Month: June 2017

I want to preface this blog by saying I am no professional. 

I absolutely do NOT consider myself an expert in this subject. 

I am not selling anything. 

I am just a regular chick, who has to work at my fitness everyday in order to maintain (or barely improve). 

I am not someone who is naturally thin.

I am not someone who is naturally fit.

I am not puffing out my chest or bragging after just losing a couple lbs—because I know how easily the weight can come and go throughout the course of our lives. 

So, that’s who I am not. Now to cover who I am:

I am a mom of 2.

I am married to a carbaholic.

I am currently transitioning from a part-time worker (3 ten hour days a week) to a full-time worker (at least 5 ten hour days a week).

I am someone who has always been into fitness—in high school/college I was on dance team & track, in post-school years I became a long distance runner & marathoner, & post-twenties I got into fitness competitions. So fitness is (and always has been) a part of my life. Well, that is except for the two separate years I was pregnant (complications had me scared still), and for the 2 years after my last child was born (pure self-indulgence & laziness).

I am currently training for my third fitness competition, but my first since turning 40 in January, and since having children.

I’ve recently posted a few pics of my meal preps, and I’ve had quite a bit of questions and private messages. The most surprising and common response I’ve gotten is, “If I had your willpower, I would totally do a competition”… 

I would not say I have amazing willpower, but I guess what I have that helps me is that I am organized and I am good at doing what I say I will do. So, I want to clear up the misconception that I have any stronger willpower than the next person. My willpower comes from organized discipline.

I’d like to give a few suggestions to any normal person like me who may struggle to maintain weight on how to get the ball rolling on sustainable weight loss.

1. Get yer’ head right- You have to want this….bad. So, how do you know if you’re ready? I know that when I can’t find a high enough angle of selfie to where I look okay, that I’m ready. I know that when my clothes are really tight (or inexplicably short), that I’m ready. I know that when after each gross meal I eat I am too tired to play with my kids, I’m ready. I know that when I am breathing heavy carrying in groceries that I’m ready. I know that when I avoid pools, mirrors, company, events, etc., that I’m ready. So you need to figure out what sign in your life will show you that it is time to commit to a new eating/fitness-habit. No one else can tell you if you are ready. Figure it out, when you’re ready move to #2.

2. Set a BAG & Talk About It- Set a Big Arse Goal. To me this shouldn’t be weight, because numbers on a scale are not a visual-enough-motivator to get behind. How many friends of yours say “I just need to lose 10 lbs”… but they never get there. It’s a boring and painful goal. Instead, choose a fitness goal—a walk, a run, a tri, a 1/2 marathon, a full marathon, a crazy muddy obstacle course…. whatev. Just choose something 6 months out from the next Monday (your start date). The only rule about this BAG is it must be scary (meaning something you cannot do in your current fitness state). Register for it, and then tell everyone you know about it. Share it on Facebook. Talk about it over lunch at work. You want everyone you know cheering you on. And believe me, vanity can help us here, as well. Once you pay & announce, it’s hard to back out—you want that added pressure and accountability.

3. Get a trustworthy fitness buddy- This is a nice-to-have, not a requirement. If the person you choose is not committed, and ends up talking you out of eating right or working out, this is not your buddy. Find a buddy you can trust to push you. This person is the one you will send your before/during/after pics to, your weekly measurements to (bust, waist, hips, thigh), your weight changes to… they are your own Jiminy Cricket. You need someone who can hold you accountable. This person can be Weight Watchers or a trainer, too, if you are short on available fit buds.

4. Get yer’ food right- Learn how to eat right. I don’t care how—doc, trainer, Pinterest, nutritionist, weight-loss company, etc.—just find a menu to eat clean and print it out or save it to your phone.

5. Get Organized— This is your excuse-busting step. Can’t you hear your own excuses already? If not, don’t worry they show up around week 3-4. “I need more sleep.” “I have children, I just don’t have this kind of free time.” “I don’t have anything healthy in the fridge, or ready for dinner.” My personal fav that I always throw out to myself around month 2, “This is ridiculous, no one else has to live so strict… this is no way to live”. You need to be very organized and preemptively strike at your go-to excuses. You need a system to ensure your workout clothes are in the bathroom waiting for you to stumble in sleepy-eyed in the morning. You need a system in place to get you in bed in time to get enough sleep. You need to prep your meals at least once a week, so they can be grabbed and carried out very easily. Meal prepping typically takes me 3-4 hours on Sunday afternoon. You need to have a ton of low-cal snacks, sugar free gum, & zero-cal flavored drinks just laying around your home, desk, & car. Make sure you always are prepared with a cooler for the day so you don’t get somewhere that has no healthy options for you. My desk at work usually has 5-6 different flavored waters, and 2-3 packs of sugarfree gum on it.

