Day 5, 6, and 7....the Cleanse is over!

Yes...the cleanse is over. Yesterday was my last day and I couldn't be any happier. In fact, as soon as I finish typing this post I am making me a big delicious bowl of oatmeal with blueberries. I never thought  I would miss oatmeal this much. So a couple of things have happened since I started the cleanse. I have eliminated a fair amount of internal debris and I know this because the cleanse did everything it was supposed to do on a daily basis (wink, wink). I have flatter abdominals, I feel lighter, and I weight less. As for having more energy, that's a negative. I think when you have an infant the energy thing is futile. I honestly don't think my energy stores will replenish until all three of my sons are in college. During this cleanse I had to contest with another sort of monkey wrench which is a lack of energy to work out. The last day I officially worked out was on Saturday, day 3 of the cleanse. This week, I have gone 4 days without doing much more than a little weight lifting. on Day 5 and 6 I was really zapped for energy because of the constant running around trying to get things done around my house as I catered to Jonathan while trying to avoid the kitchen. All and all the cleanse did work out well. My main meals over days 5, 6 and 7 were grapefruits for breakfast, a  mid morning snack of walnuts and almonds (always one ounce), and salad greens for lunch and dinner. I did throw in a bit of grilled chicken on day 5 but not on day 6 or 7. My body really needed the protein as that was the day I did some weight lifting.

So where do I go from here? Now the diet plan comes back into the mix. I don't want to use the word diet as a negative here because it's rather positive. The word diet often implies restriction but that is not the case, nothing  for me is restricted, I mean no one is holding me hostage here. Some things I am choosing not eat, well a lot of things...and that is what a diet should be, a choice to refrain not restrict. With that being said, I have been keeping artificial and granulated  sugars at bay for the last seven days and I don't necessarily want to go back to them by having diet sodas, candy, or even things like pop tarts. It's important to choose carbohydrates that are without artificial sweeteners and/or granulated sugars (refined sugar) which are things like whole grains. So what would be best are things like brown rice, whole wheat pasta, a slice or two of whole bread maybe once a week. Proteins for me will be things like egg whites, grilled chicken, fish about three times a week and occasionally some turkey products like lunch meat (lunch meat is processed and heavy on the sodium so use sparingly). Fats should be unsaturated to low saturation so that means olive oil or safflower oil based dressings and maybe an ounce or two of cheese every so often. This means things like pizza can be consumed in small portions maybe once every two weeks. Oh yeah and the fruits and vegetables carbs are a must have. I should return back to 4-5 days of exercise with a menu plan like this. Now if everything goes well I should make my weight goal or come close to it by mid to late April!  Coming up I have a couple of special events that I have to watch out for. My niece and nephew (Ish family) and my son Elias all have birthday parties coming soon so there will be cake. I will give myself permission to have a piece at each event and to let that be my one dessert all week as I exercise my way towards that day. That's the only way to avoid guilt while you are on a diet...plan ahead and give yourself permission to indulge or eat what you like, but again it must be measured as to not over indulge. Well with thoughts of cake fresh in my mind, that oatmeal is now calling my name. I'm going to go tear it down. Be well to whomever is reading....

The things we don't say...

