Why You Should Pump Iron

Merry Christmas Fit & Fab Mommas!

I bet you've been thinking about your New Year's Resolutions, and maybe one of them is to get back into shape. After I've made a point to have you "find time" to get some cardio in, here I go adding one more thing onto your plates...weight training.

Let's be honest, we all would like to step on a scale and see the same number we saw when we were in high school, yes? I believe that anything is possible, and I am well on my way to achieving this crazy goal, but I wanted to make a point to all of you, not just moms, that it's not always about that number. If you lost inches, fit into those designer skinny jeans and didn't think about your belly when you sat down at a party - would it really matter what that number is? I don't think so.

What most women fear is actually the BEST way to burn calories, lose fat, and lose those inches: LIFTING WEIGHTS. Building lean muscle allows our bodies to burn more calories when we're just sitting on our butts, and gives us an overall slimmer look. Plus, we can expect less fatigue when we're juggling baby, toddler, diaper bag, purse, large cup of caffeine, etc., all at once.

When I started this fitness transformation, I was somewhat fearful of the fact that I tend to look "bulky" when I lift weights, but when I added a healthier nutrition plan, I found that it wasn't the case at all. 10 weeks into my program, I still weighed more than I did before I got pregnant, BUT I WAS SMALLER. Check out the picture below:

In this case, the woman weighed less before she started, but you can see how body composition can have such an impact on your size and overall look, regardless of the number on that scale! She's slimmer, her posture has improved, and she just looks amazing. Convinced yet?

One last caveat - you don't have to lift a heavy amount of weights to see results. Start slow, recruit a friend or personal trainer to help you with form and for encouragement, and start pumping some iron.

<3,

Fit Mama Jaye

P.S. Next blog post will have before and after pics of my very own fitness transformation, as the 12 weeks are coming to a close! Stay tuned, and continue to share the inspiration and motivation!

Stop Dieting & Start Changing Your Relationship With Food.

For all those who know me well, you know how much I enjoy a good beer, and pretty much anything fried or with cheese. So how do you give up these indulgences?! The answer is - I don't give them up. I stopped thinking that I was "dieting", and that I would be depriving myself of everything "good". Instead, I started to change my relationship with food. So where do you begin? I'm not a nutritionist or hardcore anything - but here are some tips:

1. KEEP IT POSITIVE
If you keep telling yourself that you "can't have this" or you "shouldn't have that" - you are setting yourself up for failure. Keep it positive, and start including foods that are better for you. You will find yourself more satisfied, and will actually get full before you can finish that beer, or that plate of fries. Try to make it a habit to add a 1/2 cup to a full cup of steamed veggies to your plate, and make it a habit to finish that. Try leaner meats with your meal, maybe switching to ground turkey or chicken instead of ground beef. And if you MUST have something sweet - stick to sugar free items such as fudgsicles or sugar free jello.

2. WATCH YOUR PORTIONS
This is something we all have issues with. Who wouldn't want a second plate of home cooked goodness?! Pick one meal today to portion. Again, if you try and overhaul your entire routine all at once, you may get discouraged. Start with breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Choose a carb that will burn off easily such as brown rice or yams/sweet potatos...but mind your portions! Then go ahead, have your regular lunch meal - you will hopefully begin to see how different these meals make your body feel - and soon, you will be changing your relationship with food! Here are a couple of breakfast ideas, and please keep in mind that these measurements are for someone my size. My husband ate more than double these portions LOL!

Breakfast Idea #1:
2 egg whites and 1 whole egg omelette
1/4 cup diced tomatoes
1/4 cup diced mushrooms
1/2 cup baby spinach
Eat with 1/3 cup brown rice

Breakfast Idea #2:
4-5oz of lightly seasoned lean meat (ground turkey, chicken, etc.)
1/3 cup brown rice

3. HYDRATE OFTEN
Think you're hungry?! Try drinking a cup of water to see. Oftentimes, the hunger signal we perceive is actually dehydration. Hydration feeds our brains, our muscles, our entire body! If you're a soda addict, jamba juicer, etc. - add more water with your meal before you start sipping on that, and you'll find that you may not even need it. Again, keep it positive!

