Posts tagged working out
Hitting the trail.
Jul 26th
On Friday Scott and I were out doing some shopping. We stopped in to a sporting goods store so he could look at some golf equipment and home gym stuff. We had both of the girls with us which always makes shopping for anything more difficult. As Scott was browsing the weights and pull-up bars, my eye was caught by a stroller. For a few months now I’ve been looking for a double jogging stroller. Our new neighborhood is perfect for walks and it’s a great way for me to get some exercise in. Well I have previously attempted these walks with our tandem Graco stroller and man, it was a workout! The stroller itself weights nearly 40 pounds. Nora weights about 23 pounds and Brinley weights about 33 pounds. So I was pushing nearly 100 pounds around my hilly neighborhood. But I digress..
Anyway, I had been scouring craigslist and local tag sales for a jogging stroller, but just couldn’t seem to find one that was in pretty good shape for pretty good money. So, I peered over to the double jogging stroller sitting near the bike display in the sporting goods store. I could see the tag hanging from the handle but couldn’t quite make out the price. All I could see was the last part of the price, $79.97. I knew there had to be a number in front of the 79 but I couldn’t make out what it was from where I was standing. So, I grabbed Nora and left Brinely with Scott to go and scope it out. I walked over and read the tag: InStep Safari TT Double Jogging Stroller with front swivel wheel, Price $79.97, You save $179.00.
At this point, Scott was by my side asking me if that could really be the price of the stroller. I thought to myself, there is no way! I kept thinking back to the insane deal that I thought I was going to get on a Britax Marathon car seat about a year or so ago on Target.com. The car seat was listed for like $40 and it’s typically nearly a $300 car seat. Of course I added it to my cart and thought I had scored such a deal. A few days later I received an email from Target saying that it was a pricing mistake on their part but they could not honor the price. I received a $25 gift card for my disappointment. Again, I digress…
So now a sales person walks over to us asking if we need any help and we ask him if that is really the price for the stroller. He says yes and it’s because they’re getting rid of them to make room for the new models. He checks to see if they have any left in boxes but we find out that the display model is the last one. I strap both girls into the stroller afraid to leave it where it is because someone else might snatch it up. We decide that we’re going to buy it. Scott continues shopping for his golf stuff and I take the girls to play with the balls. But they’re starting to get antsy because it’s just about dinner time. We head over to Scott and I tell him that I’m going to pay for the stroller and leave with the girls to get them dinner (we had separate cars). When I got up to the register I was still worried that the price would be wrong, but lo and behold it wasn’t and I scored a $280 stroller for $79.97!!
Fast-forward to this morning… The weather is beautiful. The sun is shining but the humidity of the past, I don’t know, two weeks is gone! It’s about 70 degrees and breezy. Perfect for a nice walk. One of the many awesome things about our town is something called the Rail Trail. It’s a former rail road route that passes through 8 connecting towns. When it’s complete it will be about 25 miles long. It’s completely paved and lined with fencing. It’s open for non-motorized use including jogging, walking, biking, rollerblading and skiing. So this morning, I decided to grab the girls and go check it out. We drove about 2 miles into town (I would have walked it but the street to get there is pretty busy and has no sidewalks). I strapped the girls into our new stroller and started a route on the iMapMyWalk iPhone app.
It felt great to be out in the fresh air taking advantage of such a great feature. Having the new stroller really allowed me to move faster but with more ease. The girls were well behaved for the most part. I worried a little that with them side-by-side they’d annoy each other. They were perfect for the first 3 miles. They just sat there and took in the scenes and ate their snack. At about mile 3, Nora started nudging Brinley and Brinley started nudging back. We still had a mile to go before we were back to the car. So I did what any mom would do… I started singing! Old McDonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Nora’s favorite (thanks to Mimi) How Much is that Doggy in the Window! It took their minds off of bugging each other and they started singing along. Passers by were looking at me a little funny but I didn’t care. We were having so much fun and I got a great, brisk 4 mile walk in before 10:30am.
I’m going to try to make this a regular occurrence. It felt great and now that I have the right equipment there’s no excuse not to!
I’m not one of them.
Mar 31st
You know those women who are just naturally thin. They eat whatever they want, don’t exercise and manage to maintain a size 4. These same women get pregnant, pop out a kid, and then within weeks they look exactly like they did before they got knocked up. We all know someone like this and, well, I’m not one of them. If you happen to be one of them, I secretly hate you. (Not really, but I am a little bit jealous.)
