Two things. (142)

Thing 1: I'm back to pre-pregnancy weight, as of yesterday! Huzzah, etc. Next goal: 139.9. I was in the 135-140 range for a little while when I got back from Germany a few years ago, but then I went up to 140-145 range and haven't been below 140 since. So that's where I'm headed next.

Thing 2: I'm back to running, too! I haven't gotten to run in about two weeks because The Baby decided to have a growth spurt or teething or something and allow me an average of three hours sleep per night. He's been doing better the past few nights, so this morning I hauled myself out to the track to run a bit. I felt pretty puny, so I only ran for 15 minutes (about 1.5 miles, I believe), but it's a start. There was a dog on the field today, which was odd because the base has the track clearly marked with "No Dogs" signs. Poor illiterate dog. I tried to catch him and bring him home, but no dice. Hopefully some kind recruit will fetch the poor thing home.

Running plan this week.

Three 30-minute runs. I did the first one Monday, and I'll do the next one today when Noah gets up. The third one will most likely be Friday. On Monday I managed to go about 2.8 miles in 30 minutes, so my goal for the next couple weeks is to get that up to three full miles in that amount of time.

Next week, I'll do three more 30-minute runs, with barefoot intervals on the two days between them (probably using the first week of c25k to time them). That ought to help my speed a bit, as well as getting me used to running barefoot.

Running issues. (145.4)

Various things:

• I think I bruised my metatarsal or something, so I took about a week off after w8d2. I just got back to it yesterday and I think I'm better but not sure. We'll see.
  
• Yesterday's run was great! Not sure if it was because I had more rest than usual, it was cooler than normal, or I was listening to my own music instead of the random c25k techno (since there were no intervals, just a 28 minute run, I just watched the clock instead of listening to the program), but I ran at a much faster pace than normal and felt really good at the end. I did the first two miles in 10:30 each, and then ran about 3/4 of a mile (I think - no mile markers on the track, so just an estimation) in the remaining 7 minutes. Not bad.
  
• Noah is going on third shift, so he's not going to be able to run the 5k with me on Saturday due to absolute exhaustion from changing sleep schedules this week. Saaaad. I'm considering waiting another month or so to do it. I might try talking him into spending the entrance money saved on a Garmin watch so I can better track my pace, distance, etc. Would be very useful, no?
  
• Next week is the last week of c25k! I'm terribly excited. I think after I finish week 9 (thirty minute runs) I'm going to just keep doing 3-mile runs three times a week and start doing c25k from the beginning again on two additional days a week to work up to running five days a week. I think I'm going to try doing the additional days barefoot - supposedly it's better for joints, and it just seems like fun to be able to dig my toes into the sand while I'm running.
  

Damn you, abdominal incision. (148.4)

Situation: As of two weeks ago, I was still feeling a fair bit of pain internally from my c-section. I assumed that this was normal and ignored it. Then I had some visitors and quit doing P90 for a week. After that week, the pain was nearly entirely gone.
Hypothesis: Maybe the intense-ish workouts were slowing down the healing.
Action: Quit doing P90 for a little bit until the pain is completely gone, then add it back in slowly, so as not to damage myself. I think the cardio/abs bit was the worst offender, so I'll add the weights portion back in first, since I was pretty pleased with my newfound ability to do a respectable girl push-up.

C25K is still a go, however. I'm completely done with the interval workouts (sad! I liked those) and am about to go run for 28 minutes whenever Noah gets home. Huzzah!

On the road again.... (146.8)

Minor victory of the week: staying on track even with excuses to not stay on track. To rephrase: not letting myself use visitors as an excuse to eat a shitload of pie and stop exercising. I did put the P90 on hold (and feel weak and puny at the moment, I might add - can't wait to start lifting teeny weights again), but I ate reasonable amounts of relatively healthy things and kept up with the c25k. Yesterday I even persuaded Noah to go run with me, since we had helpful baby-watching people around.

