Way to Move

 Find a master

Explore current events, on foot 

 Go for a swim

Walk or run a 5k 

 Climb a mountain

Break out the golf clubs 

 Dance away your troubles

Try a tournament 

 Enjoy nature's follies

Check out local sites 

Mama Fitness: My First Weight-Training Class

I joined the Y, three weeks ago. Today, I took my first-ever weight training class. My life is forever changed. I walked into the 8am class with a fierce expression on my face, hoping to look BA enough that no one else would even look twice at me. (Please don't watch as I drop a weight on my foot or trip.) Perfect posture (well, I tried), no new kid "uuums?" I had no idea what I was doing, but a nice woman helped me set up; you need platforms, mats, barbells, weights, clips and hand weights, the whole thing would need three suitcases to carry and they would have to be very odd-shaped ones at that. The instructor, Stacia Carroll, helped me find the right weights for a beginner and gave me options each time a new move started. 

So, the class, Les Mills Body Pump, is, from the Y's definition: "the original barbell class that strengthens your entire body. This 60-minute workout challenges all your major muscle groups by using the best weight-room exercises like squats, presses, lifts and curls." It was great! 

The repetitions were easy to understand, not fast or complicated enough to lose me, but continual and flowing and kept us moving the entire 60 minutes. I felt that I was working hard, but not to the point of needing to quit. The teacher was informative and clear, but not chatty or annoying. The music was loud: remember, I am a yoga or walk through the woods person, but the beat helps you keep up with the movement. I did not use heavy weights, so I was easily able to do all of the upper body movements, but the legs!!! My knees are still wobbly from the squats and lunges. Stacia told me to sit back more for the squats; "you will feel like you are almost falling backwards." (and end up on my derriere, I thought, since it is round. And does she not get that there is about zil counterweight on me?)

Why did I wait until now to ever try strength training?! I guess I thought years of carrying babies around was resistance and endurance enough, and it was, then, but I am no longer lugging around infants and toddlers. My friend, Melanie Moore (you can find her on FB with great photos and stats of her own fitness journey), was my inspiration for starting now, as well as my son, D. who has been trying hard to get us to do his favorite "insanity" routine. They are both looking so good after months of working out that I started to have toned-arm and back envy. I'm on my way.

The YMCA: Up until this week, joining a family health club has had no impact on my fitness. I've been taking the kids to the pool and knitting while they swam.  My hands were pretty much crippled with eczema, so the pool was out, weights were out, zumba has never even been an option (see posts on Jazzercise and lack of coordination.) From the first day I read the description of the classes, Pilates and Body Pump were my choices. 

Yesterday I met with my wellness coach for our first one on one, current perk of Y membership. When I walked in to make my first appointment, she asked if I knew which trainer I wanted to work with. I sighed and asked if they had another mother of five who would "get my life." I wasn't serious, but she was! She offered, as a working mother of 3, to try and help. Joan is great; she helped me come up with a plan and will help me learn the different ways I can implement it through exercise and nutrition (which is, by the way, 80% of weight loss). She is encouraging and positive...and realistic. She and I do have a lot in common; we both run, we both hate it while we are doing it. She spent a weekend becoming a certified zumba instructor, just to prove to herself that she could do it. She has never used that training since; zero coordination, but she thinks Body Pump is a fantastic class. I have been attending belly dance classes, which I love,  for over two years, but have no confidence to dance in public; not even for an audience of sleeping old men. You never know when they might wake up and look. So it is partly, at least, beginner's enthusiasm, but I am excited about the changes I anticipate!

For the locals: I go to the Bettendorf Y, and the fabulous trainers I have worked with are: Joan Rusk and Stacia Carroll.

The Fitness Bug and Children

This is not a manual on "how to turn your kid into an athlete," you'll find that in the gymnasium/pool/ tennis bubble down the street. I am talking about how to awaken in your child the natural instinct they have to move and stay active that has a tendency to fade away about the time they acquire a favorite tv show or learn to love video games.

