No More Big Mama

I'm getting rid of the weight and the hang ups. Gave birth in May and am now trying to focus on keeping healthy and active and letting the weight fall off as a byproduct. Please do not reblog photos of my friends and family if you do not know me.

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Combining The Two

I've been thinking for a while and I have decided to combine my fitness and my personal blog.  I find that I seem to be dedicated to one blog at a time - so if I am logged in to my personal one then I only update that one, and if I am logged in to this one then I only update this one (although to be honest, I haven't done that in a while).

So I'm gonna stop posting to this one and post to my other one only.  Personal stuff, mama stuff, workout stuff - I'm all gonna post it over there.  I'd love to see you guys there so if you want to come visit me here. <--- click that link

I'm gonna start following all of you guys from that account.  I look forward to seeing all the updates on a more regular basis over there. :)

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Breakfast vegetables

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I was hungry at work today, had already eaten my mandarin and kiwifruit, didn't feel like my apple and was too lazy to go over to the cafe and get me a sandwich so I had a look in the cupboards at work (work is me, my sister, my mum, my aunty and Ken - so all food is ours for the taking) and had two boiled eggs and half an avocado.  

Then my sister turned up from the cafe (which is also ours - one of us is always in there in the morning making sandwiches, salads, wraps etc) with a chicken sandwich.  YUM!

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A Good Kind Of Pain

So my glutes are burning up.  That kettlebell workshop I did this morning was intense but awesome.  Lisa has been in the army for about fifteen years and now trains the guys up at Waiouru and the stuff she took us through was beginners stuff, but it was good.

We started off with some warm up drills which included jogging on the spot, then dropping and touching the ground with either your left or right hand, turning in a circle, doing a burpee etc, then went for a jog up the road before getting in to it.

We did push ups with both one and two kettlebells, swings, squats, push presses, one legged squats, deadlifts, one armed rows, and then Turkish get ups.

Once we had gone through those we did fifteen minutes AMRAP:

5 pull ups or 10 push ups

10 KB swings

10 KB squats

10 KB jumps

I did 12 rounds with about five seconds to spare.  Paul is hoping to get Lisa down to run a workshop every couple of weeks and if she does I'll definitely be going.

It was a really hot day down at the compound today and the heat of the sun combined with my swinging that damn kettlebell around had me sweating up a storm.  Was so damn good though.

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Hottest freaking day of the year and I decide to go to a kettlebell workshop down at the compound (aka Fight Fit) with Sgt Harrison. I am pretty sure I lost 5kgs in sweat.

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Crazy Lady

It was a beautiful sunny day today so I was lying out on my front porch enjoying the rays while my son drew on the driveway with chalk when the mail lady biked past.  I know her from Boxfit so I stopped and talked to her and she told me how she had decided to do a half marathon (she hasn't done one for a few years) and did it last weekend in an hour thirty nine and that she was satisfied with the time but thought she could have done it a lot better.  WHAAAAAAT?!?!

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Finding A Way Through

I haven't blogged for a while cos I've been going through some shit.

My marriage has ended.  It's been tough and all I want to do is stay in bed and cry but I have a three year old and a twelve week old who need attention and that's not an option.

I have been getting to the gym or to Boxfit when I can, but with nobody to have the kids it has been kind of hard fitting that in.

I am slowly figuring everything out though.

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Lower Body Workout

Today was lower body workout day.  Damian has been sending through an outline of their Crossfit sessions for us to do if we want to.  On non programme days I go to Boxfit so I thought we could chuck it in before our workout instead.

We did.  And it sucked.  Who would ever have thought you could get so fricken hot, sweaty, tired and sore in just ten minutes!  Five minutes later I felt good and was glad I done it but holy crap I was heaving for breath during it!

I posted it yesterday so I won't re-post (click here to see it), but I will say that I did 22kg thrusters and power cleans instead of 25kg ones.  By the last two sets though (4 and 5 reps) I was really struggling with the thrusters so grabbed the next lightest bar that was on the stand near me (I didn't want to mess up my time) which was 14kg.  Kept with the 22kg for the power cleans though.

And we don't have rings at our gym so just went for normal push ups.  Which I still find hard.  Really need to work on those.  Sucks that I've gone from proper push ups to struggling through girly push ups in about a year.  That's what happens when you decide to be fricken useless!

