Inspired by the turkey

I weighed myself today. Three pounds less than at the doctor's a month ago. Did a little "Yippee" jig till I remembered that they wouldn't let me weigh myself naked in the halls of the allergist's office, so I probably still weigh exactly what I did before. Today's exercise was 20 minutes of Pilates with the kids, then a long walk with everyone outside. Husband played soccer with Son and his new ball for ages before the walk. We've made a pact to try to eat healthfully between now and Christmas in anticipation of the total indulgence of cinnamon rolls, pies, and other sticky sweets.

My ankle felt so good today that I even managed to jog a few little stretches. But really the defining difference in me right now is sleep. I've managed finally to catch up over this little break. I think if I can keep sleeping enough, maybe I can keep in a good enough frame of mind to exercise more. A great excuse to sleep. As if any mommy really needed an excuse rather than simply time.

Yoga for kids

I finally did it. Even though I'm older than 4, the yoga and pilates for kids videos at least gave me 30 minutes of good stretching today. And it was fun to have the kids play along. It turns out that Daughter is so flexible that she can stand up straight, then fold herself in half and rest the top of her head on the floor. It turns out that I am so inflexible that I can barely reach my own toes while sitting on the floor. I used to be a pretty bendy gal and all that, so apparently this is something I need to work on....as soon as I stop stuffing my face with turkey and pie...

Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving! (Husband even managed an hour of raking on Turkey-day. Do I get to count cleaning and cooking for 5 hours as exercise? Probably not...a shame...)

Husband zooms ahead...

While I struggle and sag along, Husband is kicking butt in the exercise department. He worked out Mon AND Tues already, doing weights and cardio. Although I'm tempted to count carrying children through the grocery store while shopping as "doing weights," I get that it doesn't really count. The ankle is better enough that I have left off the brace and can walk reasonably well. But it seems to work only as long as I don't try to swivel my foot in any way, and I still can't really manage uneven terrain...so I'm restricted to walking or Pilates...or perhaps Tae Bo tonight with Son. But today I've got the whole day with kids in daycare, so I'll add some note to this post a bit later about what great exercise I did. :-) Just wanted to say, for now, props to the Hubby!!

P.S. I've been trying to keep accurate track of the exercise counts in the list to the left, but I'm not sure if I've caught everything. Only the current and previous week will show up, but all weeks will remain archived. Use the little tool link at the bottom of that list to update your # of days exercised if I've missed some for you at any point. Maybe we should have prizes or something for whomever exercises the most days in each 30?

No Excuses!!

I figured out a new way to exercise with practically no advanced preparation. (Don't even need a sports bra!!!) It's called in-house stair climbing. When you can no longer stand your giant ass bumping into furniture you used to clear, there's no one home to help with small children, and it's yucky/rainy/cold outside, just run to the stairs in your house. Up and down, up and down, up and down, until you are purple . . . only took me 10 times to get to a lovely violet hue. Then stop, and begin sit-ups or butt-ups, or whatever floor work you can manage. Once you have your breath back, go back to the stairs. Put in a good 30 minutes, then call it a day. It was quite a leg workout! I was a bit sore this morning, which is always a good sign. Must try this at least twice a week. Felt really pathetic, but it made the meatballs I had for dinner seem not so sinful.



7 year old is being much nicer to classmates and parents lately. I have not started the jar, but it is on "The List." I think it is genius!



Happy T-day to all! Hope MommyT and MIQuilter are on the mend!

A new week, a new determination!

After a pathetic week of (non) exercise and battling a bad cold I started this week off with a bang! I have the entire week off from work so I'm pretending that don't really have to work for a living and can instead sleep until I wake up and spend the rest of the time watching tv and eating bon-bons. OK, well, that's not really what I'd do. Eating bon-bons is what got me into this "must exercise" predicament in the first place. Husband is going to visit his family and leaving me here to keep the house and pets fed. This means that I have NO EXCUSE for not beginning each day this week with a good 1/2 hour of cardio. Today, I rode my bike for about 25 minutes and then I did an hour and half of leaf detail in the yard. Since it's already mid afternoon, I likely won't get as much done on the Christmas presents today (which is my other main goal for the week) but I actually feel GOOD!

