Fitness Friday - After Baby

I have not really been updating about my fitness like I use to do. Since I got pregnant, I never really discussed my workout routine or diet because there was no need for it. At least not in the way I had been doing it. Most of you know that throughout my pregnancy, I did work out. I was actually in labor while working out and did not even know - 40 weeks pregnant. Once I had the baby, I immediately headed back to the gym after a week, with Baby A in tow. When Mr. Man deployed, my goal was to loose all of the baby weight while he was gone. Then things happened with breastfeeding and Baby A's pediatrician did not want me working out until we got it situated.

To this day, nothing that we have done has helped the situation, so I have gone back to working out. I am not doing two a days right now, but I will gradually go back to doing it. I can't really say that I am dieting either, other than the natural healthy lifestyle that I have always chosen.

Now that Baby A is almost 7 months old, I feel I have a bit more freedom with working out. There is never any doubt or guilt in my head on whether I should be doing it or not since we are still nursing. I thought I would write an intro post on my goals, where I want myself, and how I plan to do it.

First off, my goal is just to get back in shape at this point. I am carrying around a little bit more weight than I was use to, so running and doing certain activities are still hard on me. I have no goal of "losing a certain amount of weight" because - to me - my weight is just a number. It absolutely means nothing. My goal is to loose size and tighten. Even though I can fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes, I still know I could do some work. My legs, for example, are a weakness of mine so I would like to do some work on those. I measured myself the other day and began taking pictures. The pictures will be saved for later to show as a progression because I definitely do not feel comfortable showing those pictures right now, not while I still look similar to them. But I will show them at some point.

I started a work out plan a couple of weeks back with high intensity, high pace, and a lot of cardio. I have a set Monday - Friday work out plan, and I stick to it. It has made me feel so much better about doing this and achieving it because I know what I expect of myself and I know what to do without changing my plan every day like I did before.

As far as where I want myself, I would like to loose this extra that I have by the beginning of the year. I know I can easily achieve this with the work out plan and "dieting" I have been doing. Now remember, the word diet just refers to the food I eat. I am not on a particular diet. I try my best to eat as clean as possible but still by reaching all of the nutrients my body needs as a nursing Mom. I can not really put a weight limit to it because I do not pay much attention to my weight. Instead, I look at my body fat percentage. I would like to be sitting between 16-17% by the beginning of next year, which is reachable. I would like to loose 3 inches from my hips and 2 inches from my stomach. Even if I did not loose those inches and gained more muscle, I would be 100% happy. This is a great way to build more muscle actually. By using the excess fat to feed the muscle.

All of this has been working for me. I am averaging 2-3 pounds per week although I just started measuring myself. My clothes are actually beginning to fall off of me, so I know what I am doing is working and will continue to work. It takes discipline and determination to make it happen, but I know in the end I will be much more confident and much more happy.

Stick with me to watch my progress and see the changes I make over the next few months!