smeyer41’s BodyBlog

I haven’t been to the gym since the end of September. It has been very hard for me to find time in my schedule to make it there. We have taken our oldest son out of daycare because of rising costs so now I have two kids home with me while Michael is working. The past few weeks I have been getting things ready for my youngest to have her first bday party. It was great. Everyone had a blast. We did have a little drama from a family member but over all it was a great party! She looked beautiful and the decorations looked awesome! Our little princess had a party in style! *LOL* As far as the police academy is concerned…it is a no go for now. All the surrounding cities have froze hiring processes and I can’t get anywhere. Hopefully things will change in the next few months. I think I deserved to take some time off from training ebcause I trained so hard to..well..get no where. I am now going to have to break from the second shift schedule and get my arse to the gym while the rest of the clan is sleeping. This is going to be a challange for me. It is either continue to loose what I gained or face up to the cold loomy weather in the early morning hours and get to the gym! I hate cold! *LOL* I have hardly any bodyfat to protect me anymore. I want to crank that baby up to 75 degrees but I know Michael would flip out! I posted some stats like my current weight and measurements. As you can see I am now loosing muscle mass per my vaca from working out. You can only do so much at home! *LOL* Cardio has been no problem with a 3 1/2 yr old and a now 1 yr old begining to walk. My one year old weighs about 23 lbs so I can use her for some weight training but even then it isn’t enough. I will post new pictures of me. My abs are about the only thing that isn’t suffering from the vaca. *LOL* I have to shop in the little girls department anymore for clothes at least at Kohls. The junior selection only goes to small and I am more of a xsmall. In a way I like it but others…not so great because I know it is muscle mass I am loosing…:( I am weening my little one off breast milk and that has become tragety as well. I have gumbballs for breasts! AK! if only I could afford implants I would be set! HA HA HA. Michael said it is not the size of the meat that counts…it is the quality. I get what he is saying but hey…I am not happy. I have always had big boobs! Oh well. Hopefully I can begining working out and get muscle back in other areas that are lacking. I will keep you all posted on the academy.

So yesturday I had my last training session with my trainer. I am on my own. I know I will keep on going but I hope I don’t feel lost when I go. I have to stay in training mode so I can take the PT Qualification test on demand. I asked my trainer to write me something out to aid in my training but with the new policies he is not supposed to do anything like that unless I have paid for sessions. He did however say he would help me with any questions with my workouts I may have while I am there and if he is not busy with a client. Mike said he would write something out for me. I also found this site to be helpful in this issue. There are a lot of great workouts and information available through here. *LOL* I just need guidance to ensure the workouts I choose are for me and to help achieve my goals. There is no word on testing dates for the academy still. I am not really too worried about it for the remainder of this year. If it happens, it happens if it doesn’t I am not too heartbroken. Even though summer has just begun I am one of those who is now thinking about fall and winter because of birthdays and holidays. I love to entertain and this year our little daughter is turning 1 and it is her first time Trick-or-Treating so I am relieved I might not miss these really important dates due to being in the academy and just starting a new career. Last week I got to workout with Mike! He kicked my @ss! *LOL* It is sad too because he told me that was about half of his workouts for legs. He had to tweak somethings for me as well because my stupid hips! I am worried I have let my hip issue go to long. The more I work out them it seems the more they hurt or freak out when I try the simplest things like squats or lunges. They were popping last night. They feel fine and didn’t hurt while working them last night but they were still popping. I feel like a young woman stuck in an old lady’s body! *LOL* I know Mike may have a comment from that sentence…Maybe come within the next few months I will get my butt up and make that chiro appointment. I am afraid of what they might find now! I try to stay healthy and workout my weak points but I am beginning to think for things like my hips that may not be enough anymore. That wedding I wanted to look fabulous for is in like a week and a half. *LOL* Our wedding anniversary weekend I gained some weight so I am still working on my weight goal. I should be able to make my goal if I keep my head on straight. Wish me luck!

Sorry it has been a while since I have last blogged. I have been doing the mommy/house wife thing but I promise I have still been training. I did take one week off since my last blog only to "collect" myself. I have been feeling really run down here lately and feel like I cannot keep up with my own life.

