12 Months Post Sophia

After two years of lifting heavy with minimal cardio  I'm seeing results in my core. Of course with the pregnancy thrown in there it slowed down my progress but I'm happy that at 12 months post partum I'm able to see my progress better. I've started eating more in order to gain more muscle. For awhile I was too concerned with slimming down and lost sight of my long term goal which is to gain more muscle. I stopped counting calories and am focusing more on consuming healthy carbs, fat and adequate protein. Usually getting in 100-140 grams of protein a day. I aim for a gallon of water a day but often fall short of that goal.  Excited to continue this journey.

I recently accepted a position as an intern at my Crossfit gym and am looking forward to my first day next week. Training/coaching/teaching has been something I've wanted to do for so long. In fact, it's been a dream for 4 years. Pretty thankful to have a supportive husband who makes this new venture possible and to have a great place, with amazing Coaches and training, to begin this journey. Fitness and health have been a passion of mine for almost 6 years now. In the last 6 years I haven't missed more than a week without working out with the exception of when Sophia was born. I'm excited to share my passion with others and hopefully, in one way or another, impact and encourage those around me to find their fit, healthy selves and in the process become happier people.

LuRong Challenge

At 10 weeks postpartum I started the LuRong challenge. It was a diet and crossfit challenge that charted progress for 9 weeks. The diet was Paleo but stricter. No nut flours, sweeteners of any kind, even honey, only homemade kombucha and no dairy.  I lost a total of 9lbs and 6 1/2 inches and knocked five minutes off my benchmark WODS. I cheated a total of four times. All in all, a great experience and one I would do again. I still have so far to go in reshaping my body after this pregnancy but am ready for the challenge. 

Before

After

	VALIDATED	VALIDATED
Waist	28 "	28 "
Hips	41 "	38 "
Chest	34 3/4 "	33 1/4 "
Thigh	23 "	20 1/2 "
Arm	10 1/4 "	10 3/4 "
Total	137 "	130 1/2 "

32-39 weeks

32-33 weeks

Still felt normal strength in the gym. Workouts included...

Pull-ups and Chin-ups

Pushups

Weighted Sit ups

Squats

Deadlifts

Shoulder Press

Bench Press

34 Weeks 

148lb Squat x2

This was the last heavy squat day while pregnant because I started feeling a pull in my lower abdomen muscles and my pelvis started really shifting on weighted squats. At this point I decreased my weight to about 60% of my one rep max and did lots of reps at that weight to maintain mobility. 

35-37 Weeks

I missed a few workouts due to car and timing issues but got to the gym every day I could. Even though I wasn't able to Squat what I was before, my bench and Deadlift numbers went up.

38 Weeks

 Bench Press and Pushups

39 Weeks (3 days before Sophia was born)

215lb deadlift (15lb PR)

This was one of the hardest weeks for me mentally and emotionally. The anticipation of meeting my baby, anxiety about labor and birth and also adding a third child to our family caused me to melt down several times. Pushing myself to get to the gym and pushing myself once I was there was key in helping release the anxiety.

29-31 Weeks

29 Weeks

Still feeling good with no aches or pains. We started a new lifting program that provides opportunity to PR often whether it's hitting a heavy 1 rep max or challenging ourselves to go heavy on 3, 5 or 8 reps. It's a lot of fun to see what I'm capable of. Of course listening to my body comes before trying to hit a new number but so far, so good. I've hit new PR's every week, sometimes two in a day. 

                                     

30 weeks

175lb Deadlift + 5 rep RDLs

It wasn't too long ago that I struggled to pull 170lbs so needless to say, I'm thrilled that 175lbs in addition to 5RDLs is no problem. 

At the 30 week mark I am a full 25lbs heavier than I was pre-pregnancy. I got my body fat % measured this week and they measured me two different ways. One way was including my abdomen measurements which said I was 21% body fat and one was without abdomen measurements, saying I was 18%body fat. Either way, it was less than what I expected it to be. It means that in addition to putting on roughly 4-7% body fat, I've also put on muscle. I'm doing OK in eating nutrient dense foods and avoiding gluten although I've made a few more exceptions than I'd like to admit. I'm still conscience of getting enough protein each day and avoiding empty calories. I've found that I put on pounds pretty fast when I eat late at night (duh) so I'm working on getting out of the habit of snacking after the kids go to bed when I'm sitting on the couch relaxing. Not a good time to indulge :) 

1 gallon of water a day is what I aim for. Most days I hit that mark no problem. I've found that having a good water source makes it much easier to drink the water. We stopped drinking tap water years ago, but now we're buying reverse osmosis water from Rainbow Blossom for .59 a gallon or Whole Foods for .39 a gallon and it tastes so good. The Rainbow blossom water claims to have added up to 500x more oxygen than normal water. Interesting! Whether it's true or not, it certainly makes it easier to drink lots of water when it's so smooth.  

31 week
200lb RDL 5reps
17lb PR (Happy Dance!)
This was a very happy day for me. Last time we went heavy on RDLs I got 183lbs for 3 reps so this 17lb jump in weight plus 2 reps was fun.

