Honesty

So I'm going to be completely honest right now. I have totally sucked in the working out/dieting this week. And I have nothing but excuses...

I'm still battling with extreme exhaustion. It's partly due to having a newborn and two preschoolers and partly due to the stupid bradycardia. It really makes it hard to workout

I have a newborn, I mean come on they take up a lot of time. Eli has been doing great at night, he doesn't eat at all at night anymore and usually sleeps from 9:30 to about 4:30 or 5:00 and I can get him to go back to sleep until about 6:00-6:30 for his first feeding. But during the day he requires a lot of attention.
So the times I do finally get him content and asleep in his bed, or swing, or car-seat (really wherever he is content) I have to decide what I'm going to do with that time (Play with the kids, eat, take a shower, clean a room, catch up on laundry, rest, or exercise) Unfortunately, exercise has been on the bottom of that list everyday this week. I did manage Monday to do the "Strength Plan A" from the new workout but that was it, and it was really amusing because Becca and Nate were trying to do it with me. I'm not sure how much of a workout I actually got because I spent a lot of the time laughing at them.

Josh has been working side jobs all week and we have barely seen him. So when he gets home the last thing I want to do is shove the baby in his arms and say, "here, take care of the kids while I workout". He needs his down time and we all like to spend time together and I don't want to miss out on that to run on the treadmill for 30 minuets.]

I've thought about getting up around 4:30 or 5:00 before everybody wakes up to exercise, but that would require extreme motivation that I only seem to have before my alarm goes off. I also risk starting a workout and Eli waking up early to eat and me having to stop in the middle of a workout, I HATE that. I know that doing half a workout is better than none but I can't stand stopping in the middle of a workout.

I hate myself for not being more motivated and just doing it no matter what. I'm not giving up though and I still have the rest of the week to kick it into high gear.

So this is me being honest and laying all my stupid, worthless excuses out there. And now that I've written them out and confessed them, there's no looking back. It's time to change and be motivated.....

So who's going to help hold me accountable?

C25K Week 1 Complete!

I just completed Week 1! Woo Hoo!

5 min warm up 3.8mph
.30 sec run 5mph
.45 sec walk 3.5mph
.45 sec run 5mph
1 min walk 3.5mph
1 min run 5mph
1 min 30 sec walk 3.5mph
.30 sec run 5mph
.45 sec walk 3.5mph
.45 sec run 5mph
1 min walk 3.5mph
1 min run 5mph
1 min 30 sec walk 3.5mph
.30 sec run 5mph
.45 sec walk 3.5mph
.45 sec run 5mph
1 min walk 3.5mph
1 min run 5mph
1 min 30 sec walk 3.5mph
5 min cool down 3.5mph-3mph

Completed 1.70miles in 26.30 minutes at a 15:35 minute mile

(sorry if this is boring but I'm logging it more for me so I can see how I'm progressing)

So Monday I start the new workout (and you can still plan on joining me). My awesome sister, Margie (you can check out her blog HERE) and dear friend, Candace (you can check out here blog HERE) have agreed to join me in this new workout.
I will check in Monday with Weight, Measurements, and possibly even progress pictures (eek!).
I will weigh in on day 8 and day 15.
My plan is to do this workout and still continue with my C25K training. I may not be able to keep up with both, I mean I do have 3 kids, a husband, and house to manage.
I am not "dieting" due to BFing but I will be watching what I eat (i.e. If I can pick a salad over a hamburger, I will)

So I stepped on the scale this morning to see 161lbs. Ick! I always do this. So more than likely I will weigh in Monday with a weight gain but I hope this will be my last time to do that. Technically this is my first week in the past 6 weeks to not be sick so I guess my body is starting to get back to normal...including a normal appetite (boo)

I'm really looking forward to starting this new workout. If you want to join us let me know! : )

C25K W1D2

I just completed Week 1 Day 2 of C25K.
and it went something like this....

