Starting to see results

All of this hard work is starting to pay off! After going at it for 2 weeks (work out’s that is) my wonderful husband told me that I am "definitely getting rid of the ponch." Keep in mind this is from a man who doesn’t notice a whole lot of "womanly" things in general. The mere fact that he has noticed this tells me all this hard work and devotion is paying off! It’s definitely a start!

It’s been 6 weeks since I gave birth. I started working out a couple of weeks ago - although moderately. I have begun to find that the intensity of my workouts is getting a little better as my body starts feeling better and better. I am thoroughly loving going to Goodlife Fitness. Both the Kenaston and McPhillips locations have been great for me. Each offers classes on days that work for me and I really could not do this if it weren’t for the babysitting services. The caregivers in both facilities are wonderful!

I tried Body Combat for the first time on Monday. Body combat uses all your muscle groups and is similar to a kick-boxing work out. There are upper cuts and jabs, round houses and kicks. It was a lot of fun and can also be a very intense workout. I am breastfeeding so have to be cautious on some of the moves, but there are modifications to any jumps or high intensity moves. There are always low impact moves which provide an equivalent work out. It’s like anything, what you put into it is what you will get out of it. Once I have perfected the moves this will be an even more exciting workout.

The biggest benefit to working out that I have noticed is my energy level has increased substantially. I am not getting a lot of sleep (Any new mom can relate) but so far I am doing great. I think a lot of this can be attributed to the exercise and my attempts at eating right.

I have slowly been trying to get our family eating habits in tune. I have taken the advice from many of the readers that have either e-mailed or commented on the blog. I have looked into each tip individually and am beginning the research into what tips are going to work with my family and our lifestyle. I have gone to the websites and am slowly becoming educated.

My co-worker – Catharine Beattie – sat down with me and spent an hour going over some basic education on food nutrition. Beattie was wonderful enough to lend me her family cookbook on healthy living. In the middle of our discussion I asked Beattie – "how do you know all this" she smiled and said she’d been doing it for years. She has unofficially become my nutrition coach.

I am proud to say that I have created my first weekly meal plan. This is a first for me. It did take some time and effort to complete, but at the end of it I felt as though I had accomplished something good for my family. I even went into Indigo books yesterday looking for a similar cookbook to the one that Catharine had lent me. There were hundreds - which became a little overwhelming – I left empty-handed but am still in possession of Catharine's beloved book.

There is hope for me.