That was a bit different from my normal runs, I must say. Aside from the car troubles (nothing like heaving your sweaty self to the car only to find that it is unwilling to carry you home, eh?), it was pretty fun, but quite hard. I ran 25 minutes, which I'd already done once on Friday, but it was a lot harder yesterday, possibly due to the increased heat or maybe to the fact that Voiceover Guy wasn't telling me how much longer I had to go every two minutes. Anyway, having Noah along was rather entertaining. He's in much better shape than I am, but doesn't have the attention span to just jog along for half an hour, so he'd sprint past me, walk until I'd passed him by, sprint some more, etc. He refrained from ass-grabbing for the most part, but, well, he IS a man, you know. Can't expect too much.

Anyway, the past week was a fun break from the norm, but I should be back in my regular routine shortly. Oh, and that number up there? You see that? 4.2 pounds to go until I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight.

Twenty minutes. (150.6)

That's how long I ran today. That's longer than I've ever run in my entire adult life. It actually was better than I expected. The first five minutes were wicked hard, but after that it was actually relatively easy. For the first time, I'm solidly convinced I'll be able to finish this thing and actually run 5k. To that end, I'm registering for a local 5k on September 10th. Eeeeek.

Minor updates.

C25K week 4 went okay. The first day was hard. The second day was harder. The third day was really easy. I can't explain it - maybe the weather? Or maybe my legs wised up and decided to be all mighty and stoic on Friday. Who knows? Regardless, I'm going to go ahead and give week 5 a shot today.

Week five looks pretty scary, honestly. Week four is as far as I got when I tried C25K before getting knocked up, so this is all uncharted territory. Day one should be pretty easy - just three intervals of five-minute runs, which isn't that much different from week four. No worries about today. Day two is two intervals of eight-minute runs, which I should be able to do, but it'll be tough. Day three is a twenty-minute run, and I really don't know if I can do it. I'll give it my best shot, though, and if I can't quite do it, I'll just repeat the week. No problem, no big deal, no stress. No anxiety-induced hyperventilating.

Week two of P90 went just fine. I dropped the ab portion on Saturday because my incision site seemed like it might protest, but otherwise everything was completed just as the doctor Tony Horton ordered. I upped the weights on a couple of exercises today from 5 lb to 7.5 lb, so I feel marginally less pathetic. Shoulder flies continue to be my nemesis, but girl push-ups are totally my bitch (until I get to more than five reps, in which case I turn into a wobbling weakling).

Made the mistake of having half a pan of deeeeeeeelicious homemade mac 'n' cheese for breakfast this morning, thus using up half of my caloric allotment for the day. Must think of something sensible for supper. Chicken curry, maybe. Yum.

W4D1. (151.4)

Brief update on c25k - I ran week 4 day 1 yesterday (two three-minute runs, two five-minute runs), and it actually worked. Surprise, surprise. I wasn't even completely totaled at the end! It was really hard (possibly because I'd done weights ten minutes before starting), but I finished it and probably could've kept going for a little while. I worked out my time, and it turned out that I'd gone two miles in twenty-six minutes (16 minutes running, 10 minutes walking), which is a wee bit shy of five miles per hour - not a bad average, considering the amount of walking in there. I'd guess my running pace is about 6 mph (10 min/mile), which is considerably faster than I thought I was going. Not bad, folks. Not bad at all.

Nine workouts planned, nine workouts completed. (152.4)

So this was a good week as far as exercise. It was a good week in the food department as well, but exercise is way more fun to talk about. Not much to say about food other than "Successfully avoided gorging myself on cake. Crisis averted." Anyway, exercise - let's break it down a bit.

Week three of Couch to 5k completed! And much more easily than I expected, too, based on the first day of it. Retrospectively, I think my difficulty with day one was at least partially due to my legs being near-crippled by my first day of P90. By Friday's run, my legs had gotten used to the additional workouts and weren't sore any more. Also, Monday had probably the worst weather that I've ever worked out in - it was so hot and humid is was like taking a jog in molten caramel. Friday, on the other hand, was merely blisteringly hot. Regardless of the reasons for my easier run, week 3 day 3 went quite well. I could've probably run for a couple more minutes after my last three-minute interval. I'm simultaneously excited and scared of starting week four on Monday. I'm pretty sure I can do it, but I suspect it won't be fun.

