In the 6 months since I had my little girl, I had been losing the baby weight slow and steadily....had been.
I'm pretty much stuck right now and it's becoming quite disheartening. I know that a lot has to do with the fact that my 2 year old is getting up multiple times during the night and I have had only one night in the past 2 1/2 months that could be considered a restful, full nights sleep. I'm a person who needs 8-9 hours of undisturbed sleep per night. The lack of sleep wreaks havoc on my body, my personality and the state of cleanliness of my house! It's a slippery slope because if I'm feeling poorly, I don't have the energy or attitude to get my kids organized for the day, get the stuff done I need to and get to the gym. The whole bloody cycle just repeats itself day after day. So, if anyone has any advice for getting a 2 year old in the "fraidy cat" stage to start sleeping through the night again, I'm all ears.
Despite my sleep troubles, I decided to start a new 12 week program and began yesterday. I started Strong Lifts (stronglifts.com) which is a barbell centric, heavy weight lifting routine. I can do the 5x5 reps at the gym and one of the trainers has agreed to check my form regularly. Yesterday I started with weighted squats, benchpress and rows. Needless to say, I can barely move today. And the kicker is, I didn't even use any weight on the bar (the bar does weigh 45 lbs however) except for the rows. I looked fairly ridiculous next to the 2 huge ex-OSU football players pressing about 300lbs but they were very supportive of my endeavor. I took an ice bath (holy mother of f-ing god!!) in the hopes that it makes my recovery a little easier. If it did anything, I would hate to even think about what I would be like today if I didn't do it, I can barely walk down the stairs. I'm going to take another tonight. Getting my legs numb last night gave me some much needed ibuprofen-free pain relief - regardless of what it actually does for my muscles in the ensuing days.
My goal is to get a lot stronger and to lose body fat. Long, long gone are the days when I sported 12% body fat as a competitive figure skater. Long gone, also, is the thought of having the body I had when I was 16. I really just need more strength to keep up with my kids and everything else life throws at me. I eat a clean diet and I'm med-free so getting stronger and perhaps a little sleep here and there should make me that much more able to keep up with a family of 5.
Hey Robyn,
ReplyDeleteI left you a comment a couple months ago, and wanted to give you a little update... and say thank you! I haven't noticed a huge difference in my Lupus symptoms since starting Paleo, but I do FEEL better. I even have turned my fiance over to the dark side!! I want to continue it to see if it does start helping with my symptoms for at least a couple more months. I am so glad I found your blog when I did! Also, I have a new blog so feel free to check it out. www.defyinglupus.com
Thanks again,
Erin
That's awesome Erin, I'm so glad that you're feeling better! I saw on your blog that you are 90% paleo. Are you still eating gluten and processed vegetable oils? Those are the kickers for me. While I'm not celiac, I do believe I'm very sensitive and that gluten effects my joints and kidneys like gluten effects the intestinal walls of celiacs. The processed oils are 100% omega 6's and they are a huge cause of inflammation (at least for myself!). Stick with it. Eventually, it just becomes your lifestyle. If you feel better don't go back! And try to get to 100% if you can, once you are there for a while you can see if you can add anything back in. I'm able to tolerate grassfed butter with no problems and it actually is making a huge difference with how I feel. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteRobyn, how long have you been doing Paleo? I am trying to get my wife to start Paleo because of her health issues. Lupus being one of them. I would like to chat if possible. travis
ReplyDelete@Travis S. Robinson
ReplyDeleteHi Travis, I was paleo for about 9 months before I got pregnant (baby is now 7 months). I was pretty sick throughout my pregnancy so I ate whatever didn't make me nauseous (namely starchy, grainy carbs). I went back on the diet the day I had my baby so it has been almost 8 months since that time. I would love to chat, just let me know how you would like to. My email is latimerrobyn@gmail.com if you would like to take this offline.