6. Get fit- Everyone’s schedule is different, but I highly encourage working out first thing in the am. It can suck, I know. But after awhile you will start to enjoy the routine and the quietness. I personally have to get up at 0330 to leave my house at 0345 every weekday in order to get a 60-70 min cardio/weight-training workout in before my work starts at 6 am. Is that normal? No. But it’s the only way I can guarantee my workout will happen. I started up in March, and haven’t skipped one day. I’m the kind of person, that once I skip something, I get unmotivated and off track. So, I have not let myself miss 1 gym day. Again, find a workout routine through a trainer or the internet or your doctor, and jump on it. 

Watchouts  

1. Just a bite won’t hurt – I promise you one bite will hurt. It may or may not hurt your waistline, but it will definitely affect your commitment. Each little cheat, becomes more frequent and bigger. Just don’t do it. What I have learned from my competitions & my fitness in general as I’ve aged, is food is 80% of the work. The workout is only 20%.  So you have to build a strong defense against all temptations. You need a good lean diet and lots of healthy options around so you won’t lick the brownie batter off your finger. Momma tip: chew gum or brush your teeth if you are preparing different “yummy” food for your kiddos. 

2. Not enough protein- This goes hand in hand with eating right. However, I wanted to point out that I never changed my shape until I started eating enough protein. I could lose weight following low calorie diets, but I would not change my shape. Talk to a trainer about how to get enough lean protein in your diet.

3. Not everyone is your friend- This is a sad reality. Husbands, friends, dads, mothers, sisters, co-workers—they may be there for you, or they may be secretly plotting against you. For example, I know, when I get strict on my diet, my husband eats more ice cream & fried food than normal. I know I have co-workers and friends that will say, “Oh come on, you’ve lost enough, you can have one donut.” I know, I have lots of food-pushing friends & family. These people may or may not even realize what they are doing—but you have to. Realize you are strong, and that you can withstand these types of small temptations. 

I hope this list of ideas & tips helps you on your fitness journey. Good luck!

So, locally, we just had another incident where a breastfeeding mother was asked to cover up at a public pool. She was approached by the (I’m sure) very “mature, educated, & life-experienced” lifeguard—I feel grounded enough to stereotype the poor ‘ole lifeguard because (1) most lifeguards are only in high school, (2) I was a lifeguard throughout high school, & (3) I can confirm that my mind was usually on the hottest guy at the pool. The lifeguard approached this breastfeeding mom and stated something about how she was making other people uncomfortable by not being discreet with her breastfeeding activities, and then asked her to finish up elsewhere. 

This particular mom is now classified lovingly in my book as no Regular-Mom, but instead a Momma-Bear. Momma-Bears can quickly change posture/demeanor when she or her young come under attack. Well, this incident was an attack. Therefore, Momma-Bear lunged into action—well, after she recovered from the initial sting of the lifeguard’s words, and sent a quick zinger back at him. 

She then approached the Manager of the pool. Shockingly and sadly, he proceeded to say something like, “people don’t have a problem changing their child’s diaper on the changing table in the bathroom, so why can’t she feed her child there.” 

So clearly right off the bat we have another company out there that doesn’t understand the law—740 ILCS 137, Section 10, known as the Right to Breastfeed Act, which states, “a mother may breastfeed her baby in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be, irrespective of whether the nipple of the breast is uncovered or incidental to the breastfeeding.”

I’m not gonna lie, prior to having children, I didn’t think about, talk about, or care about this law. I was raised in a very conservative home—politically and just in modesty-terms. My folks didn’t (and still don’t) walk around naked. Also, my mom was in the baby-making-era where it was more accepted to feed your child with a bottle. So all of us kids were bottle-fed, and quite honestly I always assumed I would do my child-rearing just like my momma. 

My mom is one of those super women you only read about—married her high school sweetheart, delivered all her babies all naturally, had zero pregnancy complications, and just hit 50 years still madly in love with that old fart from high school. So let’s recap where I’ve already differed from my mom so far in raising babies: (1) I had to get married twice to find the right baby-daddy, (2) I got the strongest drugs imaginable to man immediately on both deliveries, & (3) my pregnancies were riddled with complications and scares.

Well on top of all those differences, at some point during my first round of pregnancy classes, I made another decision to go against my conservative-genetic-grain—I decided I would try breastfeeding my kids.

My family would swear I am the most liberal kid out of the bunch—college ruined me. There had been signs of my innate-liberalness, prior to this breastfeeding decision—many questionable decisions for relationships, the comfortability with walking around my house in my birthday suit, my grayness at times in political discussions, etc. But this decision, shocked my family. I mean, I’m the non-hugger. I’m the veteran. I’m the engineer. I’m the “give me my personal space or I will throat punch you”-kinda-chick. Why would I want to attempt this style of feeding my baby?