Seeing the example of their parents making healthy choices and keeping active is the foremost influence on both children and teens. I have seen mine become immersed themselves in running and strength training and biking as their dad and I increase our own efforts. I've always been careful to avoid negative body-image talk around my girls, because the media and society is so full of them already. I want my kids to be healthy in body and mind, not sickly-skinny or artificially pumped up. 

The only very deliberate decision I made concerning my kids' outdoor time was probably the result of having the lowest opinion of television, even for adults (think of how often Really Important People, like Sting or Mother Theresa, bothered with tv watching). Don't you want your life to be full of Really Important Activities? You only get to do this once, you know. *

So that leaves one with a lot of time to just enjoy life...and to muck around outside, especially in nature. My first two children think they were the luckiest ducks in the family; they got to live on the coast for a few years of their lives. Yes, the ocean was swell, and I miss it, a lot. The woods and the creeks and the rivers of Iowa are also wonderful. For one thing, the bike path along all of the above is litter, dog doo and algae-free. All of those were the obstacles keeping me on my toes and oft my double stroller on its side wheels as we navigated those early years of exercise with mommy. A run along the beach, in the dull, gray winter, but nevertheless, with the spray of the ocean and the smell of the salt water...and my feet getting tangled in mounds and mounds of sea-weed as I try to simply jog along. I love our creek down the street and seeing the woods and prairie change with each season; it keeps us coming back all the time (will we see Mother Fox today? have the tadpoles hatched, is the woodpecker back?), which keeps us moving.

Find a reason to go out and move. Maybe you start to say hello to the same man walking his dog each day and keep a treat in your pocket for the puppy. Are there construction projects happening in the neighborhood you could check on, a favorite tree to visit where their father saw a fairy years ago? Negotiate less written math if they will march out the times tables with you or find words that begin with every letter of the alphabet along the way.

It's rainy, snowy, too hot to trot? Dance inside to good music, hold a weekly yoga session, let the kids who are in kung-fu or swimming teach you how to do push-ups and leg lifts the way they do them in class. My children love to teach and train me...and I need it! Try workout online videos or DVDs from the library or from the thrift store, they get tossed a lot. Watch and try the video together, help each other improve your posture and accuracy.

Make movement and healthy eating part of your life and enjoy it. The kids will follow your example and make their own way to lifelong fitness.

*I am not a big joiner, but I joined two organizations; CCFC (Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood) http://www.cbf.org/ncli/action/about  and No Child Left Inside: http://www.cbf.org/ncli/action/about. Check them out if you are interested.

Mama Fitness: Vacation vs.Real Life

I often return from a holiday with mixed feelings concerning diet and exercise. On one hand, we were outdoors (we almost always camp), and active so much more of the time than we ever are at home, on the other, I overindulged, just because it was vacation. I always mourn needing to return to an inside environment after experiencing wildlife, birdsong and fresh air for days on end. No matter how I try, there is never enough time or reason to be outside as much in daily,"normal" life. And there is so much to be done inside! 

Here are photos from this year's adventure; 16 hours in a car with 5 children, 6 fabulous days in a cabin in the Rocky Mountains; hiking the trails up mountains, along waterfalls, through the woods, seeing everywhere we looked, mule deer and elk and almost touching those big, velvety antlers, they were so close. We went horseback riding, walked everywhere, and met up with good friends for a few days of bliss.  Then another 16 hours home again.

How do you manage to keep up a proper diet when you are away from home? How do you balance being at home and in the office with spending lots of time out of doors? Ideas and suggestions welcome!

Mama Fitness

What a process it is to get back into shape after a certain lapse, or even without a lapse really, but a decreasing metabolism, less daily exercise and maybe a little more chocolate than is strictly necessary for mental and physical health reasons.

Stay tuned as I outline a plan for any mother to strengthen, tone and slim their figure and give the kids an example to follow.

