Lean Days 12 and 13: It's the Weekend!

Here's all I have to say about working out on Day 12: It didn't happen. I kind of have a feeling that Fridays and Sundays are going to be rest days instead of just Sundays. Whatever- I'm ok with it. Yesterday was a great day- we got to spend a big chunk of it with Betty and baby Clark and then we went to Jeff and Julie's to celebrate Laney and Carol's birthdays. We didn't get home until almost 10:00, so Tenley went to sleep fairly quickly. All in all, a good day. Today is Day 13 and my workout is done. I did Kenpo X and, I'm not gonna lie- I only did 30 of the 45 minutes of actual working out. Once I got to the block sequence I had had enough. Plus John took Tenley to the mall to find a new shirt (for him, not her) which means that I have time in the house to myself. That doesn't happen often. So I decided to cut my workout short and I am in the midst of doing Tenley's laundry and packing for a quick overnight trip. We get to go spend the night with Carrie and her nephew Charlie while John hits up a bachelor party downtown. It should be another great day and I just need to find the motivation to get my stuff done so we can hit the road! 77 days to go

Lean Day 11: Quick Cardio

Today was a pretty good, extremely low-key day. Tenley woke up around 7 and miraculously went back to sleep after she nursed so we got to sleep in a bit today. Once she got up we ate breakfast and I managed to get the rest of the silverware rolled for my sister-in-law's bridal shower which is happening next Saturday. After that and some play time it was time for Tenley's nap and lunch. This is kind of how every day goes and I feel like we really don't "start" our day until lunch is over around 1 or 1:30. Today we chose to be outside ALL afternoon. We played in the sandbox and with toys on a blanket. It was great. Once John came home, he took Tenley so I could work out quick and then get ready to go to my nephew's baseball game. Today's workout was Yoga which meant that I did Cardio. It was fine- nothing to comment about. I think at this point I am just trying really hard to do something every day or as close to 5/6 days a week that I can. I am still hovering right around the weight I was at on Day 90 which is fine with me. I wouldn't mind losing just a couple of more pounds before the summer, but overall I am OK with where I am at as long as I can just stay there. I have noticed that I am kind of sore this week, so I'm not sure what that is all about. The soreness in my legs is from running last night and it will take a while to go away- working out or not. Once my workout was done I packed a dinner for Tenley and we set off for Community Park. It was a beautiful night for a walk (and a baseball game) and we arrived at the park right around 6. I fed Tenley dinner (a really random dinner that included a peanut butter/jelly sandwich, peas that I had warmed up from the freezer, lil' crunchies, a cereal bar, and a mango packet of baby food) and we played with Clara while Casey played baseball. It was really nice and Tenley had a blast. On the way home, I stopped in to Subway to pick up some dinner and we arrived home around 7:30 or so. John was nice enough to watch Tenley so I could eat in peace and then we watched Grey's Anatomy together which I can't even get in to because it was one of the most disappointing yet kind of gripping season finales yet. I guess I am used to finales leaving you hanging, just not this much. And that is all I have to say about that. Tomorrow we are hoping to go see Betty and Clark and then we will go to Julie's house to have cake for Laney and Carol's birthdays. We are really looking forward to a fun (but busy) day and also hope to get a little sun/water table time in during the afternoon. 79 days to go...

