Be healthy, be fit, be strong

based on the following criteria.

1. I’ve identified what’s making me sick as much as seems possible and am managing it.
2. Can run 5K, can swim half mile in under 20 minutes, can ride bike 10 miles. Can I do it back to back? We’ll see.
3. Excellent blood pressure readings and today new resting heart rate of 54 bpm!
4. My body is able to take on physical challenges I throw at it without problem – climbing rock wall, kayaking, prolonged leaping and tumbling with the chum, etc.

So. Strong and fit. Healthy enough for fall – we’ll see how I deal with winter.

For awhile, I was being very mindful of my fruit and veggie intake but lately not so much. From now on, I plan to make sure I eat the recommended 5-7 servings each and everyday. I really do love most fruits and veggies so this should be an easy lifestyle change.

I’ve always been inconsistent about taking vitamins, but I think I feel healthier during the stretches where I’m more diligent. From now on, I will take my vitamin first thing in the morning. I know it won’t take long to get into a good habit of taking it.

After seeing a couple of people mention this site recently, I decided to take a look. I’m hooked! It’s like my former favorite calorie counting site, Fitday, only better. They have the calorie and nutrition information for absolutely everything we eat. For now, I’m not going to specifically try to limit my calories. I don’t want anything to hurt my milk supply, and I know a big dip in daily calories could do that. Instead, I’m going to use it just to see exactly what I’m eating. I think having it all recorded will encourage me to make healthier choices.

Things have not been good on this front. I’ve been sick with some throat something or another for a week and a half, and it’s thrown me off my Couch to 5 K regimen. I’ve also been eating everything under the sun and my weight has started to creep up a bit from the post-baby low I reached a few weeks ago. So, it’s time to reign myself in and give myself a kick in the pants. I’m going to try and check in on this goal daily or close to it to keep myself accountable. I’d like to try and add in a better habit for myself on most days so today will be Day One.

Day One: Water! I’ve been slacking on my water drinking which is a big no-no while nursing. I want to make sure I get in at least eight glasses a day. Anything that can help my milk supply is a good thing and something I should be eager to do. I’ve also always heard that you can misinterpret thirst as hunger so maybe if I’m staying well-hydrated throughout the day I won’t feel so famished.

Ugh. I seem to have caught a nasty cold. I’ve got a stuffy head, an achy body, and a bit of a cough. I just hope Clara doesn’t catch it. Weigh-in was good to me this morning, though. I lost 2.6 pounds this week bringing my grand total since Clara was born to 27 pounds. I’m absolutely thrilled with this because I’ve now lost everything I gained during this pregnancy. I have my post-partum check-up next week so I should be cleared for exercise. I plan on starting a sit-up regimen, and I’m hoping to give Couch to 5K another go. I’m hoping the breastfeeding combined with a fair amount of exercise might mean I don’t have to pay too much attention to what I’m eating.

Wow. I managed a 2 day break this time.

Doctor’s appointment on Monday. Honestly, I’m starting to hope there’s something else wrong – at least that might be treatable. The amount of fatigue and pain seems to increase with each one.

Knock wood. It will probably be chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia or something else untreatable.

Week review
I’ve lost the ability to tell if I’m sick or not anymore. Will be making appointment with Doctor again on Monday to rule out the plague or cat scratch fever or whatever.

Awesome spa vacation. Ate very well. Confused body and the whole digestive system went haywire. Exercise consisted of two 40 minute cardio sessions on the machine and a couple days of abs.

Run today – Today’s Run Time: 32 minutes

15R/ 1.5W/ 12R/ 1.5W/ 4.5 run
Time in Target Zone: 5:41
Time above TZ: 25:25

So clearly there’s room for improvement in the heart rate!

The rest of the week’s plan

• Priority #1 continues to be the damn bike. I really need to get on it pretty much every day. Must plan with GG when he gets home from soccer class.
• Diet. It’s GG’s birthday on Thursday so I’m a bit screwed, but I can continue with virtue until then. Except for the cake.
• Run MW – try for two 20 minutes on Wednesday?
• Swim before family dinner (T) and one other time???
• Continue with the traditional 100 abs. Hopefully easy by next week.

Yay, I lost a few more pounds without trying! 3.1 pounds managed to disappear bringing me to a total of 24.4 pounds lost since the baby was born. I think my time of losing without putting any real effort into it are close to over so I’m going to try to somewhat keep an eye on things this week. I’m also going to try to start getting out in the mornings with Clara for a brisk walk.

The post-baby weight loss kept up on its own this week. I lost 3.9 pounds for a total of 21.3 lost so far. I’m getting pretty close to the weight I was right before I got pregnant. That was a good 40 pounds heavier than I was when I got pregnant with Audrey so I still have a long road ahead of me.