Every little bit counts

Recently I’ve started getting back into exercising in the morning (something i swore off years ago) with a workout DVD I bought a few months back, and I must admit I’m pretty proud of how well I’m sticking with it so far. It’s Ripped in 30 with Jillian Michaels, and it’s everything I wanted in a workout – short (each one is about 25-30 minutes long, including warm up and cool down), full-body, sweat-inducing, and tough! This is no jog-in-place-for-a-minute-then-do-a-sit-up workout. No. It kicks your ass! There are 4 different workouts, 1 for each week of a month (hence the “ripped in 30” part), and after 3 weeks I’m still only doing the week 2 workout. Woof.

When I got into this routine 3 weeks ago, I did it to free up time at night. We desperately need to get back to doing some work on our house, and since R does all of that I need to be able to watch D after work single-handedly. Plus I hate running when it’s cold and/or dark outside, and unfortunately I think we’ve finally hit that turning point in the seasons. Although, oddly enough, I’m starting to miss my couple little runs each week. Maybe I’ll try to sneak one in here and there, as long as I can still feel my digits. But anyway, this DVD has turned out to be a decent solution.

Wednesdays and Fridays (and sometimes mondays if i’m unable to get to my monday night group workout with my trainer) I get up at 5am, throw on my workout clothes, head out to the living room, unroll my yoga mat and grab my 5 lb. weights, and turn on the Xbox. Jillian and her 2 rotating cronies proceed to wipe the floor with my body for the next 23ish minutes (i skip the cool down and substitute my shower instead. bad form, i know, but whatevs), and I’m still ready to head out the door at our normal 7am without a hitch. So I wake up 40 minutes earlier than usual, but in that short time I get my exercise and shower in for the day, am pretty much always more awake by the time we leave than the non-exercise days, and start off the day feeling accomplished and really good. The best part, though? I DON’T HAVE TO LEAVE THE HOUSE. Hard to make excuses not to do it when I don’t even have to open the front door.

As the title suggests, you’re supposed to do this workout continually for 30 days, working your way up to level 4 by advancing to a new workout after each week. Then in 30 days, you’re magically ripped like Jillian and her sidekicks. Or something along those lines… Seeing as I only do it twice a week, however, I’m progressing as I feel comfortable. Which right now seems to be about 2 weeks on each level (so 4 workouts spaced out over 2 weeks for each level instead of 7 days in a row for each level. ouch). Even at a reduced schedule than what the plan recommends, I think it’s doing the trick. I feel great after each workout, and when I switch up to the next routine, I’m definitely sore for a bit. No pain, no gain, right?

Now this 3-times-a-week exercise regimen pales in comparison to my pre-D gym rat days where I would spend a good hour there after work every day and often on weekends, too, but hey, I don’t have time for that mess anymore. And that’s ok. I cancelled my gym membership at the beginning of this year, and I haven’t regretted that decision once in the almost 11 months since then. I was very fortunate to have shed my baby weight through breastfeeding and walks with D in the stroller those first couple months after she was born, so the goal of my exercise this year has just been to get my body back in shape. And I think I have. I did a pretty good job of running regularly this spring and summer, I do abs and push ups on my own most days of the week, I still have my weekly sessions with my trainer, and now I have my twice-weekly mornings with Jillian. And I feel good. And all my clothes are fitting properly, always a plus.

But sometimes I feel like I should be getting more exercise. I mean 3 times a week is good and all, but like I said, it’s much less than my body was used to before getting pregnant, so I know I can handle a lot more than this. But dammit, I just don’t have (or try very hard to make, anyway) more time for it. So I’ve done a little brainstorming, and I realized that many things in my everyday routine actually do count toward upping my exercise quota without me thinking much about them. And most of these I’ve discovered since having D, for since I’m not torching calories on a spin bike or treadmill each day anymore I am trying to dust a couple wherever I can.

