Tuesday, August 29, 2006

An unfit mother

Don't call the Social Welfare dudes yet - this isn't anything to do with some of the less savoury items on my previous post's list. This is about physical fitness, or in my case, the lack of it.

All of my adult life, right from my teens when I got fat, when on stupid diets, got fat again and then discovered exercise, I've been a fitness junkie. Right up until my last term of pregancy, that is. At the peak of my physical fitness I had the oxygen capacity of a woman ten years younger, and could do a Tae Bo class and still breathe through my nose.

I know there are women who ran marathons when they were eight months pregnant, or who launched into a fitness program as soon as their respective babies popped out. But I wasn't one of them (pushing The Little Madam around in th buggy used to be great, but now that she's so mobile I hate to keep her harnessed up for long). And because breastfeeding helped me lose all my maternity fat, I didn't quite have the motivation that some new mothers did.

But things are going to have to change. I'm sick of looking at my belly in the mirror and seeing a ripe candidate for liposuction. I'm sick of getting out of breath pushing the buggy up the hill to my house (though to be fair, it's a very steep hill). And soon (I hope), I won't have breastfeeding to use up all those cake'n'biscuit calories I've been consuming for the last 18 months.

So today I started a modest fitness programme; just seven exercises which I can do at home while The Little Madam is napping, and the whole thing can be finished before she wakes up, even if she's decided to treat me with a 45-minuter. It's just a few lunges, ladies' pushups etc, but it's a start. And perhaps in the weekends I can use my baby-free time to do some laps at the local pool (not that I haven't been unsuccessfully meaning to for the last six months).

Today's workout:
supermans - 2 sets of 8
leg lifts, inner and outer thighs - 2 sets of 15
twist crunches - 2 sets of 15
ladies' pushups (the ones you do on your knees) - 2 sets of 15
shoulder blade squeezes - 2 sets of 15
lunges (no weights) - 2 sets of 15

Obviously if I keep this up, I'm going to need weights in the near future - not to mention a wider range of exercises and some cardio work. I'll worry about that in a couple of weeks.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

At the rate I'm going, I'll be able to give you our smallest set of handweights soon because I'm about to move on to the heavier ones (yeah, right)

Anonymous said...

Don't forget to post before and after pictures..

Violet said...

editter:I may have to start with cans of food. Then I can eat from them when I'm done ;-)

happyandblue2: yeah, right.

Watson Woodworth said...

I'm afraid to get too attached to my new phisique because there's always that haunting fear that I'll again be looking down at an impressive third trimester.
But I've upped the weights and have started a thing where your arms and back are stationary and your legs swing up like you're a jack knife. It's interesting.
What's a "Superman"?

Ali-Belly said...

Yeah - what IS a Superman????

Don't forget your pelvic floor muscle exercises! Keep them up and you'll be cracking nuts in no time. :P

Violet said...

nigel and wicked: a superman is where you get down on your hands and knees, and lift one arm out in front and the diagonally opposite leg out back. They aren't that hard to do, unless you over-extend and do your back in ;-) Cracking nuts with my pelvic floor muscles, Wicked? Is that what you tell 'em on NZDating ;-)

Angela said...

Good luck!

glomgold said...

I can't even breathe through my nose sitting at a computer desk, though I'm not really out of shape. Perhaps it's that 'deviated septum' thing I always hear about.
I think I'm gonna call the social welfare folk anyway...