The rest of my workout went like this:

DB squat jumps (with 6kg dumbbells) - 4 sets of 6 reps

Squat (75/80/85%) - 37.5kg x 10, 40kg x 8, 42.5kg x 10, 50kg x 6

45 degree back raises (with 10kg plate over chest) - 3 sets of 12 reps

Seated MB twists (with 3kg MB) - 3 x 15 each side

Timed one mile (1.6km) run - 11:21

After I had finished doing my 85% max weight squats my brother said that I managed to push them out so I should give my max weight a go (50kg).  So I did.  I probably could have pushed it to 8 or possibly even 10 which is cool.  Although we use the (mind my lack of gym equipment language knowledge here!) the rack thingy where the bar just goes up and down, but can't go forwards or backwards.  Might be a whole different story if we use the free bar.  Which we're gonna do from now on.

When I did my benchmark testing three weeks ago my 1.6km run took me 11:03.  Last week it took me 12 something.  So although I've improved on last week by over half a minute, I'm still more than my benchmark.  WTH?  And for the second time in a row I got the stitch so hard I actually though I wasn't gonna be able to finish.  But I did.  

And I may have been sweaty and red as hell, but it felt sooooooo good.

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Swollen and bruised knuckles with no pain make me happy. It reminds me that I was on the verge of dying at Boxfit but kept pushing through it anyway. Giving more speed. Giving more power. Or whatever crazy shit Paul has dreamt up for us to do this week. Reaping the gains without the pain ftw.

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Strength and Conditioning

My cousin (the gym owner - who I will refer to as Damian from now on cos...well, that's his name, and it makes it easier than referring to him as "my cousin who owns a gym" all the time) sent me through the strength and conditioning workout that they did this morning.

If I had seen this earlier I would have gone down to the gym and done this instead of doing the S&C class at Fight Fit, but nevermind.  I will do it tomorrow with my brother before we do our lower body workout instead.

Weighted pull ups - 4 sets x 3 reps (lift as heavy as you can)

THEN 5-4-3-2-1-1-2-3-4-5 of the following (for time):

Barbell thrusters 40kg men/25kg women

Ring pushups

Burpees

Box jumps

Barbell power cleans

Will post tomorrow and let y'all know how I go.

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As planned, I went along to Boxout at lunch time today.  It is normally 6 or 7 two minute rounds against the bags so that you can get in a sweat up in your lunch time and still have time to shower, eat and get back to work.  Paul always runs two though, so if you wanted to/can fit it in you do it twice.  

Today Taare was taking the class and he decided to make it 10 rounds.  That's only three extra rounds, but trust me, when you are tired and sore those extra three make one hell of a difference!  I still did it twice though!

At about round six of the second time around Les turned up for the strength and conditioning class that started after Boxout.  She was the only one who turned up today - so although I had decided that I wasn't going to do it today I changed my mind and I stayed and did it with her.

Weighted goblet squat - 12kg KB

Mountain climbers - SUCK ASS!

Single arm KB swing - 8kg KB

T push up - also SUCK ASS!

Split jump lunge - I don't know if it was just because I was tired, but I kept losing my balance!

Bent over row - 8kg KB in each hand

KB side lunge and touch - 8kg KB

Push up with upright row

Lunge and rotation - 8kg KB

KB push press - 4kg KB in each hand.  These hurt like a bitch.  I probably could have pushed it up to 6kg (and cried while I did them) but they don't have any and the next one up was 8kg which I doubt I would have been able to lift at all!

Am very sweaty (and dare I say a bit stinky?) now - but I feel so damn good!!

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It's A Plan, Stan

Shoulder is still a bit stiff today but better than it was yesterday.  Romaine is busy all week but we are gonna hook up for a massage session on Saturday.  She'll massage me, I'll massage her - everyone goes home happy!

Am gonna go to Boxout at lunch time today, and then depending on both how I feel and how my baby is I might stay for the strength and conditioning class afterwards.  

I take my baby to the lunch time classes with me.  Because the Fight Fit gym owners are my friends they not only don't mind me taking my baby, but moan at me to bring her more often.  Plus it's a very whanau oriented place.  Kids are not a foreign sight down there.

Guess I should go and do some washing and dishes so that I at least feel like I have accomplished more than just a workout today!

