Breaking Point

Everyone has their breaking point. That one thing that pushes them into action. It can be when that favorite pair of jeans stops fitting right. Or when you notice you're out of breath from doing something like walking up a flight of stairs. Sometimes it's when someone makes a comment. And once in awhile it happens when you finally look in the mirror. Like really look. Clothes off, lights on, so this is what the world sees when they look at me, looking.
I've always been curvy... ok curvy is putting a nice spin on my bumps and lumps... but for the sake of conversation, I've always been curvy. Sometimes my hips bulge out of my jeans. Sometimes my thighs are too big for the shorts I want to wear. Sometimes my tummy jiggles. Ok, a lot of the time, my tummy jiggles. But never have I been large enough to have a fold.
So let me do some Jiggley Mommy definitions for ya:

• Jiggley: parts of the body that may move on their own. Or that keep moving after intentional movement has stopped. It can also be when your have a crazy dance party and you shake all the parts of your body at the same time.
• Curves: Nice, rounded lines of the body.
• Bumps and Lumps: When curves have babies - when the flowing rounded lines of the body become a little less fluid and well... lumpy.
• Fold: When two Bumps and/or Lumps expand and start to hang out...or when one Bump and/or Lump expands and hangs OVER another...

Back to me being curvy. Ok, so in recent years I've been more bumpy and lumpy than curvy, but it is what it is. The other day I was stressing about getting my picture taken - like most mum's I'm behind the camera about 98% of the time. I undressed and stood in the middle of my room and looked at all the clothes that are no longer in season or fashion, all the clothes that don't fit properly, all the cheap 'this will do until I lose the weight' clothes, all the maternity clothes or clothes I could wear when I was pregnant... none of it made me feel good. None of it was even remotely close to pulling on a pair of special jeans that just make you feel HOT. No shirt or tunic or sweater that sufficiently camouflaged my plus sized figure. And then I noticed it. An almost fold. Not a 'sitting down so my body has extra rolls and bulges and what-have-yous'. Nope. A fold on my hip, where the bump of my stretched out belly meets the lump of my [oh so favorite part of my body] hip. Not quite an overhang, but... a fold.
It was like a slap. Sharp. Fast. To the point. It's time to make my health more of a priority. It's time to stop making excuses and getting down about no results. It's time to reach out for support, to ask for help and accountability. It's time to show myself that I CAN do it, if I just TRY. Breaking point, reached.

Digging Deeper

It takes approximately 21 days for something to become part of your everyday routine. Almost a month. I'm on week 2 (again) and already I'm starting to dread working out. Well not dread exactly, but I just wish there was an easier way. I know full well that there isn't a REAL easier way - if I want to lose the weight I've got to put the work in. 21 days worth of putting the work in, and then it shouldn't feel quite as much like work as it does right now.
So when I need to dig deeper, when I need *something* to run towards, when I feel like cutting it short or giving up, I made this.

This is my vision board, my goals, my "why I am doing this". I'm getting healthy for my BOYS. I'm getting healthy for my HAPPINESS. I'm doing this because I love my family and I want to be around for a long long time to bug and harass them. I have put this up right in front of my treadmill, so when I need to focus on something to get through the last excruciating 30 seconds of a sprint or when I need something to climb towards, I can see EXACTLY why I'm doing it.

What gets you through a run or a workout? Are you motivated by the physical or mental changes that comes with a workout? How do you push through or dig a little deeper?