  • Having a growing toddler in the house, period. D weighs close to 25 lbs. now, so constantly picking her up and toting her around is a great bicep blaster. One of our friends who came over the other week held her for a good half hour, and when he put her down he even commented on how surprisingly tired his arm was, simply from having her up there. My guns are thanking you, little one.
  • Using my abs to straighten up. I’ve just noticed recently what a difference this one makes, but I can totally feel it. Whenever I’m bent over at the waist – washing my face, washing dishes, picking up another pile of crap from wherever it may lie – I would normally just stand straight up without even thinking about it. This can be really hard on a back that already aches from carrying around that aforementioned toddler. So now I concentrate on engaging my abs and using them to straighten my back, kind of like a reverse sit up. This helps strengthen your core (abs, obliques, and lower back), and doesn’t put nearly as much strain directly on your back. Don’t believe me? Try it. And if you notice no difference, then by all means, feel free to call me a liar. It’s ok, I can take it.
  • Lifting with my legs, not my back. Everyone knows this rule when doing any heavy lifting, but it certainly comes into play more and more as that toddler gets bigger and bigger (read heavier and heavier). The last thing I need is to be out of commission with a strained back.
  • Using my butt to stand up, not my knees. I used to do this wrong constantly. Whenever I’d be crouched down, say trying to retrieve something D dropped while in my arms and trying not to drop her in the process, I would push through my knees to stand back up. This killed my knees every time, and they would often pop or crack in revolt. Now, whenever I’m down in a low squat position, I turn it into just that – a squat. Don’t push on your quads with your hands and force your body staggering back upright through your knees; engage your quads, glutes, and hammies to rise. You won’t even need your hands to push on anything. You can feel your buns burning, which is always a good thing. And for extra credit, squeeze your core along with your butt. Feel more burn. I’ve heard that squats are good for quieting unhappy babies, too, so if you find yourself in that predicament give this one a shot. Silenced baby + toned booty = happy mama.
  • Pushing a vacuum more effectively. Or a broom, or a mop, or whatever floor cleaning device you have. Again, use your core. Tighten up your midsection, put a little oopmf into each push, and you can work your biceps and triceps too.
  • Take the stairs. In fact, I take the stairs 2 at a time whenever I can. Overachiever, I know. How many loads of laundry do you do each week? Is your laundry room on a different floor than where you fold or put away the clothes? How many trips up and down those stairs does that equal? ‘Nuff said.

So you see, there are plenty of little things you’re probably already doing that help contribute to your overall daily exercise. And if you’re not, then try these out. It’s zero extra work, it’s just tweaking actions you already make. They’re easy, and if you do them right you really can feel them working. Sure, none of the above tips will break a sweat like a 5 mile run or build your biceps like you’ve been curling with 50 lb. dumbbells, but then again not much does besides those activities themselves. I just like knowing that even though I don’t exercise as much as I used to right now, every little bit really does count.

 

What a week it was

As you all know, last week I participated in the Week in My Life project with Mel from Adventuroo. After those 7 days of continuous posts, I figured I should do a little recap of sorts.


I took pictures (lots of pictures!). I made notes. I kept track of times. I paid attention to details I may otherwise have glossed over in the general day-to-day. I spent hours putting everything together so I could share these little moments of my life.

So what did I take away from all of this work?