Week one of Power 90 completed! I'm pretty pleased with my choice, honestly. It's hard enough that I wind up sweaty and a little sore after each workout, but not so hard that I can't do it or hurt myself (so far). I was hurting pretty bad after the first two or three days, but now I think I've acclimated and I'm feeling good. I think one week is too early to be showing REAL results, but I swear I'm better at push-ups already. I'm using the actual correct muscles to lift myself up now rather than just heaving myself up with whichever direction of wobbling seems to work.

Goals. (151.8)

I lose interest REALLY quickly if I don't have concrete goals, so for the sake of sticking with it:

Short-term Goals

• Get back to the weight I was pre-baby: 142.6.
  
• Run a 5k - a real one, where they give out t-shirts and stuff.
  
• Get back into ALL of my pre-pregnancy clothes.

Medium-term Goals

• Get to 135 lb - the lowest I've been in my adult life.
  
• Learn to swim.
  
• Do a push-up - a good one, not a girl push-up, and not some piddling wobbling trembling thing. A good strong steady push-up.
  
• Set more short-term goals after I finish the first batch.

Long-term Goals

• Do a triathlon - sprint length would be just fine.
  
• Do a pull-up. Currently if I try, I don't even move, not an inch. It's like my arms are floppy jellyfish. I just grunt and moan without even twitching - looks ridiculous.
  
• Eliminate all back-pudge from tight bra bands. Not sure if this one's possible at my bra size, but let's hope.
  
• Find a good weight for myself. I know 135 is a bit too heavy, since I've been there, but I have no idea what's good for me. 125? 115? Probably I should take this five or ten pounds at a time and see how things look.

C25K / P90 - two programs at the SAME TIME (151.8)

Now there's a good lot of acronyms, eh?

Let's start with the C25K. I did week 3 day 1 yesterday at mid-day in full sun and blistering heat. Week three consists of five minute warm-up walk, then two intervals of 90 second run / 90s walk / 3 minute run / 3m walk, then another five minute cool-down walk. There's only nine total minutes of running, which is exactly the same as last week, which had six intervals of 90 second runs / 90 second walks. The only difference is that the break goes away between a couple of the intervals, and alas, that's a hell of a difference. I'm not sure if it was the heat or what, but I had a hard time with both of the long (hah, three minutes = long) runs. I finished the whole thing without stopping at all, but I was dragging pretty good by the end of the last run. Hopefully I get more used to it by the end of the week - otherwise I might repeat week three instead of moving on to week four next week.

Beginning P90 review:

P90 is set of workout DVDs put out by the same people who do the more popular (and much more difficult) P90x. I decided I wanted something that I could do at home while Noah's at work, so I obtained this program and a set of weights and started it on Monday. My plan is to do the weights portion on the days that I do C25K and the cardio/abs portion in between, with Sunday as a rest day from both. So far, it's hard but doable. I was pretty pleased with myself for managing to do everything in the weights portion yesterday. Okay, I only used 5lb weights, but I need to take it slow, right? Right. The last circuit was kind of a challenge because Jim decided his nap was over, so I wound up rocking his bouncy chair with one foot while doing tricep kickbacks with my arms and balancing on the other foot. I'm WAY more coordinated than I thought I was.

I am definitely sore today, but I still went ahead and did the cardio/abs bit. The cardio...eh. The power yoga bit was really hard, and it was made significantly harder by Bruce the Cat deciding that planks were made for walking under me and rubbing cat hair all over my sweaty bits. In any case, I followed along as best I could but couldn't do everything right, which was frustrating. The stepping and kicking bits were doable but hard, and the punching bit was actually kind of fun. The ab part was alright - I much prefer this approach of ten reps each of ten exercises to the normal approach of six million crunches, but it was still abs (by which I mean "It sucked."). Tony Horton, the instructor dude, was embarrassingly cheesy, but I found his lines mostly amusing. I'm sure they'll get old in a week, though, and I'll probably want to murder him in 90 days, but I suppose that's the down side of any recorded program that you do repeatedly. Anyway, I like it so far and I think I should have decent results.