Well, the answer was simple and clear—it was healthier for my child. I’m not going to go into all the specifics, but a quick description of health-benefits include: 

“Breast milk contains antibodies that help your baby fight off viruses and bacteria. Breastfeeding lowers your baby’s risk of having asthma or allergies. Plus, babies who are breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months, without any formula, have fewer ear infections, respiratory illnesses, and bouts of diarrhea.” (WebMd.com Dec 13, 2015)

So, really to me, there wasn’t a decision to be made—I would be breastfeeding my child.

I was also bound and determined to be a mom that wasn’t controlled by fear or complications. I had already seen my peers, friends, and family be completely homebound and depressed or overly-stressed because some part of being a mom had freaked them out. They were so often stuck at home from fear of not knowing how to logistically exist with an infant at the grocery store or the zoo or at church or on a plane. I swore to myself that I would get out of my comfort zone and do something that scared me regularly.

Now, when I decided to breastfeed, I hadn’t realized I picked the easiest-logistic-type-feeding available. Ya know, no packing bottles or messy/sticky powder containers to worry about. My hoots traveled nicely around with me, everywhere I went—no assembly required. This was an unexpected win for doing the right thing.

And I quickly learned other baby life hacks that my mom had missed out on—like how to don the friggin’-life-saving-moby-wrap (which just became a part of my everyday apparel for 2 straight years), and how to use the very, light, almost-sheer nursing blanket. As a result of learning these simple tricks, I can say I was a very, very, very relaxed mother with infants — don’t worry the toddler-stage is sucking the life out of me, currently, so I’m paying my dues. 

However, there were also difficulties by choosing to breastfeed. First of all, I was effectively the only “bottle” available. So there was that. No help available when it came to feedings, which turned out to be no big deal because it was such a bonding/sweet moment with my girls. Secondly, I quickly learned that people were always way too “helpful” in shooing me into a private location to feed my child. This felt like help for the first week of having a child—then in quickly turned into feeling like I was shunned from society to deal with “womanly-issues”. Lastly, there was pumping. To put it nicely, pumping sucks. I think pumping is the main reason most women avoid breastfeeding or cut it short. It’s messy, it’s a pain to clean up, it’s a time-killer, and it’s definitely uncomfortable—what other liquid in our bodies do we have squeezed/pumped out? It’s the most mammalian-feeling process ever invented. As a result, I almost never pumped. I only pumped if I was away for a trip away from my kids.

So I became a public, covered, breastfeeding mom. I tried to avoid being sent to rooms by “helpful” people. I just threw my little superhero cape on and we were off and running. I truly shocked all of my close-friends and family, at how quickly I could toggle between chatting in a simple conversation to suddenly feeding a small child under a blanket. I weirded my fam out several times, I weirded friends out all the time! But I was covered. I can’t imagine if I hadn’t been covered. 

The funny thing is I thought I was pushing the line by being in public with my little shawl. I thought I was in this new wave of wild, baby-wearing, breastfeeding moms. But I stayed covered and regularly stated how I would never feed in public without being covered up.

Looking back, I think I mainly covered up because (1) I didn’t want any pervs eye-balling my goods, (2) I didn’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable, and (3) I didn’t know at first that it was an option to uncover legally. These reasons are extremely self-absorbed. Is it possible a perv would be in the right position at the right time to try and see the outer-edge of my hoot?—I suppose…very unlikely, but I suppose. I know though if that happened, my “threatening to throat-punch”-side would kick in and the problem would disappear very quickly. In my experience, most people just looked away once they realized what I was doing, whether I was covered or not.  

I can now say, if I got preggo today I would breastfeed in public uncovered because I think we need to send the right message to our children and new, young mothers. The message that feeding our children is natural in any form and should not be restricted in any way. I guarantee certain close friends, members of my family, my husband, and my husband’s family would gladly keep me under wraps or preferably in a separate room while I was taking part in this act. But this would be my response:

“No.”

No explanation needed.

If you are choosing to breastfeed, your head and heart are in the right place. The medical benefits are proven. We could list excuses or reasons why women would not want to stay covered, like: it’s hot, the baby doesn’t like a blanket on their face (big surprise they don’t like the feeling of suffocation), the mom needs to see the child’s face to confirm the latch is correct, etc.).

But the bottom line is: it is the law.

So my final points—Fellow women, please stop saying anything remotely close to what I’ve said a million times before— “I don’t care what other moms do, I just know I would always cover up”. I cringe knowing that those words have come out of my mouth. That ridiculous statement is so insulting and unsupportive of other moms. If someone asks your opinion, I’d just simply say you support every mother’s decision to feed her child in any manner she deems fit. 

It is time for women to support fellow women.

It is time for us to lead by example. 

It is time to help encourage new mothers to choose the healthiest option for feeding their children, by making it easy and by making them feel comfortable. 

It is time for the old-fashioned, eye-rollers, to keep on rolling by if they can’t keep from glaring. 

It is time.