Tag Archives: Fitness

“Overweight and Underpowered”

There was a point on our trip to Knysna, driving along the single lane highway, when Dean was struggling to get our little car to overtake one of the many trucks along the route. Our Chevy Aveo does just fine most of the time, but loaded with 3 adults and a baby in her awesome car seat, plus the pram and all our baggage in the trunk/boot, it wasn’t quite as strong as we needed. Kris said it quite well in that moment – the car was overweight and underpowered. “Just like me”, I quipped from the backseat of the car. We all chuckled, but it’s been irritating me because it’s true.

I made a promise to myself (and to all of you) that I wouldn’t pass my body image stuff on to Harley. I don’t want her to grow up worrying about her weight, something that so many women (all women?) worry about. I also told myself that I’d give myself a year before worrying about getting back into shape after Harley came along – I figured it would take that long before we’d have a routine and stuff that let me carve time out of the day to go to the gym or at least do home exercise. But then I went for my post-baby checkup and I had actually lost weight. I even took pictures of my before and after body at that point. But I may have spoken too soon. Continue Reading

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3 Comments Breast feeding, Fitness, Health, Rambling

My baby’s weight loss plan for me

I made a conscious decision not to think about my weight for the first year of Harley’s life. I figured it would take that long for things to even out with her, and until then it was silly to imagine that I could stick to any eating or exercise plans. I was lucky enough to already lose 5 kgs six weeks after giving birth, but I think my little one is determined to make me slim.

I don’t generally care about the number on the scale; I don’t even know how much I weigh at the moment. Instead, I focus on how clothes fit and how comfy I feel in my own skin. I’m also determined not to let my body image determine my self image – I need to be empowered, and right now I feel good about my body; look what it accomplished. And I’m not even feeling the need to fake some positive body image at the moment. I feel pretty good about how I look, even post-baby. Plus, Harley has me on a three-pronged weight loss plan. Continue Reading

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2 Comments Fitness, Food

Six weeks later

Today, I went to the doctor for my six week post-op check up. It’s kinda hard to believe that six weeks ago my life changed so completely. It feels like an eternity since then, although that could just be because I’ve been mostly awake for the past week of it, but still – so much has happened that turned everything upside down. I already sorta wrote about what I went through, although I’ve realized that there is so much more to the story. I mean, imagine being Dean, waking up to a wife with a mouth full of blood having a seizure? What about the ambulance that didn’t come, or the fact they couldn’t do the surgery until my blood pressure went down and it just wouldn’t, staying at a life-threatening 240/180 no matter how much medication they gave me.

Lately, I’ve been focusing on the day to day of being a first time mom to my princess Harley. I will continue to do so, but I think at a milestone like this, it’s important to look back as well. So much has changed in such a short period of time, it’s kind of hard to even process. That’s probably why I’ve been feeling so down lately, too – sleep deprivation will do that, but so will some PTSD and the emotional shock of adjusting to a complete lifestyle change a full two months before I was expecting it. Continue Reading

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4 Comments Fitness, Marriage, Parenting, Preeclampsia, Pregnancy

Trying and failing at staying fit during pregnancy

I wasn’t exactly at my most physically active when I fell pregnant. Even before I left for the States, unknowingly already a couple weeks pregnant, I hadn’t been as regular at the gym as I like to be. I was blaming it on work but the reality was that I just wasn’t feeling it as much. I love weight lifting, it’s my gym activity of choice (other than boxing and Zumba), but I just wasn’t being as committed to it as I should have been, probably because I didn’t have a set routine to follow. Then I disappeared off the States for 7 weeks and by the time I came home my first trimester was almost over and my doctor said no weight lifting.

Okay, so my exercise of choice was ruled out. What was I allowed to do? Apparently walking, yoga and swimming. Ugh. It’s not that I mind any of those – I love to walk, but more in a “I live in an urban area and can walk everywhere” kind of way rather than going for a purposeful 5km walk. Yoga is cool and I’ve dabbled in it for years, but it just doesn’t grab me and I’ve never found myself able to stick with it for long periods of time. Swimming? Well, I never REALLY did much swimming for fitness’ sake, although that seems to be my best chance at the moment. Continue Reading

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3 Comments Fitness, Pregnancy