After being in our new place for just over a month now, I can say it definitely feels like home. We've had some time to figure out where things are, how to get places, and meet our neighbors. Zaiden is also now about 3.5 months old and into a much more regular routine. He eats about every two hours from 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. then takes a nice long nap, is up for an hour, then heads to bed around 8/8:30 p.m.
Taking all this into consideration, it felt like it was time to finally get back into the gym. This past week I did a bit of research and comparing and finally decided to join Fitness First. I got a great corporate rate and it's less than 1 mile from our apartment with great hours and childcare. As part of the deal for joining, I got a free personal training session that I took advantage of today. As you all know, I love working out, and some might say I'm kinda obsessed with having a very healthy lifestyle. For me, getting a personal training session was like a gift from above. After having Zaiden things just don't look/feel like they did before and I really feel like I've lost a lot of muscle. The other issue for me is that I'm really lost as to where to start back up with my routines. I was pretty hardcore before I got pregnant and I had to slow down a lot towards the end of my pregnancy. I still walked a ton, but it definitely wasn't the intensity that I was used to. Anyways, my issue is that I don't know what to do in the gym - I can't go full out like I used to, but at the same time I'm not really good at finding "middle ground." My personal trainer today was awesome and really helped me realize that I was already on the right track. Right now, my body fat % is at 29% - that was super disappointing for me, but my trainer did remind me that it is still in the healthy range for women and is really really awesome for only having a baby 3 months ago (he though I should be able to get to 18-19% body fat once I got back into my schedule). He also was very impressed with my diet and I really blew him away in our session with how much I could push myself. He gave me some awesome ideas for some new weight exercises and ways to build up my ab wall and muscles again. It was great to get a professional outside perspective on where I am with my fitness and the importance of easing back into my routine. I guess I didn't realize that I could do a lot of damage if I just rushed back to my old routine and it was great to get affirmation that I have been doing the right things in terms of diet.
It would definitely be awesome to continue personal training sessions, but they are just so expensive and I really can't justify it with all the added expenses we currently have and the reduced income from me working part-time. Plus, since I basically got confirmation that I know what I'm doing, I don't feel like I need a trainer each time I go to the gym. I might try to do it once every 3 months just to get new ideas/routines, but we'll see. Right now my goal is to get to the gym for 1 hour 3-4 days a week and I'd like to get back to feeling like myself in about 3 months. I'd like to get back to my pre-pregnancy body by the end of January, which would be 9 months after I had Zaiden (going by the 9 months to put it on, 9 months to take it off philosophy). We'll see though - I know sometimes you hold onto a bit more fat while breastfeeding and if that's the case I probably won't get my pre-pregnancy body back for a while (I definitely want to breastfeed for at least a year and would really like to make it to 2 years like WHO recommends). But, I'm OK with that and as long as I can keep working out and taking care of myself, I'll be happy.
In any case, I'm super excited to be back in the gym and really really excited for more workouts that make me feel strong, confident and energized. I feel like I'm such a better person to be around when I've had a good workout - I'm a better wife and a better mother and I'm definitely a more confident person with waay more energy. I'm definitely going to need all of that in the very near future as I embark up Business School. Orientation starts tomorrow and it will be the longest I've been away from Zaiden (nearly 13 hours!). It will be a trial run of Mondays and Wednesdays to come once classes start and will definitely give Eric and I a taste of what's in store. Looks for updates this weekend about how it went (for me, and for Eric and Zaiden:)
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