5 min warm up 3.8mph
.30 sec run 5mph
.45 sec walk 3.5mph
.45 sec run 5mph
1 min walk 3.5mph
1 min run 5mph
1 min 30 sec walk 3.5mph
.30 sec run 5mph
.45 sec walk 3.5mph
.45 sec run 5mph
1 min walk 3.5mph
1 min run 5mph
1 min 30 sec walk 3.5mph
.30 sec run 5mph
.45 sec walk 3.5mph
.45 sec run 5mph
1 min walk 3.5mph
1 min run 5.5mph on the last run because I felt great
1 min 30 sec walk 3.5mph

I was supposed to finish with a 5 minute cool down but Eli decided he needed to eat 15 minutes early :)

So I was on the 'mil for 21 minutes and 30 seconds and went a total of 1.45 miles.

I actually felt really good the entire workout and I didn't check my HR this time because at this point I don't think it really matters. The doctors have basically told me to just live with it, so that's what I'm going to do...

Looking forward to my next run Friday!

New Work Out??

I'm thinking about trying THIS workout. It claims that you'll lose a dress size in 2 weeks. It is pretty basic and doesn't require much equipment, just some hand-weights and either a treadmill or the ability to get out and walk.
Anybody want to try it with me? I'm planning on starting it Monday. We can hold each other accountable.....
Let me know!

P.S. I should be doing C25K Week 1 Day 2 tonight. I'll try to update later

Ugh!

Worst. Workout. Ever.

Now maybe I'm being a little dramatic but I seriously feel like that was a horrible workout last night!
I was a little worried before I started because my heart rate is still really low and I didn't know how that would effect me (I even hooked the emergency stop key to my shirt incase I got dizzy while I ran). I also got a MASSIVE shot in my bum yesterday that hurts like heck!
But I did it anyway.
I also decided to go ahead and jump to Week 2 Day 1. Probably not the smartest idea after taking off a week and not completing week 1.
But I did it anyway.

So I started the
5 minute warm-up at 3.5mph and was feeling pretty good
45 sec run at 5mph. I checked my HR right after the run and it was 82 (That's what a somewhat high RESTING HR should be)
60 sec walk at 3.5mph
60 sec run at 5mph. Checked my HR again and it was 85
90 sec walk at 3.5mph
90 sec run at 5mph. Whoa! I felt like crap. Heart felt like it was beating out of my chest. Checked it again and it was only 96.
2 min walk a 3mph
45 sec run at 4.8mph.
60 sec walk at 3.2mph
60 sec run at 4.8mph.
90 sec walk at 3.2mph
90 sec run at 4.8mph.
2 min walk a 3mph
45 sec run at 4mph. Just trying to finish at this point
60 sec walk at 3mph
60 sec run at 4mph.
90 sec walk at 3mph
90 sec run at 4mph.
2 min walk a 3mph
5 min cool down 3 mph-2.5mph

Finished at 1.95 miles (not going to lie I was disappointed when I didn't see 2 miles) at just over 33 minutes.

So here's what I'm thinking; Having the low HR is really going to make it harder.
And on Wednesday I'm going to go back to Week 1. I think it probably wasn't a good idea to jump to week 2 under these circumstances.

I'm not giving up. But I'm going to try to take it easy and not push myself so hard. We will see how Wednesday goes....

Weigh-In Monday

Monday Weigh-In Week 2


Sorry, bad picture. If you can't read it, it says 158! Yay for the 150's! Looking forward to hitting the 140's!

-3.5lbs

That's pretty amazing considering I wasn't able to work out this week. : )

So today at 1:30 I'm having the 2nd stint removed (Blaine the Drain). I'm hoping this is my last stint...
I want to run tonight but its going to depend on how I'm feeling. I originally thought I was going to have to start the C25K training over but I was looking at the difference between Week 1 and Week 2 this morning at there isn't much difference so I think I'm going to try to do Week 2 Day 1. We will see how that goes.
I'll update tonight if I run.....