Lean Day 10: Slight Change of Plans

Today has been another pretty excellent day. It has also seemed like a long day for some reason, but not in a bad way. Since it was going to be a little cooler today, I decided that it would be a good day to go to the mall and get some birthday gifts that are needed for later in the week. I usually try to run these errands in the morning, but since Tenley has been napping more often than not before lunch, I decided to just take things as they came. It seemed to be a wise decision because things went pretty well. Tenley woke up about an hour earlier than usual today so she was a bit crabby all morning. She went down for a nap at around 10:30, but slept until after 12:30 which is rare. We at lunch and headed out the door to Orland Park. When we got to Orland, I tried to do the things that really needed to be done right off the bat. Usually when I go to the mall, I tear around like a mad woman because I want to get everything done before Tenley decides that she has had enough. Today we took our time and, instead of getting flustered when she started getting antsy, I just changed things up. The first time we changed her diaper. The next time we spent time in the play area. The last time we got frozen yogurt and watched the carousel. Overall, we were able to be there for a couple of hours and I got everything done without any tantrums...an accomplishment. I still would not try to take her shopping with me when I really need to get things done for me (i.e.- try on clothes) but that is just for now. :) When we got home, John had decided to run to the grocery store and brought home Jimmy Johns. I was supposed to do the Shoulders and Arms workout today but it is 59 minutes long and it was already 6:00. I fed Tenley dinner and decided to go on John's run. It was such a perfect night for a run even though we had to bundle Tenley up a little. It was nice to run again- I haven't done it in so long but I found that it came pretty easy which means that the P90X must have done a little in the stamina department as well. We went for about 3 miles but did it in a run/walk by streets. Who knows how much of a workout it really was but I know it got my heart rate up more than the Shoulders and Arms workout would have. We have no plans for tomorrow but I have a feeling most of the afternoon will be spent outside with the water toys since it is supposed to be hot. My nephew has a baseball game at 5:30, so we may walk down to watch that for a bit. Otherwise, tomorrow is Yoga which means tomorrow is really Cardio. :) 80 days and counting...

Lean Days 7, 8, and 9: Good at Working Out, Bad at Posting

I can't believe I have forgotten to post for the past few days. They have been kind of busy, at least during the times I usually try and post. Day 7 was Sunday and it was a rest day which was good because it was Mother's Day. We had a nice day that included brunch with the Terry family, a nice day at home, and Coldstone Creamery in the evening. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if I could have seen my mom and grandma but we are trying to alternate holidays and I was at home for Mother's Day last year. Day 8 was spent cleaning our filthy house and then we had a great visit with Finn and Becky. Finn and Tenley were able to play out in our backyard with the water table and sandbox which was awesome. It was such a beautiful day and I was happy that we were able to spend part of it with two of our favorite people. John came home shortly after they left and he eventually took Tenley on a run with him so that I could work out. Yesterday's workout was Core Synergistics and I did everything but the "bonus round" because I wanted to be able to shower and eat before John came back with Tenley. Overall I consider it a success. Day 9 (today) has been wonderful. Tenley and I got up and did our usual morning routine before getting ready and having lunch at WWMS with Kathy, Julie, and Barb. It was great to catch up with them and I wanted to see Kathy at school one more time before she retires. While I was there I learned that my resignation was accepted by the school board last night, so I am officially a stay at home mom and couldn't be happier! Once we were done with lunch, Ten and I headed over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up a gift for my future sister-in-law's shower and then came home to spend around 3 hours in the back yard. I LOVE it back there. We kept on hanging out after John came home and he again (eventually) took Tenley on a run so that I could do the Cardio X workout. I did it in its entirety and managed to shower before they came home. I then fed Tenley a hodgepodge of a dinner (because she is kind of refusing to eat a lot of any one thing at the moment), gave her a bath to get the sunscreen and watermelon juice off of her (she is finally swallowing the watermelon!), and now we are ready for bed. Hopefully tomorrow will produce another good workout. It is the Shoulders and Arms workout that I enjoy but it is SO LONG. So we will see what happens. Tenley and I will be heading to the mall tomorrow afternoon to get some birthday gifts, so everything will have to center around that little outing. 81 days to go...