Lili has not been taking her regular naps like she should be. She has two teeth coming in that are slow growers. She also will not eat jar baby food! *LOL* She may act like she is starving but believe me she is not. She has been eating more frequently to make up for the lack of that baby solid foods. Her doctor assured me it was fine because she is no where near the "not thriving" stage. *LOL* Shes fat in other words. A couple other mother’s I have talked to about this said their children were the same so they bought a baby food grinder and ground up their own foods. I believe this is what I am going to have to do to get Lili back on the sleep habit.

My diet has been very good! It seems like I really didn’t "need" that cheat day! Since I have cut that cheat day out of my diet I have gotten in the mode of my diet. I did however raise my caloric intake because of my increased nursing. I have lost a few pounds since my last blog as well. I am down to 103! This is exciting because my goal is 100 lbs by the first week in July.

If only my pale skin would tan! *LOL* I have laid out for countless hours the past few weeks and you can barely see my tan lines. Poor Mike has had a burn and his tan peeled right off with the dead skin! But at least he got some kind of color. I am kin of jealous on this. I even tried no sun screen and still no tan!

I only have a few training sessions left with Josh. BOO! I am more likely to want and make it to the gym if I know I am training with him. He pushes me to limits I would probably wouldn’t push to.  *LOL* I was told by him today that I am "impressive". That made me feel so good inside and out. I can actually see the results of my long hard journey but for other people to acknowledge them as well feels even better. Oh and did I mention I can bench 75lbs now? Kick @ss right? Our goal is 80 lbs by the end of the month. I can so do 5 more lbs if I keep at it! We did a little cardio today but not on a treadmill. After each set of each exercise I ran around the gym and back. *LOL* I felt kind of stupid but hey I am not there to sit still and pretty! *LOL* I wasn’t running on the track or anything! *LOL* we were on the bottom floor where the weights and machines are. It was a short distance from the back wall to the trainer area and back but it felt good just to run after the exersises I was doing. We mainly worked on core, stability and legs but we did a tiny bit of upper body. I like these days where we get a little bit of everything and do them circuit style!

On another note, Logan started T-Ball last week. *LOL* It is cute watching him. I can’t believe he is old enough to play. He grew up too fast. He hates playing in the field. He rather bat and run. I don’t blame him. There are 20 kids on each team so there are like 6-7 kids on each base so it is crowded when they are on the field. I hope next year they will split the teams up a little better so the kids can have the real experience of the game. Maybe 10 kids max each team.

Still do not have testing dates for the academy. I lost hope in getting a new testing date for this year. Maybe the beginning of next year they will be hiring and testing again. Until then I will keep my training process. Least I might be better prepared than most.

*LOL* so I actually got a print out of my assessment from my trainer today. This is what one paragraph says. "Your body fat is extremely low! make it a priority to speak with a health professional about your body composition." *LOL* By the assessment I had the other day my body fat percentage is at 11.5% I think that is great. My goal was to get to 11% and I was doing much better than what I thought! *LOL* I also some how grew an inch so I am now 5′3" instead of 5′2". My weight at the time of the assessment was 110 but I was wearing clothes/shoes and I had a cheat day. *LOL* I weighed in this morning at 106.8. I am reassessing if I should drop the extra 6.8 lbs. I eat good and feel good but is this assessment telling me for real I should not be down that far? The print out also tells me that healthy range for me is 110.6-135.2. I am sorry but at 130 after baby #1 I looked horrible and fat! I also felt horrible and no energy. You might say that came from having the baby but hey! I was still weighing a feeling this way after 1 year. As for my other assessments I am below "average" on muscular fitness in push ups, flexibility and the sit and reach test, and core! Ak! Gotta work on these. We set a goal for 6 weeks to get up to par and then doing a reassessment. I had my other trainer today. My back still is screwed up so we stayed upper body although I had already did most upper body the previous night. We did bi, tri, chest and abs. I feel ok. My back is killing me! It is a huge knot that will not give. It hurts to even lay on it! Hope I feel much better tomorrow.

Well yeah you guessed it. My lower back is at it again. This time it may not be an adjustment issue. It seems I have a large knot in my lower left side of my back. It started out as a twinge but now it just hurts. Tried rolling balls to get the knot out and it doesn’t seem to work. It made it worse. It didn’t feel worse at first but now since it has been a few hours I am in more pain. As a result of my back I only stayed at the gym for about 30-40 min tops. The pain began to radiate throughout my body when I breathed deeply. I did work on shoulders and chest today. I have a training session tomorrow so I am hoping my back is in better shape by the morning. Thank god I still have those 600mg ibuprofens from my c-section. Mike said he will make me feel better. lets hope so.

