I didn’t realize how tight and sore my body is until we started doing some of the deep stretches. Today’s workout was a relief – I consider it to be an active rest day. The baby was up for longer than usual last night, and earlier, so I was both tired and had to get my workout done quickly before she woke up again. By 6:30 AM we were done – I love Cardio Recovery’s 33 minute workout for that reason alone.

An active rest day feels like such a luxury after all of these intense workouts. I especially enjoyed the yoga stretches we did which felt incredible on my tight arms and quads.

I’ve been extra hungry the last two days and am not sure how to manage it. The sea salt caramels are now out of sight in the freezer, and I can’t believe I still have not had one. It has taken tremendous willpower when I’m hungry to not just pop one in my mouth and move on.

I’m not sure exactly how to handle my trip to RI this weekend. Do I miss out on fun time or precious sleep while visiting with my family in order to stick to the program? Or do I take a 3 day break and pick right back up on Monday morning? I’m leaning toward just skipping, especially since historically my kids wake more and earlier when traveling, but at the same time I think I will be disappointed if I don’t make the time to do my workouts. What would you do?

I am working out HARD. I am eating right. I am mostly sleeping enough, or at least as much as a mother with an infant is expected to sleep. Yet the scale this morning didn’t give me my goal of a one pound loss. There’s nothing to do except move on, oh, and step on the scale 10 more times to make sure the first measurement wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t.

So I’m going to keep going. I’m working out on top of sore muscles which I’ve never done in my life before. It feels both good and strange.

My outlook during this post partum period is so different from after Raffi. I’m fighting so hard this time to gain back the person I once was. After Raffi, relative to my normal self, I was anxious, fat, negative, and overall overwhelmed. Exercise hurt my body, I never felt I had enough sleep, and I was so anxious all the time – especially about Raffi’s sleeping and eating habits.

This time around I’m so different. I don’t know if it’s because I’m sick of being someone I’m not, because I have a toddler, or because my husband’s transformation has me wanting my own. I don’t really care why I’m different this time, I’m just enjoying it.

It’s hard to get up at 6 AM after being up from 4-5 AM with a newborn. It’s hard to push myself during my workouts. It’s hard to eat right when I know I have a box of sea salt caramels in my cupboard. Yet I’m doing it day in and day out. I will keep this up. I will not give up. And I will reach my weight loss goal, 0.8 lbs at a time.

Week 2 results: lost 0.8 lbs, 0.25 in off my waist
Week 1 results: lost 1.0 lbs, 0.25 in off my waist
Overall results: lost 1.8 lbs, 0.5 in off my waist

I was on my own this morning and I worked out just as hard as I would have if Trig was with me. It takes a lot more mental strength to exercise hard when you’re alone in a room, so I’m happy I gave it my all.

I’m feeling great! Only one more day before a rest day. I think I need these rest days more to be able to sleep in than to rest my body.

My last few days of workouts were actually from Month 2 as Trig and I have been exercising together and he had 4 days left before completing the program. It is HARD. Today I jumped back in on my schedule and was thankful for a recovery day.

Having my spouse be so committed has helped me be committed too. This morning he got up at 4:45 AM to get his workout in before leaving for a work meeting at 6. When my alarm went off at 6:15 I was pumped to exercise knowing he had already gotten his workout done.

Cardio recovery is great because it’s like an active rest day, to me at least. Your muscles get a nice deep stretch, and with controlled movements they get worked too. My favorite exercise is the set of slooooow lunges and squats. You hold the squat at the end before pulsing it out – those always kill me.

A lot of the exercises throughout the whole program remind me of the plyo exercises I used to do with my trainer Sherri in RI before my wedding and also the bootcamp workouts I used to teach at the Art Museum before becoming pregnant with Raffi. I can’t say enough how much I like these DVDs. They are unlike any other exercise video I’ve ever done in that you are really pushed to the max and the workouts never get easy. There is always room to improve and work harder.

I’ve still been eating exactly on plan. My only addition I might eat during the day is raw sugar snap peas. They will me up for few calories and I really enjoy them. I’ve had a box of my second favorite chocolates – Nordstrom’s dark chocolate sea salt caramels – for two weeks and I still haven’t dug in. If you know me you know this is a huge deal! It just hasn’t been worth it to me to splurge on them yet. Sunday we are going to have a nice pizza and I’m really looking forward to it, but chocolate and sweets don’t have their usual appeal. Sarah had suggested that I have a shake of some sort as my after dinner treat, and since that suggestion I’ve done it every night. I look forward to it all day, and it helps me not crave sweets or anything junky at night.

