If anyone knows me very well I have truly not been a fan of the gym. I've quite disliked it actually. My thinking is if I have the time to go to the gym I'd rather go for a hike, a beautiful walk, or kayak some lake. Well unfortunately all that doesn't really get you STRONG overall. After having Francis I was feeling pretty rubbery. My back always felt like it was going to give out. I was having to brace myself to pick up Alistair. I was huffing and puffing. The body was not in great shape. Yes I just had a baby girl. But I really knew I had to put some substantial focus on my body or I was going to be in trouble in the near future. I say trouble as Alistair requires me to be very physical every day since he doesn't weight bare and if he does he'll give out at anytime so you have to be ready for that. So with a splurge in weight gain (YAY Alistair!!!) from my little man I was very motivated to go get strong. I guess the other key factor was last Nov I crashed pretty good and Mom went and got me a YMCA membership and offered to watch the kids twice a week so I could go. Its so much more motivating when someone else buys you a membership too as there is a nice amount of guilt factor to not let it go to waste. Anyhow now to my utter surprise I have to say I actually love my gym time. At the beginning of March I had reached my preprego weight which was a nice treat to say the least and good for my brain. O and the other key factor to my success at the gym was the Y gives you five sessions with a trainer. The very first session all we did was talk about what has kept me from the gym, what I dislike about it, what I like about it, how to change up my diet, and basically how to formulate a plan so that I will still be coming 6 months from now. It worked! I have a great routine which I love. I still go twice a week for a good 1.5 hours a time and I definitely miss it when I don't make my Tues or Thurs sessions. YAY ME!
I didn't go on any diet plan though as again knowing myself if I go on a diet I get so food focused I just end up gaining weight and ya so doesn't work for me. So what I've done is just used a lot of common sense ie. smaller bowls of cereal, more protein less carbs, more water less caffiene, smaller servings in general, and well basically just a lot of good common sense. Its true for me though if I get happier with the state of my body which was for me getting stronger and toned I find I want to eat better too. Just a positive circle effect.
Anyhow, back to Alistair, the truth is the little man is growing. Its been a reality I've worried about and still do. How do we cope as he grows? How will we physically handle him? How do we prevent repetitive injuries ? I already have tennis elbow starting up in both arms and either tape them or wear elbow braces. What can we buy, make up, or change to make life ergonomically better for everyone? The list goes on... Thankfully he is growing relativly slow and this gives us time to plan, change and learn new methods and acquire new ideas to make life easier on all of us.
A couple super things is that we now have a wheelchair accessible entrance which I really look forward to this summer as it use to be quite the process to go out. Now I can just whing him into the wheelchair. Zip outside and if he's not into it we just go back in. Plus now I don't have to carry the big hi lo chair in and out of the house with all his stuff just to find out we have to go right back in.
We are also done the wheelchair accessible bathroom too. So instead of holding a slippery 27lb boy we can place him in his mesh shower chair and wheel him into his rain shower. He loves it....and so so much better for all of us.
I still have to add some color and hardware to the bathroom but for now its perfect!
One thing I do know is it feels great to be STRONG!
PS I do know there are no pictures of me when I'm talking all about me but I have none of me! I'll have to work on that.
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