Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! Happy first full week of January!

It has been freezing cold here, but I really can’t complain, because there are plenty of other places all around the country that have been hit much, much harder with cold weather. I will just suck it up and be grateful to have warm food and a warm bed to sustain me.

So, the talk all around the web (and in real life) has been all about New Year’s Resolutions. Are you someone who makes them? I usually make a list and then it gets lost somewhere, but I wanted this year to be different. I’ve come up with a number of goals for 2014, some fitness related, some more personal, and I have decided to be intentional about working on them. In order to help me complete this, I’ve signed up for Chalene Johnson’s FREE 30 Day Push program!

I’m really excited about this program because Chalene is someone whom I aspire to be like. She is a very successful entrepreneuress with a background in fitness. She has really branched out into the world of personal development, and I’m excited to see what I can do using the tools she provides through this program. I’ll let you know what I think of it and where I am after the 30 days.

In the meantime, here are a few of my health and fitness goals for 2014.

1.       Do not engage in negative body talk about other women.

This means not commenting on other women’s weights, hairstyles, clothing choices, make up choices or lack thereof, etc. In general I am really good about this, especially not commenting on other women’s bodies, but I have room for improvement where the other things are concerned. I rarely initiate these types of comments, but not initiating them isn’t good enough for me. I want to make it clear to my friends and loved ones that I will absolutely not participate in this type of talk about other women.

2.       Squat my bodyweight on the bar.  This one’s self explanatory.

3.       Run a 10k. So is this one.

4.       Become less rigid about my workout schedule.

At times in 2013 I was pretty strict with my dedication to weight lifting, even if there were moments when I wasn’t really enjoying it. I think that there is a time and place for this, for example, if you are training for a competition, but for the purpose of training just to train, this really will not work for me. I do hope to one day compete, but 2014 will not be the year for that. Instead, I’d rather focus on trying new things and having fun with fitness.

5.       Stop micromanaging my diet.

 There were times during 2013 where I would feel like, OMG I can’t eat that, it’s not clean. There were other times when I would just eat whatever, justifying it with the fact that I work out. In 2014 I want to work towards nutritional balance. I actually started working on this the latter part of 2013, in large part to Lean Bodies Consulting.

6.       Prepare my meals weekly.

I would go through periods of time in 2013 where I was really good about meal prepping for the week, but then at other times I would just completely fall off.  For 2014, I plan to make it happen on a weekly basis.

 

So, what goals do you have for 2014? How are you going to reach them?

Meal Prep Monday

One of the goals I have for 2014 is to be more consistent about prepping my meals for the week. I’ll talk more specifically about health/fitness/lifestyle goals in another post, but I wanted to share a little bit of my meal prep for the week with ya’ll. In the future, I will most likely prep on Sunday nights, but with the way our schedule is for the week, it worked out that I did my shopping on Monday night instead.

Here’s our dinner menu for the week:

Monday: Whole-wheat spaghetti with marinara. ( I like to add lots of veggies to the sauce!)

Tuesday: Lighter Loaded Baked Potatoes ( Loaded with veggies, a sprinkle of cheese, and salsa.)

Wednesday/Thursday:  Balsamic Crockpot pork loin, kale, and brown rice with gravy. (I’m Southern. Sometimes I have to have gravy.)

Friday/Saturday: Betty’s Bean Casserole , cornbread. (This is a recipe from my Mother-In-Law that I need to tweak a little bit before I share with everyone. It’s not really a casserole, more like a stew/soup thing and it is seriously so good.)

Breakfasts are usually oatmeal and fruit for me. The boys will often get a Jimmy Dean sausage biscuit and fruit, or a waffle and fruit, something that they can munch on while we drive to school.  

Lunches will consist of either blackbean or chickpea burgers, cucumber salad, and other items such as yogurt, string cheese, carrots and hummus, or nuts. Also, I love to throw in a square of Ghiradelli Dark to help me keep cravings for sweets under control. My husband eats a little bit differently than me, but he has the luxury of being 6’3” and having a very physical job. So yeah, I’m jealous about that.

