Day 17 - Confused

In all the crazed flu week o' Hell, I've gotten my days all a'shuffle.
I was on day 15, but it was 17.
Making progress in spite of myself, I suppose.

Husband took a photo today, I was mortified. I think I've read it before, but I feel much thinner than I look. I think it's a testimony to the lightness of the food I've been eating that I feel so good. It's just a shock when my photo doesn't match up to my feeling.

However, my muscles?
Burn.
Burn, ache, a burney burn burn.

My back, shoulders, arms and inner thighs (?) are all on fire.

I don't have a soft place to jump rope -- just on the concrete -- and my knees and lower back are getting a little achey. The grass is too muddy to attempt jumping -- I guess I could try a doormat?

Food continues to be the easiest part. I love this method, because I can weigh it all ahead of time and have it ready to go in the fridge. As someone who's running from the second her feet hit the ground in the morning, that makes things so convenient.

Tomorrow James goes back to work and I'm terrified -- the past several weeks I've been able to hand both children to him for 15 - 30 minutes at a time as I chunk away at my exercises. With just me and both girls, it's going to be a lot more challenging.

Shoulder to the wheel, yo.

Food:
Coffee with milk

Pineapple

Chicken breast
Roast cauliflower
Pasta

Pineapple

Brussel sprouts
Pasta
Chicken

Day 15

Another day with both daughters at home keeps me from doing all my exercises at once, but I'm okay with the minor reduction in results.

Food:
pancakes
egg
broccoli

canteloupe

chicken breast
wheat tortilla
avocado/tomato/onion/cilantro

canteloupe

chicken breast
seed bread
greens

Exercises:
Done

Wishing I was better at pushups and jump roping. I can only jump to one hundred at a time and am in need of a serious break halfway through. But I will continue -- nice to hear that failure is the option.

James goes back to work full-time on Monday. In a twist of self-punishment, my maternity leave ends too. As I work from home, my clients expect me to be available online all day -- as I still have a baby with me, aaargh, I'm not looking forward to the whole thing.

So much work, I'm already tense about it. I have no idea how I'm going to get it all done.
Bah.

Any idea how the weekly photo is supposed to go?

Day 12

Well, that was awful.

I think the worst part was the sobbing little girl who needed holding all day long while I wanted nothing more than to sleep. Oh, and then every 2 hours I had to nurse a baby.
(Shaking it off. Shudder.)

Body body I reclaim thee!
Also, thanks for the kind comments!

Yesterday, day 12, I was able to do my jump rope, sit ups and squats. We cleared out a space in the back yard so I don't have to jump in front of the house. Three cheers for sweaty privacy. I look forward to adding to the rest of my strength training.

I'm feeling much better -- trying to sneak in all the naps I can and happy to get back at it. I'm working on a new direction with my career and how my body looks is a key component of that movement. It's easy to make good decisions when it's the future of oh-say my career.

Food:
Mushrooms, Red Peppers, Onions, Broccoli with scrambled egg
2 pieces seed bread
Melon snack
Chicken (too busy to notice the day got away from me)
Pineapple snack
Broccoli, whole wheat pasta, chicken

Exercise:
Jump rope, situps and squats

day 11

Wow, sick.
I'm sick, my daughter's sick.
There's only time for sick.
I spent the day in bed, with chills and fever, coming down to eat. No exercises were done today due to the fact that I could only muster strength to soothe one baby, nurse the other, feed myself and wipe my nose.

Food (all was weighed to the proper amount):
Egg/milk scramble with mushrooms, green onions, cherry tomatoes.
2 pieces seed bread
Strawberry/blueberry
Tilapia with asparagus and seed bread
Pineapple
Egg noodles with roasted cherry tomatoes, chicken, parsley. Roasted cauliflower.

Exercises:
None, will complete tomorrow, needed to conserve energy and health.

Day 10

Oh, the sick.
Not too sick not to exercise yet.
Did all the strength exercises and jumped all my jump ropes.
(However, now, I may die.)

Most exercises are grunt-worthy but do-able. However, push-ups continue to be nigh impossible for me. I can do the minimum with no push-up bars, I fail at 6 with the push-up bars. I keep waiting for it to get better, but frustratingly enough, it's not.