Still not motivated?!
\Well, if taking it step by step is not your thing - and you're either all in or all out, try a nutrition challenge. A great one is the "Whole 30" challenge. It's 30 days of your life, eating only the best, unprocessed foods on the planet. Here's a link to the program info: http://whole9life.com/2011/10/whole-30-v5/

Good luck Fit & Fab Mommas! I'll post more recipe ideas if anyone is interested. And please share your recipes on here!

Finding Time for Cardio

Who has time for cardio?! My almost 8-month old daughter wakes up around 5am for a bottle, we leave the house by 6:45am to drop her off, and I'm at work before 8am. I then work for 10-12 hours, get home to meet my husband and baby girl, eat dinner, and then I'm ready to knock out as soon as she goes to sleep around 7:30pm!! Repeat every weekday. Do these days sound familiar? So how do we find time for cardio?!

Bottomline: you just do. Just like our children are on their specific schedules, we need to train ourselves to adapt to our new schedule, which includes exercise. It will be rough the first week or two, but your body will thank you, and you will actually have more energy!

In the first few months after I had Olivia, I tried exercising in the evenings, just after putting her to bed. This may still work for some of you, but I found that I was either way too tired at the end of my day to get going, or I had way too much energy after an evening workout that I couldn't fall asleep! Once I met up with my personal trainer, I wrote down my typical schedule, and WE FOUND TIME! For the first few weeks, I had to write it down on a calendar, make a note to myself that I WILL get it done. If you have a friend that can meet you at the gym or will be exercising on the same schedule, text each other for accountability. Start with 1 or 2 days, then commit to more. I even sleep in my workout clothes so I have no excuse!

Here is what I do now:
Cardio 50 minutes (GASP!) 4x/week on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. I started off with 40 minutes, and ramped it up. You should aim for at least 20-30 minutes to start. I am typically in the operating room at 7am on Tuesday and Thursday, so those, as well as Monday, are my rest days. If you remember, I need to get out of the house before 7am. On Wednesday and Friday, I get up at 4:30am. I prepare a bottle for Olivia, set it next to a fresh diaper and the wipes, nudge my husband so he knows where that's at, then I head downstairs. On Saturday and Sunday, I get to "sleep in" a bit, and get my cardio done a little later, but I get it done.

So where do YOU fit in? I am well aware that not all moms will have the exact same schedule, and school-age kids in the house are much different than having an infant. What I have found is that, with an infant, it is much easier to have some sort of gym equipment at home to help with getting my cardio in - treadmill, elliptical, bike, etc. This decreases the time spent driving to the gym in the morning, or driving past that exit on the way home...and that means - > more time with the baby. Also, take advantage of employee fitness centers if available. And if you're a die hard gym rat, and you can't work out unless you step into that environment, then find someone to buddy up with you, to make you accountable on those days.

Here are some simple steps to finding time in your busy schedule:

1. Write your daily/weekly schedule down. What time do you leave the house? Are there breaks in your schedule? When do you typically get home?

2. Pick 2 of those days (to start) in this upcoming week to do some cardio, and add that task to your schedule.

3. If you choose mornings, pack things you'll need the night before: lunch, diaper bag, gym bag, etc. This will save you time in the morning if you tend to rush out of the house like we do.

4. If you choose evenings, get food prepped the night before for dinner, ask your spouse or roommate to defrost something for you, etc.

5. THEN JUST GET IT DONE!

Take it from a new mom who works 50-60 hour weeks...if I'm not sleeping, eating, caring for Olivia, or at work, I'm exercising. Good luck!