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I gots mine gripads!  I am impatient and decided to go for the black ones rather than wait for the other ones to drop later this month or early next month.

Upper body today:

Bench press - 30kgs x 10, 32.5kgs x 8, 35kgs x9 (this was meant to be 75%, 80% and 85% which was 30/32/34 kgs but it was easier to round it up).

Flat DB press - 3 sets of 10kgs x 12

Seated overhand grip cable rows - 3 sets of 75lbs x 12, 1 set of 90lbs x 12

Cable triceps pushdowns - 3 sets of 30lbs x 12, 1 set of 40lbs x 12

DB shrugs with 2 second hold - 3 sets of 10kgs (each dumbbell, so 20kgs weight total) x 12

DB lateral raises - 1 set of 4kgs x 12, 2 sets of 3kgs x 12

Barbell complex (10 reps each of deadlifts, bent rows, hang cleans, push press, back squat) - 1 set 7kgs, 1 set 9.4kgs, 1 set 11.2kgs

Felt really, really good with the bench press, and feel like I probably could have gone heavier if I dropped the reps a bit, but stuck to the programme.  Flat DB presses nearly killed me, and my form must have been way off with the triceps pushdowns cos my wrists were really hurting.  OMG and don't even get me started on the lateral raises!  If I wasn't too embarrassed to admit they were too heavy I would have dropped down to the 2kgs!!!

Surprisingly, though, I really enjoyed the barbell complex!  I figured that I would be absolutely stuffed and unable to lift the bar which is why I started with the 7kgs.  Then I moved up for the next one, thinking that as it was my second set (90 seconds rest between sets) it would be so much harder.  It was harder, but not way way harder, you know?  So I moved up again to the 11.2kg bar and again, although I could definitely feel it I am confident that I could have moved up some more.  At least I know for next week.  I think I'll start on the 14kg bar and see how I go after a set or two with that.

My traps didn't really give me too much trouble during the workout but now that I'm home and have showered etc it's aching a little.  Glad I don't have another upper body workout until Saturday!  Well...I'm going to go to Boxout tomorrow and again on Friday, but that is more for cardio than anything else.

Did I mention that I got my gripads?!

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This is gonna happen this afternoon.  Even though my shoulders are in a ridiculous amount of pain today! 

My right upper traps are tender as shit so I'm hoping I can get in with Romaine for a massage some time this week.  Otherwise I'm gonna go crash my mum's house and not leave until she agrees to loosen me all up again.

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Sugar cravings.

I gots them.

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Ditto!  I have a mega sweet tooth and could probably live on Skittles, Wine Gums, hard boiled lollies and L&P.

But instead of helping myself to a handful of lollies I'm gonna have some pineapple and a kiwifruit.  

Making good choices for the win.

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It's 8.12pm...

...and both of my kids are asleep.  And have been for almost half an hour.  

That's probably not that unusual in a lot of households, but it's very unusual in mine! Anyone who has followed me for a little while will know that my son doesn't sleep well.  Or for very long.  His normal going to sleep time is around 11pm and he wakes at least twice during the night.

For the past week, since we got back from Rotorua, I have been putting him to bed by at least 8.30pm.  Which is what I was doing before that anyway.  He has still been staying awake for a couple of hours, but I'm trying to establish the whole routine and whatnot.  Plus I have been using the Sleep Drops.  I don't know if they're working, but they're certainly not doing any harm.  And they say that it's about regularity more than anything else and not to expect miracles overnight.

Since we have gotten back from Rotorua he has only been waking once during the night, for the most part.  He's woken twice here and there, but mostly it's only once, around midnight, and then he sleeps right through until about 7am.

Tonight, though, his eyes started getting droopy around 7pm so I put him in to his pyjamas, gave him his first dose of Sleep Drops (there are meant to be two, half an hour apart), tucked him in to bed and gave him a kiss.  Half an hour later when I went back in to his room to check on him and give him his second dose he was fast asleep.

I'm actually expecting him to wake up in an hour or so, but for now I'm gonna make the most of both my kids being asleep and go have a nice long shower.  I think I'll even take my time washing my hair.  That's a luxury that mama's will understand!

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Mean Monday

Keeping with the Pretty Little Liars theme, Shay Mitchell.  I think she's absolutely gorgeous!