Damn the breastmilk, full speed ahead! (152.2)

I'm slightly aggravated because things have been going pretty slow this past week despite eating correctly every day and exercising on plan. One expects that, if one follows a plan, one should see instant results, right? Doesn't one? Yes, one does. Alas, it doesn't work like that. I've been hovering at more or less the same weight for the past week, and it's just annoying. I'd really like to try eating a bit less, but there's this whole deal with feeding my kid. Jeopardizing my milk supply isn't really an option for the next ten months or so, so I can't really cut calories more. It's also tempting to bump up the exercise a lot, but there's also this thing where I'm still recovering from major abdominal surgery, so I probably shouldn't do that either. Sigh. Flounce. Sulk.

I think I need to just be patient. It's more difficult than I expected to figure out a decent pace for this right now. At the beginning, it was easy. I mean, I lost fifteen pounds in about three minutes when they cut a baby and a placenta out of my abdomen and sucked out a lot of goo, and then I lost about a pound a day for the next two weeks as my body dropped water weight and even more delightful uterine goo. Now I'm pretty much rid of all the pregnancy stuff and it's just a matter of taking off the fat that I put on with all the pregnant-lady-needs-ice-cream days I had. I'm trying to remain pretty positive about it. I'm getting fitter every day, and my body is completely capable of comfortably doing everything it needs to do - carry around my brain, sustain a two-month-old baby, get grabbed at by grabby husband. So there's no reason I need to be in a hurry about this.

And really, I'm not doing nearly as badly as I feel like I'm doing. I've lost about a pound a week over the last month, and that's decent enough. Also, today I'm at the lowest I've been since I started working at this, and that's not half bad either. Having more reasonable expectations is a good idea, and I should probably work on that (and on respecting my body for what it does manage to do) just as much as I work on moving my feet more.

In other news, I finished week two of Couch to 5k on Friday! Hurray, I can comfortably run 90 seconds very slowly without stopping! Actually, 'comfortably' might be a bit of an overstatement - I got a pretty wicked stitch in my side halfway through, so the rest of it was slightly unpleasant. BUT! I persevered and shuffled toward the finish line in something resembling a jog, and I'm totally counting it as a win. Next week (read: tomorrow) I get to try running for a whole THREE minutes at a time, and I'm terribly excited. Fear not, I'll report back on it in a great deal of detail.

C25K week 2... (153.6)

I started week two on Monday, and it went reasonably well. A little harder than week one (how depressing is it that running for 90 seconds could possibly be in any way a challenge?), but not overly difficult. My leg muscles felt it a bit, but I never got seriously out of breath or felt like I wouldn't be able to finish. After the last interval, I could pretty easily have run some more, so I'm confident that I'll be able to proceed to week three without any difficulty next week.

Running on a military base is pretty entertaining. When I was in Minnesota, I ran on a public path around a lake, and the people-watching there was pretty good (lots of dogs, including one pair of shih tzus who were always pushed around in a stroller), but running on base is totally different. This week my worst nightmare a niggling worry was realized when I found myself on the track at the same time as an army division doing PT. I was unconcerned at first, since they seemed to be staying in the middle of the field, which was nice - nothing makes a run go by faster than watching short-shorts-wearing Army dudes doing calisthenics. When I reached the other side of the track, though, I foolishly quit paying attention to them. My lack of attention (and overly loud ipod) was rewarded by nearly being trampled by the whole pack running up behind me. Naturally, I moved over into the grass until they were past and then promptly turned to go the opposite way and put as much distance between us as possible.

Despite the overall lack of damage, I think tonight I should probably turn the volume down so I have a little advance warning. Nothing against the Army, but I felt like a pudgy zebra about to be trampled by a stampede of oddly stealthy wildebeests.

