my baby's birth. We'll go over how to vision, we'll create some good goals, and best of all, we get to daydream. 

I hope you're having a healthy day, and if you haven't already, get out there and get healthy!

Hello Third Trimester! Let's go running!

Hungry. I am so hungry! I’ve hit the third trimester and I am H-U-N-G-R-Y! And tired. But mostly hungry.



So I am eating! Naturally there’s a bit of a gap between what I crave (sweets upon sweets) and what I know I should be eating (not sweets). So, I am eating fruits and veggies that are naturally sweet…and making a few stops at the frozen yogurt place for when I just can’t take it anymore. I figure I’m at about an 85/15 split of uber-healthy and healthier-than-candy so it’s all good.


I might feel like a bulldozer in a bagel shop but in reality, my nutrition plan is pretty sound:


• Banana pre-workout


• Egg whites (and one egg) in a pita along with a smoothie (strawberries, blueberries, a little OJ, some water, and a scoop of protein powder) for breakfast


• My big ginormous salad for lunch: spinach, romaine, grilled chicken, strawberries, blueberries, walnuts, and a little feta tossed with a tablespoon or so of Annie’s Papaya Poppy Seed dressing for lunch


• Snacks including carrots and a Horizons Organic Colby cheese stick, an organic apple with peanut butter, and some turkey, spinach, cucumber, tomato, and mustard in a wrap, along with some almonds.


• Dinner varies: turkey burger, grilled chicken, healthified pizza, and one of these days we really will get around to grilling fish like we always want to!


When I am not eating I am exercising, and while I am exercising I am wondering: “should I still be exercising like this?” A trip to my doc today confirmed that I’m in the clear: I can continue to run, swim, elliptical, and lift weights until I decide to stop. That will make the strange looks and sometimes outright chastising I get from spectators a little easier to take. It’s amazing some of the myths people honestly believe about pregnancy. But, as hard as it may be to wrap our heads around, exercise is actually GOOD for pregnant women (and everyone else) and as long as you have no health concerns, moderate exercise is safe until your doctor or you pull the plug on it.


The intensity of my workouts have scaled back quite a bit but a typical week is full of energy:


• Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I call “Gym and Swim.” That means I hit the gym in the morning for some low-impact cardio on the elliptical (and History Detectives on PBS) or run (okay, shuffle) on the treadmill and then strength training with my trainer. I’m still running the gambit and exercising all muscle groups, just modifying things a tad. I’m pretty sure last week was the end of real push-ups for a while…and no it wasn’t because my stomach hit the floor first!


• Tuesday I walk with my running group! We recently switched to walking to accommodate some injuries, and this is a perfect workout for me right now.


• Thursday I rest. And yes I still feel like a slacker about it.


• Saturday I run! And by run, I mean shuffle along the street for 5 miles or so, alternating three minutes of running with one minute of walking. It keeps me sane.

I feel good, I look good, and most of all, the baby is perfect. I’ve surpassed my goal of running through the first six months and now I am just curious to see how long I can go! It’s been a really wonderful pregnancy and I am so thrilled to have maintained my fitness throughout.

Okay, enough baby talk. I’ll be back tomorrow with answers to some questions I’ve been getting about preparing and packing food, and the social stigma that goes along with it. In the meantime, get out there and get healthy!

Eeenie Meenie Miney Moe: Choices

This week is about the choices we make between the healthy path and the not so healthy path.  I'm reminded of this daily, mostly because I rant on and on all the time to people about how health is a choice and the vast majority of the health issues we deal with are the result of our own stupid decisions.

But also because I have also been working extra hard to make healthy choices.

Pregnancy appetites are rough, yo!  I've waddled into a very gray area of health lately. Technically, the food I am eating is healthy.  It's mostly organic, definitely all natural, and my calories are more or less prudent for an active pregnant woman (it's hard to tell if I am eating too much or too little these days).  But my diet has been sooo bread-heavy, and a lot of it has been bars. Sugar bars. Clif bars, granola bars, fig bars...if it's held together with honey, I am all over it.  It's been driving me batty!  I haven't had a vegetable in months and it's really wearing on me.

As someone who just a few months ago lived almost exclusively on vegetables, fruit, chicken, and oatmeal, this is new territory. I can't even look at a piece of chicken these days...unless it is covered in cheese and wrapped in a tortilla!

So I am making choices. My sweetened Chobani yogurt is now plain and sweetened with blueberries.  My granola bars are back to being oatmeal with walnuts.  I haven't made sweet potato fries in two days.  Two days!  I'm having to be very strict with my tastebuds and sweet tooth and they are not happy about it not one little bit no siree.

These are choices I make today, but also for the future. I want a healthy baby, and I want a healthy me. I want to be able to keep running, lifting weights, and swimming all the way to the end.   So when I face a case of the grumpy pants about the whole deal, I remind myself:

Health is a choice, and the choice is mine. I choose it today so I will have a choice later.

Are the decisions you make each day towards health or away from it?

Towards your goals or away from them?

Are you limiting your choices in the future because you choose the path of least resistance today?

Make healthy choices with me...or risk the resentment and wrath of a pregnant woman who wants a fig bar. I'm looking at you!

Go out there and be healthy!

My ladder's new rung

The past few years have been like climbing an athletic ladder of awesome. The Ultimate Fitness Challenge, my first triathlon, a couple of half marathons, and a steady fine-tuning of my personal fitness into a place where I was having a lot of fun challening myself and doing what I love and ending each day completely used up and maxed out.  I've loved it!

But this year, I didn't do the Ultimate Fitness Challenge like I had hoped.  I didn't even register for the training camp like I had planned.  I didn't sign up for the Red Hills Triathlon, and the last time I ran more than 8 miles was the half marathon back in February.  My Turkey Trot goal this year is not a sub-90 minute 15k, but the 1-mile Gobbler...and that's just a maybe.  Why?

Because I'm running for two!

Yep, I've taken up residence in that wacky world of food cravings, undeniable fatigue, and purposeful weight gain!  My family and I are thrilled to be welcoming another little personality into our lives, and I am rolling with the punches of being a walking science experiment for the next six months. 

In my first pregnancy, I gained 75 lbs.  S-E-V-E-N-T-Y  F-I-V-E.  I knew that it was highly unlikely that I would give birth to the world's first 75-lb baby, and I hoped against reason that I was one of those women whose bodies just sprung back into their pre-baby shape after leaving the hospital.

I was not one of those women.

No, I sweated off every single one of those pounds, and then some, off over the course of about 18 months and ended up in the best shape of my life.  It was honorable, but it was a pain and this time I'd rather just not gain that much and skip to the fun part.  So I've been sticking to my workouts and eating as healthy as I can even with cravings for ham sandwiches and cake (not together, thankfully).

I'm really looking forward to this new rung on the ladder and seeing what happens.  So far, I've been able to strike a balance somewhere between being that perfectly fit pregnant woman that everyone secretly resents and being the total couch potato that I was last time.  It's a good place to be, and I hope I can enjoy it while it lasts.

It's hard to watch my gym buddies heave their way through challenging, sweaty workouts while I scale it back, but hey, that's where I am right now. And that's cool.

I'm totally gonna kick some Turkey Trot butt on that Gobbler.  :)

Good day!