Fit Mom Friday 12/3

aloha_mama

Fit Mom Friday is a fun way to help us on our healthy pregnancy goals. Fit is whatever it means to you!

Health/Fitness Goal (and why, if you want to share): 

Week's Successes:

Week's Challenges: 

GTKY: What is your best party trick? (Double jointed? Can you curl your tongue? Fit 20 marshmallows in your mouth? Fire dancing?)

aloha_mama

Health/Fitness Goal (and why, if you want to share): Workout 3-5x a week to keep weight gain appropriate, prepare for labor and delivery, and hopefully have a smooth recovery.

Week's Successes: Some sort of workout every day minus one rest day! I think I should probably be taking more rest days but I just feel better on days when I’m moving. The weather has been typical roller coaster NC winter weather, so one day we had 27 degrees and today it’s 72 😂 So on the nice days I try to enjoy them outside with walks, on the cold days I’ve been continuing my Daily Burn program indoors. I was afraid the other day I pulled something by going too hard but I worked it out with a short recovery yoga flow.

Week's Challenges: My balance is SO OFF! It gets frustrating at times but I try to just laugh and see the humor in it. I’m not that big yet but I just feel like a Weeble Wobble some days. Yesterday I rolled/fell out of a Warrior 2 pose, something I usually don’t have any issues with. DD6 thought it was hilarious, of course. And it hurts to put any pressure on my joints on the floor— so side planks hurt my elbows, sitting cross-legged hurts my ankles, pigeon pose hurts my ankles and knees…. Just learning more about my new body that changes every day and adapting as I go. 

GTKY: I wrote this and realized I didn’t know my own answer! I’m pretty flexible and I can pick up anything off the floor with my toes. Hopefully someone has something more interesting!

minnie_yoga_mama

Health/Fitness Goal (and why, if you want to share): Eat healthy, keep up my weekly yoga practice, and perform exercises to specifically prepare my body for birth and labor.

Week's Successes: It’s so nice to be back into my routine! 4 days of prenatal yoga after work at home and walks every day during lunch, which feel amazing now that it’s finally cooling down into the 60s and 70s during the day here! 🙌 I’ve also been trying to do the core muscle activation exercises the pelvic floor PT gave me— I like them because they’re similar to kegels in that I can do them any time I think about it at work, on the car, or laying in bed! The hope is that targeting and strengthening these specific core muscles will allow the pelvic floor muscles and the low back extensor muscles to relax and not overwork. 🤞

Week's Challenges: I think I need to do some more grounding yoga practices— it’s been so hard to focus and commit to doing a longer class or workout! I feel like my monkey mind is all over the place lately and it’s been so hard to settle it down and concentrate on my workouts/meditation practices. Also just starting this week: as soon as I finish my physical yoga practice and settle into my savasana, baby starts kicking me like crazy! You’d think it would distract me but it’s actually been really helping me to come back into my body and the appreciate present moment!

GTKY: What is your best party trick? (Double jointed? Can you curl your tongue? Fit 20 marshmallows in your mouth? Fire dancing?) Hmmm I suppose I’ll have to go with my synesthesia for this one. I talked a bit about it before— I “see” letters, words, and music/melodies in specific colors. Another interesting fact (not really a party trick though), is that I sneeze whenever going outside into the sunlight or anywhere with a super bright light. Like synesthesia, it’s actually another rare genetic occurrence caused by my olfactory nerve being located extremely close to my ocular nerve. When my ocular nerve is stimulated by the super bright sunlight, it’s so close to the olfactory nerve that it stimulates that nerve too, causing me to sneeze! 😆 Every time!! 

shlecks

@minnie_yoga_mama OH MY GOSH my husband AND 4 year old son do that too!!! I never knew it was a genetic thing!  But literally every time we go outside they both sneeze!


Health/Fitness Goal (and why, if you want to share): I'd just like to remain active and keep my muscles moving to keep excess weight at bay and for a little "me" time.

Week's Successes: None lol - I've been off the wagon since my half marathon in October.  BUT I just signed up for a challenge on my treadmill (it's got iFit so it's a community kinda like Peloton) that I'm hoping to get started this weekend.

Week's Challenges:  I was going to try to get up today and get on the treadmill but it's really hard for me to get out of bed.  I think I'll need to set my alarm extra early to help get my brain going.

GTKY: What is your best party trick? (Double jointed? Can you curl your tongue? Fit 20 marshmallows in your mouth? Fire dancing?)  I can do the tongue thing, I can recite the alphabet backwards, but I don't know I'm kinda lame in that department haha I don't think I have any tricks really.  

hoosiermamajayden

I’ve been doing a bad job but today has been good! Got a cardio workout and some stretching in this morning, and the weather is super nice today so I took a 30-minute walk this afternoon.

bluecampanula

Health/Fitness Goal (and why, if you want to share): 3-5x a week

Week's Successes: only one workout

Week's Challenges: life is just so busy! Ah! But I was wondering if anyone had any good low back/ hip stretches. My belly is already getting in the way of one of my favorites. 

GTKY: What is your best party trick? Ummmm… I’m almost ambidextrous? Mostly it has confused and frustrated people trying to teach me things, rather than wow anyone at a party though 

aloha_mama

@bluecampanula I’m sure @minnie_yoga_mama would be able to answer this better than me! But I really love pigeon prep poses, figure four (standing and lying down), and there’s this other one that I really like but I don’t know the name of it? You lie on your back, bend your legs, bring right ankle to left knee, walk the left foot to the left side a bit, and then lean both knees over towards the floor on the right. It stretches the sides of my hips and torso really nicely and feels great. 

minnie_yoga_mama

@bluecampanula It depends what muscles you’re looking to stretch and lengthen! Great poses for tight hip flexors are high and low lunge. If you’re looking for more hip external rotation, good poses include pigeon pose, reclined pigeon pose laying on your back, butterfly, and wide legged forward fold. The wide legged forward fold has felt great to me lately and helps to stretch and lengthen your back muscles (just be sure to keep a straight spine and avoid any rounding). I usually like doing side reaches toward the toes on either side first to make more abdominal space for baby before folding forward, and if you hold it in true “yin” yoga fashion (3-5 min), practicing breathing through the discomfort is a great labor prep exercise! 

monstera13

Nothing impressive in terms of successes this week. I went for a hike with the family, but that’s it. 

And I have a half marathon in two weeks. 😩 It’s going to be miserable! But I’m sure I’ll be proud when it’s over. 

shlecks

@monstera13 Heck yeah you'll be proud!