Breakfast: Oatmeal, 1/2 tsp brown sugar, 1 egg, 250ml milk in my decaf
Snack: Strawberries/Banana/Blueberry
Lunch: Tilapia with beet salad and whole wheat pasta
Snack: Pineapple
Dinner: Chicken w/whole wheat pasta, 2 teaspoons grated parmesan, tomato and parsley. Beet salad.

I just get ravenous in the mornings when I wake up. Note to self: have food both in mind and ready to go. I miss fruit in the morning, a big bowl of broccoli doesn't have the same delicious-factor. My decaf coffee now shares space with 200ml skim milk, I miss sneaking my coffee-milk from the kid's whole milk carton.

(Crawling into bed now, the baby's sleeping.)

Day 9

Eeee. That was one rough day.
One very sick little girl who needs to be held all day added to fitting in exercising and management of another newborn equals a gigantic challenge.

Nora Lea cried and cried with her 103° fever and James and I had lots of hushed conversations about the emergency room. Thankfully her fever broke just as my head filled with snot and my joints started aching.

(I got my exercises in by then too.)

James sleeps to make up for his night of crying babies.
Nora Lea is almost back to her old self -- a little warmer, a little spacier.
Dottie sleeps right now too.

I washed and weighed and cut up a bunch of little fruit cups to grab as snacks in-between nursing and working and oh, every little task that goes with new mom-ness.

Time to update my foods from yesterday:
Breakfast - 170 g broccoli, 2 pancakes (at 120g) (no syrup or butter! new to me!), one egg, 250ml milk in my decaf
Snack - 140g pineapple
Lunch - 180g whole wheat pasta, 180g steamed asparagus, 130g chicken breast
Snack - 140g pineapple
Dinner (8:00pm, shoved in my mouth with exhaustion) - 65g whole seed bread (2 slices), 100g chicken breast, 170g sandwich vegetables and fennel salad (tomato, lettuce, onion, fennel tossed with 1/2 tsp squeezed tangerine)

I slept through nighttime snack.

Exercise:
Done, but whoo, am I sore.

When I did this kind of training with a personal trainer, it was much easier to summon the motivation to do my less-favorite exercises. ("Go Helen Jane! Remember what you want!) It's much tougher to rally with kids and husband and life swirling around. That said, it's also all the more satisfying when I end up finishing.

Day 8

Holy food measurement!
Holy food!

Food:
broccoli
1 egg on oatmeal

pineapple

Chicken
Asparagus
Whole Wheat Pasta

pineapple

Tomato Avocado on whole seed bread
Chicken

Strawberries
Yogurt

Exercises:
300 jump ropes (argh - can't get my totals right)
All exercises but pullups

day 7, yo

Food:
1/2 bowl split pea soup
1/2 granola bar
1 bowl kale/sausage/lentil soup
1 Guinness
1/2 Texas burger from Taylor's Refresher
4 onion rings

Exercises:
I did it!
All seven hundred jumps!
I'd told myself I'd be happy getting to five hundred, added fifty more and so on until holy cow, I did my jump roping.
Back of neck (my computer "hump") hurts when I have bad posture. This is fantastic despite this morning when I was doing the head/shoulders turn instead of just turning my head.

**UPDATE**
Oh, HJ, you see now that you really only DID need to complete 500 jumps. Way to overachieve, you.

Eager to get into it tomorrow.
(See also: I jumped my rope seven freaking hundred times today)

Day 6

My legs are shaky,
my shoulder blades sore,
my abs, afraid of laughing.

Food:
1/2 piece banana bread
coffee with whole milk
1/2 bowl split pea soup
1/2 granola bar
1/2 plate osso buco with polenta
6 blueberries
1 beer

Exercises:
Jumping rope today much tougher than yesterday, only because my legs were so tired. Not sore.

Had to take an ibuprofin this morning due to exxxtreme soreness in my upper back and neck -- but worked out by noon. Lugging two babies around doesn't allow for as much rest as I'd prefer -- but that's the point, grin.
Lunges were easier as I was wearing lace up shoes (Wilbur finally popped). Push ups were a mind game. I won the game, but it was close.

Day 5

Got some of the tools today in the mail -- steamer basket, jump rope, push up bars and a storage box to keep it all in.

Let's just say that the push up bars made those push up things seventy four hundred times more difficult. I didn't know I was compensating so much, egads. It was fun to completely fail -- Back when I saw a trainer, we strength trained to failure.

(And that was a good thing.)