I’m the type of woman who has to work out hard and eat just right in order to maintain a specific weight. And let me tell you, I’m not good at either of those things. I’m not a lazy, sit on the couch all day type of person but I’m far from a gym rat. I like fruit but I’d much prefer a bowl of ice cream or a piece of cheese cake. Who wouldn’t?
Well, back in September I think it was, I started working out regularly. I was on the treadmill at least three nights a week and was lifting light weights and doing some resistance training, all with the help and guidance of my wonderful husband. I started eating better. I wasn’t dieting per se but I became more aware of what I put in my mouth. I still ate pizza and cookies, just not as often and in smaller quantities. I felt great. The best part – I lost 15 lbs in about 2 months! People were starting to notice that I had lost weight and it was a huge boost of confidence for me.
Then winter really set in. I got sick. The kids got sick. The holidays came around. I got sick again. The kids were sick again. It was terrible. Needless to say, my motivation went out the window and the working out came to an end. It wasn’t intentional, it sort of just happened. I’ve gained about five of the fifteen pounds back and I’m not happy about it. I’ve made two attempts to get back on the band wagon. But I’ve failed each time. Life just keeps getting in the way (read: I can’t get motivated). Now we’re getting ready to move which means packing and cleaning and doing a million and one things. At the end of the day the last thing I want to be doing is working out. But since I’m not one of those women blessed with the ability to eat whatever I want and still wear a size 4, I’m going to make a third attempt to get back at it.
I’ll start Monday. 
Killing two birds and something I learned.
Mar 17th
I’ve always been somewhat of a book worm. However, the volume of books that I read has drastically declined since the birth of my kids. I simply don’t have enough time in my day to read. I miss snuggling up on the couch with a good book while Scott watches {insert the name of any meaningless man show here}. There was a time that I could easily finish 2 or 3 novels in a week. Aaah, how I miss those days.
Anyway, during a recent trip to BJ’s I was browsing through the books (mainly to look at kids stuff) and came across a few that caught my eye. I made note of the titles and then requested them at my library. When I was notified that they were in, I became anxious to find the time to read again. But how was I going to make time in my day to do this? Well, I decided that I’d kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I’ve been trying to make time in the day to get back into working out (which has fallen off my planner since around Christmas time, eek!). So now, a few nights each week, I go down and get on the treadmill and instead of listening to my iPod or watching TV, I open a book. Last night while I was walking and reading, Scott came down and tried to talk to me. I shooed him away declaring this “alone time” for me.
The book that I’m currently reading is Between Here and April by Deborah Copaken Kogan. I saw it that day in BJ’s and it looked like a good, quick, easy read. I’m pretty drawn to stories about mothers, children, families, etc. Here is a brief synopsis of the book taken from the book jacket:
When a deep-seated memory suddenly surfaces, Elizabeth Burns becomes obsessed with the long-ago disappearance of her childhood friend April Cassidy. Driven to investigate, Elizabeth discovers a thirty-five-year-old newspaper article revealing the details that had been hidden from her as a child—shocking revelations about April’s mother, Adele.
Elizabeth, now herself a mother, seeks out anyone who might help piece together the final months, days, and hours of this troubled woman’s life, but the answers yield only more questions. And those questions lead back to Elizabeth’s own life: her own compromised marriage, her increasing self-doubt and dissatisfaction, and finally, a fearsome reckoning with what it means to be a wife and mother.
I’m not going to attempt to write a book review here as I’m only half way through the book. However, as I was reading last night I came across a shocking fact. (Yes, this is a book of fiction but after reading this “fact” I was compelled to look it up to see if it were actually true, and it is!) This might be common knowledge to some, but I had no idea and was pretty surprised by it.
Did you know that Postpartum Depression was not recognized as a mental illness by the legal system until 1994? A main theme in this book is PPD and it just amazed me to see how this was handled in the late 1960s and early 1970s. PPD isn’t something that was really on my radar until I was pregnant with my first child but even when I first became aware of it, I never would have imagined that the thoughts, feelings and emotions that some women go through after childbirth would have been completely discounted as recently as the 70s.
I’m anxious to finish the book to find out what happens. It’s not really an engrossing read thus far, but it’s not something that I’m ready to abandon half way through either. I’ll keep you posted!