For the last two weeks RD has jogged on the treadmill at the gym. Everytime she does this I wish I could join her. In fact I tell her that I'm going to do the elliptical until I am ready to run which gives her the impression that I need to build up stamina. Actually, it's more about the things I don't say to her. The thing that has me confined to doing a fast paced walk on the treadmill or a highly resistant uphill climb on the stationary bike. The thing I am dealing with and that I haven't said to her is that I am experiencing having weak pelvic floor muscles. Yeah and it's pretty bad,  in fact every time I take one foot off the ground in a running or jumping manner I experience some type of leakage. I don't think it's urine (although when I have to pee I better have a toilet near me quick), it's just fluid. In fact my GYN confirmed this as she wrote me a script to see a physical therapist for special toning exercises that would help repair what they classify as temporary post pregnancy PFD (pelvic floor dysfunction). I have yet to make the appointment although I am curious to see what these "special exercises" consist of. Her prescription came about at my follow up appointment six weeks after having Jonathan. After giving me an official once over to make sure everything was normal "down there" she asked me to squeeze her two fingers. I did and then she asked me if I felt her fingers being squeezed (awkward) and I said I didn't. Then she asked if I had experienced any fluid leakage when I sneezed or coughed or even laughed really hard. I said yes. She said it appears that I have a mild case of post pregnancy PFD. Now I know it's due to me just giving birth but it sucks and women rarely talk about it. In fact Ish (my husband) didn't even want me to type about it. He's says it's to personal to share. How does he even know about this dysfunction you might ask? Well not because of sex as you may think. He says I feel just fine down there (although I wonder... if I can't squeeze a finger...hmmm). He found this out as I was working out in the house (due to the stockpile of snow outside I was restricted to doing the at home workout thing). Anyway, he noticed I was pausing every time the ladies on the kickboxing DVD would do a jump squat or a set of jumping jacks. He asked me why I wasn't jumping. I told him about the PFD with a little embarrassment and like everyone else the look on his face said keep that to yourself! See that is my point, I think the opposite and I want to report that yes I too have a weak bladder! Hello...I gave birth to three babies ...my second one being well over 10 lbs! With three babies my pelvic floor muscles are gonna be a bit weak. Although, they will strengthen over time it's not gonna be without a little work.
Naturally you may think, so get to work on some kegal exercises right? Yeah... no.  Although kegels help control and  tone and improve the ability to control and tone they aren't the fastest fix. Pilates is another method that has been toted as a way to create strength downstairs, in fact I know this because I am an experienced Pilates instructor so I know just how to use it, but the best method I discovered is vaginal cones. I have used vaginal cones before... after my second pregnancy and I will again use them this time around. Vaginal cones are small plastic cones with different stainless steel weights that you put inside your vagina for about 15 minutes, twice a day. The weights come in a set of five different sizes. At first, the lightest weight is used for a few weeks. You need to use your pelvic floor muscles to hold the cones in place. So, it is a way to help you to exercise your pelvic floor muscles. Once you can hold onto the lightest one comfortably, you move up to the next weight, and so on.




http://www.srsmedical.com/

 

These weights have been a God send for me and will keep me from a life of wearing Depends as I get older. They also work best with doing a few kegel exercises a day. In fact that is the workout report of the day...the infamous kegel. In fact ladies join me now! All ladies unite and do a kegel right now whereever you are! See below:

How to do a proper Kegel ( as taken from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/kegel-exercises)

:

■ Find the right muscles. Insert a finger inside your vagina and try to squeeze the surrounding muscles. You should feel your vagina tighten and your pelvic floor move upward. Then relax your muscles and feel your      pelvic floor return to the starting position. You can also try to stop the flow of urine when you urinate. If you  succeed, you've got the basic move. Don't make a habit of starting and stopping your urine stream, though. Doing Kegel exercises with a full bladder or while emptying your bladder can actually weaken the muscles, as well as lead to incomplete emptying of the bladder — which increases the risk of a urinary tract infection.

■Perfect your technique. Once you've identified your pelvic floor muscles, empty your bladder and sit or lie down. Contract your pelvic floor muscles, hold the contraction for five seconds, then relax for five seconds. Try it four or five times in a row. Work up to keeping the muscles contracted for 10 seconds at a time, relaxing for 10 seconds between contractions.

■Maintain your focus. For best results, focus on tightening only your pelvic floor muscles. Be careful not to flex the muscles in your abdomen, thighs or buttocks. Avoid holding your breath. Instead, breathe freely during the exercises.

■Repeat three times a day. Aim for at least three sets of 10 repetitions a day. You might make a practice of fitting in a set every time you do a routine task, such as checking email, commuting to work, preparing meals or watching TV.

Any Questions?

Ain't nothing but the dog in em!

Last night's workout for the most part went well. To take a look at the leg and ab exercises RD and I performed please reference the following blog post ( click here ). We also incorporated a shoulder routine that I have a short story about. You'll find the description of the shoulder workout after the story below.

The workout for the most part went okay except for this one little man that grated on my nerves. Let me start from the very beginning so that you have the full story. Last night I drove up to Planet Fitness to once again workout with RD. On the way into the gym I noticed a cool breeze blowing down my shirt. I felt my chest area and low and behold I did not have a bra on, not a sports bra, or even a regular bra. Now mind you I wasn't aware that I was bra less up until that point. I actually worked at my fitness studio for two hours, did a yoga class, talked to my clients and everything without a bra on and I didn't notice it. I decided to let RD know I was at the gym and then I'd figure out what I was going to do by asking her opinion. I told RD I was bra less and she immediately started laughing. Inside I was wondering if she thought I did this on purpose for the blogs sake...I swear I didn't. This was just so random! she asked what I was planning to do. Only because we are on a mission of fitness, I decided to stay. I would walk the tread mill without any uphill climbs just to make sure "the girls" wouldn't be bouncing all around. This might be the perfect time to also describe what sort of shirt I was wearing as it does matter as this story unfolds. I had on a short black fitted T shirt, with a grey tank top underneath that reached past the length of the fitted T. Being as though I had the tank on underneath I thought I was at least a little bit secure. Anyway, as my endurance workout came to a close RD and I went about our strength training routine. RD and I workout in what I call the "Dog Pound". You guys know what the dog pound is right? It's that area in any co-ed fitness center that ladies seldom venture into and men rarely want us in unless we either have hair on our chest or a doo rag on our head. I have always worked out in the dog pound (or as I also refer to it... the jail yard) for a couple of reasons.