  • I love being a mom. This should come as no surprise, seeing as I’ve talked about how having D has changed my perceptions in so many ways time and time again, but realizing that my posts from the week almost entirely revolved around how we spent our time with D really solidified in my mind and heart that my role as Mommy is what’s most important to me.
  • I want to be able to stay home with our children, and I’m going to work very hard these next couple years to hopefully make that happen someday.
  • After learning so many stories of SAHMs this week, I find myself trying harder to do what it would take to be a good one. More play time with D; more instructional/educational stuff for her so I could actually teach her something worthwhile if she weren’t at daycare each day; more hands-on with her toys to really be engaged with her; lots of reading books, which she now loves; lots of talking to her and with her, even without real words yet.
  • I am so blessed to have in R a partner who wholeheartedly loves raising and nurturing our little family as much as I do. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a culinary master either, so we don’t have to live on the bowls of cereal that are about the extent of my skills in the kitchen.
  • We want to take more advantage of nature. We live in an area with so many wonderful state parks, that after our little hiking adventure last week we realize we need to use them much more often. Sitting around the house on free weekends is great and all, but D loves to be outside and I think a weekly or even biweekly jaunt would be fun. Like our Saturday or Sunday morning time – head to a park, play around for a little while, come home and relax. Sounds totally doable.
  • R and I need to give each other more hugs. We’re constantly smothering D with hugs and kisses. Can’t forget about the adults in the house, too.
  • Even if I’m not continually taking pictures each day anymore, I should try to really capture the everyday mentally. Watch D’s little face because her beautiful expressions change daily. See her mouth trying to form new words and sounds and feel my heart almost explode at what an amazing little person we’ve created. Soak in her smell because nothing smells better than warm baby. Hear her contagious peals of laughter and tiny quick footsteps padding around the house. Watch in utter adoration as R picks up his baby girl and feel my heart overflow with love for those 2 – my family.

I can honestly say I never would have thought to do something as intense as this Week in My Life, but I’m so glad I did. Thanks again, Mel! You’ve helped me remember something that can easily get pushed into the background – I love my everyday, and every day of it most definitely is a blessing.

 

Back for a sec

I know I said I needed to take a little break after my Week in My Life, and I do. I just needed to get a few things off my chest first, because it’s one of those days again. Those days that need a little venting…

I’m in a funk for a minute. Here’s why:

  • A big project I’ve been really excited about and spent a lot of time on fell through yesterday, which totally sucks.
  • The Brewers are out of the playoffs. (not life-altering, but just a small contributing factor)
  • I hate when my body doesn’t cooperate with me; I’m very less than pleased with it right now. I need to get some runs thrown in again, but I hate running when it’s cold and of course the weather is now starting to turn. Maybe a detox is in order? (hmm, i have a funny feeling i don’t have the willpower for one, but who knows)
  • I was really looking forward to something that had tentatively been slated for next Spring, but now that’s off the table too. Thanks a lot.
  • Starbucks completely messed up my chai this morning – foamy, watery, warm when it was an iced drink. Not the self-pity treat I was anticipating. (again, not a huge deal, just adding to the shittiness of today)

Yes, I know none of these are major problems and I have so many things for which to be thankful. Don’t worry, I am. I’m just in a mood again and feeling like a brat, so I needed to get that out. There. Thank you. Back later.

 

Week in My Life – Day 7: Sunday

We made it! The final day in my Week in My Life with Mel from Adventuroo, and I survived. I’ll admit, it’s been hard work and some late nights, remembering to capture all the everyday moments I wanted to share with you all, figuring out what I wanted to say about everything so you got a true glimpse into our lives, and getting each picture edited and uploaded here for your viewing pleasure.

But you know what? It’s been great! I’m so glad I undertook this endeavor because I think looking back on this record of these 7 days years from now to see how we all looked, how little D was, and what our daily routine was will be pretty special. So here’s how my last day went down…

I know yesterday I said I was going to document our sports moments this weekend, but today’s Brewers vs. Cardinals game got moved to a 7:05pm start time, since the Texas vs. Detroit series ended yesterday. That meant ours was now the only game being played today, so they pushed it back to be a night game for tv.

Total boo on that, since night games are harder for D, what with the staying up late and being at the ball park way past her bedtime. Plus it totally screwed up our tailgating plans, because R was making jambalaya for it today and now we didn’t feel like lugging all the stuff for it out there.

Night games we usually park outside the park lots and walk in, which isn’t conducive for tailgating. Plus doing my post after another night game would mean staying up way late for me again, and I just got caught back up on my sleep from last week. So anyway… A change of post plans.