Well that didn't go as planned. (154.2)

So I planned on starting week one of C25K on Monday. I couldn't go until late in the day after my husband got home from work (so he could watch the baby), and it was a hot muggy day, and I'd been moving furniture (bookcases and so forth) around all day. Point is, I was tired and cranky and didn't want to go drive to base to work out in the hot sun. But I made myself go!

Aaaaand then it turned out my ipod was dead so I couldn't follow the C25K program. So I took a walk instead and decided I'd start the C25K on Tuesday. I figured I'd be free Tuesday night, and Noah would be home from work earlier, and it was supposed to be cooler anyway.

Aaaand then I had an IUD put in Tuesday morning and spent the evening bleeding like crazy and whimpering on the couch because of cramps. So I figured I'd nurse the cramps and start C25K on Wednesday. Wednesday was pleasantly cool all day, and I didn't have anything to do during the day, so I would have no excuse to not go.

Aaaaand then there was a massive thunderstorm all Wednesday afternoon. SO. I figured screw it, I'll go Thursday, for the love of god, and nothing had better stop me.

And lo, Thursday went as planned, and it was good.

The workout itself was great - the track is nice (flat and dirt, not too busy, lots of pretty trees and good people-watching), I only got rained on a little, and I'm still retaining enough fitness from pre-pregnancy that it was pretty easy. I'm not going to push it, lest my guts fall out through my incision or something, but it's nice that it isn't too hard yet. I'm going to do day 2 tomorrow morning and then skip to week 2 starting Monday. I figure that should be fine, since I already did two days of week one last week around my neighborhood. Can't wait until I'm running/jogging/shuffling more than 60 seconds at a time!

Couch to 5k. (153.6)

I will never deny that I'm naturally a pretty lazy person, but I've always secretly liked exercising when I force myself to do it regularly. Anything outdoors is my favorite, particularly if it allows me to listen to music at the same time and doesn't require a lot of concentration, so this program is essentially perfect for me - listen to the music, wait for the podcast to tell me when to start and stop, and enjoy the scenery.

This will be the third time I start C25K, and I'm planning on making it the first time I finish it. The first time I started it was years ago, when I still lived in Pennsylvania, and I stopped after the first day because it was harder than I expected. The second time was last year in Minnesota, and I stopped at week four or five because I found out I was pregnant. This time will require a little more planning than either of those times - I can only do it when my husband is here to watch the baby, and since I'm breastfeeding, I have to make sure that the kid is fed before I leave and that I'm home before he needs more food. Still, it's doable.

I actually did the first two days last week, and they went a lot better than I expected. I had no pain at my c-section incision, and I actually seemed to have retained a little bit of the fitness I gained last time. The previous two times I started, my lungs and heart were absolutely raging by the end of each 60-second interval (how embarrassing is that?). This time I wasn't even breathing hard until the sixth or seventh interval. It surprised the hell out of me, honestly. I did seem to feel it a lot more in my muscles than I ever did before, though. I'm not sure if that's because I barely moved from the couch while I was pregnant or because my neighborhood is jam-packed with hills, but by the last interval it felt like I had a pair of the proverbial concrete galoshes. Beats feeling like my heart is going to smash through my sternum, though, so if I traded a little muscle for some cardiovascular fitness over the last nine months, I'm okay with that.

Anyway, I'm restarting the first week today because I'd like to go to a new venue and I want to be able to track progress evenly. Running (well, walking with energetic bursts of slow-motion jogging, really) around my neighborhood is terribly convenient and all, but it's full of steep hills (not great for starting out) and I have to run on pavement, which isn't fun. Plus gangs of shifty-looking hoodlums tend to congregate on the corners in the evening when I run, and that's slightly nerve-wracking. Tonight I'm planning on going on base (husband is in the Navy, so I get access to cool military stuff) and using one of the tracks there. It's flat and dirt, so it'll be nicer to run on, and frankly I'd sooner feel self-conscious in front of doofy Army recruits with cool hats than sketchy thugs in ill-fitting jeans.

