Boxing Debrief

So only time will tell if I worked hard enough this morning or not. I will be fine tomorrow but come Monday I will either be unable to move my arms or just fine.

I didn’t do a lot today. Let’s see…

5 runs around our circular driveway to warm up.
Some basic boxing drills so hubby and I could get into a rhythm pad holding for each other.
A few basic combinations and pyramids.
10 push ups (on my toes) – I think these will hurt the most if anything does.
16 dips – they were a slight struggle but not too bad. Either my triceps are impressively strong for a 6 month break or the step I did them off is too high. Probably the latter!

And then like the responsible stay at home mum that I am, I finished off with hanging out a load of laundry.

That’s it. And now after recapping all that I realise I was naughty and didn’t do any stretching afterwards. Oops!

Naturally, I had James do double the amount of boxing I did, given he hasn’t just been pregnant nor has he been on a 6 month hiatus from exercise.

But then later today he also ran around with the neighbours’ kids, pushing some of them in a two seater toy car, and took our two kids for a walk in the pram.

What other exercise did I do? Does carrying two heavy green bags filled with groceries to and from the car count? Lol.

Boxing Time

Oh my gosh, after literally no exercise since I moved here to Sydney in January with the exception of a bit of walking, I am about to launch this morning into a Boxing session down at the cricket pitch with my hubby. Wish me luck!

Eight Weeks Postnatal – time to get cracking!

Daniel is now eight weeks and three days old… which means I am eight weeks and three days post pregnant.  My excuse for not hitting the gym at six weeks is that we ended up flying down to Melbourne to visit family and introduce Daniel to his other grandparents for the first time.

My excuse for not hitting the gym in the last weeks?  Uh… not getting around to it couple with a smidgen of indecisiveness?

The two truths are 1) I’m naturally lazy when it comes to exercise (although those who only know me as their awesome Step/Pump/Cycle/Boxing instructor would not know – but the 6am Friday morning Fitness Challenge crew probably know better, haha!) and 2) I’m naturally extremely fussy, and these days I would be particularly fussy about other instructors’ classes because now I would actually be mentally assessing if they’re up to par or not in their instructing skills.

I know, that’s terrible, but I can’t help myself.

So anyway, I am particularly drawn to one gym after looking at their timetable, however after spending a few minutes tonight highlighting every class style and time that I could potentially attend, it turns out 80% of those classes are taught by the same instructor!  He is all over this timetable!  I can’t decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  If he’s an awesome instructor then it would be a fabulous thing indeed… or would it?  Would I get bored seeing the same person every time I go to the gym to attend a class?

I guess only time will tell.  For now, time to get my butt off the couch and do something about these excess postnatal kilos I’m carrying.  I’ve got 8kg to lose!

Two weeks down, four to go

Four more weeks until I hit the six week post-pregnancy mark and can (theoretically) start some “proper” exercise, pending Doctor’s checkup and thumbs up to go ahead.  Of course, walking is proper exercise and is actually one of the best forms of exercise around and highly underestimated in terms of its benefits.  Plus it’s low impact, great for your joints and all that jazz.

But there is just something strangely satisfying about sweating and puffing it out doing grapevines across an aerobics room floor – or even better, a variety of choreographed moves on a Reebok Step.  Better yet, getting to the point where you’re sweating it out without really puffing it out!

And then there’s my long neglected indoor cycling shoes.  In all my time as a fitness instructor I personally found nothing better for improving my cardiovascular fitness than an indoor cycling class (plus trying to give verbal instructions during said class).

It is definitely time for me to visit some local gyms and find a place to get back into some classes.

What about you – what fitness activities work well for you and when/how do you plan on getting back into them?  Or if you have been regularly exercising, what have you been doing?  🙂

I’m Back!

One year and five days later, is it time I make an attempt to keep this blog again?

Not making myself any promises for now given that since my last blog post I have survived an entire pregnancy and have now doubled the number of children I have!  hehe.

Anyway here’s something I am about to post on my Facebook page, just for laughs:

I’ve lost 7kg and almost 20cm from my waist in just 1 week, and I did it without changing my diet or doing any formal exercise!  In fact, I now eat way more than I did before losing the weight, and some of it is even junk food!

