Fit & Well
A great perk to my job is that I am introduced to fabulous products and services made to make life better for mums and their families. I have so far had two sessions with a company called Fit & Well. This company sends a coach to your home (a qualified personal trainer) that gets you moving - at your place. Be it with your baby, with your toddler, with your husband, with your friends, with your coffee group or just by yourself. It's that accommodating.
Kevin (my husband) and I put Roman (our 6-month old) in the stroller at 1pm with our coach (another Kevin, who has a lovely Sean Connery-like accent) and walked to the park. We did half an hour of the physical stuff; brisk walking, lunges while holding onto the pram, pulling and pushing the pram for biceps etc. We had such a laugh and good conversation it didn't feel too hard and the half hour flew by (the dog loved it and the baby slept in the pram). Back to the house and we did "core" work in our lounge. Whilst trying to find my core muscle by laying on the lounge room floor (Mental note to self: vacuum before next session) I truly had trouble feeling it but apparently all mums do that's why it's a necessary muscle to exercise to support our crappy lower backs! Core work was about half an hour. Then there was a chat about nutrition. Did you know that if I ate a mars bar a day (I wish) it would equate to 10kg by the end of the year? Did you know that alcohol is stored as fat but unlike fat, can't be burnt off as energy. Therefore, stick to the recommended 'units'.
It was felt very casual, yet our butt and thighs were very tender the next morning so we must
have done some work. I love the idea of it being at home or your local park as you don't care about whether you have the right gym gear/sneakers or child care etc. Exercising with your husband is a great way to spend time together. I know that sounds silly when Kev and I work together but work is a really different dynamic eg. not fun.
I think this would be ideal to do with friends, coffee groups or husbands as the time will pass really quickly due to chatter; as well as getting healthier and fitter as well as being a cheap way to exercise with a personal trainer (split the cost). Having the trainer there keeps the tempo up and since he has two decades experience training elite athletes (footballers and runners etc) you get access to great advice for what suits you personally. It is an awesome concept.
After the excitement of having a personal training session last week, I actually made a lot more effort to put both boys in the pram and get moving. Thankfully we are having a bit of a warm winter so far and this has been motivation enough to get outside. Even our 3 year old enjoyed going out to do the circuit at the park. Although he told me to walk 'properly' when I was doing my lunges but then he had a go too. So cute! However, I have found every excuse not to do any of the 'floor' work. This may be because I cannot find the floor due to piles of washing and toys. Either way, I have really procrastinated this time. I have chosen some healthier options for snacks. Amazing phenomenon really - do a bit of exercise and you actually feel like eating healthier.
When our coach Kevin came over this week I was really focussed on getting the most out of the time he was here.
The weather turned very cold this last week so I managed to only do a few exercises. I am really concentrating on my core work as my lower back still twinges now and then. I only did one jog with the pram (only 15 minutes) but more than what I was previously doing which wasn’t any running at all!
DH called to say that he was ‘too busy’ to come home to exercise. What a flake! After only 2 weeks, he quit.
Kevin, the Fit & Well coach, arrived on a very dreary Thursday. Baby Roman was wide awake and I was a tad nervous about him entertaining himself for an hour. Kevin said a work out in the TV room was plenty of space. We kicked all the toys to one side of the room and miraculously Kevin instructed me through a very invigorating 45 minute work-out using about a meter of floor space and the two bottom stairs to the stairwell. I feel very ashamed that I made excuses not to exercise due to bad weather! You don’t need anything! Roman enjoyed being carried up and down the two steps – he giggled so much it made you want to keep going.
After the public humiliation of last week, DH showed up for Week 4’s training session. Thankfully he did as Kevin-the-coach had us doing lots of joint exercises like passing medicine balls to each other in all sorts of activities that highlighted how uncoordinated I am. Roman was not as cooperative this week, so a quick ten-minute break was required to give him a cuddle to send him off to sleep and then, wham bam straight back into it.
Results? Yes, there are some! I feel a lot stronger in my torso. My posture has ‘opened’ up a little. I do have a tendency to double over when sitting and round my shoulders so much that they aren’t far from meeting in the middle. I am managing to actually do some exercise in my own time. I never seem to be able to do a full 30 minutes but a little bit here and there is better than nothing at all. This is the very first week in the 7 months of Roman’s life that I have not felt a ‘twinge’ in my lower back AT ALL. All this core work is making my life better.
I can barely lift my arms to type this week's blog entry. Kevin-the-coach came in all smiles and pleasantness and starts me on a routine using only my body weight. Again, only in a small area of my TV room and using the bottom two steps, I puffed and panted and finally admitted "Kevin, I need water and I am absolutely knackered". I was stunned by his reply "But Pia, you've only been going for 9 minutes".
DH turns up 15 minutes late and I secretly hope he will hurt as much as I was hurting. Thankfully he did. Red in the face, he rested more than I needed to. A little competitiveness is good in a marriage!
We had both our children home this time and our 3 year old, Leonardo enjoyed trying to join in although, he choreographed his own routine which included lots of roly poly somersaults on the yoga mat.
Kevin-the-coach explained that this week's work-out demonstrates how you can alter the intensity of a work out by increasing repetition and switching sequences.
A hard lesson learnt.
I have just had two weeks of ticking the proverbial parenting milestone list; Leo’s 3rd birthday party – check, Roman’s baptism – check.
Now lets see; I have eaten chocolate cake, chocolate crackles, fairy bread, sausage rolls, slices, more cake, exotic biscuits, more slices and even fish and chips in the last two weeks.
Kevin-the-Coach arrived this week with a new gadget of torture (in jest); a clever, slim stick that offers resistance training. Thankfully, he took pity on me and allowed me to refrain from participating in any cardio work. We therefore just did resistance and core muscle training. Body ached for two days but strangely, in a good way. I definitely feel stronger for all the work that we have achieved.
Due to the excessive amount of ‘bad’ food that I have consumed this week, I have managed to get outdoors and do some fast-paced walking and even managed a short jog too.
Wow! This week we did 45 minutes of the same routine as Week 5 and it hurt. It was fast and challenging. We had this fantastic tricky little number that I have renamed 'Flashdance'. Which truly had the blood pumping! Again, the entire work out was with in a 3 x 2 meter space demonstrating that you don't need to be outside, at a gym or have flash equipment. We used only our body weight as resistance. DH and I felt heaps better for the cardio work out and knew that our bodies were the better for it.
Sadly, after last week's work out both the baby and the toddler crumpled. They both got nasty, painful coughs and colds. Both were extremely irritable and whiny. Hard work. Once they seemed to get through the worst of it - I got the same bug. I felt so sorry for the wee ones as I was really sick and realised that they are such troopers really. I stayed in bed for one afternoon but that is not something a mother can do often. By the time Wednesday came around I realised that there was no way that I could participate in any form of exercise either. Had to call off Kevin-the-coach. I would like to say that I caught up on my exercise the following week but that would be a complete lie. It goes to show that once you do stop exercising, it is really easy to stay that way.
Feeling a lot better. It has been a glorious sunny winter's week this week and Kevin-the-coach had us out for a jog. Did you hear that? Yes, a jog. It was such a lovely day that we took the dog (frisky border collie) and put the baby in the buggy. Off the little family goes. Puff Puff Puff! We ran for 3 minute intervals and stopped to do exercises like squats and push-ups. Baby drifted off to sleep and DH worked our butts off - hopefully! I felt better for the run. I think that cardio vascular training suits me more than resistance training. Somehow, I feel that I have 'done' something to better my health. Maybe its all those lovely endorphins streaming through the body!