JH - did you get the discipline jar put together this weekend? I'm glad to hear that son was better behaved later in the week regardless of resorting to drastic measures.

Mommytime - how's your ankle? Last I heard you'd sprained it. I assume it's better but it's probably good you didn't do too much on it last week. As for exercise that incorporates the kids - I know your son would love to do windsprints in the yard with you. Daughter can ride the dog alongside once she tires out of running on her own. It might be about that time to try to get the basement done too - so you can do stretching and weights a bit and the kids can entertain themselves by bouncing off walls that don't have nice art on them.

Hope everyone has a good/relaxing/productive/not-too-crazy holiday week!

Backsliding, anyone??

Well, I can hardly be proud of myself for having my first day of exercise this week be THURSDAY, but I suppose it's better than none at all. I spent an hour outside today raking leaves with the kids and filled three big cans. It's more work than it sounds, since one important step they both insist upon is me picking them up and bouncing them up and down like butter-churn dashers so they can stomp the leaves down in the can. I figure between the twisting motion of raking, and the curling of kids, I at the very least get to count this as weight training. Of course, this doesn't get me much closer to training for a marathon--and in fact it barely gets me closer to exercising for 30 days. But it was fun and felt good, and I can feel the pleasant strain of having done something in my abs right now. And it makes me realize that the best way to exercise with the kids around is to involve them, since I'm just too dog-tired at the end of the day to put on a sports bra after they're in bed. Really, being all-mommied-out is what this challenge is about, right? So we have to come up with creative ways to avoid that. I'll welcome any ideas brighter than mine!!

Husband, by contrast, has done excellently well. Yesterday, he exercised for AN HOUR, doing both cardio and weights at work. I keep hoping that will rub off.

Hope things are getting better with 7yrs old, JH. (any thoughts on the suggestions?) And I hope you're feeling better, MIQ. At least it's sunny today. So much better!

A little sunshine, please???

Anyone else feeling low due to our dreary days? I am having a rough time getting outside because it just looks so gloomy!
I did, however, do 30 minutes of "floorwork" last night- sore abs today. Yahoo!!! Better than nothing, I am sure.
Have been battling 7 year old's bad behavior at school and the exercise has cheered me up.
Anyone have any ideas on how to get son to stop saying "this sucks" and "jackass" on the playground?
Loss of t.v, computer, ,and all video games has not helped yet.
This mommy wants to run away!!!!

No, I actually did NOT cave to my excuse today!

So, as soon as my 11am meeting was over, I went to my desk to get my workout clothes and head down to the gym for my exercise..... only to be met by an empty desk drawer! I'd taken all my workout clothes and shoes home over the weekend (they were getting stinky) and forgot to bring them back this morning. Excellent, I thought.... I couldn't have crafted a better excuse to not exercise than THAT! On the way home from work though, I thought about how much better I feel when I actually do workout. So, without giving myself enough time to think about or question it, I hopped into workout clothes and just now finished 30 minutes of "sweatin to the oldies".... ok, so I wasn't really listening to music - I was reading again. And it wasn't quite 30 minutes.... I have to be honest here, it was 27 1/2 minutes. But I finished my reading material and my knees were starting to ache so I thought that a few minutes of stretching would have to be enough. Besides, it was 27 1/2 minutes longer than I'd thought I would get done today :)

I hope everyone elses day was productive and filled with at least a few minutes of doing something for yourself.

What is the sound of one leg running?

Well, I was a philosophy minor in college, after all... The answer in my house right now is "no sound at all" -- not because I have some deep philosophical explanation but because the other leg is in a hard ankle brace due to being badly sprained yesterday, and the only running I'm doing is crutch-assisted. Which is to say, no running at all. Walking on crutches almost counts as exercise in itself, since it takes all sorts of ab, back and shoulder muscles I hardly knew I had. But I'm figuring it's pretty lame of me to count going back and forth to the bathroom as exercise, just because I'm on crutches, so I'm not counting anything today. The ankle definitely feels better today than yesterday, and I'm hoping that by tomorrow, I'll be able to do a Pilates tape, just modifying slightly for the swollen joint. So much for my newly-refurbished jogger/race-car... But, I am determined not to let this completely defeat me, so I'll post a report tomorrow about the possibility, if anyone was wondering, of mastering one-legged Pilates.