1) This area has the barbell equipment that will allow you to place barbell plates on a weighted bar. You can use this in quite the same way free weights can be used only allowing the user greater weight bearing capacity.

2) This area also has strength training machines usually with out the nautilus attachment cables like the machines on the main fitness floor. The jail yard machines offer less assistance and greater resistance which requires you to do more work.

3) I love working out with the guys because they usually know how to "get it in" with reps and sets they way I like too.

To continue on with my story, RD and I proceed to the jail yard area of Planet Fitness to work on our shoulders. Keep in mind at this point "the girls" had got their sweat on and my headlights were now showing through the shirt. In one of my earlier blogs I mentioned having tear drop boobies (courtesy of Dr. Solomon) which may have looked tempting to the salivating man/dogs that were throwing their "literal" weight around. This one little pit bull of a man/dog got bold and decided to approach RD and me with what he felt was some helpful advice. He came up along side me (as we were working a front deltoid raise) and said "May I offer you a suggestion"...now, because I am polite and I kind of guessed what was coming...I said yes. He says, "You are not supposed to swing, (bark) when you lift those weights hon, (bark, bark), and if you have to swing (bark), you may want to lift a lighter weight, something you can handle (pant, pant)."  I simply said "uh huh" and turned away. I'm pretty sure he felt all proud of himself being that he came to the rescue of these helpless ladies that had somehow found thier way into the wrong part of the gym. He probably barked to his other man/dog friends that we didn't know what we were doing and that he had to show us the proper way to lift weights. First let me clarify that I nor RD were swinging the weights with what he was trying to say our low backs. To be perfectly clear we were getting a slight ab contraction by tightening our abdominal muscles each time we lifted the weights. This stabilizes your body and protects your low back at the same time. Also, the little bit of momentum that we were using was not because we could not lift the 5lb dumbbells we were holding,  it was because of the pulling in of the abdominals with each lift. This can cause you to rock ever so slightly back. Needless to say as a professional I was livid and as a woman/fitness enthusiast I was disgusted. I asked RD if she thought he would have given us his friendly advice if we were a couple of guys. She of course said "definitely not". Then I thought about my wet t shirt, my exposed headlights, and my rather long, freshly extended ponytail and said to myself it wasn't nothing but the dog in 'em chasing the cat at the dog pound.

The little pit bull of a man/dog that tried to help me and RD.

Our shoulder circuit (DB= dumbbell)
5 lb DB's

Front shoulder raise 10 reps, 5 sets
30 sec rest in between sets

Lateral raise with bent arms 10 reps, 5 sets
30 sec rest in between sets

Overhead Shoulder press
10 reps, 5 sets
30 sec rest in between sets

Burn out set (super set no rest)
10 bicep curls
10 shoulder press with back squeeze
10 lateral raises (straight arms)
10 front raises

The Weigh In - Day 1, Week 1

Today is actually Day 2, I originally planned to write this blog yesterday but I had laptop issues and I didn't feel like using my iphone to do it either. Okay, so yesterday (Sunday) was my official kick off  day for the B.A.B.E program. RD has chosen to be my Babe buddy and work along side of me for as long as it takes for us to shed our extra weight. RD met me at my fitness studio ( shameless plug ~ http://www.thewellloft.com/) around 2:30 pm so we could weigh each other in and take our measurements. We also took full body before pictures at a snapping point of a 360 degree turn around.

The B.A.B.E program follows a calorie counting nutritional plan of whole foods (divided in specific parts of carbs, healthy fats, and lean protein) and an exercise plan of 5-6 weekly workouts incorporating a total fitness regimen of utilizing strength, endurance and flexibility training.