Mama Fitness: Stage One

Making time...for exercise, for your partner, for pure pleasure. This new series of articles is a how-to guide and recorder of anecdotes on re-sculpting, as it were, one's body after childbirth, a busy career or life just happening way too fast. Things happen, despite great resolutions, here is how to get back the mojo once you've fallen off the wagon. As I begin this series, I am in need of dropping the 25 or more pounds that have snuck up on me over the past three years. I am determined to do so in a way healthy for both body and mind. So, grab a cup of tea and your motivation and let's take a look at the stages of exercise after baby.

Getting Some/Any Exercise at any time postpartum; a timeline according to number of progeny you have at any given moment.

Stage One: baby in carrier or stroller; easy and efficient. This is the fun stage at which one can walk and talk to a friend, because the baby is mostly a sleepy slug, especially when you are moving about. It is the early stage, before they are talking or grunting, asking for things or swiping the croissant of the child ahead of them in the line at the store, causing a Big, Fat Incident you will remember forever. In my life, this stage was quickly followed by two babies in a double-stroller, not quite as easy, but burning twice the calories. Major part of Stage One: school was a 25-minute walk and I had no car. Man, did I complain about it then, especially on the rainy Atlantic coast of France, (and have my very first fantasies of home education,) but I was in great shape!

Notes on Stage One: Sister, get out there and move! It doesn't matter what time of day or night you have a few free minutes; use them.  A fussy baby is an excellent excuse for a walk with their sweet little body in a sling/wrap/stroller, whatever works best for you.

Mama Fitness: Stages 2-3.1

Note on Stages 1, 2, 3...never mind, at any point in your fitness journey: after 40, one also needs to curb one's calorie intake to a reasonable amount at the same time. It is all too easy to continue to eat as though we are eating for two post-partum. You do need an extra 500 calories a day if you are breast-feeding, but they do not need to come from an entire bag of miniature Hershey bars or an entire carton of Edy's double-fudge-brownie ice-cream. This is one of my particular weaknesses; can you tell? "I have given birth, thus, I eat." After the really hard work of nine months and labor, I always felt a false sense of entitlement; "dang, I did a great job! Have you seen that beautiful baby face? Kindly pass the mousse au chocolat."

Stage Two: anything in between Stage One and Stage Three. In this category I include: walking children (way too fast during the last month of pregnancy, painfully slow once we've recovered), who cannot yet bike, children who can bike but not fast enough to make it worth your while. You may be pregnant and tired, or maybe recently divorced and on your own most days. Maybe you have a husband who can watch the kids while you exercise, but finding a free minute is another story. In the category of "close but no cigar": a bike trailer with four others who can ride, but can't go far enough for it to be a work-out. It is still movement, and still has the benefits as such, of fresh air and a minimum of exercise.

I started running last summer with my daughter. She is up to 8-mile runs, and I am still lippity-lipping along at 2 or 3 mile treks. There are two very good reasons for this; one is age. The second one is probably related to age, though one might say that I was just always a klutz. I broke a toe in August last year, total recoup time; too long! 2 months or so. Then I periodically pull something that takes a couple days to heal. My latest mishap was while running down a mountain in the Rockies with C. and D. There was a stone in the path (it was a mountain, there were a ton of stones), and I sprained my ankle. It has been 2 weeks and it is still sore. I had a good walk on it yesterday, it will be fine.

This winter I bought my very own mini-trampoline and have enjoyed my mornings jogging on it while watching a show or listening to an audio book. It has been a great indoor workout, though prone to interruptions from munchkins and dogs needing to be let in.

Stage Three: aaaah. The last child has learned to ride a 2-wheeler with aplomb. Day One, the break-through, or so I thought,. It was our first sunny, warmish day of spring. The kids rode their bikes and I ran. I had calculated* that the route to their favorite park, right along the bike trail we always take anyway, was 1.2 miles from home; a perfect run. That is, it would be if I could go there and back. Flooded plains along the way with geese in them, new plants growing, the creek all muddy and tempting, swings and a slide in the park, slowed things down considerably, as they were so very interesting. It took about 21/2 hours in all, but they were not hours filled with much movement. Dang, I am not getting any younger either.