I haven't pushed anything to failure lately and push ups were as good a place as any to start.

Exercises:
Jump rope.
(Hilariously, we have no space to jump rope in the house or garage so neighhbors and drivers could find me on the corner in front of our house, in the rain, doing my jumping.)
Completed all exercises and reps.
I wasn't as sore today -- but felt much weaker.

Food:
1/2 a 3 egg omelette with cheese, sausage and green onions
1 piece toast
1/2 orange
1 turkey sloppy joe
1/3 cup cole slaw
6 potato chips
1/2 cup sausage pasta
green salad with tomatoes and rice wine vinegar
1/2 biscuit

Oh, you wanted to see my grody burn blister?
Yep, we named it Wilbur.
It continues to be too big to put lace-up shoes over it, but thankfully our exercises don't need it.

Day 4

Man, I was hungry today.
It was nice to have the forewarning that day 4 would be tough, made it easier to soldier on.

No child care today due to the holiday so I managed both girls while James worked from home. My jump rope comes tomorrow -- should help with the silly feeling of jumping and pretending (despite my expert pretendering).

Since I'm nursing, I'm drinking water all the live long day -- supposed to help with my burn healing as well.

Exercise:
Done!
Holy soreness.
Twas a mental game to really lean into it and get through it.

Food:
1/2 bowl oatmeal w/brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 ham sandwich with veggies
6 potato chips
1 turkey sloppy joe
6 potato chips
1/2 cup of cole slaw
1 beer
(would you look at that utter lack of calcium and vegetables!)

Day 3

It's amazing how much a decent night of sleep can affect your ability to cope. Whew!
Also, the fact that the girls were both feeling well was great too.

Exercise:
Still awaiting my jump rope -- did faux-jumping and it was wildly challenging. Huzzah! Muscles in my upper back are sore, it's helping to remind me with my posture.

Ordered pushup bars, scale, steamer and resistance bands today.

Food:
1 coffee w/2% milk
1/2 breakfast quesadilla
6 cherries
1/2 turkey/ham sandwich
1 apple
1/2 bowl udon noodles and chicken with green onion
5 chicken pot stickers
8 dried cherries

Day 2

Exercises:
No jump rope -- completed exercises.

Food:
1 coffee w/2% milk
1/2 granola bar
1 bowl pasta carbonara
8 almonds
1/2 chunk dark chocolate
1/2 serving minestrone soup, Tra Vigne
1/2 chicken salad, Tra Vigne

Both girls screamed all day.
Nora Lea's teething, Dottie, she just howls if she's not being held.
Aaargh, the crying!

James had his post-birthday sleep-in day and I am incredibly tense.
My shoulders are at my ears.

It was a hard day -- I didn't eat until two and then scarfed a bowl of pasta.

Forgot to mention dumping the boiling water on my ankle yesterday. Egads, I tipped the just-poured tea on my ankle, causing all kinds of painful damage.

The blisters are worst where my sock elastic rests. When the blister pops, I'll be able to wear shoes again. In the meantime, it's cooling burn pads and gauze bandages.

Thankfully, the exercises aren't shoe-exercises!

Note to self:
Have healthier food on the ready in the fridge. Tomorrow's trip to the grocery store is anticipated alone time. I can feel my shoulders dropping as I type.

Day 1

Through Weight Watchers, I lost 40 pounds 4 years ago for a friend's wedding.For the most part, I've maintained that weight loss until my recent spate of pregnancies. Not only has pregnancy left its 30 pounds on my frame, it's stretched out my abs to virtually unusable. Still, a big part of me is relaxed because I know I can do this, I've done it before.

My biggest worry? Running out of time.

Daughter Dottie is often hungry every 2 hours. She then may eat for an hour. That means I'm feeding her every hour. That means I'm stuck on the couch, nursing. By the time everyone gets their meals, I complete client work, housework, parenting, argh, there's precious little time for me.

Excercises: Didn't jump rope, ordered jump rope (should be here Tuesday). Walked/ran with dog for 3 mile loop. Completed exercises

Food Intake (halfsies): Logged
1 egg, 1/2 piece toast, 1/2 orange
granola bar
1/2 chicken and cheese quesadilla on wheat tortilla
1/2 apple
2 pieces cheese pizza

(James' birthday party)
2 beers
1 glass wine
1 cracker with cheese

My before photo: