IronMom’s BodyBlog

Coming back from behind the eight-ball so to speak is a challenge. The feeling of being stretched in so many direction leaves me wondering if I have enough to give in any one aspects of my life at this point. My physical condition is deceiving, many say I look good which is a great compliment what they don’t know is how a little bit of muscle makes you "look" fit but in reality I am not! I need to spend so much more time to build up my conditioning than I have, I always leave the gym feeling like it’s never enough!

My new found love of metabolic enhancement training has helped me note some changes in strength as well as fat reduction in a short amount of time so I do realize the training that I am adopting will do provide me with overall athletic conditioning, something that I miss. I am still amazed at how the hormones of a nursing woman can interfere with conditioning. I supose the babies want the mama soft. I guess I’ll have to work even harder to counteract this. Now if I could only get "enough" sleep.

I sincerely feel as though I am consuming most of my foods in liquid form but honestly, what would I do without my shakes?!  I know I should eat whole foods but this baby is suddenly more like a baby octopuse with arms capable of grabbing everything insite, LOL. Eating a meal means stressing over whether or not it ends up on her, the floor, or on me. Sitting down for a meal takes three times longer to consume and time is not on MY side at this phase of my life. IYIYI! Baby Sophia is making me become more creative with my shakes.

Realizing that shakes are easy to consume and quick, I also know that I need to step-up my nutrition so I have become accustomed to adding whole foods and blending them with my protein to make a smoothy. I have been hiding veggies and fruit in the kids meals for years so I decided to start mixing in my veggies and fruits in my protein shakes in order to consume proper nutrition, I can actually eat 5-6 servings of veggies this way. I make up purees of various combinations of veggies and fruit then blend in with my protein shakes. I steam them so that the nutrition is in tact to some degree then simply make a puree and freeze or refridgerate them, I batch cook everything for quick use in all of my recipes.

I find it easy to add in my bee pollen, yogurt, aloe vera juice and wheat grass as well as my puree, I’ve even blended my oats in the smoothies too so as to balance out the shake to make it more like a real meal. The combinations actually hide the bitter flavors of many of the veggies so the shake is actually pretty tasty. These aren’t juices, it’s just broccoli and blueberries blended for example which still holds all of the fiber. What a fabulous way of getting my nutrition and at a time that is considered to be paramont in my life with nursing baby Sophia.

I’m definately sick of drinking my food but this baby and life moves at lightning speeds and this sure beats missing meals. The Nothing beats sinking my teeth in some hearty food! I can’t wait to put some steak on the "barby" and actually eat it without baby octopus arms around as sweet as they may be.

Unbelievable how much we need our core muscles! I am still in the healing process after having my baby and hurt my back doing my workout last week. I visited a Sports Doctor and he says it’s because of my weak abdominals. I would LOVE to increase my strength but I am dealing with Diastasis Recti. My back is healing now and I am able to workout with intesity.

I am awaiting a call from the doc to see if their service is covered by my insurance. I need to get this diastasis resolved once and for all. First a back injury next a hernia all because of week abdominals. Oh I want this matter resolved!

What a whirlwind it’s been. There I was training and cutting for a competition for 2008 an found out I would be delivering a baby instead. Say what!?!? Oh sure, I was planning the baby for five years but I was so focused the the competition that I was absolutely shocked when it really happened.

It was amazing how the hormones added fat on within the first month of pregnancy. I hadn’t even changed my diet or training and I was looking soft already. I was insistant however that I would have a fit pregnancy, that all changed when I began bleeding during a workout so the doc put me on bedrest at 5 months. I owe so much to the bodybuilding lifestyle as it kept my weight in check even though I was in bed for the remainder of the pregnancy. All in all, I only gained 27 pounds to my small frame and I am really happy about that with zero stretch marks! Yahooooo!!!! What I am struggling with however is the muscle loss. It’s like losing a friend. I loved my body composition and certainly not acustomed to looking so soft and yes, even a little frumpy. GAH! I slowly watched as my body changed before my eyes. Like any competitor, I kept my eye on the prize, my little baby girl Sophia.

Sophia has been THE WORLD’S WORST SLEEPER since birth! Why is this important? No sleep equals no workouts. I was miserable until just last month when I could finally see that she was letting me sleep as well as taking regular naps that I could count on. I simply did not see the point in regular hard workouts if I could not get the adequate rest to recover. I’d only be stressed so for many months I focused only on the baby and did weeeeny workouts with the dvd. I wasn’t building muscle but I was losing my baby fat.

What I discovered through all of this is that I am vain and have little patience. Oh, I prayed daily asking for patience and here I am now 8 months later ready to set the world on fire! I’m finally able to get a glimps of the "old me" and I’m liking it. After working out consitently for one month, I can see my strength returning and the fat is melting off even though I’m eating my clean bulking diet. Still, it’s not fast enough! I wonder if I will ever find the patience that I need with my desire to mold and shape my physique. Na, probably not.

What’s next?! I’d really enjoy doing a competition in 2010 or 2011. Yet again, I need to ask for patience. There will be no cutting diets as long as I am nursing the baby. I guess you could say this is an incentive to be a "super natural". Keeping my diet in check and only eating the calories that will give me muscle verses the fun calories will be my biggest challenge as supplements are out of the question.

Cheers to the bodybuilding lifestyle, it’s given me stamina, strength, and curves, all I need now is patience to put it to work once more and regain some muscle mass. It seems like a long, long road ahead but I am up for the long haul!

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