Instead of Brewers game pictures, I thought I’d share a little of our outside time this afternoon since it turned out to be a really nice Fall day.

D took a nap from 11:00 this morning until almost 12:30, then had some lunch and we headed outside to play with Daddy while he listened to the Packers on the radio and cooked the jambalaya in the driveway since it wasn’t going to Miller Park with us.

These were all taken around 2:00pm and prove that D was a little less enthused to be “jumping” in the pile of leaves than we expected. They were also taken with a real camera, not my iPhone this time. My treat, you’re welcome.

So that’s that! I hope you’ve all enjoyed sharing a week of my life with me. I know I’ve discovered some great blogs and bloggers through this process, and hopefully some feel the same about me. Like I said, this has been kind of a marathon blogging experience for me, so now I need to rest my feet. I’m gonna take a little break, but I’ll be back in a few days, nice and refreshed. Stay tuned!

Week in My Life. The End.

Week in My Life – Day 6: Saturday

Seeing as I don’t normally post on weekends, you may be wondering what I’m doing here. Well, we’re still in the midst of Week in My Life over at Adventuroo, so I decided I’d give you all a glimpse of what my weekend life is like as a little treat. I see you’re thrilled. Excellent!

I couldn’t figure out what I was going to document for today, since I really didn’t feel like doing the whole day. 1.) I don’t have enough energy to run around snapping a picture of every hour, and 2.) I’m really not all that exciting and didn’t want to bore you to tears. So I chose to capture the sporting moments of this weekend. Wisconsin sports are ON FIRE right now, and this weekend holds both a Badgers football and Brewers baseball game. We’re big fans, so I wanted to show you how we here in SM land root on the home teams.

Today the Badgers played Indiana at 11am. It was a home game at Camp Randall, and our Homecoming. Go Badgers! Unfortunately it ended up being probably the least enthusiastic Badgers cheering section in our house in a long time. It wasn’t a super important game to get all fired up about since we were favored to win by 40, but still. 2/3 of the Badger contingent spent the majority of the game doing this…

And then there was me, stuck watching a good portion from behind one of the 5 loads of laundry I did this morning. Awesome. (but remember, at least it was only laundry, no other cleaning since i did all that crap last night. wahoo!)

D woke up a little over an hour into the game, and immediately began cheering on top of Daddy. Fortunately there were plenty of “touchdowns!” to cheer about today.

Since we didn’t exactly have the most exciting Badgers game viewing party for you, here are some bonus pics of D from this morning. She was playing in the bathroom as I got ready and then was enthralled by the animals on Jack Hanna’s children’s nature show on tv. I’m not really a fan of plopping her in front of the idiot box, but she LOVES animals and I figured it was relatively educational.

Tomorrow we’re going to Game 6 of the NLCS when the Brewers come home in a must-win situation against the Cardinals, so I should have a little more to show for that one. Hopefully the right team wins. Go Brewers!

 

Week in My Life – Day 5: Friday

Now try not to get too jealous, but I just had the most exciting Friday in the history of Fridays. This fifth day in my Week in My Life with Adventuroo was stupendous. Please come inside and share my story, won’t you?


Friday afternoons at work generally result in my leaving pretty early, and today was no exception. R went to Great Lakes Distillery for a couple drinks with one of his coworkers after work today, so I picked up D and headed home.



Here comes the juicy part of my fun. You ready for this? I spent my Friday afternoon CLEANING MY HOUSE. Yep, that’s right – dusted, vacuumed, and cleaned the bathroom. Holla! I can see you all are green with envy, so I’ll break it down a little for you.

Yeah, I was totally kidding in that first line above, in case you hadn’t sensed my sarcasm by now. But here’s the deal. I hate… no, HATE! wasting even 1 second of my precious weekend time doing chores. I would much rather spend a late-week weeknight getting all of the housecleaning for the week done than have to do any of it on a Saturday or Sunday. Especially when we have nothing planned that night, why not get it out of the way while I can?

