6 Months Later

My little miss was born 6 months ago! Time flies. It just flies. Way too fast. Must. Slow. Down. Anyways I have been majorly sucking with blog posting and I apologize. Work, kids, life, it all just took over. Here's some pics from the past couple of months -

At the start of the year, I took time to write down my fitness, personal and professional goals for this year. I really think it's important to create measurable goals. So saying your goal for the year is to have a nice ass (yes this is one of goals) isn't enough, you need to say how you're going to accomplish that goal. So take "I want a nice ass" and make it "I want to be able to hip thrust 75 lbs." Makes sense? Measurable goals aren't subjective. Today you may think your ass is fantastic while tomorrow you may think it's flatter than Miley Cyrus. But, if you can hip thrust 75 lbs, you better believe it's pretty fantastic.

Okay so here's my goals for 2015. Hold me accountable, I don't mind.

Health & Fitness

Back Squat 1RM > Body weight
Overhead Squat 1RM = 55 lbs
Power Clean 1RM = 75 lbs
Deadlift 1RM = 200 lbs
Drink more water - between 48-65 oz a day

Personal

More Patience
More Me Time
New Organized House

Professional

More than 1 person reporting to me

And that's it. I kept it pretty simple. As the year progresses, I may add to those goals but I will not remove anything because it mattered enough for me to write it down to begin with. Speaking of writing it down, I bought a cute little notebook and wrote down my fitness goals as well as every workout. I also write quotes here and there to give me motivation. Anything helps.

These past couple months I have really made an effort to work out at least 3 times a week and it shows. I am planning to take progress pics sometime this weekend and I will post them. My belly isn't where I want it to be yet but I sure can see a difference in my butt, arms and posture! I have also made sure to drink much more water than I'm used to and while I'm peeing a lot, my skin seems to be getting better. Baby steps.

If you haven't already caught me on IG, follow me @myrunningstart. You'll see my workouts, progress pics and lots of pics of beer. Yea I like beer.

Training: Glutes and Potty

If someone told me that one day I would be sitting on the floor of the bathroom nursing my daughter while urging my son to go potty, I would have looked at them and continued doing drugs. I kid, I kid. It's from that commercial, you know. The one where the guy's in rehab. Okay this totally isn't funny anymore. I'm laughing. Okay so I'm potty training Little Beast and two days ago, he finally got it. He now tells us when he has to pee and then actually pees in the potty! It's a miracle. I'm overjoyed. My little man is all grown up in his Elmo and Thomas the Train undies. So adorable.

Everyone told us to offer rewards when he first starts going potty to encourage him. So one of our rewards was a blue knife. Don't judge. It's a plastic knife that Hubby got him. Totally safe. Anyhow, here's Little Beast after his first successful trip to the potty!

Meanwhile back at mama's (country anyone?), I've been working on my glutes. Back extensions, bulgarian split squats, and squats squats and more squats. Since it will take time for my belly to go down to size, I figured I might as well focus on something else so I can see some gains and boy did I! Here's a pic 30 days ago and one today. I'm going to continue adding glute exercises to my workouts. Check out this article on training your glutes. She's got it right.

Do you see a difference? It's minor but progress is progress and I'll take it!

Little Beast is going to turn 3 next week. I can't believe how fast time flies. We're having his party at Pump it Up and boy is it nice. I don't have to do a thing! Love it. Sadly, a week after his birthday, I will be going back to work, which means I have to leave this beautiful face.

Life's been fantastic lately and I just can't complain. I've been working on eating clean and making sure I work out at least 3 times a week. I've also been spending a TON of time with my kiddos and enjoying every minute of maternity leave! 

Were you able to work out on maternity leave? Was it easier the second time around? How else did you spend your leave, aside from quality time with your beautiful little one?

Life with a Toddler and Newborn

Life seems to be flying by these days. I have less than a month left of maternity leave and am determined to enjoy every single moment of the rest of my leave. Little Beast stays home 2 days a week now and I make sure to take him somewhere - a reading at the library, a Children's Museum, anywhere really. I know I will never get this time back and I want to make sure I'm living with no regrets. So yea, it's been an action packed, sometimes stressful life lately and I wouldn't change it for anything.

