Having a baby is nothing like I thought it would be. They don't just "go along" with your plans, sit happily in their stroller or car seat while you shop or workout, and they definitely don't do the same thing more than a week or two in a row, leaving each day pretty unpredictable. This makes living a "fit and healthy" lifestyle very very challenging.
This may be a mean thought, but I often think if you can't live a healthy lifestyle or reach fitness goals before a baby, you're going to have a heck of a time reaching it after. I only say that because I always think, "how in the world did I struggle to find motivation to go to the gym when the window of opportunity was like 5 hours long?!" Throw in sleep deprivation and a complete elimination of naps and you have yourself quite the challenge to scrape up motivation. (I haven't taken a nap in 4 months.)
Anyway, as many know I have started teaching a HIIT/ plyometrics class at Snap. I was scared to death to start this. I wasn't in the best shape of my life, still needed to lose about 10 lbs, and just knew no one would come. I also wanted to try something different with the class and wasn't sure how it would translate. I've always been really motivated by music. Timing in music. When I workout with my headphones blaring, I always wait for the "drop" or high intensity part of the songs to lift or burpee too. So, I wanted to focus my class around this idea even though I had never really seen anyone else do it. It took a lot more work than I expected. Sure, it'd be easy to write down a list of 5 exercises, put on some moderately motivating music and have everyone do the list 3 times, but I wanted to somehow choreograph it to time the workouts to the loud intense parts of the song. Maybe it's the inner dancer/cheerleader in me that never quite died.
My first class went well as far as attendence. It's a tiny gym so my turnout expectations aren't that high. I think I had about 7 or 8 which is enough to fill up the studio and be considered a "full class." I learned a lot with my choreographed workouts that first class though and needed a good dose of confidence as well. I changed the exercises way too often, gave little to no notice when they changed, and tried to do too many changes within a song. It wasn't the smoothest. Next class I had another good turnout and made my exercises simpler and more repetitive so each song didn't have 15 exercises in it. I also figured out how to count down in a way that let everyone know when we were going to switch exercises. After talking with a couple of class attendents, it was decided that I would add a second class in the week. I was stoked! This was going well.
I decided to add a Thursday class and the attendence was pretty disappointing for a few weeks. I knew it was happening. Failure. Why had I started this class? Why did I get excited and add a second class so soon? Each class took a ton of work and many Thursday's it felt like my work was wasted time. One time, only my mom came. (Thanks mom!) But, I made the most of it and we had fun busting out the workout together and I didn't have to come up with another workout for the following Monday. Trying to be positive.
I confronted my Monday class and the owners of the gym and they said to just give it time. I announced more confrontationally to my Monday class to COME TO MY THURSDAY CLASS DANGITT! Or I'm cancelling it! Attendence picked up. :)
Fastforward 10 weeks and 18 classes later (can you believe it?), and things are going so great. Better than I imagined actually! I've gotten creative with some of the classes and changed up the format and equipment and get good feedback on the changes. I do fear that when summer ends, people will get back into their year long routines, lose motivation, and quit coming. Hopefully it won't. But I'm also considering stepping into the realm of 1 on 1 personal training. I love the gym. I love helping people. I love hearing testimonies. I've heard my class clients tell me they're finally losing weight, seeing big differences, getting so much stronger, and running better! I want to take it to a step further and help people 1 on 1. It's hard financially to make the switch to the gym more because I work at a hospital and more time at the gym means less time at the hospital- which is essentially my career. Come fall, I think I'm ready to follow this passion of being at the gym and helping people and see it through. My only hesitation is that the time to train clients is in the morning or evening. I secretly (maybe not so secretly) hate waking up at 5 am and evening times take time away from my husband and sweet baby. So, I'll have to weigh these considerations and make a decision about what I'm willing to do.
As far as weight loss, here are my stats and a quick summary! I got in the best shape of my life April 2015 weighing in at 120 lbs. I got pregnant in May at around 123 lbs and gained 30 lbs exactly which got me to 153 lbs at delivery. I thought I was going to lose all this weight in the hospital and ended up only losing like 9 lbs after 2 weeks. You're telling me I have 21 lbs to lose on my own?! UGH! It's been a slow process spreading out over 5 months. I've done everything I've blogged about, though. IIFYM, sprinkled with chocolate, cherry coke zero, and yummy creamer in my coffee. As you would imagine, I'm not making it to the gym 5 days a week. Heck, I can only get there to teach my class for 30 minutes! I"ve been very surprised by the progress I"ve been able to make with just 3 HIIT sessions in my garage a week. I take Liam's first nap of my days off and spend 45 minutes running through songs and ideas and then I have my classes for the week. Then, I actually do my class on Mondays and Thursdays. So, many weeks I'm only working out 3 days. And 2 of those only being for 25/30 minutes. I'm currently sitting at 120/121 lbs...back to my ideal weight, and I feel great! I fully expected the whole "your body will never be the same" after having Liam, and to tell you the truth I don't see a difference besides 2 small stretch marks in the inside of my right thigh. Random, right? Hard work, consistency, determination, and seeking support and help will get you to any goal you have in mind. I also credit eating somewhat healthy and lifting throughout my pregnancy with being able to fully return to my prepregnancy body.
Just wanted to give an update and hopefully I'll be announcing that I am taking 1 on 1 clients soon!
2 weeks post partum vs 5 months post partum
(142 lbs- 122 lbs)
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