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.