Sorry guys for not being on here at all until today. phew this week has been intense and tiring. I do not mean tiring by workouts and the gym. It has been non stop stress for Michael and I this week. He has been working a lot of overtime this week and I have been dealing with sick children. Logan had a really bad asthma flair up mid week. I was just at the point where I thought well maybe he is about to grow out of it and then bam! it hits like a ton on bricks on his lungs. Thank God it happened on the night before his asthma checkup. He was running a fever, throwing up mucus and was having difficulty breathing. I tell you this child is a trooper. He didn’t seem to fuss too much about it. *LOL* In fact at like 7 or 8 am Michael was having trouble getting him back to bed. He is alright now but I am still worried about him. I wanted to put in sports this summer but the way the environment is looking to turn out to be for summer and fall I am hesitant on doing so. Lili is teething and has sinus issues going on as well so she has been extra fussy off and on. We bought an air purifier and hopefully this will help ease things this summer.

I only made it once to the gym this week. I could have made it on Wednesday but opted to wait in an insane line for gas that was 30 cents cheaper than EVERYONE in the city. This was the same day Logan had to go to his allergist. By the time I got gas Lili was ready to come home and take a nap.

Today we started over on the personal training visits at my gym. Its great! We did, of course, measurements and testing today like I was a new member. My stats are great! I will add them later when I have time. We set some goals..I do not really have any weight loss or body fat goals because I am pretty thin as it is now. CARDIO is the biggest. We are going to try to add about 5 or 7lbs of muscle weight within the next 6 weeks. My core strength is not all that great either. That is expected though when you have a c-section. I just have to give my body time to repair and use muscle memory. *LOL* Today was the first ever on being able to do 20 push ups! YEAH this is exit requirements in the police academy! And they were not the sucky wuss kind either. They were done the right way. We did a tiny 15-20 min workout on machines and some cable. We ran out of time because of the measurements and what not. I did just a 15 min cardio interval on the treadmill. I felt pretty good at the end of the night but it is a shame I only made it once. Maybe when we go to Louisville this weekend Mike and I can go away together and workout for an hour or so. This weekend is not full of oohs and wowies! *LOL* It will most likely be a tame mother’s day weekend. Till next week!

Thanks to all for leaving me wonderful messages for my birthday. I know it has been about a week or so since I have been on here. Things have been a little hectic with the kids and life in general. The past few days all my free time was spent doing an online discussion board about new movies coming out this summer and fall. It paid pretty good so I wanted to do it. I do these little surveys for little extra spending cash…usually for the kids. My birthday was great. I expected my day to be like any other day since it was on a thursday but Mike surprised me. I didn’t even hear him get up with our son in the morning. I got to sleep in for a little bit! The kids and  Mike then woke me up singing happy birthday and gave me a card. While I was asleep Logan and Mike made me a cupcake cake! YUMMY! *LOL* Even though it is not a part of my diet I will make this exception because it is specially made with love. I have been pretty good about not going back for "just one more" cupcake. I guess it is because here lately I cannot eat a lot of sweets. *LOL* Maybe it is that death chocolate cake Mike made a few weeks ago that made my body go into shock! HA HA HA. I am so excited because I found out this week starting next week our gym is starting a new program for personal training. Everyone’s slate gets wiped out and everyone has 10 new pt visits! I had just finished my 10 and now I get 10 more which is kick @ss since I am still training for the Police Qualification Test. Speaking of…I am sorry to announce they still do not have the new testing dates up. I am thinking maybe there is a freeze in hiring. I heard something a few months back that the mayor was freezing all government hiring but it didn’t happen. I am thinking maybe it did now. I will continue to train to keep on top but I also love how I look and feel I am not about to stop just because!
As far as training is concerned I have been doing great. since the online discussion board and my birthday I only made it twice to the gym this week. I had another personal trainer on Wednesday because my trainer is a hot commodity at that gym. She did really well with me. There were a few things I could only do so much of because of my back and such but I felt great leaving. We did circuit training with the bench, Hindu push ups and dumbbell deadlifts. The deadlifts we had a few sets of straight-legged and then a few one-legged. We used the smith machine and a stability ball to do a decline chin up. These were fairly easy for me. I also did circuit on the treadmill. We only did 2 miles but I was dripping with sweat! *LOL* NICE!

