Heart Rate Tracked!

Today I used my heart rate monitor for the first time in a very long time! Somehow I didn't star the recording feature though :(.

However, by observation of the watch (which displays the data) while I was walking, I gradually worked my way up to the low 140's and stayed there. The picture below shows the incline at 0, because I had already lowered it, but spent almost the entire time at about a 5% incline. 

I like sweating. I makes me feel like I did some little bit of work. :)

Slow but steep

Occasionally I will type while I walk. It is a slow way - go - and unless I hold the keyboard while I type, it is quite wobbly - but some days it just works out best to get my thoughts out while I am still moving.

Here is a picture of my setup, mid walk:

And here it is again when I finished:

Again, my back was feeling a little sore and not as stable as I want it to be, so I turned up the incline. I really like that! It makes me sweat, and feel like I've done some work! I generally ignore the calorie counter, for one thing because it is probably made for an average sized person - which I am not - and for another, because it seems healthier to focus on other things like how you feel, rather than things like how many calories you have burned. I have noticed, though, that it counts calories far more quickly when the incline is higher; a higher incline makes far more difference than higher speed when it comes to calories burned, apparently.

Still Walking

I am still really, really tired today, but I walked anyway. Perhaps it is a blessing that I cannot not exercise. I know I feel much more that way when I am well rested :).

Whine

This post is going to be a short whine.

My back hurts. I don't want to exercise. I need to find the papers I got when I first met with my personal trainer and figure out what to do next to make my back stronger, because it hurts to stand up long enough to cook dinner. 

My hips are sore - especially my left one - and I don't want to walk faster tonight. I skipped walking on Saturday, though, because my husband was home and I therefore decided that taking a bath was a higher priority than walking on my treadmill. Today, though, I know I cannot afford to skip altogether, so /i'm only going 3.8k/hr (lately I've been at 5k/hr). It means I won't finish in 20 minutes, but I'm enough of a grouch at the moment to choose not to push myself. So there.

That was where I stopped because my baby woke up & needed attention. After a long (2 hr+?) break, I finished here:

Post script: As always, I felt better after exercising. I'm still not totally happy, but I'm less whiney than I was.

Missing Motivation

I had a really hard time getting myself onto the treadmill today. I know I've got to do it, or I will physically suffer pain - but I still didn't want to!

I am too soon after having a baby, and I have learned too well that over doing it does not pay off. Also, I expect to get pregnant again (relatively soon), but I don't know exactly when that will happen, so it feels unwise to plan for a race this summer - especially because the last race I was going to do, I couldn't because I was pregnant and started bleeding and I really did have to not race for my health and that of my baby.

As I have walked for the last twenty minutes, I did come up with an idea: I can start using my heart rate monitor again! I can start training with the goal of reaching a certain heart rate and staying there for a certain amount of time. I'm not sure yet what that heart rate or that time will be, but it will give me something to work toward again.

I miss Zumba. Because it is flu season, and we don't want our baby around people, we put our gym membership on hold for a couple of months. I am really looking forward to going back to that, and to the weight machines there. I do have a Zumba video game, but I haven't even wanted to try that when I was home alone with the baby, because I'm not willing to make him sit there and cry so that I can dance. Maybe I will get up the gumption to do it this weekend though, when my husband and children are home all day.

Today on the treadmill, I did carry the 3 lb weights in my hands for about 10 minutes. Doing that, and walking fast enough that your arms swing, and keeping your abs tight while you do, is another way of increasing stability in your back / your core.

Late in the day

It took until 5:40 pm for me to complete my 20 minutes on the treadmill today. A small portion (maybe 30 minutes of the entire day) of that was lack of motivation. The rest of it was taking care of a baby before I took care of myself. I know that I have to take care of myself every day in order to have the health and strength to continue to take care of my baby, but hopefully tomorrow it won't take until 6 pm to do that!

I did complete my 3 sets of 15 bicep curls and the same of shoulder presses while walking. I haven't made it onto the BOSU, nor have I completed my middle/upper back exercises :(.

Added incline

Today I added a 3% incline for 1 minute of my workout. Truly, I am the tortoise. My progress is infinitely slow, but it is progress!

I didn't make it onto the BOSU yesterday. All afternoon/evening my lower back was burning, but I prefer the burning feeling to actual achy-ness and pain. I like to think that it was the same burning you get when you have really worked a muscle group well at the gym :).

Today I also need to do my middle and upper back exercises again. Rather than saving this post until those get done, though, I am going to go ahead and push "publish" and then go back and edit once I've done those exercises.

Over 20 min again! :)

Once again, over 20 minutes and over a mile.

I realized this morning that I forgot to stand on my BOSU yesterday. All of my exercise is very small - easy to do, and very short - but it's so important that I do it each day! I am so grateful that I have the option of not being in pain, as long as I take care of myself. I know too many who cannot stop their pain, whatever they do.

Next on today's agenda: see if I can shower while the baby stays asleep! 

OVER a Mile!

I used to have the goal of going one mile each day, or going for 20 minutes on the treadmill - whichever was longer. Today I made 20 minutes longer than a mile! (Only by about 15 seconds, but I did it!)

This shows my speed while walking - I hit 5.1 km/hr, which is far faster than I have gone since... last May? Maybe before that? Going this fast during pregnancy made my heart rate faster than I was supposed to allow it to get.

