alr

Oh, and I'm just counting the exercise walks and walking around town (library, etc.) since I have no pedometer and have to use google maps to figure out mileage. Hopefully I can get a pedometer and log more off road trips though!

I've needed a good excuse to start logging workouts again now that I am finally unpregnant and allowed to get back to normal! Count me in; I'm feeling Tookish!

I hate to say this, but. . . It doesn't. I'm less neurotic this time, but I think it's because I'm too old and have too many irons in the fire to obsess effectively this time. My first pregnancy ended in an emergency premature delivery and I was a nervous wreck the next time because of that, but the truth is that most women go all nine months without a hitch. Eating right prevents a ton of the major risks (pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, neural tube defects) and REALLY helps with everything else. Flaxseed oil helps with the mental fuzziness some. By the second trimester, you will already know about most potential stuff that could go wrong, so extra meditation and scheduling daydreaming time and nap time help a little until then, but once you get to the fourth month, you're most likely in the clear. OH! And childbirth is not that bad. Mine were both c-sections but I was in labor with the first and did not realize that I was having full-blown contractions until my water broke after 48 hours because they are so much less horrible than they are made out to be. Your body knows what it's doing. Every mammal does this all the time and we are the only one that needs a hospital for it. You'll be great.

Thanks! My last two pregnancies were not shining examples of knocked up athleticism and I gained over 50 pounds each time, so I have a whole lot of motivation to do things differently this time, although I did learn one huge lesson from #2: walking as much as possible helps tons. I had my son in Germany, where I used my feet and public transportation to get everywhere, so even after months of bedrest and excessive gain, I lost ALL the weight in less than a year by doing three things: walking everywhere, wearing my baby strapped to my chest at almost all times, and breastfeeding on demand. The nice side effect was that the last two made for an incredibly healthy and happy baby. This time I want to start the healthy living BEFORE childbirth, and have started walking school runs already, although my children strenuously object to being carried papoose style anymore.

Hooray! Me too! We can do nine month challenges together! Awesome goals, by the way!

Anyone else planning to double their waistlines and gain about 25-30 pounds in the next nine months or so? Suddenly the old rules and goals seem to go right out the window. It's going to be a little hard to give up the big lifts, but coming up with safe and exciting ways to stay active and healthy is sort of a new and inspiring mission. Any ideas?

I love your attitude! Sounds good!

I am a little smaller than average on top on a fat day, so I get your concern about losing what you've got, but any exercise that improves your posture is going to make your boobs look better even if they are a little smaller. Also, building some shoulder muscles and pecs will make you look a bit curvier without adding fat. I've gotten way more compliments and attention for being generally pretty fit than I ever did when I was less fit but a little curvier, so I wouldn't sweat it if I were you.As to the crunches thing, if you absolutely have to do sit-ups, try a variation like get-up sit-ups for more results (holding one hand straight in front of you with a small weight - even a can of soup would work) and then progress to Turkish get-ups as you get stronger. All you need for modified dips and pull-ups is a sturdy table and chairs. Bear crawls are another great bodyweight core exercise and they work your back, gluts, and legs, too. I do stability ball crunches myself from time to time, but mostly because I enjoy them and it is encouraging to be able to do 100+ of anything, even if it doesn't really do much. OH and glut bridges are good for core strengthening too. There is really no such thing as toning. There is muscle and there is fat. Reducing fat and building muscle makes you look harder and leaner. If you reduce fat without building muscle, you generally don't change your shape or look any more "toned." It does sound like you are really pretty thin for your height, so don't worry about putting on weight as long as you are getting stronger and feeling better as you do it.

I just wrote a whole reply and then lost it. Am too tired to rewrite tonight. Grrr.

Thanks! I was really excited about getting up to 80#. I want to be able to deadlift more than bodyweight but it's going to take time. Right now I have a week and a half until I go back to a job where I usually spend a lot of time squatting, carrying boxes, running up and down stairs, and walking around 10-12 miles per shift, so I really want to get back to my old level of fitness. I know I won't be doing sprints for a few weeks, but I figure being strong will help compensate for getting winded quickly.