Stage Three Point One: yesterday. I put on my running shoes, ignored the dog whining for his leash and dashed out the door. I ran alone, all the way there and back, and the kids were ready to go when I got home. They rode their bikes, I followed on foot, at a leisurely pace, with the dog on a leash, coffee and a good book in my backpack. We all had a grand time, the older ones explored a little off-shoot of the creek and ended up muddied from the waist on down, they were so pleased with themselves. G. and I played on the swings, read and drank coffee. and I got in 4 miles instead of 2.4.

Follow-up on Stage Three Point One: I cannot stand up very well today. Somehow, my legs seem to have become giant cramps from the knee on up. It could have something to do with my super-sprints in between walking on the way home, catching up to bikes. And I thought I was so cool. 

As you care for your family, don't forget to make time for yourself. Your health and well-being may seem secondary, but more and more I realize how important for everyone else it is that you, mom or dad, take care of yourself. Does that help? Putting it in an unselfish context; THEY need YOU to be happy and well, now can you picture it? So, if you cannot fathom "me" time, try thinking of it as "becoming a better mother/father/spouse" time. And please, share your secrets: how do you combine homeschooling/parenting with the things you need/want to do? 

Technology Note: Several new aps for ipods or smart phones are making keeping track of exercise and nutrition much easier.

One of my favorites is: "Map my Run." It mysteriously converted my smart phone into a GPS that even tracks the bike path (first map ever to include it), and shows the exact path and mileage of a walk or run during and after. This despite my phone having no data plan, but the GPS works anyway...whatever. I'll put understanding that technology on my to-do list, right after repainting the underside of the cupboards in the basement...which I actually have to do at some point.

Another one I use every day is: "My Fitness". It is a calorie and exercise tracker, very efficient. I have not counted calories since college, but with the stubborn weight NON-loss of the past year, I have given in to the need for more accountability in my consumption, so I've been entering my data regularly. The end of the day will be in either red or black, just like a bank account. If you are under by even 2 calories, you get a lovely speech about being sure to eat enough each day, it's like having a warm, loving house mother who just wants to cook for you...sort of. 

Mama Fitness: Nutrition and 2 Recipes

Nutrition...and will-power. We all know that we need to eat less sugar, fat, meat and caffeine and more fruits and vegetables and chocolate. I made up that last one, just to make us all feel better. We must drink more water and less beer, even less wine, which is a true tragedy. 

Life is just too short to constantly deprive yourself of what you love each and every day. Why bother? The weight isn't exactly flying off anyway. Enjoying a good meal is akin to enjoying a beautiful piece of artwork, a master novel, a night at the symphony or a hike in nature. Unless you have a cold, or a headache or a twisted ankle, then all of those become simply a chore and a bother and even painful. 

There is the reason, the one that has meaning and enduring value...health. If I am not healthy enough to enjoy the pleasures of life, great and small, they are worth nothing. This has to be my motivation, because fitting into the pants I wore two years ago compared with a good Bordeaux, a steak and homemade fries, with pumpkin pie for dessert, just holds no water. Yes, I am sick of being 25-30 pounds overweight, but life is short...and I will try to remember that I will enjoy it more and longer if I am in shape. 

I am in the middle of a little "jump-start" cleanse to losing weight. This time I have prepared enough smoothies, recipe below, for 5 days, and I am trying nutritional shakes made for diabetics to help me with the faintness and hunger tremors that usually make me give up on living and cleansing at the same time. 

The key will be to eat and drink in moderation after my cleanse. So often I tend to start a cleanse before a big event and inevitably the event means food; an anniversary, a family celebration. Then I eat too much and think: what the heck, I messed up again, it was all for naught, I'll start again on Monday...does this sound familiar? 

All right, so let's get off the "poor me" binge eating wagon and onto a healthier lifestyle, for real, for life.