Final time & distance for today

I also did 2 sets of 5 "corkscrews" on each side, and one set of 10 "statues" (seehttp://trimathlete.blogspot.com/2014/01/middle-and-upper-back-home-workout.html). Also, three sets of 10 dumbbell rows with 3 lb weights and three sets of 10 cobras. (The cobras were interesting; I think I could definitely add weights if I wanted to, though I will wait a bit. Also, I couldn't do them on the large exercise ball - I had to use the small one.) I was planning to do my middle-and-upper-back-exercises daily, but having done them once, I think I will be wiser to do them every other day to give my body a little chance to recover in between. I am anxious to get stronger, but it is not worth injuring myself and taking even longer to feel better!

Middle and Upper Back Home Workout

These are the exercises I have found so far to do from home to strengthen my middle and upper back. If I find more/better ones, I will make a note in my currently daily exercise post and I will update this post at that time. (I am also avoiding anything that requires bending over without my upper body supported, because of my lower back issues in the past.) Also, I have no idea if these will be enough to solve the pain that I am having, but I think that these are not too much to start with (especially if I keep the weight really low on the dumbbell rows, and I don't use any weights on the cobras). Thus, I will try these for a week and then re-evaluate.

Dumbbell Rows (from http://www.wikihow.com/Work-Your-Back-Muscles-at-Home)

"The Corkscrew"

"The Statue" (I can do this with my door gym)

"The Corkscrew" and "The Statue" above are from http://www.menshealth.co.uk/building-muscle/get-big/5-exercises-for-a-strong-upper-back.

"Cobras" - 50 seconds into this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI3TteGmYS4

Hooray for the internet! It makes my life better to be able to research this stuff, and collect it and publish it on my blog so easily!

One More Mile

18 minutes into "Amazing Grace". 

I moved from 3 sets of 10 to 3 sets of 15 with my weights today; it was very challenging for the shoulder presses, but the bicep curls are still a little easy. I have other weights than the 3 lb ones I keep on the treadmill console, but there isn't room to keep more than one set there unless I add a shelf somehow.

Also, I need some sort of at-home exercises for my middle and upper back, since those are what is hurting most throughout the day as I hold and walk the baby.

Stability Returns!

I realized yesterday that stability is returning to me! I can get my pants on without having to sit down or hold on to something, and without falling over! I can climb into the shower (lifting my leg over the side of the tub) without feeling like it is going to put my back out!

I'm not out of the woods yet; it will take more work to get my back really stable enough that I am not worried about it again. I want to get it to be strong enough that I can walk my baby as long as he needs to be walked, without my back ever aching. 

So, I'm not there yet, but I am pleased with where I am.

Another Day Done

(Post written Tues 1/14/14)

I'm 1:45:11 into Return of the Jedi now!

Today is the first day I've tried exercising while home alone with my baby. I had to stop mid way through, but I was able to come back to it and finish my mile anyway.

When I answer my cell phone at the beginning, though, I don't go as fast or drink as much water. I think I made up for it as I went on though.

Now to go change a poopie diaper!

Walking Again

I finished Return of the Jedi! Also, I finished walking before 9:30 am (which is a great accomplishment!).

I'm still focusing on keeping my abs tight as I walk, and on drinking at least 3 cups of water while on the treadmill. I'm also using my 3 lb weights to do 3 sets of 10 bicep curls and 3 sets of 10 shoulder presses while walking.

Me and Life

Source

Tired but successful

I'm now 1 hr 36 min into Return of the Jedi!

Today I am almost overwhelmingly tired. However, I managed to walk anyway, and I feel better after having done so than I did before. My next priority is to take a nap!

I'm definitely getting faster again. I really want to get back to doing a mile in under 20 minutes. Also, I'm trying to drink a 24 oz water bottle every day while on the treadmill.

Tired

It was a rough night with our baby. I walked anyway, because I am tired of feeling bad and I know it is the only way to really feel better.

On the bright side, I am now 48:26 into watching The Return of the Jedi while I walk!

Overdid It

So, my "awesome workout" last week felt awesome at the time... but the next day I really paid for it. Apparently I overdid it, and it took several days to start to feel better. Our two week checkup was on Wednesday (even though my baby wasn't technically two weeks until Thursday), and my midwife said I should be okay walking now. I had planned to walk yesterday (which was Thursday) but I did a couple errands on Wednesday after the doctor's office, since I was out anyway, and I didn't feed myself well and apparently I overdid it again! I felt terrible yesterday.

Today I have felt fine - good even - so I did get back on the treadmill. I can tell my body is still recovering and getting better, since this is the fastest mile I've done since mid pregnancy. My hips are continuing to hurt frequently, and sometimes it is difficult for me to even walk down the hall carrying my baby. I hope to start walking every day again, or at least nearly so, but I'm going to have to take it one day at a time and listen to my body as I go. For today, I am happy with what I have done.

Awesome Workout

Today I went faster than I have in probably 4 or 5 months, and it felt fabulous! I even jogged for about 5 seconds (though don't tell that to my midwife or my husband, because I'm supposed to wait another week for that!). 

Also, we got a BOSU from Costco! I decided about 6 months ago that if they came to Costco I would get one, in hopes that it would be cheaper than they are everywhere else - and it was, by about $35. I'm looking forward to inflating it later today and just standing on it, to start rebuilding my core. 

I am now a person who enjoys exercise, and who loves the way it feels to be strong. I've only been this person for a couple of years, or less, but I like this part of who I am.