Lean Days 5 and 6: Some Good, Some Bad

Since I am writing this post on Saturday and neglected to post yesterday, I am sure you have assumed that I did not work out yesterday. You assumed right. Yesterday was such a beautiful, fantastic day and working out just didn't fit into that picture for me. But let me back up and let you know a little bit about Thursday night. So as stated in my last post, John and I were gearing up to go to The Cubby Bear and see George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. We left home around 8:00 and made it inside The Cubby Bear by 9 or so. It was a pretty thin crowd at first and I wasn't sure what to expect. Initially, there was a little bit of this and a little bit of that- lots of flannel, some tie-dye, a few hipsters, and some kind of weird-ish old people. As the night went on, I decided that I was a little out of place in my cute sequined shorts, salmon top, and heels. But that was OK- mama doesn't get to dress up very much. John kept trying to prepare me for what I would see as we waited (another hour!) for the band to come on. I couldn't figure out what the big deal was- they were only a band, right? It turns out that nothing in the world could prepare me for the strangeness that I would witness in the next 2 hours. Holy. Cow. First of all, when the whole band is on the stage there are about 25 people up there. NOT exaggerating. The fist layer of people (at the back of the stage) included a bass player, a (white) keyboard player with a shirt that read "I Love Mary Jane" (which at first I thought was in homage to his girlfriend but later figured out it had another meaning, another keyboard player whom I realized later had a lit joint hanging out of his mouth the ENTIRE show, and a guy who had a double guitar and a stocking hat with a spelunking light around his head. The next layer of people included a guitar player that looked like Lil' Wayne, a saxophone player that looked like he just rolled out of bed, a trumpet player with a camouflage shirt, a backup singing guy in a suit from the 70s, another backup singer in a really smooth looking modern suit, a girl backup singer in a psychedelic striped dress with her bra hanging out and a huge afro. Then, to top it off, there was George Clinton's son in a denim tuxedo whose shirt kept coming more and more unbuttoned as the night went on, a girl who appeared to be on crack in a "sexy" nurse's uniform and wore roller skates part of the time, a ripped guy in fuzzy white pants and no shirt with a fake nose and a cheesy fake gun, and at one point a guy in white face paint and Mickey Mouse gloves. And then there was George himself in a suit that was too small, a tie that was too short, and suspenders. At one point, the guy who was keeping the band supplied with water came out and rapped and George's granddaughter came out and rapped a NASTY song about weed and female private parts. And those are only the people I can remember. I think I could have gone up there and no one would have even noticed! It was quite a night. The music is DEFINITELY not my thing but John was in 7th heaven and thought it was the greatest show on the planet. It could have something to do with the contact high I'm sure we contracted from the white 20-somethings to our right who came to the show in a limo (??), but then again John is a true fan. He told me last night that they were going to be in Traverse City and the first thing I thought was "Dear Lord not when we are going to be there. Please. Because this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me." Thankfully he's going to be in TC in mid-May, NOT late July. After that eventful night, we slept in a little on Friday and then I spent all day with Tenley. John had the day off so he did lots of work in the yard and Tenley and I went to the park, played with her water table, and napped. By the time the evening rolled around, we decided to have a fire pit and make S'mores and I decided that workout was NOT in the cards. What a great day :) Today was a little bit better on the working out front. We got up, had breakfast, and then John took Ten and I did Kenpo. After that we got ready and took Tenley to see Sesame Street Live which was incredibly cute and she sat through the whole thing pretty riveted. It was a success :) I see a lot of Sesame Street in our future, more because John seems to be becoming obsessed with it. Once we left the show, we went to Babies R Us to get Tenley some new shoes and then came home. John just took off to go to a Sox game and Ten and I are here for the evening. I am ready to go to bed and it's only 5:30. Instead, we are going to run to Target to get some last minute Mother's Day cards and then take it easy together. :) 84 days to go...

Lean Day 4: Gearing Up for a Good Night

Today has been a really good day. Still no poop in sight for my child, but she slept a bit better last night and was in a great mood all day. I called the doctor about her bowel issues and they told me to increase her medication and to call them in a few days. It is beyond me why these people aren't more concerned- I feel like I need to take her to their office as she is going so that they can hear the gut wrenching cries that come out of her. It is so sad. It is even more worrisome that she hasn't gone in going on three days, especially now that I have doubled her medication. Yikes. I just hope she feels OK. John and I are getting ready to go downtown for the Parliament Funkadelic show at Cubby Bear and, as I write this, I am realizing that I should be in the shower. Instead, I am blogging while pumping. I DESPISE pumping and know that I am lucky that I don't have to do it very often. That still doesn't make the times I do have to pump any better. I really don't get a lot anymore when I pump which makes me wonder how much Tenley actually drinks when she nurses. She only nurses at morning, before her nap, and at night and I really don't thing she gets much. I've tried whole milk with her a couple of times and she just wrinkles her nose at it so I think it might be time to get a little more aggressive. What she eats and drinks is slowly becoming my new obsession. Along with her poop. Sigh. Although we are having kind of a random night, I was able to work out once John came home from work. I substituted Cardio for Yoga tonight and am glad I did. Then I blew it because we ordered a quick pizza for dinner. Oh well- at least I worked out. Sorry for the randomness of this post but I am not fully concentrating and I HAVE to get in the shower now! 86 days to go...

