I Hate Exercise

So I'm now on day 15 of the 30 day shred... 31 days in. Yeah.

Excuses - In-laws were in town...I needed to do the final pack up of my classroom (basically my home for the last 6 years)...I have a 2 month old...I hate exercise.

Maybe I should clarify the whole "I hate exercise" deal. I guess I can say that I REALLY dislike WORKOUTS. I actually really enjoy running, hiking, biking, swimming, playing sports, etc. I'd rather be active than to have to sweat to death 25+ minutes a day and then ache the rest of the day. Right now, I'm doing this because I'm determined to get back my pre-pregnancy body... Well close anyways, I don't think it's possible to go ALL the way back. :-) I figure I can go back to normal living after I have achieved that.

Doug and I aren't super healthy eaters, but we are good at portion control and we only eat out maybe once a month. I cook dinner every night and we use the leftovers for lunch the next day. We never have junk food or really any type of convenience food in the house (mostly because we're too cheap to buy it). My goals right now with food are variety and vegetables. I prepare about 10-12 different meals and rotate through them, so I'm looking for new things. I also only prepare a vegetable with dinner like 1% of the time. So yeah, I definitely need to work on that!

I've been thinking a lot about exercise and healthy living and how I want to raise Leah to view these things. I don't want her to be worrying about going on a diet or exercising until she really is an adult. I see a lot of YOUNG girls that really obsess over body image and I think it's an awful way to live! I just want to encourage Leah to have a healthy lifestyle. I want her to be healthy and confident. I'd like her to be involved in some type of active sport (dance, soccer, karate, swim lessons, ...whatever she enjoys). I have some time to work on my meal preparation, so hopefully I'll have vegetables down. :-)

There's a family (mom, dad, 3 year old, and 5 year old) in my neighborhood that goes on bike rides together just about every evening. I really like that! It's healthy AND good family time. Doug and I have started to go on walks with Leah most evenings, so I guess that's a start. 

Oh and I WILL finish this 30 day shred... It just might be in 60 days.

And I end here with some recent pictures for those of you not on Facebook!

Leah 2 Months Old

Leah, you are growing so fast! Right now at two months old, you weigh 12 1/2 pounds and you are 24 inches long! You can wear most 0-3 month clothes and some 3 month clothes.  You are now wearing size 2 diapers. You are so long and skinny that I have to cross the diaper tabs in order to keep the diaper from falling off of you!

You have been sleeping in your crib regularly since you were about 4-5 weeks old and I sometimes miss the days where you would snuggle with me in bed all night. Some mornings, I sneak you into bed with me and we sleep in. :-)

We haven't quite gotten into a schedule yet, but there are certain things that you like to do every day. On the top of that list is going on a walk OUTSIDE! We had a few rainy days due to Tropical Storm Andrea and you were very unhappy! You still like to be facing forward so that you can see everything.  

One thing that we have started to do recently is bath time every night. You can be screaming and the second that I put you in your bathtub, you calm down. You LOVE to splash and you usually soak your mommy!

You started using a Bumbo at around 6 weeks even though the recommended age is around 4 months! You love to sit up so that you can see everything and you have a strong neck that allows you to get away with it.

You aren't regularly sleeping through the night yet, but you did surprise me with two nights in a row where you slept from 10pm-5:30am!  When you are waking up for the day "officially" around 7am, you are usually full of smiles. One morning your daddy and I were standing around your crib talking to you and you couldn't decide if you wanted to pout or smile. You kept on going back and forth between your big pouty bottom lip and a big smile. Your daddy and I were cracking up!

We had a very special day the beginning of this month. You were just seven and a half weeks old. On June 2, your daddy gave you a name and a blessing. Your mommy was very worried that your daddy was going to change your name to "hippopotamus" like he was always joking, but everything went very well... Very normal! :-) Great Grandma and Grandpa R and Grandma and Grandpa S plus Aunt Katie and Lexi flew all the way out from Utah to be there for your blessing. Your Aunt Heather and her family also drove all the way up from Virginia Beach! Your Grandma H made you a beautiful blessing dress. You have lots of family that love you already!

Great Grandma R was very impressed with you! You are very alert for your age and you love to push yourself to a standing position whenever you get the chance!

Grandma and Grandpa S and Aunt Katie and Lexi LOVED holding you every chance that they had while they were here.

You made several trip to school with mommy before the end of the school year!  When we walked around the school, kids from all grade levels somehow knew your name. You're famous at mommy's school!

I love being your mommy! Seeing you grow so quickly makes me sad that it is going by so fast, but excited at the same time. I get to see you do new things and witness your personality surface a little more each day. I'm so glad that I get to spend every day with you!

First 10 Days of 30 Day Shred

My inlaws are in DC on this HOT day and I am home with Leah. I decided to get my exercise in, but Leah woke up the second I was in my work out clothes and pushed play. I decided I would just preview the second 10 day portion of the 30 Day Shred while I bounced Leah and walked around the first floor. Leah fell asleep about 5 minutes in and now I'm sitting on the couch eating a cookie while I preview and blog. I'm in trouble!

Up until this point, I had been doing great! By Day 5 or 6, I had started feeling like I was actually doing the exercises right. I was doing the more "advanced" version of all the exercises except the push ups... I can only do the modified version.

On Sunday (Day 5), I was getting out of the car and my left knee felt kind of out of place and hurt and I had to have Doug carry Leah into the house. I had already done my work out earlier that morning, so I didn't miss a day. By Day 8, my left knee started bothering me during the exercises so I just made sure not to push it too hard.

On Day 9, my grandma arrived in town and the first thing she said when she saw me was about how quickly I had lost the baby weight. (I'm still about 3 pounds above pre-pregnancy weight and none of my pants fit me, but it was a nice compliment.)

I finished Day 10 yesterday and I felt strong and optimistic. I felt like I could have done the whole work out again back-to-back.

Back to my current reality... My knee is hurting even watching this! A lot of the exercises are pretty high impact. I'm going to do it because I don't give up, but I will probably only be able to do the modified versions.

Tomorrow is Leah's baby blessing and I have a lot of family in town so exercise (besides the mile plus that I walk each night with Leah) will have to wait until my house is empty again.

On a more positive note, I ordered two maxi dresses online from Target and they are supposed to arrive today!  They should both work well long term with breastfeeding.  I'm hoping one of them fits, so I can have something that isn't skin tight to wear to Leah's blessing.

Update: Leah was napping a little longer than usual, so I went ahead and did level 2. The good news is that I didn't die and my knees are still intact. (I even did 1 "advanced" move!) I'm feeling good. I think I can do this!