Weigh-In

Monday Weigh-In Week 1


-1.5lbs

Not bad for the first week but I am unfortunately back on "bed rest"

Saturday morning I woke up at midnight in severe pain. My first thought was "Oh No! Not again!" I got out of bed, took some tylenol and paced the floor. The pain was in the same spot as last time but it felt totally different.
About 1:30 I was done and knew the pain was not going away on its own. So I woke up Josh and called my Aunt (even at 1:30 she answers the phone with a happy tone, how does she do that?)
We headed to the ER and luckily they were not busy. It wasn't long and I was in an ER room. The pain had gotten a lot worse and I was shaking I was hurting so bad.
They got an IV in and started fluids and gave me some pain medication. 30 seconds after the pain medication I was vomiting (I will not be eating Kraft Macaroni for a while)
For some reason the pain medication was only giving me relief for about 10 to 15 minutes so they were alternating two different pain meds to try to help.
They took me for an X-Ray and confirmed that I did have more stones.
They called my urologist to try to find out what to do next.
The ER doctor decided to go ahead and admit me because it was obvious that I couldn't handle the pain without medication.
I vomited four times while in the ER, and never really got much relief.
I finally got in a room and they started giving me Morphine, finally some relief, but with a price.....
The Morphine was causing my heart rate to drop in to the 40's (resting heart rate should at least be in the 60's) So they had to start giving me the morphine doses in half so I was only getting half the relief now.
My Urologist requested a CT scan so they sent me up to get a CT.
The results came back and the Urologist said I had multiple large stones in my urethra tube (which explains the difference in pain) that I couldn't pass on my own.
He gave me the option to wait and have the surgery done at the clinic sometime this week or go ahead and have the surgery in the hospital, I wanted to be like "Are you freaking kidding me? I can't function without morphine, why would I want to wait?" I decided nice was the way to go if this dude was going to be performing surgery on me so I told him I'd like to have the procedure done now.
So they wheeled me off to surgery (crazy how I went from no surgeries ever! To two in two weeks) They broke up the stones with a laser, removed the larger pieces, left the smaller pieces for me to pass, and placed another stint. (You know there aren't very many "int" names? So after brainstorming with my Sister she came up with "Blaine the Drain")
This go around was a lot less eventful, no ICU stay, no crazy high fever/heart rate. But my heart rate is still running really low (still in the 40's) So it may not have been because of the morphine and I'll have to continue to keep an eye on it this week.

So no running/exercising for me this week :( Which really stinks and it means I'll have to start my C25K over when I'm cleared to exercise again. I don't expect to do any updates this week because there won't be anything to update. I hope to be back at it after "Blaine" is removed.

TMI Alert! :)

Yesterday I did my C25K training. About 6:45 I got up (Eli was awake and content and the other two were still snoozing) I laced up my running shoes, shoved my massive milk producing boobs in a sports bra, put Eli on the couch in his boppy, and pressed start.
The first five minutes is a warm up so I set the pace at 3.5mph. The first minute into it Eli started to fuss, I pushed pause jumped off and put the passy back in his mouth. He seemed content again so I jumped back on and pushed start.
Another 45 seconds or so goes by and he started fussing again. So I paused the treadmill again, jumped off and said to Eli "Dude, if you want the passy why do you keep spitting it out?" no answer, so I put the passy back in his mouth. :)
Got back on the mil, pressed start, 30 seconds later he was fussing again. This time I pressed pause, jumped off and put his cute little booty in the swing. That seemed to do the trick.
So now I'm back on the treadmill and I'm almost three minutes into my five minute warm up. The warm up comes to an end and the first run is starting. The first run was for 30 seconds so I set the mil for 5.5mph.
Remember those massive milk producing boobs I mentioned at the beginning? Yea, they were bouncing around like crazy! What's up with that? They didn't do that when I ran on Tuesday! So I'm now running with my left arm across my chest trying to keep my boobs from hitting me in the face!
*obviously my boobs couldn't actually hit me in the face, but it sure felt like it at the time*.
The 30sec end and I start my first walk of 45sec so I'm back down to 3.5mph. So I'm walking and trying to figure out what the heck was going on with my boobs. I'm wearing a sports-bra just like last time, I just fed Eli so that can't be why......Oh look at that! My 45sec are up and it's time to run again!
This time it's for 45sec and I'm back up to 5.5mph. Yup, boobs are still bouncing around so I had to use my arm as a seatbelt for them again. Not really the ideal way to run. So I waited until that run was over and then pushed pause, jumped off and went to put on a "real" bra, underwire and all.
So I'm only 7 minutes into my 26 minute workout and I've already been off the treadmill four times! Yea, it wasn't going so well.
After changing my bra I'm back on the mil and start a 60sec walk at 3.5mph followed by a 60sec run at 5.5mph. The different bra made a huge difference. No more bouncing boobs.
Walk 90sec at 3.2mph, and start the interval over and do it two more times followed by a 5 minute cool down.
When I finished I had gone 1.64 miles in 26.30 minutes.
So all in all it wasn't the "Perfect" work out but I finished it and didn't go any slower (or faster) then Tuesdays workout. So I count that as a success.