I’m excited to use my 6-pack bag again. This thing is a tank. Naturally I’ve lost most of the accompanying tupperware, so I’ve stuffed some stuff in baggies and shoved it into the little compartments. Cause that’s just how I roll, baby!

Do you pack lunch? Do you prep ahead of time or the day of? I’d love to hear any tips for staying consistent that work for ya’ll!

Holiday Indulgences

Hey ya’ll! I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas. I know I definitely did. The kids woke up early to open their gifts and then we all pretty much sat around in our pajamas and ate chocolate all day. I’m actually not kidding. Bri, my former stepmom, stuffed our stocking with some of my favorite chocolates: Dove and Ghiradelli, so basically it was over before it started for me. And you know what? I don’t feel guilty. I’m not looking up how many burpees I need to do or how long on the treadmill it will take me to burn all of that off, and I am certainly not weighing myself. I’m just moving forward. I saw something posted on Facebook by one of my favorite pages, Lean Bodies Consulting, that said

“Exercise should not be done as a punishment for what you have consumed. Doing extra cardio in an attempt to offset a dietary deviation represents a dysfunctional relationship with both food and exercise.” –Coach Mark

Wow. That is so powerful, true, and simple, and yet how many memes do we see on Facebook, Twitter, IG, etc, that are of the exact opposite nature? I for one have stopped following pages that promote that kind of thinking, because it is the type of thinking that I was enslaved by for so long, and am working hard every day to be free from. Also, that is why one day, should I ever be able to afford them, I will be going with either Lean Bodies Consulting or Curls and Whey, their “sister site” for diet and training plans.

Have you indulged this holiday season? I hope so. Do you feel guilty? I hope not. Let it go.

Life lately...

Lots has been going on in our household over the past month or so. We moved back into Roanoke, and finally into our apartment last week. We are in the final stages of unpacking, and the boxes of stuff to throw out/give to Goodwill are now outnumbering the boxes that need to be unpacked. Whew! I will tell you this, moving a week before Christmas with a 4 year old, 16 month old, and being 22 weeks pregnant is no small feat! We were lucky enough to have the boys go stay with their Grandma and Aunt for part of the weekend, and we were able to get a lot done in that time. We also had some help moving stuff in from some friends earlier in the week, and my dad came and helped move furniture on Saturday. Everyone has been earning their sleep!

Chad and I were able to go out to dinner without the kids this weekend, which is something that rarely ever happens. It was awesome. We had plans to go to a favorite restaurant of mine, Wildflour, because I had a gift card from my secret Santa at work (who turned out to be my officemate!), but by the time we were actually ready for dinner the restaurant was only open for another hour. We opted for a trusty standby: Mexican food. We had a go to Mexican place by our old apartment, and have lucked out this time as well; one of their sister restaurants is just right down the street. I have to say that I thought the food at this location was actually better than at any of their other locations! Chad had a margarita, while I looked on longingly.

This weekend was the first time that I have actually felt pregnant. Of course, I have realized that my body is growing and I have been feeling Baby Boy moving for quite some time now, but other than early stage morning sickness, I really have not feltpregnant. That all changed on Saturday in the shower. I had this moment where I was like, Oh my God, here we go. I am like, pregnant pregnant. Unless you have had a baby, you probably won’t be able to relate to this sentiment. I was kind of like, hmm, maybe I can just order in and put my pajamas on and we can go to bed. I was glad I forced myself to get dressed and go out though, and I know my husband appreciated it as well!

We were able to do some child free shopping this weekend as well. We picked up some things for the apartment, and I got a new water bottle. If you know me well, then you know that I have a problem when it comes to water bottles. I collect them. I have to. I say I have to, because I always end up breaking them. Who breaks a water bottle, you might ask? I do. I drop them and they break. I personally prefer to have a water bottle that has a straw, that way I can just drink water hands free at my desk while typing and talking on the phone; however, I have not been able to find an indestructible, pink, water bottle that has a sipper, so I went back to the only water that I know that even I cannot break: a Nalgene. I already feel more outdoorsy/preppy. But seriously, I love it. I love knowing that when it inevitably drops out my hand, I will have the last laugh. Because it can’t break.  No really, it is pretty much impossible to break. Look it up on YouTube. 