The secret to my success?  It’s simple!  At the beginning of the week I gave birth to a baby, lost an organ, and then spent the rest of the week shedding fluids that I no longer needed to sustain the baby and extra organ inside of me.  And I can guarantee 100% that the same will work for you, or your money back, no questions asked!

P.S. here is a pic of my with my baby boy and now 21 month old girl.

Just How Dangerous Is Sitting All Day?

My hubby sent me a link to this article. It’s an interesting read.

“You Look Great!”

I know it’s been a couple of weeks since my last post. It’s a little hard to find time to post regularly lately.  Lily is doing short 30-45min naps during the day which usually gives me just enough time to do something sensible like have a shower or return a phone call. And then when she finally goes to bed for the night it’s laundry time, or get some work done time, or try and learn some new choreography time, or time to spend with James… and that’s only on the nights I’m not working! Unfortunately, all that comes before this blog.

Oh well, you guys don’t want to hear about my boring life (which, to me, isn’t really boring at all, but I suppose to others could seem that way).

So I’m here to talk about how so many people lately have been telling me that I look great “considering I have an 8 month old”. I guess it does make me curious to know who I’m being compared against, what it would take for me to not look great and why there’s an assumption that Mums of 8 month old babies look terrible (lol).

Anyone care to shed some light on this matter?

Admittedly, I typically assume people are talking about my weight – I don’t know why – but who knows, maybe they’re talking about the bright spark in my eye or the whiteness of my teeth when I smile?  hehe.

It really does make me wonder how we each define “health” in today’s world. Is it by our weight? Our level of happiness? Our blood pressure? Our body fat percentage?  I won’t pretend to have all the answers. Too often I have caught myself defining a person’s health by their weight/appearance, particularly body fat percentage. But whilst that plays a part it is not in and of itself the defining factor.

Maybe it’s time for us to all rethink what it means to be healthy. And any time you say to yourself or to others, “I really need to get more healthy!” ask yourself, what specifically do you mean by that?  Maybe some of us already are healthy but we’re either being too hard on ourselves, comparing ourselves too much to that guy or girl who can run faster and lift heavier than us, or just flat out have the wrong definition in our heads.

Just saying  🙂

Easter Eating

With Easter just around the corner, if you’re already having problems with eating too much chocolate or hot cross buns, the easiest way to avoid temptation is to do away with it altogether.  This same principle applies to any other food item you might struggle with, in season or out.

If it’s not in your house, then you can’t eat it! Can’t really get any simpler than that. And if you find yourself unwilling to clear your cupboards of tempting culprits, then maybe it’s time to dig deeper and ask yourself why.

And if you have kids to buy easter chocolates for, do it in moderation. A single child does NOT need 10 easter eggs…. and counting! lol. Besides which, if you’re buying them as gifts for others, then you shouldn’t be eating THEIR chocolate anyway, right? Don’t get suckered into a “buy two get one free” and end up eating the free one yourself. The amount of effort it would take to “work off” eating the freebie is not worth the $$ you’d save!

Step Mania

I absolutely love freestyle step aerobics. It’s my favourite class style. As an instructor, my personal strength is more in being able to break down and teach routines to participants… choreography is not exactly my strongest point.

One of my favourite instructors is Lethal Leslie who is based in Canada. She has a heap of You Tube videos and I regularly use her routines for my classes (always giving credit where credit is due!).

Here is the set of routines we’ll be working on over the next few weeks in my Thursday night class.  I have taught this before but it’s been ages so time to pull it out again!  What I typically do is keep the same set of routines for 3-4 weeks before changing. I find this works well because the routines have enough complexity in them that experienced steppers don’t get bored and in fact like knowing they get to come back next week and do them again. But it’s also friendly to those newer to step because it gives them a chance to learn some moves and because they usually don’t master all of it in a single class, they get a few classes to re-learn and re-practise any moves that they get stuck on.

At the end of the day, freestyle step is all about having some fun and learning some new stuff whilst you get a work out!