First Steps

So now that I am post pregnancy, I know it's time to step up my game and get rid of the jiggle. Having an infant definitely puts a little bit of a speed bump on my path to skinny; he wants to eat anywhere between every hour to every 3 hours. And you never really know which it'll be until he starts eying up my boobs and making his ever so cute little grunt/fuss/screech. Add to that, with my hubby working away, it's just me and the boys ALL.THE.TIME. Sawyer is a little bit young for a teenage babysitter (in my opinion) and my mum isn't available often.
Excuse. Excuse. Excuse. Excuse. Excuse.
I can come up with a dozen more, if you'd like. But I won't. Because really, these excuses don't really matter to anyone else. They only matter to me, and only then they matter because I let them hold me back. I know I'm not alone here - there are thousands of women who let their kids or lack of time for themselves hold them back. So how can we move past it?
First things first; WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU, IN GETTING HEALTHY?
Is it losing weight? Or getting stronger? Do you want to start eating better, cleaner? Do you want to be able to run or even walk without getting winded? Or do you want to show your kids that being active is important? Do you want to do something alone or with a group? With your kids or without? What about your partner? This is the first step.
What's important to me? I want to lose weight. I want to be stronger. I want to eat better; I want my family to eat better. I want to do something FOR ME, without having a child hanging off my leg or my arm or my boob. First step complete - onto the second; Translating what's important to me, into an action plan.

To Binge or Not To Binge

I binge. I binge without even thinking about it. When there is a 'treat' or something calling my name, I usually can't just have one, I usually can't just have one handful...this is a problem. It's partly a matter of self control, it's also partly a matter of not allowing myself to have 'treats' - so when I fall off the wagon, so to speak, I fall hard (and eat everything I shouldn't on the way down). I binge when I'm frustrated. I binge when I'm sad or lonely. Binging makes me feel out of control, which ultimately ends up making me binge some more. Vicious. Cycle.
So how can I do better? To start I can really truly get rid of the crap in our house. The 'treats', the temptations, the junk that whispers my name every time I walk into the kitchen. I can also try other things before I go to the junky snack; like drinking a whole bottle of water before to see if maybe I was just thirsty; or eating an apple if I need a sweet fix.
My biggest hurdle to overcome will be getting my hubby on board. He SAYS he'd like to start eating better and getting rid of the junk... but the junk keeps sneaking it's way back into the cart, into the cupboard. Both of us don't like to waste, so the idea of throwing out perfectly good (junk) food, is a little hard to swallow. Slowly, but surely, the bad stuff is disappearing - but now we need to find good alternatives so that we don't feel like we're missing out, thus leading to the crap coming back in.
What are your healthy alternatives when you need a salty fix? A sweet treat? A crunchie snack?

Thursday's Workout (Day 6ish)

Alright, so I have been TRYING to do these daily workouts, I really have. Sunday I had a little screamer, every time he was not in my arms. Monday, the little screamer was nursing every 2 hours throughout the day AND NIGHT and then the icing on the cake was when the 4 year old starting barfing. Oh, and have I mentioned that my hubby works away so I get no tag outs, no relief and no help most of the time?! Tuesday I kept Little Barfer home from school, which he was totally capable of going, so he just ran laps around this tired old mum all day while Little Screamer did was he does best; cry. Bring on Wednesday, which was FINALLY a good day - Starting to get into the groove of things being on our own; neither child overly demanding or annoying; got out of the house for the ENTIRE morning and early afternoon. Woop woop! Success! But after all the running around and playing and putting on my game face for being in public, I didn't have much get-up-and-go to workout. I got through about half of the workout before baby starting fussing and I threw in the towel.

follow the #livingroomworkout on twitter

But I actually got today's workout done. YAY! I pounded it out, so it only took about 10 minutes (next time I'll actually time it). Again, I found it fairly easy, but I need easy right now. The Saturday's workout I had found almost too easy when I was doing it, but I actually felt some of those unused muscles the next day. Now don't get me wrong, they weren't crying out "OMG THAT HURTS SO GOOD!", but there was a little burny happening.
Modifications/Changes: My nursing boobies were complaining quite a bit when I was doing the jumping jacks, so I broke it down and did 20 in between each exercise - which means I actually doubled the reps! I wasn't sure what exactly the lunge split jumps were and didn't want to break stride to google, so I did 20 walking lunges instead. Also, I did modified pushups instead of wall pushups.
Successes/Celebrations: I pushed myself to do this workout fast and hard without doing the exercises sloppily. I got out 15 (modified) pushups before I had to take a little breather, but they were all  in good form.

