I'm Going On An Adventure!!

[Saffity]

All right, firstly, Secret Santa, I'm very sorry, I'm throwing in the towel and admitting that I don't have time to go look and find out who you are. It's up to you whether you reveal yourself or not but please know that I love my workout and will be doing it frequently.

The year has begun with a job hunt that is taking what's left of my mental capacity after keeping two tiny humans alive.

Luckily my previous job connected me with a company that assists with the job hunt for a bit so my resume is looking spiffy. Now to just apply to a bunch of jobs and hope I find one that I'm as happy in as my last one but hopefully pays a bit more.

I'm also taking an online course to get my specialist certificate in Microsoft 365 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to hopefully give me a bit of an edge.

I've decided to start Pathfinder over (especially since Munchie enjoys the 'finding water' and 'finding firewood' workouts and often asks to do them at random). Buddy has gotten into it and puts his arms up when we're doing jumping jacks, and crouches down during lunges and squats which is super cute. I'm modifying where I need to for my knee, and so far it's tolerating it.

I've done the first 3 days so far and will be doing day 4 later today.

Between that and the various toddler exercize videos and activity songs, plus playing Chase, wherein we run in circles around the living/play room, I think I'm getting a good amount of movement in.

Checkin:

Weight - 167.2 - down 1.2 lbs

Main measures are:

High Bust- 37.75" (main bust line is inaccurate due to continued nursing) - down 0.75"
Waist - 33" - down 0.75"
Hips - 43.25" - down 0.25"

Pretty proud with that. Going back to my first weight/measurement check in on this thread it's as follows:

Weight down 12.8 lbs
High Bust down 1.5"
Waist down 1"
Hips down 0.75"

Which quite frankly is exceptional! I'll be taking progress pics soon, and will probably be surprised at the difference from the 6 month post partum checkin because like last time I don't feel like there's been much change, but I'm in my body every day so don't notice it.

 

[MadamMeow]

Wishing you good luck for your job search. Really hope you find somewhere you can be happy and be compensated well.

 

[Saffity]

Wow, where did January go? I will fully admit, the month very much got away from me. Not sure what February will get, other than another loss in the family on my husband’s side this time.

Thankfully so far the kids, husband, and I are still doing all right.

 

[Saffity]

I live! But barely. Apparently I tempted fate with my last post.

After husband flew to the other side of the country with his mother for a funeral, leaving me and two kiddos at home for 5 days, he got ordered off on medical leave and has been home since then. It's been nice seeing him with the kids, but it has disrupted our schedule.

Then, we decided to go to church for the first time in 4 years, and the kids and I got adenovirus. 3 weeks of illness before it was figured out that Daughter had pneumonia and I had possible whooping cough... antibiotics and another week and a half of recovery and we are finally back on track.

I would like to thank adenovirus though because it got me past my plateau. Now to make sure I don't increase back above it.

I've also been a little bit hindered due to physio on my knee. I have exercises specific to that but I'm not to do anything even moderate intensity (including running around with my kids), so I'm stuck on level 1 workouts at the most which is a bummer.

Doing my best to keep somewhat active and take advantage of the bit of decent weather we're getting here with walking.

With luck we'll get back on even footing soon.

 

[MadamMeow]

Glad you were able to get your sicknesses taken care of. Hoping your knee gets better for you next.

 

[Mamatigerj]

Sorry you and your family had to go through all of that! Sending thoughts and prayers for continued healing!

 

[Saffity]

Ok halfway point check-in.

Life has a way of being crazy and getting away from you and suddenly you turn around and it’s July 1 and you haven’t done a single program or challenge. I have been active, just not as targeted as I’d like.

I’m still doing physio for my left knee. It’s getting better but not there yet. Currently doing leg raise and baby squat exercises to strengthen my outer quad specifically. I’m going to look at the knee rehab workouts, but for now I’m sticking to the doctor prescribed ones.

I have added another physio because we got into a very minor car accident in May, but due to how my arm was resting on the centre console, my left shoulder got injured. Luckily this is minor enough that I can do an upper body workout so long as I take it easy and listen to my shoulder.

With that said, it’s time to start up again, and so I will be doing Arms of Steel, and trying out the new Ronin program but may stop that if it gets to be too much. I will do Daily Dares where I can as well.

Today:

* Arms of Steel day 1
* daily dare w EC
* shoulder physio w elastic band
* knee physio w weight (28 lb baby)

 

[Saffity]

Hello Bees,

Long time no chat!!

In an exciting turn of events, I now have employment!

This is taking up 40 hours a week (plus a half hour commute twice a day) on top of kiddos and life. The downside is now figuring out my new schedule and trying to find the best place to put "Darebee exercize".

I attempted an earlier wakeup this morning, but alas, the snooze button eluded me and I turned off my alarm entirely. Thank goodness for kids who wake with the birds.

I have finished my physio course for my shoulder, which now allows for more strenuous movements with it, though my youngest is doing his best at being a 30 lb snuggler to keep my arms looking ship shape.

My knee on the other hand is taking it's sweet time. I'm still not cleared for anything more than low intensity on my lower body, which is decidedly frustrating as I want to be able to run with my kids without pain. Slow and steady builds the muscle I guess.