Not An Option

In the past 3-4 weeks or so, I’ve had an increasing number of comments along the lines of, “Wow, you’re in great shape considering you recently had a baby!”

It’s led me to wonder, why is there the assumption that women in general lose their pre-pregnancy figures? I suppose it’s because a lot of women don’t regain their figures after having a baby. Dare I even say most? I really have no idea what the statistics are.

When I think about my own mindset, however, I realise that it never occurred to me that I would not return to my pre-pregnancy size. Prior to getting pregnant, I certainly had some fears about my post pregnant body, but what I feared was how difficult it could be to achieve it, not that it wouldn’t happen.

Yes, I was fully aware that it would take some focus and hard work on my part. Weight loss has never come easy to me. So I was pleasantly surprised at how easily it did come off over the past few months (thank you Lily, you helped a great deal with this one!).

Sure, there are aspects of our post-partum figures that remain out of our control, for example how many stretch marks (I used Bio-Oil religiously and still ended up with some!), and something to do with the chest area… hopefully nothing that a good bra can’t fix, lol. But we do have control over the weight part of it.

Here are some strategies that I employed to help me keep my eye on the goal of returning to my pre-pregnancy weight. Different ones helped at different times, particularly when I was feeling a bit down (e.g. if I’d just gone a full month without any weight loss):

#1 If you are planning, trying or currently pregnant, keep in mind that the more weight you put on, the more you will have to lose afterwards.
That is not to say that you should obsess over weight gain – far from it! This article gives a great overview on the topic of weight gain during pregnancy, including additional caloric requirements and guidelines for healthy amounts of weight gain during pregnancy.  Ultimately, that is the goal – to gain a healthy amount of weight during your pregnancy, not too little and not too much!

#2 After giving birth, I kept one pair of my pre-pregnancy jeans handy.
Every few weeks I’d try and put them on… it helped me to see that I was gradually losing the weight. In fact, there were months where I seemed to lose very little to no weight at all, and yet my pre-pregnancy jeans fit better. How clothes fit you is, in my opinion, actually a better indication of progress than your weight on the scales, because you might still expect to see quite large weight fluctuations at times whilst your hormones continue to settle down and your body works to establish a regular milk supply for your baby.

#3 Don’t get too comfy in your maternity clothes.
I aimed to get into “regular” clothes within several months after giving birth. That didn’t mean I could fit my pre-pregnancy jeans yet, however I did have a pair of non-maternity jeans a size up from my pre-pregnancy ones. Maternity clothes (especially pants) are designed with comfort in mind, which means the waistbands are soft and stretchy! But going back to not-so-soft, non-stretchy waistbands meant I was not allowed to get too comfortable and stay that way. Being slightly uncomfortable gave me a reminder of the task I had at hand to get back into shape.

#4 Enlist the help/support of a trusted friend/family member or two.
None of my weight loss achievements would have been possible without the support of my husband. He was the one pushing me out the front door when I was tempted to stay home and skip the gym because Lily was fussing and crying. e was the one that encouraged me when I hopped on the scales and got discouraged by the results (yes, I know I just said that the fit of clothing is a better measure of progress than a scale reading but I can’t help myself, I may be a fitness instructor but I’m human too!). He was the one that voluntarily didn’t have dessert every night so that I wouldn’t be alone watching him eat whilst I went without.  I wish I could give you motivating lines like, “If you put your mind to it, you can do anything you want!” – but I’m more of a believer that no human being is an island, and two heads are better than one!

#5 Find a workout partner.
For me, this is probably not so essential because I find myself in the situation where I am the instructor of the class, so I have to turn up each week whatever my circumstances! However I have also been getting in extra walks by meeting up regularly with one of the other Mums from my Mother’s Group. Not only do we get some exercise, we also benefit from the social aspect of walking together. And our girls love their morning outings in their prams too!

#6 Break it down.
If you have six kilos to lose, rather than stare the six kilos in the face, break it down into, say, one kilo per month. It’s much more manageable that way and less daunting than looking at the weight as a whole. Plus it is better to evaluate and make changes based on your progress on a monthly basis, than to, say, check up with yourself after six months only to realize you’ve gotten nowhere and lost half a year in the process!