Am I the only one who has a specific water bottle or cup that they must use?

 

Eating Your Feelings...Or Starving Them.

Let’s talk a little bit about emotional eating. 

I remember when I was told that I am an emotional eater. It was during a counseling session, in the midst of an eating disorder in high school that got me sent home from a trip to live abroad in Spain. I will always be grateful that I was lucky enough to attend a high school progressive enough to let me spend half a trimester home to get better during my senior year. We really need to see more policies like this across the nation. Being able to focus on my health without having to deal with the additional pressures of senior year was truly a gift. 

I was telling my story to the counselor; telling her how I would not eat, or eat next to nothing for days, living off of water and caffeine, and would exercise for two hours. After a few days of this, I would binge. I would eat until I felt sick and then I would feel guilty and horrible and start the process all over again. I was never someone who ate loaves of bread or tubs of icing or sleeves of cookies. I would eat huge portions of “regular” foods. Plates and plates at dinner.  I told her how this had been my pattern for months, but that living in Spain with a Spanish family no longer afforded me the luxury of two hour trips to the gym. Instead, I resorted to sticking my finger down my throat. This worked, until my Spanish mother caught me. Explaining that in Spanish was challenging, to say the least. 

The counselor listened a little bit more and then pronounced “You are an emotional eater.” She taught me how to identify what hunger felt like, to ask myself, are you hungry or are you feeling something or are you trying not  to feel something? So I learned how to do that and I got better, and forgot all about that, thought I didn’t need it. On the other hand, I also have a history of emotionally not eating, though I think I was always more aware of the emotional connection in this regard.

Over the years though, I started to really get it, and I am proud to say that now, if a random craving hits I can ask “What’s going on? What is this about? Do you really want that or is there something else below the surface?” If it’s something that I really do want, and sometimes I really do just want some chocolate, or Mexican food, or whatever, then I have it and move on. I don’t need to mainline it till I feel sick. Other times I will say, well, it was a particularly shitty day at work, or I am feeling stressed out about x/y/z, and let the feelings come and go. It used to be hard, a struggle not to give in, but now it’s just freeing. 

I think that for a lot of people, dealing with unpleasant emotions is difficult and so sometimes they resort to other things, it might be eating too much, drinking too much, smoking, being hateful to others, not eating, etc.  

I was recently reflecting on my past pregnancies and my weight gain, and made some observations. With my first I think I gained so much weight because it was the first time in my life that I felt I didn’t need to worry about gaining weight, gaining weight was the point. So I went hog wild (pun intended). With my second pregnancy, things were different. I knew that “eating for two” was just a figure of speech, and knew that I didn’t want to gain as much as I had previously. With my second pregnancy  though, I dealt with some very stressful personal situations throughout the pregnancy. My friends would talk about how they would go home and have a glass of wine to unwind; I would go home and eat.

I am trying to be extra mindful of my past history. Just the other day, after a frustrating conversation, I noticed some Milk Duds in the candy box on my supervisor’s desk. A part of me thought, oh, Milk Duds! But that part was quickly silenced by the alarms in my head reminding me that this was an emotional reaction, I didn’t really want the Milk Duds. 

One of my favorite ways to relieve stress over the past year has been getting red-faced and sweaty, pushing myself to the limit in the gym and overall, eating is not something I have to think twice about or analyze, but I am reminding myself to be more aware of my feelings, especially since I have had to temper my efforts in the gym.

I hope that this able to reach someone who needs it, so that they know that it’s hard but doable, and that they are not alone. 

Big Thangs Poppin!