Little Diva holds her head pretty well these days. She's got such a strong little grip that I'm sure she's going to be working on her snatches in no time! She coos and oohs and is really a lot of fun. Little Beast is such a mush with her. It's wonderful. Life is wonderful. I am blessed.

See what I mean about his mushiness? I just love it! Seeing them grow makes me want another. But then I think of going through another pregnancy while having two youngins and well, that's a little tough. I'm sure we'd manage but I'm happy with two right now. 

Having two children means less alone time with Hubby. We've been doing pretty well with managing our quality time and the kids. Since I'm a recent country fan, we just got tickets to our first concert together - Florida Georgia Line! I am excited!! Hubby is rock and I'm pop (well used to be, pop music sucks these days) so being able to go to a concert together has taken us all of 7 years! ;)

Workout related, it's been about 7 weeks of consistently working out and I will post progress pics sometime soon. I've taken it slow so I'm not expecting much of a difference but it's always good to see how you progress. My weight is still the same since I started but that's okay with me since I'm focused on building strength. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm breastfeeding so I really do feel my body is holding on to some fat to be able to keep up my milk supply. That and the fact that I eat a lot. I really do need to make an effort to eat cleaner. Hubby and I are expecting an order from the farm later today so that usually helps keep us on track. No point in spending all this money on grassfed meat if you eat crap too! 

The Postpartum Struggle

Every site you look at will tell you that Breastfeeding makes you lose up to 500 calories a day. Since I couldn't exclusively breastfeed Little Beast, I attributed the extra weight to not being able to adding formula. Boy was I wrong. Exclusively Breastfeeding makes you hungry and I mean hungry. Like zombies during the Apocalypse hungry. This morning I was a zombie and raisin bread was my victim. Seriously. You could have shot me in the head and I would have kept eating. 

This hunger is serious business. Regardless of whether I make an effort to eat clean or just eat, I am stuck at 135 pounds. So I did some research on Dr. Google. Apparently tons of women lose weight after they wean their babies. Yea I'm serious. Does the La Leche League tell you that? Is it on Kelly Mom? No and no. People want you to believe you'll lose weight but in fact, it makes it harder to do so. It's fine. I'm going to keep working out and eating as clean as I can (minus the raisin bread indulgence this morning) and then when I and Little Diva are ready to move on, I'll finally get rid of the Postpartum 15. 

My working out has been slacking as well. I did work out yesterday but today it seemed more of a chore so I decided to take the day off and kick ass tomorrow. Yesterday I did Overhead Presses, Bulgarian Split Squats, Back Extensions, Abmat situps and KB swings. I'm good one day and bad the other. As long as there are more good days than bad days, I'm alright. It's hard having the motivation some days and with the weather getting colder, I have to be careful not to go into hibernation mode. I love hibernating. Leggings, an oversized sweater, house slippers and a blanket. Ahh a few of my favorite things!

I've been enjoying my maternity leave and I'm sad this is my last month. Little Beast is home from daycare twice a week now so that I can really soak up time with the kids before I go back. It's been really nice. I feel so sad for mamas that don't get more than 2 months home with their kids. I am lucky to get 4 months paid and wish I had more time. This is where I think the US could make more of an effort. But that's not something I can change, just wish we could have a year paid by law - I believe that's what Canada has. Anyways I digress.

The Postpartum struggle is real. It's hard finding the time and motivation to work out and exercise. It's hard leaving your newborn baby to go back to work. It's just plain hard. But seeing that cute little face smile back up at you is the BEST feeling ever. And for that, I'd eat 6 bags of raisin bread. 

Baby Got Back Extensions

As I mentioned last time, I'm working on my bootay. Seriously. I am. Squats, Bulgarian Split Squats and Bret Contreras's 30 day Back Extension Challenge. Well I am proud to say today I managed 2 sets of 25 back extensions! When I started a little over a week ago I could barely manage 10. Progress. I like it. Especially when it comes to my posterior chain. Nice. But not in a creepy way. Ok I'm a creep. I like big butts and I cannot lie.