So now I need advice! What kind of sports bra do you use?
My cheap Target ones obviously aren't going to cut it while I'm breastfeeding so I'm going to need to invest in a better one. I'm thinking I'm going to need one that actually separates the breast instead of having one giant uni-boob, and I'm probably going to need underwire for the extra support. So help me out ladies, what do you use?

Plans

Oh plans. I had tons of plans. I knew exactly what I was going to do after Eli was born. I had a plan and was determined to get in to shape and lose weight quickly after Eli was born.
I was going to start this video just days after coming home from the hospital



It had horrible reviews for the instructor, saying she was really boring and talked really slow. But it had great reviews for the results. I never got to start it....

I also had plans to wear a Belly Bandit



I only got to wear it for 4 days.....

Oh Plans! Plans that got ruined due to my trip to the hospital. It's hard to exercise when you have a nephrostomy tube coming out of your back and even harder to wear a "corset".

So my plans have changed. I'm actually only a few pounds away from being at my pre-pregnancy weight in just three almost four weeks due to being in the hospital. So now my plan is to focus on getting in shape, becoming a runner, and losing the rest of the weight I'm wanting to lose.

I've been following a blog that I love. Not only is she inspirational, she's hilarious. You should check her out, you can do that here She has an amazing story about here desire to lose weight and become a runner. She has some major determination. She started out doing C25K and is now training for a Half and is running 9 miles!
Any of you have a blog you follow that is motivation for you? I'd love to hear about it.

I'm going to try alternating Cardio and Strength training. It's going to be a lot different than last time because I will be doing it at all from home instead of in the gym like last year. I got a treadmill for Christmas/Birthday and I love being able to jump on that whenever I want.

I have these videos that I've had for a few years now

It has 11 different videos, so I don't get bored with it. The music is great and I love the trainer.
I'm considering doing "Jillion Michaels 30-Day shred". Look at "MamaLaughlin's" results from doing the 30 Day Shred The only thing holding me back is the fact the I despise that video! It's boring! Especially after doing Turbo jam.
What work outs do you do at home? Please share!

I'm Back!

Well it's been almost a year since I last blogged and a lot has happened. I will do the readers digest version to catch you up. (If you are new to my blog or just haven't been by in a while please read the disclaimer on the right side of my blog before you begin :-D)

So since April of last year a lot has changed......

April 2011 Josh and I decided we wanted to have another baby. So I had my IUD removed and began "trying"

July 2011 We found out some exciting news and devastating news in the same week. The week of July 17th we found out my Dad had stage 4 colon cancer. He immediately went in to have surgery, and on July 20th two days after his surgery I found out I was pregnant. Over the next 6 months I watched my Dad battle cancer. He fought hard and even with everything he went through he never stopped worrying about me and the effect the stress could be having on me and the baby. Unfortunately even with how hard he fought on January 10th he lost his battle with cancer. I miss him terribly but have joy knowing he is now completely healed and in heaven.