Investing in Yourself Wisely

So now that you've thought about exercising more, and maybe even mustered up the energy to get out of your warm bed in the morning, what exactly should you do?! There are no wrong answers here, but a right answer for each individual. This was my biggest struggle after pregnancy, and here is a glimpse of my journey:

I stumbled across CrossFit in 2008, mainly because my sister had joined a local gym that had recently converted to this style of exercise. I was slow and weak, but quickly adapted to this lifestyle. I developed some good friendships along the way, and discovered how strong one short gal can get! Not long after our wedding in May 2009, I hurt my left shoulder - my fault of course. Despite what I preach to my patients, I pushed through the pain and didn't listen to my body. One MRI and cortisone injection later, I still found myself modifying my workouts to avoid the pain.

Fast forward several months and it's true, you never forget the day your life changes significantly - March 22, 2010 - workout of the day (or WOD) included heavy deadlifts and double unders. I was on my final round of heavy deadlifts. I grasped the bar, lifted my head and started to pull. In an instant, my core gave out and I felt and heard a loud pop in my low back. The pain was immediate. I dropped the bar, fell to the floor, and called out for my husband. I treated it as a muscle strain, but 2 days later my left big toe was numb, and 1 week later, I could not move my left foot. My MRI showed a large piece of my disc sitting on one of my nerve roots, and I subsequently underwent a lumbar discectomy (removal of that damaged piece) on May 6, 2010. 6 weeks of no bending, twisting or lifting, followed by 2 months of physical therapy felt like an eternity for someone who was used to exercising 4-5x/week! My body was weak, my muscles atrophied, and my confidence blown.

I later found out we were pregnant 5 months later in August. As you can imagine, not fully recovered from my back surgery, this was rough on my low back as I continued to gain weight. It also complicated my return to exercise, really limiting what my changing body and back could handle. After delivering Olivia on April 17, 2011, I was anxious to return to exercise. I tried running, but my left leg would go numb. I tried CrossFit Mom workouts in our garage, but my core was so weak, that I could barely get through the movements. I tried Olympic Lifiting, but the pounding and overhead weight made my low back ache and my leg numb!! I was sad, really sad. I was even more sad because my daughter was almost 6 months old and I was still hiding under bigger scrubs at work, refusing to buy bigger clothes. SOMETHING HAD TO CHANGE.

When I say "invest in yourself wisely", I'm referring to the fact that what your body was able to handle before pregnancy, may not be the case afterwards, especially if you have had injuries or surgery. So don't be discouraged if you were a maniac at P90x, but can barely get through that first DVD now, or if you smoked a Fran workout, but can't do a pull up to save your life today. Find what fits you NOW, because with a new life in our hands, we can not afford to be injured.

I invested in an elliptical for our garage, and now work with a personal trainer 2x/week - back to basics, isolating muscle groups to protect my previous injuries and build lean muscle to shed my post preggo pounds. Since the start of my fitness transformation, I have lost 20 pounds, and 3 dress sizes, and you know what...my back doesn't hurt, and my leg is not numb.

Being fit and fab is not only for yourself, but sets a good example for your little ones. So, invest wisely.

Ready for Lifestyle Changes

Good Morning Fit & Fab Mommas!

I am starting this blog for my fellow moms who have gotten some sort of inspiration from my current fitness transformation journey. The path that I have taken is somewhat extreme, and takes loads of effort and self-motivation, so therefore is not for everyone. The key is to realize that these are lifestyle changes you will be making, not quick fixes. Many of you have asked for some tips to at least get started on your fitness path, so here are 2 simple ones to get you going:

1. Make a committment each week for yourself when it comes to exercise. Instead of trying to get to the gym every day, which can be easily wiggled out of, commit to 2-3 days that week - write it down on your calendar, set an alarm, anything, JUST GO!

2. Start watching your food portions. If you like to eat out, ask for a "to go" box right away, and set some of your food aside (out of sight, out of mind). Try limiting your starchy foods, especially after 4pm.

The only person stopping you from taking these steps is yourself, so start with these small changes, and we'll go from there. We are all busy moms, but we should never neglect taking care of ourselves.

Happy Thursday!