adjustments

I had two unrelated things to blog about, and then I realized they were actually related! Because they are both adjustments. One was a mental adjustment, and the other is a physical one.

Mental Adjustment

Nathaniel's been teething over the past few days. It's meant he has gotten like zero sleep. He wakes up every hour or two and screams. I tried to give him a Motrin binky last night but he spat it out--and got Motrin all over my whole body in the process. SO STICKY! Gross. He spat out the Orajel and the only thing that would comfort him was nursing sitting up.

In the midst of being really, really annoyed by this (second night in a row!), I realized how blessed I am to have a baby whose teeth are coming in healthily. I have a good boy and I am so lucky that his teeth are coming in at a normal time in a normal way.

Physical Adjustment

I've blogged before about my quest to get in shape. I am ashamed to admit I haven't FOR REALZ worked out in maybe two weeks. Or maybe just one week, actually. But it is safe to say that in the past 14 days, I've probably REALLY worked out only once or twice, tops.

I've been a little concerned because for a few days earlier this week, I was super ravenous. I ate more, and assumed that I would pay the price for it.

However, after weighing myself for the first time in a while yesterday, I've actually lost a pound. So weird!

I've noticed since I actually started trying to take care of my body, that I go through these cycles: I work really, really hard, lose some weight, and then get super hungry. I eat eat eat for like 2 days, and then go back to normal, but don't seem to have any weight gain. Sometimes there's even weight loss.

This also happened to me a lot in college. No, I am not pregnant.

I concluded that it's my body figuring out how to handle itself at a new weight. I'm not sure if that even makes physiological sense, and I can't find anything to back that up on Google searches. But that's okay! Glad my body is getting used to being smaller. I finally bought myself a new outfit yesterday. I think it's the smallest outfit I have ever had as a grown up. Hooray!

my baby is buff

I decided to switch my workouts up. Instead of doing Insanity only, I've added in Jillian's 30-day Shred. The 30DS uses weights, so I've brought mine out. I only have 5-lb handweights, and they're too light for me now, but I use them anyway out of principle.

Anyway, two nights ago Nathaniel was chilling with me as I was working out, and it got to the cardio section of the workout and I put my weights down. Always wanting to copy his mama, he crawled on over and started messing with the weights. He was actually able to drag one partway across the room with him as he crawled.

I think it's safe to say my 7-month-old is buff. Considering I know babies older than him that can't even scoot, and he's crawling with 5-lb weights and all. But then again, I think he's always been buff.

It's because his bones were made to be Dorito strong.

bodies and stuff

I've been going through a quarterlife crisis over the past few days. Today I resolved to read some Ensign articles on motherhood. This one had an interesting point, which I bring up only because I've been writing about fitness on here.

And I quote from the article:

In view of these pressures [to put off motherhood], I was glad my commitment [to being a mother] had begun early. I paid careful attention to diet and exercise from my early teens on, because I wanted to provide my future children with healthy bodies.

My mom told me all the time while I was a teenager, that I needed to prepare for motherhood by taking care of my body. I kind of rolled my eyes at it because I felt like, really? You think I'll be having kids anytime soon?

...and then I got married a few weeks after turning 20 and yeah, I had my first kid less than three years thereafter.

My mom taught me that a body needs five years of good diet and nutrition to prepare for healthy kids. I do regret not paying more attention to my body sooner. During my pregnancy, I know I ate WAY too many potato chips and FunDips. And don't even get me started on Doritos.

...mmmh Doritos.

Our current scientific understand of fetal development is so limited. I truly do wonder about the impacts of my teenage self's and pregnant self's diets on Nathaniel. And I know I need to be better about my food for the next kid I have, whenever that is.

Don't make your diet something you regret when you get around to having children. Maybe you're like I was when I was 19 and sure I wouldn't get married anytime soon--that is to say, WRONG and eating a terrible diet. As a woman, taking care of your body isn't just for you. It's for your children.

[/fitness rant]

fit times

I was reading some of the message boards on MyFitnessPal earlier this evening and I stumbled across one that just asked what made people turn their lives around. The woman asking the question had a friend who was literally killing himself with food, and she wanted to help him get his life under control. So she asked: why did everyone on MFP start their journey in the first place?

So many people try over and over again to get in shape, and then fail, and then start over, and do it again. I know I've done this. I've worked to get in shape, then decided that really, it's easier to just eat potato chips and chillax. And I relapse.

But not this time. I do believe that this time is different. Because for the firs time, something has clicked with me--

being in shape is a lifestyle choice.

In the past, I wanted to keep my old lifestyle, AND be in shape.

Yeah right.