March 2012 On the 9th Eli makes his arrival. It was a long labor (just a few minutes short of 12 hours) but totally worth it.

By the afternoon of the 10th Eli and I were discharged from the hospital. The morning of the 14th I woke up around 4:00am with excruciating pain on my right side and 102.9 fever. I went back to sleep I guess hoping that it would get better only to wake up a couple hours later with the pain worse. I called the on-call nurse at my OBGYN and she said I needed to get to labor and delivery. So I woke Josh up, we got the kids up and over to my Aunts. We kept Eli with us because I was breast feeding and because they were sending me to labor and delivery I thought it'd be safe for Eli to be with us.
We get to labor and delivery only for them to send me to the ER due to the fever. So we called my Aunt to come get Eli. They took me to triage and began all the test. After blood work, urine samples, and a CT the doctor came in to tell me "you have kidney stones, but thats not the worst of it. You have numerous stones, one that is very large. And they are blocking part of your kidney which it keeping your kidney from emptying completely and that has caused an infection."
They put me on a broad spectrum antibiotic to try to start killing the infection while they waited on blood cultures to come back and find out exactly what bacteria I had so they could treat in more specifically. They also told me they would be doing a procedure to empty my kidney. They would insert a tube in my back that went into my kidney and would drain the trapped urine into a bag outside my body (Yup, I was just told I'd have a Pee bag!) They wheeled me away to get the nephrostomy. The procedure was done with local anesthesia so I was awake the entire time. It wasn't too painful but definitely uncomfortable. I believe the procedure took about 15-20 minutes. After they finished they wheeled me up to my room where Josh was waiting. I was only in the room for a couple of minutes before I started to shiver. Josh went to tell the nurse, she insisted it was normal but came to check on me anyway. By the time Josh and the nurse made it back I was shaking uncontrollably. The nurse said "oh, that's not normal". What happened next is a blur . My fever got up to 109. My heart rate was 190. My body was completely numb. I was unable to speak. And I was very scared. There were 3 different doctors, and 4 nurses in room. During the chaos one of the nurses ripped the iv out of my arm (lucky for her i was unable to speak).
Apparently when the nephrostomy was inserted it sent the infection into my bloodstream and that caused my body to react the way it did. They rushed me to the ICU and upped my antibiotics. It seemed like forever and I honestly can't tell you how long it took but my body finally responded to the antibiotics and my heart rate and fever started to go down. I stayed in ICU for a while longer for them to monitor my heart rate and oxygen. I finally got in a room and they got the cultures back and found out the bacteria was e-coli and staph infection. So they changed my antibiotics to fight the infection more directly. I was released from the hospital on Saturday with a few prescriptions and my pee bag, who I had named Frosty, and an appointment for the next Monday to have the stones removed. So I spent the next 8 days hiding out at the house with Frosty. Monday the 26th I went in to have the stones and hopefully Frosty removed. The stones were removed successfully and so was Frosty. But Frosty was replaced with "Clint the Stint". I think Clint was worse than Frosty, because unlike Frosty who was just annoying Clint actually was painful and I had to deal with him for a week. The stint was put in to help drain the kidney while everything was healing from the surgery. Monday the 2nd I went in and had Clint removed and just like i had been told I felt immediate relief. Now all that's left to do is a 24 hour urine collection (sounds like fun huh?) so they can hopefully determine why I got the stones. I'll be doing that in two weeks.

So that brings us up to today......


This is my weigh in this morning.

And thats pretty awesome considering I went into the hospital to have Eli just 3 1/2 weeks ago weighing in at an amazing 191lbs!! Whoa. The weight loss so far is only due to the wonderful ICU/hospital diet. It's amazing what a severe infection and hospital stay will do to your weight.

So now my goals are to get to 125-130lbs in my size 5 jeans again. Today I started the C25K again and plan to do some weight training as well. I will post about all of that at a later time. So that's what has been going on with me the past year (the readers digest version) I hope to do a better job of keeping up with my blog this go around and I hope to have success with my weight loss and running goals.