Get the whole family into the act

Reprise of last weekend: everyone bundled up for Family Raking Fun. Nearly an hour of really very pleasant exercise. I got an extra boost from having to jump Son (41 lbs.) up and down repeatedly so that he could compress the leaves in the yard waste cans. Makes me almost think I should start lifting weights...then, I get wise and realize I *already* lift weights--just not ones made of metal. Dog got to run around like crazy with her canine pal next door, and when Daughter got bored of sitting in damp leaves for forced-cute pictures, Husband took her for a little walk in the jogger/race car. Casualties of the day were relatively minor -- one rake lost its head, and one shoe had to be thoroughly cleaned afterwards due to the leavings of some random animal. Net result is that we all got our exercise in, we filled three cans with leaves so the Hyper-Vigilant Neighborhood Association won't send us a snarky letter again this year about not getting our raking done soon enough, and since we were done by 9:40am, we still had time to go to the library before lunch.

I'm totally with Joshenry on this one: exercise really does give you more energy. (BTW, I'm super impressed with the lunchtime plan, so efficient and a great break in the middle of the day. Just don't skip lunch on hungry days!) My 2 cents about today, JH, is to skip the report cards and either run around with the kids outdoors or do an exercise video. With your man out of town, you'll have time to do the report cards tonight after 5yrs and 7yrs go to bed. And, really, who needs a spotless house? If you have one, you'll just shame the rest of us!!

A Walking Lunch

Yesterday during my 45 minute lunch break, I chose to walk instead of eat (I had eaten a fairly large breakfast- wasn't super hungry!). It felt really great! I may try this a few times again next week in an effort to squeeze some exercise in. When I got back to work I felt energized - - -instead of full and sluggish! Today will be a challenge as my husband is out of town, and I'm on mommy duty. One son has a birthday party (still need to go to Target and buy gift) and the house is an absolute disaster. Do I leave the house a mess and exercise instead??? What about the 10 report cards I still need to finish?? Decisions, decisions . . .

Instead of Pilates, I chose lipstick

Well, I felt great all day--lots of energy, excellent motivation, efficient at grading exams (my nemesis), things going super-well with the chapter I'm writing, and exercise being something I was really looking forward to. -sigh- Somehow, the writing went really well, and suddenly it was dinner-time, and I was cooking, doing bedtime, cleaning up... and now it's 8:00, and my friend is coming over for a mommy's night out, and I don't have time for exercise and a shower before she gets here. So, I decided exercise will simply be first on the agenda tomorrow, since tonight, I really just want to have a little fun at the end of a tough week. At least Daughter's mouth is all healed and she feels better. As for me, I *look* better, since right now, I'm wearing lipstick. With luck, the deep red lips will redirect attention away from the thighs that once again have been un-challenged by the days' events.

"I like those red lips, mommy," said Son, watching me don make-up while he used the potty. "Where did those red lips come from?"
"It's called lipstick."
"No, where did those red lips come from?" he insisted, as if I'd not put color on my everyday lips, but instead *removed* them and put on new, fancier, redder ones.
I explained how lipstick made my regular lips red.
Undaunted, Son replied, schema un-altered, "Those are very pretty red lips, mommy."

Crashing and Burning

I have had a very unproductive 2 days! Feel as though I am being swallowed alive by work and home and am choosing not to exercise or eat well. I am choosing, however to drink actual martinis during the week. Yikes!!!
I plan to change all of this today. Hopefully, my Mommytime buddy and I will be able to meet up tonight to exercise. Maybe for more than 30 min. to make up for my sluggishness!!
As soon as Parent-Teacher conferences are over, I know this will be easier.

Yesterday's lameness

Well, I missed my 30 minutes yesterday. After waking up at 5:15 with the kids, working till 5:30pm, and then managing cranky bedtimes, etc, I just couldn't do anything except go to sleep early. Food fess up: I ate two mini KitKats from Halloween at work (darn that Communal Temptation Counter!). Food good news: I resisted eating any candy or junk at home, despite the fact that I forgot to take our own Halloween candy to work, and I ate breakfast at home and home-made soup for lunch instead of buying high-carb low-nutrition stuff at work for those meals. One small step at a time, right?