The following are my beginning stats (Sunday, 1/23/11)

Height -  5.5'
Weight - 164 lbs  (goal weight 135-140)
Chest -   36
Waist -   28
Hips -    44  freaking inches!!!
Thigh -   22
Arm -    11.5
Body Fat - 34.%
BMI -    27.3

Okay here is the formula for me to determine my daily calorie intake for me to lose weight.
Based on my weight 164 x 10 = 1,640 (resting metabolic rate)x 1.8 (activity level) = 2,952 - 1000 = 1,800
This tells me I can eat between 1,500-1,800 calories a day and lose 2 lbs a week.
RD's calculations based on her numbers is in the same range.

Our plan is to weigh in every Sunday at 3:00pm. We will take our body measurements again after 4 weeks. If successful we should be dropping between 8-10 lbs by 2/20.

164 lbs

Bust 36 inches

Hips 44 inches (egads!)

Waist 28 inches



Taking before pictures...ugly but priceless!



Motherhood is a gift.

Jennifer Hudson

Motherhood is a gift...oh yes it is! It is a gift of bodily destruction and emotional mayhem. In fact I received a different gift each time I gave birth. Let me run down my gift list. The first gift I received was 14 years ago from my first born A.R. (I'm using his initials to spare him the embarrassment of Mom-teenager association) his gift was just what a 23 year old first time mother would want. A set of saggy deflated boobs! I knew with my teabag titties  (as my friend Robin would refer to them) that I would be destined to a life of push up bras and chicken cutlet looking replacement prostheses. Feeling like I was having a mid life crisis, I made a decision do what any American 23 year old woman that is totally immersed in her body would do, I went under the knife. I traded in my less than A size tea bags titties for a pair of full C size teardrop boobies (that's what they actually called my implants teardrop's). Thinking I had permanently dodged a body bullet I thought it was safe enough to enter into mommy hood again. 5 1/2 years later I gave birth to my darling middle child Elias Lewis. At 10 lbs 5 ounces at birth Elias Lewis gave me the instant gift of abdominal stretchmarks. Ahhh...what thoughtfulness on his behalf. Another gift for me to treasure and again show off! I left the hospital with my stomach looking like a road map of peaks and valleys made up of loose skin and underlying muscle indentations. The fix so I thought, in this situation would be to buy and use a host of body butters. I tried cocoa butter, shea butter, almond butter and I hate to admit even a little crisco. Nothing worked to eliminate these ugly tiger stripes however, over time they did diminish and at 28 years old I felt like I was already ancient enough to not care as much. I figured I keep these battle scars and live a life of one piece swim suits with the occasional tankini (thank God for tankini's).  On to present day, which is eight years later to the birth of my sweet Jonathan. My gratis gift baby or so I thought. I never thought I would have to incur anymore body inflictions but I did. Little Jonathan Xavier gave me my greatest mommy body gift so far. I am now the proud recipient of wider hips. Yay me!!!  I already had wide enough hips to begin with...do I really need more to contend with? I guess so because now 2 months later I am still wearing my maternity jeans! I can't fit into my size 6 skinny jeans, boot cut jeans or even my old reliable jeggings! So now the reasonble fix would be to buy a new pair of jeans in a different size right? Heck no! I'm embarrassed to admit but I don't want to buy double the size I was before the baby. I feel it would be some sort of commitment to buy a pair of size 12 jeans. No offense to all you size twelver's out there but I have a closet full of size six's that miss my body and my body misses them! I just secretly hope we can one day build a relationship again (sigh). All of this wondering just leaves me with one thought... When did I trade places with Jennifer Hudson?

Competing Against Me

Okay so I decided to enter in a Ms. Figure competition. A Ms. Figure competition is a smaller version of a womens bodybuilding competition. I hired a competition fitness trainer who trains in Delaware and I begin my program today. Of course I want to blog it and video blog it too! The program involves a restricted eating plan to burn fat as well as a five day a week lifting routine. Based upon my evaluation I need to increase the width of my back, and calves. I currently have 18% percent body fat ( I personally think it's closer to 19 or 20%) and I weight 135 lbs.

The diet: I have to eat 10 egg whites a day, two bowls of oatmeal, grilled chicken, flank steak, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, sweet potatos, brown rice, bananas and apples. So it's heavy on the fiber and protein, lean on the carbs and fats. I will also be drinking two muscle milk shakes a day.

The workout: Involves mostly chest and back (for now) to develop these areas a bit more.

The competition: is on Oct 3rd, 2009

I feel like this will be more of a competition against myself than anyone else. As I will have to rely on heavy will power with the diet as I am such a foodie. I love sweets and salty snacks

Well wish me luck and now off to the gym!