Since having a well rounded ass means nothing if you have a big stomach, I have been working on my diet too. With breastfeeding, being on maternity leave and it being Fall, I have a sweet tooth. I usually want something sweet after I eat. So I've been looking for healthy recipes online. This past week, I've made Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies and Date Energy Balls. I substituted coconut flour for almond flour in the cookie recipe and  it was delicious. The date energy balls are equally as good if not better. The Detoxinista really knows what she's talking about. Check her out and make some stuff. You will not be disappointed.

Next week is Diwali, the Indian festival of lights so we'll be going to my parents house. Since the date energy balls sort of taste like mithai but are MUCH healthier, I'm going to make a batch and take it over. I will be indulging in the mithai my mom makes though (you would too, it's that good!) but at least I won't feel too guilty if I snack on some of mine as well.

I'm just about at my pre pregnancy weights for some of my lifts and I'm EXTREMELY happy about that. I did 5X5 at 75lbs for Back Squats today. I had my numbers from before I had Little Diva and a couple days before I found out I was pregnant with her, I did 3 sets of 5 at 90. So I'm getting there. 75 felt easy for me so I'm sure I'll be at 90 in no time.

It's really great to be able to workout like I did before. It's also really great to not worry about what everyone else is doing since I workout alone. I do miss my CrossFit friends and my box but working out at home takes away a lot of wondering how people can lift so much and allows me to focus on me. It also saves me money which is necessary these days with two kiddos.

And I'm Baaccck!

I'm bouncing all over the place, aren't I? My brief stint at Wordpress is over with. The amount of spam comments and inability to track stats was driving me bonkers. Also, for some reason, my homemade yogurt post got way too much attention. Attention I like, attention from non kid friendly websites, no thank you. I much prefer Blogger. Okay moving on.

So far for the month of October, I have worked out all but 4 days! I am proud of myself and getting back on track. I haven't been running much due to Little Diva being a little too young for the jogging stroller but I have been strength training and writing down my weights. I am working on form and hope to be at my pre pregnancy weights soon!

In addition to my regular workouts, I have started Bret Contreras's 30 Day Back Extension Challenge. When I first started, I could barely do 10 in a row. Today I did 3 sets of 20. I already see a difference in my butt. I swear I do. I unfortunately didn't take a before pic but I'll take one today so I have something to compare it too.

The end of this month will mark 3 months since I had Little Diva and a picture update of my progress so far. I haven't seen much movement on the scale but I'm really trying not to focus on that. I'm getting stronger everyday and that's all that matters!

That gave me the motivation to workout this morning. I did overhead presses with 45lbs (5X3) and then did 3 rounds of back extensions, ring rows and wall squats. I ended with pull ups. I am no where near where I used to be with pullups but this time I'm going to work on getting a strict pull up before I start kipping. I honestly think you need to be able to do at least 1 strict pull up before you can kip. Maybe not but I didn't have luck the other way around, so might as well switch it up right?

Non workout related, I am going on month 3 of exclusively breastfeeding. I am thrilled about that. I supplemented with formula my first time around so this is a big deal for me. And for the record, I am not one of those people that think breastfeeding is the only way to go. You have to do what works for you and your little one. It was easy for me this time around so that's why I continued to do it.

Yesterday Hubby and I went outlet shopping and my purchases surprised me. I went to Nike and got some comfortable tops that I can wear with leggings or yoga pants. I then when to Eddie Bauer and got a bunch of fleeces and a plaid shirt. My style has changed and I'm leaning more toward function over fashion these days. Not that I don't make plaid look cute, it's just that I have realized that I never wear heels on the weekend, like ever. So now my mission is to make functional comfortable clothing look cute. Seriously I will not be a frumpy mama. End of story.

What do you wear on the weekends? Are you a mama that rocks heels (I give you credit if you do!) or do you live in yoga pants and make them look cute?

I have Moved

New Year, New Beginnings and a New Blog. Please follow me at My Running Start. (www.my-running-start.com). There's a new post up there waiting for you!