What do you think of that blog post title? It's in reference to the fact that I have "popped" as they say in the pregnancy world, and now visibly look pregnant. I combined that with my love of T.I/southern rap and the fact that I probably will have another large baby, and BAM: blog title!

Moving on...

So the last two weeks I have gone to the gym 4x/week, and I am pretty satisfied with that amount. I have stuck to my running and weight lifting split, but this week I am going to make some changes.

Typically, I have done my workouts on a body part split. That means that each body part is assigned a day to be worked. Most recently, I was combining two muscle groups in order to be more efficient, because I am not in the gym 6 days a week like I was pre-pregnancy. This has worked well for me, but then I read some new information on one of my favorite sites, Lean Bodies Consulting, that encouraged an upper body/lower body split, in order to promote muscle activation and growth. This really spoke to me because sometimes I feel like I have to shove workouts together anyway, and also because I want to work certain muscles more frequently, specifically biceps, shoulders, and glutes.

I have come up with Kanye’s  my new workout plan and am posting my new split below. 

Day 1: Biceps/Back/Shoulders

Day 2: Calves/Quads/Glutes

Day 3: Chest/Triceps/Shoulders

Day 4: Glutes/Hams

One thing I want to mention is that I don’t plan to work shoulders twice a week all the time. Some weeks I will  work biceps twice, and will substitute other upper body muscles as I see fit. I love working shoulders and mine develop quickly. My biceps need some work though, and I hate doing bicep work, so I figured that was a good indication I should do more of it. I love working legs and glutes, and kind of feel like, hey, if I have to be in a caloric surplus for a portion of my pregnancy then I might as well try to build an onion butt with some extra calories*!

*NOTE: You cannot grow muscle without a caloric surplus. This is called bulking.

 I’m sort of looking at pregnancy as an extended bulk so when I lose the baby weight I will be mad shredded bro! Just kidding. I don’t expect to be shredded for quite some time, and that’s okay with me too. It’s all about the journey, and I love it.

How do you choose your workouts for the week or do you just do what the spirit moves you to do?

First Trimester Fitness!

I knew something was off when my pre-workout drinks and Quest bars started to taste extra artificial. Turned out, I’m pregnant! 

About a week after finding out that I’m pregnant I was wracked with nausea and food aversion, resulting in a lack of energy. Suddenly my favorite foods made me gag: tomatoes, Greek yogurt, any and all meat, protein shakes, salad greens. The only thing that I could stomach was a plain baked potato or a cheese quesadilla, and after a few bites I was full. I was MIA from the gym for about two weeks before I was finally able to figure out the foods that would not make nauseous but that would also give me enough energy to make it to the gym. 

Initially pregnancy fitness was a bit tricky. I am used to going heavy and hard, but have since had to lower the weight and intensity of my workouts. Instead of six days a week, I’m in the gym between three and five days a week. I have started doing more cardio, something I loathe, because some days I know that I do not have the energy to use proper form while lifting. On the plus side, I have started running again, and even though I am slower than I am used to, I am finding joy and peace in this activity again. 

My last pregnancy I did not work out at all, because I found it extremely difficult to keep my heart rate below 140 BPM, which is what my doctor had recommended. This time I did my own research, and what I found overwhelmingly indicated that the “below 140” rule was outdated. The new recommendations are to use the Perceived Rate of Exertion test. Basically, how hard are you working? Are you able to talk but not sing? Good, then you’re fine. I met with one of the doctors at my group today and she recommended not going over 180 bpm. I plan to continue to use my heart rate monitor and the PRE test to keep watch on things. 

I am a big gainer while I am pregnant. I gained 60 pounds with Troy and 50 pounds with Archer. I never had gestational diabetes and my blood pressure was always excellent; I have big babies: 10 pounds and 11 pounds respectively. I just do not plan on gaining that much weight this time because I do not want to have to work as hard after the baby is born. I also want to maintain as much of my strength and stamina as possible. Working out makes me feel whole and relieves stress, both of which I believe are critical during pregnancy, so I plan to continue to do so to the best of my ability. Wish me luck and stick around for the journey!