By the way, my first favorite chocolates are Teuscher’s milk chocolate champagne truffles. They are hard to resist.

Then Trig was talking with some colleagues and came home one day and decided to do Insanity too. He was always in good shape, but suddenly he has hard rock abs and no fat on his body. I am shocked at how his body has changed and how he has been able to maintain it. It’s impressive. His mood is great every day too. I want those results! I made my plan while I was pregnant and knew that the minute I felt like my body had recovered from childbirth I would go for it. Two weeks post partum I did a few of his workouts with him with serious modifications (no jumping, not tightening my core, etc) and finally one month post partum I started the schedule.

Insanity also really appeals to me as someone who likes to workout for a short period of time but HARD. The workouts are 40 minutes to an hour and then you’re done for the day.

I love it already. My body has only made small changes in the last 9 days, but my outlook has completely changed. I feel good about myself for the first time in, well, two years. And I know the results will follow.

Week 1 results: lost 1 lb, .25 inches off my waist

This workout kicked my butt. During the first round of warm up I was being lazy, but then I decided to just give it everything. Why else exercise if I’m not going to work hard?

The Plyometric Cardio Circuit had suicide drills, power squats, level 1 drills and a lot of floor work. I don’t think I could hold a plank for 30 seconds if I tried right now, and this  workout has a lot of exercises that require you to maintain a plank position while doing them (ski abs, pushups). I had to rest a lot during that part of the workout and still I was working hard. I actually think this workout is harder than Pure Cardio because it gets your heart rate really moving.

When I lived in RI I sometimes met my friend D at the Gold’s Gym to take fitness classes with Maria. Her step and kickboxing with killer, and these Insanity workouts are the only thing that has ever come close to her workouts. I am so excited to have finally found a Maria-equivalent in Philly! It’s not the same as the group exercise setting, but with my lifestyle right now it is just right.

I am looking forward to my rest day tomorrow. I fell down the stairs and sprained my ankle at the start of my third trimester with Alessandra, and my ankle is bothering me a bit after all this exercise this week. Also, it will be nice to sleep in a bit!

Goals for next week:

- Go to bed earlier so that waking up isn’t as challenging.

- Find new sports bras since I’m cycling through the same two and had to dig in the dryer for one this morning.

- Drink more water.

Ow.

Each exercise is one minute long and you do as many as you can in that minute. By the time we got to the frog jumps I had to get some water and take a break. My heart rate was out of control.

I am working sore muscles which I’ve never done before. I wonder how long it will take to stop feeling sore.

One more day and I will have completed week 1!

I’m proud of myself for getting it done this morning. I hit snooze a few times but started my workout by 6:30. The hardest part is getting out of bed and getting my clothes on. I think of every excuse I can not to (I was up with the baby, I won’t have enough time before the kids get up, I should clean instead) but I got up anyway. I just need to figure out how to keep that commitment for the long term.

The slower pace of today’s workout has me nervous for tomorrow.

Here are my starting numbers for the exercises I was able to complete:

Fit test day 1
Switch kicks 49
Power jacks 41
Power knee 81
Power jumps 9

Not impressive at all, but I’ll get there!

Day 3: This was the first time I saw the Cardio Power & Resistance workout. While I was pregnant I watched Trig do his workouts sometimes. I also did a few with him with serious modifications the first couple of weeks post partum. This one had never made it into the rotation.

I really liked this workout. Every time I felt like I had to stop, Shaun T. was right there with encouragement or a water break. The baby started crying with 15 minutes left, but I used the water breaks to give her a pacifier and put her in her swing. I managed to complete the entire workout – from the warm up to the cool down! I pushed myself hard and was proud of that. Raffi is at daycare today so that helped. I don’t like to waste naptime to exercise, so I will always have to workout either before the kids get up or when they are around. This will become more difficult when I go back to work and can’t use the middle of a daycare day to exercise, but I’ll figure it out when the time comes.

My favorite exercise of this workout was the very last one. We did series of 8 hop squats followed by 8 pushups. I only managed 4-5 pushups each round, but I was giving it my best.

My least favorite exercise were the tricep dips. In the months before my wedding I would work out for 10 minutes in my pajamas in the morning, and that included some tricep dips. I remember I used to bust out 50 or 80 without a sweat, sometimes with one leg in the air. Now, years later, I had to take a few breaks during the tricep exercises.

It’s only been 3 official days since my start, and I already feel good. I can’t imagine how I will feel at the end of this challenge.