April? Already?!

I can’t believe how quickly this year is going by. It’s hard to remember how fast it’s going sometimes, especially when every day at work feels like it’s never going to end. Yes, yes.. I’m complaining about work again. It’s okay. Just a few more weeks of the insanity… just a few. More. Weeks.

Official weight @ 3/29/13: 189.2 lbs

Another loss! I’m pretty satisfied with it. I’ll take .8 lbs a week. Nooo problem. Let’s just keep it up!

I wrapped my final workout of Stage 1 for New Rules of Lifting for Women last night. I’m very impressed with my body composition changes over these last 6 weeks! So much so that I’ve taken to regularly snapping what I like to call “sexy belly” pictures. Behold:

 

and some muscles, too:

Nice, huh?! I still have a little bit of the "mommy pooch" happening, but overall I can see a HUGE difference.

I have two “bonus” workouts that will test my strength increases over the last 6 weeks. I’ll be completing those Wednesday and Friday nights, then begins my rest week before starting Stage 2. It’s going to be really weird taking a rest week from lifting, but I’m hoping to keep in my habit of exercise by filling in my lifting workout timeframe with some HIIT, walks, yoga, or some other non-lifting activity. I’ve considered also eating at maintenance during my rest week, but I feel like I’ve almost been doing that everyday anyway, so there may be no reason to specifically try and track it that way.

Okay, so let’s review goals for March:

1.       Finish Stage 1 of NROLFW – DONE! Technically I finished first day in April… but I’m okay with it.

2.       Make morning yoga a routine – I think I did this once since the end of February… sleep has just been so much more important lately. More on this in a moment.

3.       Stick to a consistent sleep schedule – doing this for the most part, however instead of making my weekends fit my weekday schedule, I’ve more been staying up later during the week only without the sleeping-in part that the weekends occasionally afford me. :-\

Also priorities:

·         Plan meals/shop for menu – hasn’t happened once. I’ve just sort of inadvertently cooking the same 4 or 5 meals a week… it’s getting old. Need to get on this. This will remain a priority of April.

·         More reading, less TV – NOPE! Also remaining a priority for April.

·         Be more present in my life (aka: put down the iphone) – getting much better about this! Also remaining on the list for one more month.

So, priorities will stay the same for this month. I think one of the most important goals is going to be getting on top of sleep. I may need to scale back my lifting to 2 days a week once I start Stage 2 of New Rules. One of the big changes the book says to watch out for and that could be a sign of overtraining (with weights) is disruption in sleep patterns – whether that means insomnia or feeling fatigued all the time. I definitely am feeling just exhausted and like I can’t catch-up on sleep most days. Keep in mind I’m regularly getting between 7 and 8 hours of sleep a night, with the exception of maybe Friday or Saturday night which is averaging around the 6 hour mark. Part of it I’m sure is the lack of consistency in my sleep schedule to begin with, but I’m really feeling like “needing” 10 hours of sleep a night is just… not right. It could also very well be that I’m just going to bed and waking up at the “wrong” times according to my circadian rhythm. Sometimes I think, how weird would it be if I’ve gone my whole life thinking I’m a “night owl”, when, in fact, I’m actually a morning person? I’m going to do some research and see if there’s a way to determine what one’s natural sleep/wake cycle is supposed to be… this may mean going to bed when I actually am first getting tired one Friday or Saturday night – god forbid! lol

So ever since I decided to do yoga with James he now begs me to “do a workout” almost every night. I feel bad on the nights that I lift because there’s not really space in our basement for the both of us to be down there, not to mention that 7 is way too young to do any type of strength training aside from normal body weight type stuff (which, of course, he isn’t interested in). He doesn’t really pay much attention during yoga and spends most of the session just throwing himself/rolling around on the floor and goofing off (not unlike how he spends most of judo class), which is quite irritating since I’m doing the yoga for the relaxation aspect… nothing relaxing about a 7 year old jumping all over the place “trying” to do mountain pose. In case you aren’t familiar with yoga: Mountain pose consists of nothing more than standing with your feet shoulder distance apart and “grounding” yourself in your breath. Occasionally we will do what James calls “fun warm-ups”, which consists of roughly 30 seconds of jumping jacks, 2 or 3 half-assed push-ups, and 10-15 minutes of dancing however one may please to music of James’ choosing (usually Party Rock Anthem played on repeat… please kill me). It’s not a bad workout when you consider it’s devised by a little kid, but I’ve been looking into exercise DVDs specifically geared toward kids. I’ve found a couple things on Amazon – a yoga DVD, a dance DVD, and then a general fitness DVD which covers everything from stretching to cardio to resistance (using body weight) and wraps up with a little yoga as a cool-down. It sounds pretty well rounded and I think I may start there. I’m super excited at how interested he seems to be in keeping active, but some days I think it’s better for both of us to do our own thing instead of me trying to do one of my workouts with him or him instructing me in some “fun warm-ups”.  That being said, I also need to make more time for he and I to do fit stuff together – take a walk, do a dvd, do Fun Warm-ups, or what-have-you – instead of one 20 mins twice a week when I’m going to be doing yoga to stretch out my sore muscles anyway.

Keeping sleep issues and James inclusive fitness in mind, new goals for April will be:

1. Keep active during rest week/Begin Stage 2 of NROLFW
2. Get to bed at a decent time 7 days/week
3. Make more time for fitness with James

What are your goals for April? :)