Today I was with my regular trainer. I was feeling a little weaker today for some reason. *LOL* And grumpier.  I am so excited! Ok so we did dumbbell clean and jerks today and I did well. I love them. I think I might continue to do them. *LOL* I am so retarded I was calling them pump and jerks! HA HA HA that is kind of like my father-in-law calling the singer Meatloaf Pot roast! But anyway Have you ever tried to plank on a stability ball and had someone slightly moving or hitting the ball in all directions? Yeah I did and they are hard! It was challenging but totally worth it. We did a little cable work and a few other things with the dumbbells. I feel good but I know my butt was kicked tonight. Thank God it is the weekend. I can relax..maybe..and start fresh Monday! I took a few new progress picks. *LOL* Mike just had to point out my wrists are teeny tiny! *LOL* I am just feminine! My tummy is getting flatter but I still have alot of work to do. Till next week!

Well aside from lack of sleep these days I am feeling mighty good. I am proud of myself. Today I ran 3 miles. Of course I was bored on the treadmill so I went back and forth from the treadmill to the elliptical and then the arc trainer. It took a lot to get me to focus at the gym. I didn’t do anything today but cardio. Yesterday I did my typical day two routine with legs, abs and finished shoulders. I don’t think I pushed my legs hard enough because I was not sore at all when I woke up. I didn’t do lunges like I was supposed to. Maybe I will throw them in my routine tomorrow if I am still not feeling anything from my leg workout. I am hoping next week to get a little sun on my pale white skin! *LOL* I would hate to pay $30 per month just to look tan this year because I cannot make it out in the daylight. We’ll see.

So yeah today my trainer told me he may be leaving! AHH! He had taken the FBI qualification test a year ago and failed the math section. He said there was math on there he had never seen before. Well he is eligible to re-test soon (you have to wait a year) and he is looking into re-testing because this is what he always wanted to do with his life. He said the gym is going no where fast…I can understand completely and this is not the first trainer that worked there to tell me so! What is strange though is the FBI only lets a person take the test twice. If they fail it both times they can never take it again. So this is make it or break it for him. I am happy for him that he is chasing his dream but sad to hear he may leave me. This is the second pt to leave me. I had two others but they didn’t leave they just went to a different shift. This is kind of frustrating because now I have to start with another trainer. I only have a few training visits left anyway and will not be eligible for more until January (we get 10 free training sessions per year). I cannot pay a trainer at this time so I guess I am on my own within the next few weeks.

I had a good workout today. I did chest, triceps and some shoulders (my usual day one). I did try those new abs exercises and loved them. I can’t wait until I see progress there.  I also did the hyper extension for my lower back. It has been hurting lately. I could only do about half what I could usually do. I need an alignment….crap!

So many of you are probably wondering why the title? Well today the word arthritis was thrown around by my trainer. He thinks I might have arthritis in my hips. We were doing inner/outer thigh exercises on a stability ball today. These were different exercises that I have seen in the past. The exercises I have seen or done in the past were all lying on the ground and lifting the hips off the ground. These were were totally the opposite. One exercise involved me standing straight with one leg bent up to make my knee parallel to the floor. The leg that was bent was pressed into the ball without hip movement. This made my hips feel like they need to pop. Another exercise we did was using the stability ball and kneeling on the ball with the ball in between the legs. I had to press both thighs into it. This wasn’t bad doing it until I stood up and my hips were killing me. I also had to do a dumbbell chest press while lying on the floor. I added pictures of these two if my wording is confusing. He had me keep my arm locked, contract my abs, make it to a sitting position, then to a standing position and then roll back down to do it again for 2 sets of 12. Again my hips were not cooperating and creating a pain that was uncomfortable to continue to do that exercise. We did an exercise call "Hello Sunshines" *LOL* It is not pleasant as it may sound like after you do so many reps. I am excited though! I did barbell squats for the first time in my life and I did very well! I did 75 lbs!! I did three sets of 15! He happened to notice my hips were wobbly when doing this and again..arthritis was mentioned. We did a few reps on bench. I am wore out and my hips are not feeling so hot. I think I might soak in  bath for a little bit tonight and decide if I really want to make an appointment with a chiropractor…:(