Saturday's Workout (Day 1)

I just finished my first workout. Yay me! Even though I have been pretty sedentary for the past 10ish months, I found most of it fairly easy. There wasn't much to it, but it's a good starting point, I think. Next week I might have to go through the exercises twice to step it up a bit.
Modifications/Changes: Instead of 1 minute downward dog, I did a plank. And I wasn't quite able to do the jack knife situps, so I replaced with regular situps and doubled the reps.
Success/Celebrations: I have 3 today! (1) I bought XL sweats because that's what fit best pre-pregnancy... and they were a bit too big! They are STILL a bit too big even after washing/drying them too. (2) After having S I was worried my ab muscles might have separated a bit and/or lost strength, but I was able to rock out the russian twists and situps without too much of a problem! (3) Baby S (aka, ScreamyFace) hung out in his swing watching and/or sleeping the entire time I worked out. YAY!

Are you following along with the daily #livingroomworkout on twitter? Join us for a cyber workout buddy, encouragement, and accountability. C'monnnnn. Follow me on twitter @jiggleymommy!

Pregnancy Workouts (May)

Ok - I'm making a resolution to myself to have a healthier pregnancy this time around. I want to aim to workout at least 3 times a week. I'm going to track my monthly workouts here with the dates, to make me accountable. Please feel free to join me in these short workouts (I'll try to post more with just bodyweight exercises for those of you with no equipment), comment if you like it or not and if you have any input, please share!
Week1, Day1: 20 mins stationary bike (prog1), 10 reps X5 - bicep curl to press (w/ 5lbs each hand), squats, overhead tricep extensions (w/ 10lbs kettlebell)
Wk 1, Day2: 5 miles/8km stationary bike (res1-3), 50 pushups, 50 lunges per leg, 50 fire hydrants to donkey kick (? I'm making up my own names here lol)

Wk 2 - nothing, nadda, zip.

The Jiggley Mommy Begins (again)

I've dieted. I've taken 'vitamins'. I've worked out so hard I threw up. I've swam, I've walked, I've stretched. Yet, I'm still Jiggley. I refuse to call myself the F word (fat) or the even worse O word (obese) - because those are such ugly words. I jiggle. I don't jiggle where it would be nice to have a bit of extra bounce - most of me jiggles. I jiggle because last week I ate close to 3 dozen cookies - I ate those cookies because I was lonely and overworked and feeling blue. I jiggle because when I got pregnant with my son (in 2008) it was a free ticket to eat what I wanted when I wanted. I jiggle because I've never really learned my body's "full" cues, and because I eat in front of the tv most nights, and because I enjoy a snack at night. I jiggle because at some point I made a choice to either put something in my mouth or to not get off the couch/computer chair or BOTH.
So here I go again, on a journey to get myself eating better and moving more and feeling BETTER. Today is the first day of the rest of my life, blah blah blah and all that other garbage. The fact is, the first day of my life was way back in the 80's when it was the norm to sit in front of the tv for hours on end and stuff as much processed junk into your mouth as you can. At least, that's how I remember it. But I digress... Today is the first day, of many hard days, that I am making a promise to myself to be healthier. Today I'm promising my son and my husband that I'm going to try to be a better role model and partner in health.
So what is my plan of action? Long term, like years down the road? I have no idea. I hope that eventually eating well and being active will just become such a normal part of my life that it doesn't feel like work anymore. How long will that take?? Good question - and again, I have no clue. For now, I'm looking at short term goals. I will workout 3-4 times a week for 30 minutes (just got EA Active: More Workouts and so far it's great!), I will drink at least 2 litres of water a day, I will refrain from snacking past 8:30pm, and I will try to be conscious of what I put into my mouth. Now all that, spread out nicely in front of me, looks like it might be a tall order. I'm just going to take it one day at a time. If I screw up, then tomorrow is a new day to start again. Right now I am a 30 year old stay at home mom who can barely find clothes that fit without going into a specialty plus sized store. And I'm sick of it. Join me on my journey?