Here are two recipes I use for a cleanse of 3 or 4 days, the first one is savory, inspired by postpartum French women I had my exercise classes with years ago (the government health-insurance allows for 10 sessions of abs and kegels with a physical therapist post-baby), the other is with fruit and greens, a little sweeter.

Bouillon de legumes:
Leeks (cut in half, soak, scrub out dirt, slice into 1/2 inch pieces)
Carrots (sliced)
Cabbage, broccoli, whatever else may be in the fridge, no potatoes or starches

Boil all ingredients, with a little salt and a lot of water, for 45 minutes, strain and drink warm or cold. You can eat the vegetables as well, if desired, or puree the whole thing.

Green smoothie:
Green leaf lettuce
Spinach
Kale (if you do not have thyroid problems)
One cucumber
Blueberries
Strawberries
Water

Blend all ingredients to form a liquid about as thick as soup. It will be watery, compared with my yogurt, berry, banana, almond milk and orange juice smoothie.  I pack them into individual cups; about 5-6 oz. each, seal with a little saran wrap and have 3 serving a day. 

I still drink my tea and coffee with almond milk, and as I mentioned, have nutritional shakes to survive the yucky feeling I get from fasting. How do you cleanse/detox/start your healthy diet over after over-indulging for too long? 

Rocky Mountain National Park

 Mule deer

 

Rock climbing 

Outside my cabin window

First horseback experience 

 

A springtime hike

 

 

Bear Lake (freezing cold) 

Waterfalls aplenty

Walk to the Park? Not if a swamp has formed along the way!

 

Gifts from the Heart for a Joyful Mother's Day

Cake for tea 

 Flowers picked at 5:30am

A bathroom so clean, I had time to

give myself a pedicure.

A beautful pink and lavendar scarf. 

 A mother-son sketch from a photo taken when he was almost 3.

And a beautiful drawing that I am embarrassed to say is in my email, but I cannot import here; a blue-crayon heart and a real flower next to it. The flower was a dandelion ready for wishing, all white and fluffy; love and wishes, lucky me.
Thank you darlings, what a wonderful day!

The Woods in Springtime

With fabulous weather, until today, which we will simply discount from the other days of this week, it being Friday and not really needing it, we have been outside a great deal this week. It made the whole "screen-free week" simply fly by. (Did I mention it was National Screen-Free Week? The week of the year that makes me want to through away the telly for good each year?)

Yesterday, on a bike ride with V., I noted the feathery new growth on the trees and shrubs of our woods along Duck Creek. Pale, illuminated green against the dark wood of the undergrowth. I could see the places where the fairies had just passed, moments before. One could also see how the shadows of the sunlight pouring through the branches would hide and blur the shapes of the witch hunters centuries before, chasing after a dark-haired, barefooted girl who is trying hard not to breathe hard, not to laugh, and casting spells after her as fast as she can speak them. 

Too much Terry Pratchett before breakfast, burp, sorry.

Cars, Proms and Fun

Busy...is a good word to describe life. I am sharing a few photos of what we've been up to the past two weeks. After almost three years of being this environmentally-great, one-car family, we came to the conclusion that we really needed to acquire a second one. The photos with Grama and Grampa are of the day they helped us find that special automobile (the requirements were: cheap and clean, with cute as an option; all three fulfilled.)  Thank you!

Tuxy the dog had his 2-year birthday; Sophie was his gift.  G. and a friend wanted to "do chemistry" one day, so we got out the test tubes and they made potions, to which I added vinegar and baking soda to see if they would bubble over.

C. went to her first and second proms with friends from two different schools, and in some cases, different countries. This new way of looking at prom as a fun dance is so much better than in my day. Kids go with their friends, they have a great evening, they go to an after-prom party that has hypnotists, scavenger hunts and bouncy houses. I hope the tradition continues and the pressure of post-prom drinking and couple activity is forever lost. You're only a teen once, let it be fun when it can.

Little Kid Chemistry

 

Sweetness Personified