You can't out-exercise a bad diet. And you can't just keep living your life as usual and expect things to change.

CHANGE ONLY HAPPENS WHEN YOU CHANGE.

Maybe that is totally obvious, but yes, it took me 23 years to figure that out and internalize it where my body is concerned. And now that I've realized that, I've started to actually change. Change my whole life. Maybe it doesn't look like it on the outside, but there is actually real life change going on up in hizzle, yo.

Here is a pin:

Source: google.com via Allie on Pinterest

The difference between who you are and who you want to be is in what you do. It's in what I do. And it turns out, the person I want to be minds what she eats and exercises regularly. And the person I want to be loves doing that. She adores it. She is so happy to be making wise choices about her stewardship.

THAT IS WHO I WANT TO BE.

And now I am finally actually being it.

But it took realizing that key fact first. The key fact that, to change, I had to change.

This year, my secret new year's resolution was to live with intention. I still have a long way to go, but I feel like this is a good start. Good things come to those who wait, but the best things come to those who do.

Source: prettystuff.tumblr.com via Allie on Pinterest

side-effects of fitness

I recently signed up with MyFitnessPal. It's a free calorie counter and exercise diary. I signed up on it because a friend did and it sounded like a good idea.

Which, it was. I was already starting to be more responsible for my body, with daily or near-daily workouts, and I was thinking about being conscious about my dietary habits, but I just wasn't quite there. MyFitnessPal helped me get there.

In fact, MFP has helped me quite a lot. Since January 22, when I joined, I've lost almost 5 lbs. That's five pounds more than the five pounds I talked about losing before. Good for me--not so good for my wardrobe! Totally forgot that when you lose inches, your clothes don't fit anymore.

I measured myself today, and since I started being diligent about filling out my MFP daily, I've lost three inches to the hip and over an inch on the waist. Again: go me. But now I need totally new clothes.

Seriously, my pants can barely stay on me. Even with a belt, they bag. I think it's safe to say that every item of clothing that I own at this point, is too big for me. At least every item of clothing that I can wear at this stage in my life (read: clothes I can nurse in).

Anyway. I guess with every great success comes unforeseen problems. I'm sure many of us would love to have the problem of all our clothes being way way too big.

Well, if you are one of those people, sign up on MyFitnessPal and friend me. I'm alliebaba27. We'll get fit together.

getting healthy

Source: survivalofthefit-ness.tumblr.com via Emily on Pinterest

I'll say that being on Pinterest, and especially frequenting the fitness board, has really impacted my life so far this year. I get so much motivation from there.

Love it.

good morning!

Good morning! I'm trapped in the kitchen with my baby asleep on my lap. Of course that means I am on Pinterest. But first, I did 40 minutes of Pure Cardio with Julie--even though Carl and I were up until midnight last night, I got up with the baby a few times, and got up for the day at 7:30. No excuses. I'm not going to wake up tomorrow wishing I had done more today. My body is a blessing from God and it's my job to treat it right.

Source: committobeingfitxx.tumblr.com via Allie on Pinterest

Source: strivingforfitandfab.tumblr.com via Allie on Pinterest

ready to change

The past year has been a very body-centric year for me. Between pregnancy and birth and nursing, I think that makes a lot of sense.

This year, I resolved to take control of my body. I've never been really overweight or anything, but I've never been fit either. I decided that this year, I'm going to be fit.

It's involved some changes. I've had to start changing mindsets. For example, the mindset of rewarding myself with food. If I have a hard day, I'm always tempted to go out for dinner. But I am coming to conclude that food is not the proper way to reward a person who lives in a country where obesity is prevalent.

Source: Uploaded by user via Allie on Pinterest

Another change is the mindset of working out. In high school I never worked out intentionally. In college I started running and I would go to the gym somewhat regularly, but not as regularly as I should have. After moving home I started doing nightly workouts with my girls Emily and Julie, but only until I got pregnant, and then I had to stop because I was so morning-sick all the time that I couldn't afford to expend any calories on exercise (I lost like 15 lbs during my first 6 months of pregnancy).

For the past three months I've been doing Insanity, and it's been a real paradigm shift to plan on doing those workouts once--and sometimes twice--a day every week. It was hard to plan on working out at first, but now it's harder not to plan that part of my day. Today I did a wimpy lame workout in the morning and now I'm kind of itching for something more intense.

I've been noticing what I eat more, and being more mindful of my dietary choices. I know that has made a big difference too.

I'll just add here that I have lost over 5 lbs in the month of January. The month isn't over yet and I wasn't really aiming to lose weight. I've been aiming to live more healthfully.

I'm ready to change.

Source: Uploaded by user via Allie on Pinterest