Well, that was fast. (152.6)

I'm only ten pounds away from my first goal (142.6, my pre-pregnancy weight), and it happened quite a bit faster than I expected it to. Honestly it would have happened a lot faster if I'd been paying more attention, though. There was about a two-week span where I was keeping track of calories during the day and then ignoring them for dinner and evening snacks, and I know that didn't really do me any favors. Still, hurray for progress! I also took some measurements today to see how I'm progressing physically. I know I'm doing better (I can now fit into one of my old skirts, which I couldn't do a week ago), but I really love numbers.

I really wish I'd taken some pictures and measurements right after getting home from the hospital (it'd make for GREAT progress pictures...), but at the time I had other priorities. Hell, I've still got other priorities (adorable cooing priorities with dirty diapers, in fact). I'm just moving the weight-loss up slightly on the list - below baby and husband, above muffins and video games.

Anyway, what was I saying? Right, measurements. I last took measurements a few weeks ago, and here's how things are looking now:

Body part - 06/17 - 07/10
Neck - 13 - 13
Arm - 12.5 - 12.5
Chest - 42.5 - 42
Waist - 35 - 33.25
Belly - 42 - 40
Hips - 40.5 - 40
Thigh - 24 - 23
Calf - 114.5 - 14.5

So, my neck, upper arms, and calves are unchanged, which is pretty unsurprising. My neck is fine as-is, I'd like to lose a little off my arms but they're really not overly chubby, and my calves are gargantuan but it's all muscle (sturdy peasant stock, remember). I seem to have lost half an inch around the boobage, but I'm taking that with a grain of salt since it's a pain in the ass to get a decent measurement there. Anyway, I'm breastfeeding, so I doubt they'll be shrinking any time soon.

That leaves me with valid losses on my waist (1.75"!), belly (2", and yes that's different from my waist, I swear), hips (.5"), and thighs (1" each, hallelujah). At that time I weight 156.4, so that's about five inches and four pounds in three-ish weeks. I'll take it.

Starting places, everyone.

So, I just had a baby. Well. Not just, exactly - it's been six weeks. But anyway, details aside, I had a baby recently, and it's time to get serious about getting the rest of this baby weight off.

I wasn't exactly svelte when I first got pregnant. I weighed 142.6 pounds the day I peed on my first stick, and while I know that's not horrific or anything, it's a bit pudgy for 5'2". I was never particularly slender before that, either. I come from good solid peasant stock, and I can't think of more than two people in my entire enormous extended family that could be legitimately described as 'thin.' The smallest I can ever remember myself being was 130 pounds at about age 12, so I've always followed my chubby genetics pretty reliably. I've been up and down in weight throughout my adult life with a maximum of about 190 (non-pregnant!) right after college and a minimum of 138 after living in Germany, but I'd been stable around the 140-145 mark for a couple of years before getting knocked up.

Unfortunately, pregnancy makes a great excuse for ignoring weight gain, and as a food-lover, I can generally be counted on to take any such excuse. I started off with the best intentions, but Jimmy John's veggie subs and barbecue chips were all that got me through the first-trimester morning sickness, and after that... While my cravings were almost entirely for fruit, you can't really ask a pregnant chick to turn down the occasional thrice-weekly tub of Haagen Dazs, now can you? Well, you can, but I certainly didn't, so by the time the baby arrived, I was up to about 195 - almost double the recommended weight gain, and about triple the gain recommended for women who were overweight to begin with.

Six pounds and fourteen ounces of that were baby, so that came off instantly, and about twenty more pounds were water weight and uterine tissue and placenta and so forth, so I dropped down to 165 pretty rapidly, but from there it's taken some work. Through judicious use of calorie counting,* I'm now down to 154 - 11.4 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight. At six weeks after the C-section (a pretty rough one, at that - read about it on my baby blog if you like lengthy and graphic descriptions of childbirth), I'm ready to start working out too, so that should hopefully speed things along. The plan is for this blog to serve as a repository for progress posts and random musings and vents about the process of getting back down to my pre-pregnancy weight and beyond.

*I don't believe in low-fat, I don't want to pay for Weight Watchers, and I love baking too much to cut carbs, but I do have a food scale and the internets, so calorie counting it is.