This morning, I cleaned out all the parts of the bike trailer/jogger in preparation for taking the kids on a run later today. Will post later on my success (or not) with this experiement...

Better than nothing

After a full day of baby-mouth tending (ohhhhhh....can you say weepy...I feel so bad for her), I was prepared to be full of excuses again tonight. But when I logged on and read how great Joshenry felt after yesterday's run, I was actually envious. So, I turned on some Pilates on Demand, and now I feel great too. I only did 20 minutes because that was the only workout that didn't require equipment. But after the day I had trying to make it through the competing demands of uncomfortable Daughter and Cabin-fever Son, 20 minutes of solid ab work felt like something. I would just like to add that my current drug of choice is the kids' candy-filled Halloween pumpkins, and that if it were crack, I would have been higher than a kite all day. As a result of my total incompetence at self-control, I am taking all the leftovers that we didn't pass out to trick-or-treaters to work tomorrow to put on the Communal Temptation Counter. This way my colleagues can fight the siren call of candy, and I can be left in peace. (There's little temptation to eat my way through Son's pumpkin, since his photographic memory for brightly colored wrappers makes it more unpleasant than it's worth to try to explain where the shiny silver and red wrapped one went.) Tomorrow morning, with Husband staying home with Daughter, I might even go for a run before I go to work!

Husband walked for 30 minutes today at lunch, despite the chilly rain. So far, so good.

First Day!

It felt great to get outside this afternoon before the rain to do my first 30 minute activity. I race-walked from our house to a local park, jogged around a baseball diamond 3 times, then walked back home. I have a feeling I will be a bit sore tomorrow, but it'll be a good kind of sore. I haven't exercised since August!!! Will try hard to stay away from 5Year old's birthday cake tonight. Glass of wine instead!
Mommytime, the blog looks great!

I wanted to train for a marathon, but...

...that seemed perhaps a bit to ambitious for someone who once-upon-a-time could run 5 8-minute miles, but who has only used her new running shoes 4 times since the new baby was born ("new baby" is now Daughter, aged 18 months). The perhaps more reasonable exercise plan of the moment: 30 minutes a day for 30 days. Doesn't matter what the exercise is, as long as it counts. Lifting a heavily loaded fork doesn't count. Husband and at least one good friend will join me on this quest. We'll all post every day, with notes about what we did for 3o minutes, to keep each other accountable. We all did the totally scary thing and took all our measurements today so we can keep up with how we're doing. The idea is to spend 30 minutes a day on making self feel better about self. Today's exercise: raking leaves for nearly an hour. Outdoors on a clear fall day was cheerful and made exercise really painless. The whole family got into the act: Husband raked, piled, and chased Daughter; Son raked, buried himself in leaves and leapt out at his dad; Daughter trotted back and forth with a few leaves in her hands, and tried to help drag garbage cans around. We all got starving and then went out to lunch for udon noodle soup. A good start.

Yet another thing that will need daily attention?!?!?!?

So, I have this dear friend who has three small children (I only have two), who one day calmly explained to me in response to the competing melt-down crying fits and endless requests for help with some project that were interrupting our long-distance attempt to catch up over the phone, "And this is why Mommy needs a Martini at lunch time." Every time I feel like I might start pulling out my hair if I have to draw one more truck--which almost never looks like the picture in Son's head, and hence typically results in a hysterical crying fit of torn and tortured paper--I think of my friend's solution. It always makes me smile. But since I have yet actually to make myself a martini at lunch-time, I figured I could use a metaphorical martini. Hence, this blog. Not exactly the same as the gorgeous French Martinis I used to order in grad school (mmm....chilled Absolut Citroen and Chambord, layered in a verrrrrry cold glass). Yet perhaps close to as satisfying. At this point, anything that gets me a few minutes all to myself, where no one is sitting on my lap, demanding anything, where I'm not grading papers, answering student emails, folding laundry, or doing some other task required of being a professor, a wife, or a mommy seems like it might produce as much of a buzz as a good, stiff drink.

I wonder a little if I'm nuts: here's something else to do every day, along with the feeding and habitat maintaining of family and pets, and I was just complaining not two hours ago about never having enough time to get everything done. On the other hand: really, shouldn't every Mommy have time for just one martini every day?!