Mom's Fit and Well Event at Sunnyvale Sports Basement

In 2010, I wrote a post sharing my tips for exercising and weight loss and it is still one of the top performing posts of this blog. Check it here. In the years since then, I lost more weight and got more toned by running half marathons, lifting weights, and going to the gym 7 days a week. Pretty much if I saw it on Instagram, I did it. When I got pregnant, I only walked, took some Zumba classes, and did light hand weights as my exercise.

Having such a large belly made me feel like my arms and legs were still skinny in comparison. Now that baby is out, everything just sags and looks chubby. At 7 weeks postpartum I started swimming which is actually the perfect exercise to get back into losing weight. It's low impact and stretches out all the muscles. I didn't lose too much weight from a month of regular swimming but I definitely felt my muscles get back into balance. The pool is closing soon so I joined a gym. As eager as I am to get back into distance running and lots of crunches, when I work out, my hip joint hurts and my muscles spasm. Everything just feels so misaligned and rusty.

Shari from my blogger group posted this Fit and Well event aimed towards moms so I went last week and learned so much that will help me with my work outs. I need to be patient with my body's ability to recover. Healing is much more than how skinny I look. For me, it will be about
Running without having this loose hip joint feeling.
Doing ab work without feeling like a turtle on it's back.
Ending a workout without my leg muscles going into spasms.
Improving the posture of my upper back which is constantly hunched from holding my son.

I stopped doing exercises that target the ab muscle specifically and started doing more things for my back, arms, thighs, and hips. Many of these exercises will also engage the abs but at least they won't directly strain them.

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The first class of the fitness event was Bombay Jam Dance Class, which was like Zumba with Indian belly dancing. It was very fun. The moves are easier to learn than Zumba and gives just as much of a workout. (Photos by Shari)

The event was sponsored by Smarty Pants vitamins. They make naturally sweetened gummy versions of daily vitamins. 

The prenatal vitamins were good. Not very sweet or sticky and easy to eat. It takes about 6 gummies to equal the amount of vitamins usually found in a pill. Prenatal vitamins can be very large and hard to swallow. Some women have difficulty with this and the gummy vitamins are a good alternative.

We got this nice goodie bag and I am making my way through some of the snacks.

There was a bounty of Hint Water at the event. It tastes as natural as infusing water with fruit. These are some of the best flavored water I've tasted.

I haven't had a chance to try the Big Slice apple packets yet.

I just finished eating the Smart Candy vitamin gummies in the top right corner. It's a bit too sour and sticky for my preference in gummies. Smarty Pants prenatal vitamins tasted much better. It doesn't look like these two companies are related despite the similar names.

Those Beanfields bean and rice chips have a good flavor although the texture gets mushy in your mouth quickly. It definitely gives me gas. I still feel healthier eating it versus potato chips though. I also tried the peanut butter Dynamos in the middle and they're really good. Not super sweet. Just enough bites to fuel a short workout.

I have not had a chance to try these products yet but I can't wait to try the chemical free WaterWipes and Goddess Garden Sunny Kids Organic sunblock on my son when he's older. Mommy Nearest is an app to find family friendly places near your location.

I already devoured all 4 of the Krave Jerky packs and they were yummy!

Gomacro bars were available at the event. The are smaller, healthier versions of energy bars. It's less dense, not as sweet, and tastes lighter.

My Fitness Journey - Losing 7lbs and Getting Lean

Earlier this year, I conducted a poll asking readers what kind of entries they would like to see in the future. A whopping 10 voters said they would like to see more food and drink reviews. I've been giving the readers what they want when I discovered the "stats" tab of my blogger account where blogger tracks which entries received the most views. Not surprisingly enough, some of the entries with the most views are ones of me in a swimsuit, there have only been 2 so far.

1. Sun Diego
2. Random Summer Happenings

This makes 3.

THE FIT FOODIE:

I've discussed how I keep my wallet fat with all this eating, and now I will discuss how I try and keep my body not-fat with all this eating. Be prepared to see some unflattering pictures.

Florida, 2008. Have you heard of the term "high school skinny"? Well, I was actually high school chubby and college skinny. But after graduating college, my lifestyle was just work and drinking, resulting in the picture above. I didn't realize how "round" I had become until these pictures from our 2008 vacation came out.

Palm Springs, May 2010. Since 2008, I had tried but only half heartedly to change my lifestyle and lose some weight. I improved but just slightly. These photos don't show the whole picture because I got a little bigger after the Florida vacation and then started getting a little smaller before this picture. This was right after our New York trip where I ate my body weight in food and before I had begun my summer workout regimen. At this point, I was doing a little bit of Insanity, Taebo, power walking videos, and some crunches and squats daily.

Palm Springs, May 2010. This was taken the day after the previous picture. What a difference having an empty stomach makes. I'm also learning that these are not the most flattering swimsuit styles for me as it makes my top look even smaller and my entire body more pear shaped. I only bought so many because the pattern doesn't show tan lines.