I love Tara Stiles. She is really down to earth, philosophical about it occasionally but without the woowoo, super low-key, and funny as hell. Her podcasts are amazing and it's easy to string several together to get longer workouts so they are like having a portable yoga studio in your laptop or Ipod, which is so nice. Got my albuterol today, so hopefully no more post-jumping-jack dizziness. 1) and 3) see here: http://nerdfitness.com/community/showthread.php?1269-how-I-hurt-myself-and-run-around-and-play&p=44012&viewfull=1#post44012 This was the first time I have worked out for over an hour in a while and it felt so good. I think I want to do the deep breaths podcast daily for a while. It should help. The get-up sit-ups hurt some on my left side, where I either have pleurisy or cartilege damage from a fall (and no one can tell me which, even after x-rays and MRIs) but much less than they would have a couple of months ago, and I think doing exercises that work each side seperately will help me recover from the lopsidedness that has been plaguing me all spring. Also, I think a lot of core, back, and chest exercises will help my posture, thus enabling better breathing, and helping me heal from the pneumonia. I am deadlifting 80 right now, so if I can get to 90 next week, I will be at 100 before the end of the challenge for sure. 2) got up to 2100 on the breathing contraption, so improvement there too. Slight improvement, but I'll take it. 4) no progress 5) wrote and accidentally erased a journal entry 6)about to take a shower and then read NVC while drinking Breathe Easy tea on the couch P.S. Sort of unrelated, but also sort of related because I had a shitty day and lifted anyway: we had a blowout on the highway on the way to go pick up a scoby for brewing kombucha. It was really tempting to just cry and go to bed, but I called the kombucha lady, and am trusting God and the universe and whomever Joe moves this week to send us enough tip money so that we can get a used tire to hold us over until we can afford a new set this fall. I am without a car for the time being, though. P.P.S. Talked to my boss and am going back to work in a week and a half. REALLY need the money and a sedentary lifestyle absolutely kills me and makes me horrid to be around so this is very good. I am not sure why I have not been shot or strangled every single time I have had to take time off for convalescence, but if I can control my crankiness for a little bit longer, I will be able to escape the house daily again and even get money for my kids' school supplies for doing it! P.P.P.S. I am so so excited about having a steady supply of kombucha. I do not function without lots of probiotics, but dairy tears me up too, so this should make my gut very very happy.

Wow. I knew there was a reason I bought my own weights.

1) Had forgotten how much I love Tara Stiles's Yoga to Get Out of Your Own Way Challange. I got really out of breath which has never happened to me with yoga before but I am picking up some albuterol today so hopefully that will help. I also walked for about 45 minutes and did a beginner body-weight circuit with a couple of changes to make it a little harder. After 30 jumping jacks, I was so lightheaded it was scary. 2) I got the breathing thing OVER 2000 yesterday. YAY! Now I have to aim for 2500. I can't believe I already met a goal. Nothing on 3-6 yesterday, but I did see a pulmonary specialist and knit some. Today's my birthday and I am going to go pick up a scoby from someone on craigslist so I can start brewing my own kombucha and get more probiotics in my life. This is very exciting. I like kombucha A LOT. Also, I am halfway to 70!

Ok, so last challenge I ended up in the hospital with pneumonia and opportunistic infections again. Ugh. I have spent most of the two weeks since I got out in bed, in pain, eating and trying to breathe. So I am somewhat more out of shape than last round but also somewhat in better shape since I had two units of blood (no more anemia! yay!) and have gotten rid of the opportunistic infections even if my lungs are still cruddy. My fitness goals need to be centered around my lungs this challenge, so: 1) Yoga every day. It doesn't have to be multiple sun salutations or anything, but at the very least a Tara Stiles podcast since that will get me breathing deeply and keep me centered. 2) Use my inhalation torture contraption at least three times a day. I can get the thing up to 1500 and I want to get it up to 2000. 3) Deadlift 100 lbs. I am at 70 pounds now with pretty minimal training so I think 100 is very doable. I plan to achieve this by working it 3x a week along with my other strength training. 4) Get my student loans in order. This one goes toward my longer term goal of getting back into college in the spring. Retail is no job for a mom with two kids. I want to be a nutritionist and I can't do that until I finish school. 5) Write at least every other day. I have been journaling since I have been unable to work due to pneumonia and it is making me feel more connected and centered. 6) WHOA! LOTS OF GOALS! Finish reading Nonviolent Communication. It is cheesily written but insightful and effective and I need to spend some time working on how I interact with people so I can be more of an instrument of peace. I named my kids after the Assissi saints and it's time to return to the peacemaking, compassionate family lifestyle that I promised them by giving them such burdensome names to live up to. The only part of my body that I am thrilled with right now is my upper back. The rest of me has gotten kind of softer, but I am still 5'3" and recently up to 125 pounds. I can live with those stats but my arms and waist better be more badass by the end of this.

I have mostly refused to wear constrictive clothing pretty much since birth, so I can and do do a lot of exercise in my normal stuff, but I also have a couple of pairs of yoga pants and cut off sweats that I will typically wear for Official and Planned Workout Activities, mostly because they are lightweight and I would have to be a masochist to try to run in Texas in jeans and sleeves. Jeans are also sort of unwieldy for yoga and pilates, so any type of flexibility stuff gets done in cut-off sweats, yoga pants, or pajamas. Come to think of it, a whole lot of sleeping and housework gets done in my exercise clothes, too, so the line blurs both ways.

My first round of pneumonia came after eating too little and working out too much for a few months. I can't say for certain that calorie deficit led to prolonged and recurrent infections, but before getting very sick I experienced several other symptoms of too little food and ignored them, and at no point in my undereating/overtraining spree did my caloric intake drop anywhere near what you have been surviving on AND I am a 120 pound woman with a bmi and bfp on the low side of the healthy range. So to echo everyone else, EAT MORE FOOD! And to put my own spin on it, ENJOY MORE FOOD! Find some more stuff you like and can eat throughout the day! Carry a big bag of produce with you and you'll be getting more fiber (necessary) and micronutrients (also necessary) all day long without adding too many more calories. Then push the protein a bit harder and you will feel so much better! Good luck.