Lean Day 3: Shoulders, Bi, Tri...Shoulders, Bi, Tri

Today has been a very typical, normal day in the lives of Tenley and me. Besides the fact that she didn't sleep AGAIN last night, our day today went pretty much as it usually does. Breakfast followed by playtime/chores followed by a little time outside followed by lunch then a nap, then more playing/laundry until John gets home. John agreed to take Tenley this evening so that I could work out, so I fed her dinner around 6 and they have been gone shopping for Mother's Day (isn't that cute?) ever since. After calling my grandparents, I dove into Day 3 of P90X Lean. I already love this (as much as one can love working out with Tony) program more than the P90X "Classic" because the first three weeks are all of my favorite workouts. Today was my favorite Wednesday lifting workout which incorporates Shoulders, Biceps, and Triceps. The only bad thing about this workout is that it clocks in at 59 minutes and 40 seconds or something like that, so I did everything but the "bonus round" tonight since I thought I would be cutting it close on time to work out, shower, and eat. It was a good workout and my arms should feel it tomorrow. Tomorrow is supposed to be Yoga which means that it will more than likely be Cardio instead. That is if I get a chance to work out. John is a huge fan of George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic and they are playing at the Cubby Bear tomorrow night. He has talked about seeing them since we met (6 years!) and we have never made it to a show together. Now, this is not my first choice of bands to see. Let's face it- the best concert I've been to besides DMB was N'Sync where I screamed like a 9 year old girl- so Parliament Funkadelic is not really my bag. But, John is so beyond excited to see them that I couldn't say no. We will see how tomorrow night goes. :) It will be a late night but John is taking the day off on Friday so at least I won't be caring for Tenley alone...in theory... Speaking of Tenley, I have discovered two funny things about her. First, She loves to fake laugh and it is pretty much the funniest/cutest thing on the planet. It's somewhere between a laugh and a cough but she makes no facial expression while doing it. Second, she does a funny thing when eating watermelon. At first I thought she didn't like it, because she was spitting it out. But, in actuality, she takes a piece, puts it in her mouth, chews it up and sucks all the juice out of it, and then sticks her tongue in and out of her mouth until the piece falls back out. It totally reminds me of the Sex and the City episode where they go to LA and Miranda goes out to eat steak with her friend who used to live in New York. He's lost all of this weight to try and fit in with the LA scene and Miranda finds out that he does so because he doesn't actually eat his food- he chews it up to get the taste and then spits it in the napkin so he doesn't have to digest it. Totally gross, but totally Tenley. What a nut! 87 days to go...

P90X Lean Days 1 and 2- Here We Go Again

For anyone who reads this blog and hopes to find something new and exciting, I am here to apologize to you. I don't feel like I have any time to write anything fun like I used to and the few minutes I do have that I have devoted to this blog is the only way to keep myself accountable for working out. Like writing it down every day is a small victory. So, as the title of this post reads, here we go again. I decided to take about 2 1/2 weeks off from working out, more so because of life circumstances than anything else. You see, I have always been someone to start something new (or again) on a Monday because if I start at any other point in the week I don't have the motivation. So last Monday when I was determined to jump back in, John would not watch Tenley and that was the end of my workout reboot. Thankfully she cooperated yesterday and took a late afternoon nap allowing me to get Day 1 in and tonight John took her to our nephew's baseball game (which I really, really wanted to go to but passed on for THIS) so I could get Day 2 in. I have opted to go with the P90X Lean program because it incorporates all of the more cardio-esque workouts that I enjoy so much. My main goal is just to stay toned until at least our vacation (June 9th!) and then beyond if I can. Summer always presents difficulties for me in the workout arena because I am always traveling to my mom and dad's and we all know how well I stick to a workout regimen there. :) SO, yesterday Tony's Lean program called for Core Synergistics which I did (even the 'bonus round') and today I had Cardio X which I did even though I had a massive headache. Either the workout or the Motrin that I took before the workout must have worked because my head feels much better. Now I have to jump in the shower before John and Ten come home because I think we are going to have S'mores around the fire pit. So much for that workout. lol As a side note, I have to put in a few words about my child. In the past couple of days, someone has stolen my sweet little girl and replaced her with a screaming whiny monster. She is not sick (aside from her pooping issues which we have medicine for) and she is also not sleeping well. Whomever this is, I wish that they would give me Tenley back. My head can't take any more of the piercing screams when I tell her no or don't feed her fast enough. 88 more days to go...