So today when D and I got home I dialed it into clean machine mode and got started before R got home. It’s actually much easier for me to do the cleaning while he’s gone and out of my way, so I wanted to take advantage of all the time I had before his coworker dropped him off after their little happy hour. Like I’ve said, D is really pretty good about entertaining herself, so once I satisfied her little “get me” arms reaching up with a few minutes of holding and snuggling, I gave her a bottle of milk and snack tub of Cheerios and put her down to play while I got to work right about 4:00. She loves just following me around the house watching, too, so it usually works out pretty well.




These Swiffer dusters are my best friends. I don’t think I’ll ever use a cleaning spray and rag again. These babies do the trick nicely.


I love those pictures of D above with both her milk and water bottles, because it shows how she plays with her hair every time she drinks from one. Apparently it doesn’t matter what’s in it either, as long as it has a nipple the hair gets twirled.

R got home shortly after 4:30 and played with D for awhile as I continued the dusting. Thankfully he gave D dinner tonight so I could finish vacuuming the rest of the house I didn’t do last night, Swiffer sweep under the bed and couch where the vacuum won’t reach, and wipe down the bathroom. D didn’t mind the vacuum at all tonight, and actually followed me the entire time wanting to inspect it and even touched it a couple times.




These are my second best friends, because I’m often not in the mood to do a full-on bathroom cleaning and will just wipe everything down to disinfect with them. Too bad I used my last one tonight, boo.


Hooray! House is clean! It was just before 6 by this point, so it took me right around 2 hours to get everything done. And just like that, I will not be wasting any of this weekend with a duster or broom in hand. I will need to do laundry and maybe mow the yards tomorrow, but those are easy chores to me. It’s this inside tediousness that I don’t really like. And now it was bath time for D since she didn’t have one the past 2 nights. Be prepared, because Naked Baby made an appearance after the bath and decided to do some dancing in the living room.







Tonight R and I ordered fish frys from the Legion Hall near our house, so R called those in for pick-up as I was doing a last little bit of cleaning up in the kitchen after Naked Baby was diapered and dressed. I wanted to be back in time for the Brewers game, so we nailed the timing. I left at 6:48 to go get the food and was back at 7:00, just in time for the first pitch. Go Brewers!



D played for awhile as R and I watched the game and ate our fish, with plenty of “touchdown!” arms when she heard the crowd cheering. She has an inflatable beer bottle (yeah i know, bad example, but she loves playing with it and obviously has no idea what it is) that she now likes to ride like a horsey and often bounces right off.




Around 7:30 R noticed she had puked up a little milk over in her play corner, so I went and changed her jammies to get the sour off. With a new diaper and fresh pair of pjs on, her tell-tale bedtime eye rubs prompted me to refill her bottle of milk and take her in to rock to sleep a bit. I carried her into her room at 7:41, rocked and snuggled for a few as her heavy eyelids finally closed for the night, and put the remainder of her bottle back in the fridge at 7:50.

And now, as promised, I am enjoying my glass of Hallowine. I may have to make it a little more than a glass tonight; this bottle’s almost empty, and I have another flower that could use a vase. What? It’s festive.

It’s 8:30 again, I just started the dishwasher, and I should have this post finished up and pictures added in about half an hour. Then it’s lounge, lounge, lounge for me and R the rest of the night. Hopefully the Brewers can get their heads out of their asses and pull off a comeback here, for this one’s looking pretty ugly tonight.

I still haven’t decided if I’m going to do a separate post for Saturday and Sunday this weekend or just combine them into one big recap, since I don’t usually post on weekends. I guess you’ll just have to come back to find out. Oh the suspense!

It’s the freakin’ weekend, baby, and I’m about to have me some fun!