I am starting to come to terms with some health stuff that is just not fun, and trying to be happy with a different kind of epicness since it looks like this will not be the year I run ten miles or do 100 pushups. Any kind of contact sport is a huge risk because of osteopenia and my third hospitalization for pneumonia in the past year makes running look like a bad idea for the moment, and all of that is really depressing, BUT then I stumbled on a link to this guy and you know what? I may be down for a couple of weeks and I may have to adjust my goals and be more realitic about the difference between a goal and a daydream, but I AM NOT OUT. I can't run a mile right now but I have a bizarre ability to walk huge distances happily and I can and will focus on that and on lifting for now. My lungs NEED to be worked to get over this round of pneumonia. I may have to buy a couple of rugs for the living room to be able to do what I think I can do (bad bad flooring and foundation problems) but that should be doable in the next couple of months and I can just be super cautious setting weights down in the meantime. A friend visited me in the hospital who was on the return leg of a solo cross-country road trip that involved leaving her kids with her husband for a few months. The time alone was what she needed to follow her dream of writing. I have always wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail but most days I spend every minute preoccupied with my family's needs. Maybe that hike needs to be added to my bucket list, and maybe it should go toward the top.

I got out of bed today and ate at the table. It's really pathetic for this to be an accomplishment. I also ran some errands with help driving, but my chest feels like a gang of angry donkeys have been using it for kicking practice so I may not manage much else tonight. Also, I am eating everything that sounds good. So ice cream bars? Check. Plums from the farm stand? Check. Second helping of brisket with Stubb's sauce? Oh hell yeah. Brisket may actually be a good thing though, because I haven't eaten much red meat in the past year and was so anemic that they gave me two units of blood on monday before deciding I was safe to go home the next day. The dilaudid has worn off but I am still on Augmentin and Zithromax and spent last week hooked up to Zosin, Levaquin, Flagyl, etc. The masses in my right lung have not really budged and it seems like I have pleuresy on the left side because the masses from winter have cleared up over there but I have excruciating pain there when I inhale, but I am supposed to get a new x-ray next week and hopefully there will be progress by then. I am going to try to go on a walk tomorrow.

pneumonia 3, alr 0 I am feeling really really overwhelmed.

Just joined. It's all buggy on my computer though.

I get hypoglycemic really easily too. I think it is because the liver stores a particular type of sugar and my liver is a mess, but no official explanation has ever been given to me. I am not amazing really. I just get up and do what anyone else does: work, play, etc. What is amazing is what every human is capable of when given no choice. Don't downplay IBS. It's no fun at all. UC is pretty close to the same thing, so I totally get what you deal with and wouldn't wish it on anyone. What is PCOS? I have noticed that the paleo diet is very close to the specific carbohydrate diet, which is supposed to help IBS and other autoimmune gut issues. I can't manage paleo but am thinking about going to the SCD since the only grains that seem to agree with me are corn and rice (and I LOVE absolutely anything made with cornmeal). It's interesting to hear that going paleo helps your IBS. I hope it keeps helping!

WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!WAY TO GO!!!!!!!!!!

Healthy becomes a relative term, doesn't it? You are definitely setting a good example for him. Seeing you overcome will teach him that he can overcome. When I was first diagnosed with everything, I had no role models and let myself listen too much to doctors who encouraged me to take it easy; I was afraid my body wouldn't be able to handle all the lifting and running and other stuff I had always been able to do before. I really regret those wasted years. Your son is so lucky.

I totally hear you on not being treated the same ever again. Figuring out when and if to disclose is so tricky. I have already outlived my initial prognosis, so by my standards, I'm doing great, but I get a lot of 'should you be doing X,Y, or Z?' which is really irritating. YES. I should. I only get one life and I'm not going to throw more limitations at it than I already have. On the other hand, occasionally I hit a wall and really can't do something, and sometimes it is something I could do just a few months before.Getting sick and wasting and then recovering and getting back in shape and then getting sick again makes for really slow progress. Having people act like I should not even try because I have a handy excuse to fail and give up is really annoying. I AM having to take things a little easier these days because years of poor liver function have given me osteopenia. I really messed up my ribs falling off a porch a couple of months ago and couldn't afford to go to the hospital, so my rib cage is extremely lopsided now although from the recent lack of pain, I think whatever was broken or dislocated has healed enough to go on with lifting again. I really want to join a fighting gym but am afraid my bones can't take the impact. Corticosteroids vs. joints is awful. They were concerned I was developing necrosis of the hip right before I had to have my colon removed. It was a tough call but losing a bunch of intestine seemed like a safer bet than staying on prednisone. ONLY tumor removals and trachs, my foot. Those are scars to wear proudly too! (Mine are a hernia repair, where I had to have an ostomy for a year, and a foot long one from removing my colon and two children.)

And the fine print is killer!