 Wilder Ranch State Beach, June 2010. This was about 1 month into my Insanity routine. I would do Insanity workouts about 5 days a week. On the other days, I would try swimming or playing tennis with friends.

Huntington Beach, late July 2010. I was in full Insanity mode the the whole month of July and was just starting to get bored of it, substituting some days with swimming, tennis, or jogging. This different swimsuit pattern helps alot. Take note ladies, triangular tops. The tan and the pose helps too. Arm out, chest out, stomach in, bend one leg.

Since this photo, I've been swimming everyday and haven't touched Insanity at all. Insanity can be high impact on people with bad knees such as myself. It can also get boring once you've gone through the entire video series twice. I wanted to do P90X but the thought of staying indoors another month doing video workouts was a bit depressing.

Overall, in the past 3 months, I've lost about 7 lbs. I post this now because fall/winter is coming and I'll resume eating and getting "round". Thanks to Jimbo for getting me the Insanity videos.

TIPS:

• Cut out or moderate alcohol intake. It really is just empty calories.
• Eat smaller portions but more frequently. I try to eat about 4 small meals a day.
• Eat dinner at least 3 hours before you sleep.
• Get workout buddies.
• Stick to a workout schedule so you won't be tempted to skip.
• Exercise. In any way, shape, or form, just exercise. You can't healthily lose weight by cheating this step. I don't believe in diet pills or fad diets. You really just have to put in the work. I made it a goal to do at least 1 hour a day of something active (tennis, jogging, swimming, Insanity or other workout videos, hiking, tubing).
• And of course, suck in and smile!

Tubing and Camping - Rumsey, CA

After I hiked Half Dome, we were itching for another fun outdoor trip. We went to Rumsey, CA over the Labor Day Weekend for some tubing and camping.

The pictures are a little blurry because they were taken using an iPhone, and not even an iPhone 4, just the 3.

Walking down to the start like little duckies.

Waiting to get in.

Group pic!

Did alot of this for about 2 hours while drinking beer and champagne. Some time during the 2 hours, I fell off my tube and hit my head on a rock under water. It hurt, yes it did. But it was still alot of fun.

This is actually from the end of the day but I thought it made a more exciting picture. 

We reached the half way point and ate some cheezits, drank some water, and etc.

Then we had to jump back into the water and onto our tubes. Hilarious pictures ensued.

Such as this one where Bear smacked her face into her tube and KT is hesitantly watching her tube slip away and OS is just gone.

2 more hours of this but with way more rapids than the first half of the trip. This is going down "Mother" the crazier set of rapids in this river.

Wooh! He's thinking, "Look at me, I'm hella cool!" and then he flips over and can't get back up until the end of the rapids.

We're done and we had fun!

We did a cliff dive into the river and somehow, I came home with this bruise. I didn't get to take pictures of it until 2-3 days after so this is the bruise as it started to heal.

Nothing beats the bruise I got when I went airsofting years ago and was shot at close range in the calf. That's against the rules by the way, that guy should have been forced to leave the game! Anyways, here you see a flower blossoming around a delicate white center where the airsoft bb hit me.

Sorry there was no food in this entry but I hope I made up for it in AWESOMENESS!

If you would like to plan your own trip, visit Tubenation. They are a fun and relaxed group of peole who will take care of your tubing needs and make sure you have a blast. It's only $35 a person for the entire ride.

Climbing Half Dome - Yosemite

Long before I climbed the metaphorical mountain of commitment, I climbed the physical mountain of Half Dome (or most of it anyway).

Half Dome looms in the far left back corner.

We arrived at camp late that night and got barely 4-5 hours of sleep before starting our hike. But there were so many waterfalls to keep us focused.

Arriving at the top of one waterfall. Cameras armed and ready to shoot.

This is how they put the "smart" in Smart Water.

A defeated man.

little river

After probably 9ish grueling hours, I reach this point about 400 yards away from the top and this incline awaited me. This is when I decided to give up as the incline only got steeper from here. I know my own strengths and this was just not the day.

So here's my shot from the highest point of Half Dome that I reached. 400 yards short of the very top but I'm still proud. Considering my knees hurt for weeks afterward, I still say it was no small feat to have made it this far.

Not to deviate from the usual food and travel themes of this blog, above is pictured gourmet camping mac and cheese made with a portable propane stove. Best food ever!

The sun set on the way home.

It's been over a month since I finished this hike and now that the pain and anguish has subsided, I look back with fond memories of this trip. But I do admit that it was one of the hardest physical tasks I've ever done in my life. I'm sure child birth will top this but so far, Half Dome is the hardest. The absolute hardest part was the hike home in the dark after that lovely sunset picture was taken. It was dark, we were walking down hill which wrecks your knees, there were rocks and horse poop piles everywhere, it rained, we were tired and had eaten nothing but nuts all hike long. In total it took our group 18 hours to hike round trip. We stopped to take many pictures on the way up because we didn't know what we were in for yet. I'm proud of myself and all of us for doing this hike. If I had a bucket list, hiking Half Dome would be on there and crossed off.