 

Week in My Life – Day 4: Thursday

Oh, Thursday, you day you. There you are, sandwiched between the hump day of Wednesday and the freedom of Friday, but you’re special in that you’re that brief moment before we hit full-on weekend mode. The anticipation, the relief, the ahh… Here’s what was the haps on this Thursday, the 4th day of my Week in My Life series with Adventuroo


Today was crappy and rainy, so R forewent the bike taxi and I picked D up from daycare again. We had to run to the grocery store on the way home, something I always contemplate doing before I get D for ease of lugging groceries around minus the toddler, but she loves to ride in the cart and I hate leaving her at daycare longer than necessary so I got her first. On Thursdays our neighborhood grocery has milk on sale 2 gallons for $4. What the what?? This kid goes through so much milk I need that sale. Unfortunately the organic milk isn’t included in there, of course, but I have a hard time passing up getting double the milk for 2/3 the price of 1 gallon of organic whole milk. So hopefully she won’t start sprouting a third eye or suddenly double in size by next week.


However, I’m a complete space cadet and totally forgot to take any pictures of her cute little self riding in the cart. Seriously? Come on. Oh well, guess you’ll just have to settle for pics from home again. We got home around 5:30, and after making 2 trips in from the car (1 for D and 1 for the groceries), I got her up in her highchair and ready for dinner since she was getting pretty whiny. What’re we having tonight, Mom? So glad you asked! The green beans you didn’t get to eat last night, some Colby cheese, a couple banana-shaped and -flavored teething cookies, and of course Cheerios. Because what meal is complete without at least a handful of Cheerios shoved in your mouth?


I threw in that empty paper towel roll with the new roll sitting right next to it just cuz. Does anyone else do that? Like it’s too hard to unscrew the top of the roll handle and put the new one on? I just cannot be taxed like that.

Tonight would normally have been bath night for D since she didn’t have one last night, but she didn’t wear any leftovers home from daycare today so I figured I’d just wipe her off after dinner and save the bath for tomorrow night. You know, clean up for the weekend and all. Please ignore how dirty the bottoms of her pj feet are. I apparently need to mop our floors. Twice.


Once I got her changed and her teeth somewhat brushed, she was off to play for a bit while I went back out to tackle the kitchen clean-up. I was feeling antsy and frustrated since I got 0% of the cleaning accomplished that I had hoped to tonight, so the huge mess in D’s highchair and floor underneath it made me less than pleased. So I busted out the vacuum for a few minutes because I was sick of stepping on crumbs. D wasn’t too enthused about that.


After I got D’s dinner remnants off the dining room floor and all the dirt and mud from today’s rains off the kitchen and living room floors, I turned my attention to the kitchen sink. Where I was greeted with this lovely scene…


Awesome. Fortunately D was out in the living room sitting with Daddy to start her bottle bedtime routine again, so I had some time to myself to get that mess taken care of. By now it was 6:30. And by 7:00, I had this…


And this…


And this…


Don’t worry, I won’t show you what the contents of that bag of dirty diapers look like. I’ll be nice and spare your stomachs. Normally it doesn’t take me half an hour to clean off D’s highchair tray and cut a couple flower stems to put in vases, but I got distracted for a few minutes when R came into the kitchen to heat up some dinner and D soon followed. I absolutely love watching her play and “read” her books. She’s really quite good at entertaining herself.


Now it’s 8:30, and here I sit, typing up this post and getting ready to edit all the pictures. D played for longer than usual tonight, but finally reported for sack duty about half an hour ago. My goal is to be in bed around 9:00 tonight (ok fine, 9:30 at the lastest. the brewers are on!), because I have to get up early at 5:00 tomorrow morning to do my workout with Jillian before work. Man, do I hate her because she makes my body hurt, but that means it’s working, right? Right?! And man, could I go for another glass of Hallowine tonight, but that 5:00 alarm always comes so damn quickly. Tomorrow night, I promise. I have more flowers that need vases!


Dudes, I’m so excited tomorrow is Friday, you have no idea. Come back and see how we play on TGIF!


Yes, that’s the same green pj shirt. What?