As we come up on September, my oldest is heading off to school for the first time, a very exciting adventure for all of us. And also melancholy as my baby is now a full fledged child.

I look forward to getting back into a routine that includes a workout every day, it's just a matter of figuring it out.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Congratulations on the new job Saffity!
And cheers for improvement with your shoulder!

Re: fitting in exercise: is your job one that would allow to to squeeze in Micro Workouts throughout the day? Even very short workouts--particularly if you do them regularly--have significant benefits to our health. If you have an office job, getting up and moving periodically throughout the day is especially important.

Not all of these would be easy to do in an office environment, and some include high-impact exercises you'd need to modify for your knee, but DAREBEE has quite a collection of mini workouts. See for example:

Work Break Collection
At Your Desk Workouts
Exercise Snacks (YouTube)
2-Minute Workouts
Micro Workouts Collection
Exercise Snacks Collection

Best wishes for figuring everything out and adjusting to the new normal for your family!

 

[graoumia]

And also melancholy as my baby is now a full fledged child.

Welcome back. I fully understand, my small baby is going to be 17 in end of september

 

[aku-chan]

Congrats on the new job!

 

[Saffity]

@Laura Rainbow Dragon Thank you for those links! I checked out some and will get to the rest of them (busy mom and all that )

Moreso than finding the 30 seconds for micro workouts, it's a matter of just learning my new schedule to put in the 20 ish minutes I'd like to include, and the schedule is changing again with Munchie off to school and Biggie (who at 19 months is about the size of a 2.5 year old) looking to start daycare.

With that said, I'm going to be starting the Light Cardio program that just came out (have to do light due to continued ban on any sort of impact to my knee... no matter how much I grumble), and seeing about adding that to my evening kiddo time (Munchie, the 4 year old, still asks to play the Exercise Game so she'll likely enjoy getting some of her wiggles out with that).

I'm also looking at setting my alarm a half hour earlier to give me time (with children waking up factored in) to do 30 Days of Yoga in the mornings to get me going.

Thanks for all the support everyone, this community is really what keeps me coming back no matter how many hiatuses I take.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Happy Birthday @Saffity !

 

[Fremen]

Happy Birthday

 

[neilarey]

Happy Birthday!!!

 

[JCU]

 

[Montserrat]

to you @Saffity!

 

[Syrius]

Happy Belated Birthday!!

 

[Saffity]

First off, thank you so much everyone for the birthday wishes!

So, I am coming back to this check in thread exhausted, strung out, and ready for things to hopefully figure themselves out soon.

The start of school/daycare has plunged us into the realities of rotating illnesses.

In September - Daughter started SK with a batch of Pink Eye, and just as we got that cleared up, her other eye got it!

In October - We just found out yesterday that Son has: ear infection in both ears, bronchitis, AND Pneumonia.... we're pretty sure Hubby has Pneumonia too, so he's going to get the x-ray today and hopefully get onto some antibiotics.

And in between these were continued colds, coughs, and fevers that were mildly annoying but not worthy to be kept home from school/daycare. I've luckily missed the worst of this... this time (I'm knocking on all the wood).

We've been worried that Daughter isn't gaining weight, and, in fact, appears to be losing it. This could be explained by her illnesses, but with our family history of Celiac Disease, it's something that's ringing alarm bells a bit. Luckily we're not seeing any other symptoms for that so far.

In weighing her, I stepped on the scale too (because we all had to do it), and was mildly shocked to see I'd inched back up to 177 lbs.

Now, I stated my weight out loud as a fact, with no emotion, because we don't do weight shame here (though I'm fighting my demons internally), and I'm trying not to obsess about this. I know some of it is due to the fact that Son is now officially weaned, so I'm not using those extra 500-700 calories a day, which means I need to start cutting back my portions again.

I've already been working on having my meals with more veggies, even if I'm the only one eating veggies that day. I'm also still learning the schedule of getting the kids up and my lunch made in the mornings. I think I really need to start planning ahead and preparing my lunch the night before.

Like I said, I'm fighting my demons. I grew up watching my mother do every fad diet in existence and never being happy with her body. I don't want to start a crash diet, even if my brain is telling me to. I'm reminding myself that this is a bump on the path and I can get things going the other way again. Plus, I'm still strong enough to rock my 30+ lb 1 year old to sleep, even and especially when it takes over half an hour to do.

I need to find myself some time to actually work out. At my previous job there was a gym in the basement that would give me the opportunity to run down and do a daily workout or something. Here, there isn't even a meeting room I can really hide it. It's a much smaller company. Home is also difficult to find time as I get home from work, eat dinner with the kids, half hour of play time, bath time, then bedtime, and then I'm just bushed and don't particularly feel like working out in front of the husband.

I've put a gym membership on my Christmas wish list. I have an hour long lunch and there's a relatively affordable gym just a 6 minute drive away. Sadly, at the moment, we just don't have it in the budget, Hubby doesn't start his new job till mid November.

For now, I'm going to try to take advantage of this small patch of nice weather and continue to take the kids out for walks (3-4 km because they're nuts) and to the park. Any motion is good motion.

 

[Saffity]

Ooooo I just saw the Halloween challenge is coming up. Daughter still regularly asks to do last years (we saved the image). She likes to 'fight the minions!!'

Can't wait to tell her we have another mission.