31weeks +5days

100lb Bench 

8lb PR

It wasn't pretty... but I did it! I reached the triple digits on my bench. I've been dreaming of this day for a long time. Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating in this whole workout thing because it's SO. MUCH. FUN! Sure, it's often hard to get in my car and drive to the gym because I know how much energy I'm going to put out but I'm always rewarded. Rewarded with a really nice rush of endorphins, sometimes rewarded with a new PR, rewarded as I watch others accomplish their goals and rewarded, without fail, every time I walk out of there knowing I was pushed by others and myself to get stronger and healthier. It is also rewarding knowing that my children are watching and learning. They see Mom and Dad workout at home and know when I leave three times a week I'm heading to the gym. Kids often emulate what they see and both Sam and Simone try pushups, squats, situps and swing on our gym rings daily. Sam actually has stellar pushup form. It's gratifying knowing that they are growing up with healthy habits of eating well and exercising. Sam informed me last week that he wants to run a race so we are looking into signing him up for the next kids race in our area. 

Powerlifting also has it's lows though. I've cried a few times and thrown little internal pity parties and temper tantrums when I feel off that day and have to back off the weight, or when I get too competitive and start comparing myself to what everyone else can do and what I can't do. My Coach is good at reminding me to do "my" best and not worry about what others are doing. It's a good thing because sometimes I get competitive with guys who can bench hundreds of pounds. What? I know, it doesn't make sense but I want to be throwing that much weight around too, dangit!  Of course that competitiveness is also coupled with a joy in watching my fellow lifters reach new PRs. Molly, a super cool 17year old chick who weighs 135lbs hit 162lbs on her squat today. It was amazing! I couldn't be happier for her and it's thrilling to watch others in their awesomeness. 

Date Bars

Lara Bars... ever heard of them? They're so good, mostly because the ingredients are simple and even organic depending on which bar you choose. It's rare to find a sweet treat without added sugar and these hit to spot for our family for several weeks... until we realized we were spending way too much on them. We decided to try our own version for two reasons. Cost and health. After much trial and error (read: Jake spending many hours in the kitchen using different techniques, ingredients and ratios) this recipe came into being. Kuddos to my husband for his patience and persistance. I am not nearly as innovative or ambitious in the kitchen as he is. The end result turned out to be far better than Lara bars. Sorry Lara, whoever you are.


3 cups pitted Dates
1/4-1/2 cup Cocao Nibs
1 cup Unsweetened Coconut Shreds
2 heaping TBSP Cocoa Powder
1/4 teaspoon Himalayan Salt
1/4 cup ground up Chia Seeds
1 scoop of chocolate whey protein (optional for an extra protein boost)

Step One...
Mix in food processor for 3-5 minutes until ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. When it's done mixing it should be like a very thick dough that can easily be packed into a ball.

1 cups chopped dry roasted almonds or raw almonds (or any other kind of nut you like)
1/4 cup of shredded coconut

Step Two...
Using your hands, knead the dough into the chopped nuts.  Spread the coconut shreds on the counter and roll dough out onto the shreds until you reach the desired thickness. Personally, I prefer them pretty thin. Take a knife or pizza roller and cut into bars then put them in the freezer. The fridge works too but we all prefer them from the freezer.

I hope to post photos of the process. The best tip I can give is letting the food processor do it's thing for long enough. If you stop the processing too early you're stuck with a crumbly mess.

*We buy 5lbs of dates at a time, make them all at once and that lasts our family of four about a week.

Kristy's Success Story...

I wanted to be healthy during my first pregnancy, but I was far from it. I weighed 10lbs more than what was typical for me, and though I was fairly conscious of trying to consume healthy food I definitely used that common phrase "it's okay to have that...you're pregnant!" to justify my cravings and indulged as much as I wanted. I did nothing active, other than a prenatal yoga every now-and-then and an occasional walk. In the end, I gained 42lbs and had a long recovery from birth. I felt exhausted, sore, tired and an all around feeling of blah the entire 39 weeks I was pregnant.

I was determined not to let the same thing happen the next time I got pregnant. Over the course of a year-and-a-half I got back in shape. In fact, I got more in shape than I ever had been in my life. Which isn't saying a lot because I've never been athletic or fit so I pretty much started from the beginning, but it was a lot for me and I felt really good. Sure, I wasn't overweight, but I had zero muscle strength and no energy. I was a cardio girl during that time, I didn't know any different. Until I started learning more about exercise and seeing the results in other woman, I pretty much just ran. Ran my butt off. Trained and ran a half-marathon, and ran some more. I enjoyed it at the time, but after beginning to discover other parts of the fitness world I realized that pure cardio wasn't necessarily the healthiest or most effective way to get fit, and it wasn't the way for me...I wanted more. I started simply by doing pushups and ab exercises, and P90x when I could...but my workouts were inconsistent, I knew I wasn't pushing myself as hard as I could and I knew I was capable of more. In the end we decided to join a gym and I was stoked to push myself and get into a more regular routine. 

Just before the time we got a membership we had recently made major changes in our diet. I was feeling on top of the world as a result and was hungry to learn as much as I could about health and fitness. I had always been a health-concious person, but I had no clue that my health-conciousness could be improved so much. Over the course of that year-and-a-half after my daughter was born I really started paying attention to the way food made me feel, what I was putting in my body and why. My husband and I decided to make a few huge changes in our daily eating, specifically cutting out bread, gluten, refined sugars, all processed foods, and additives. And making it a point to get the things our bodies needed, like protein, good fats, and lots and lots and lots of green veggies. I'd never felt better in my life. 

Then, I got pregnant.

I remember the first day I went to the gym...it was the day I found out I was pregnant. If it had been my first pregnancy that would've scared me enough to cancel my gym membership, but not this time. I had recently had a miscarriage a couple months beforehand so the idea I had of pushing myself really hard was out. But I knew I wanted to stay active, and I had a strange peace in the back of my head that told me I we would be fine and not to give up--not to let fear destroy what I believed was important and justify becoming a couch potato. I would keep up what my body was already used to, and I really wanted to try a few classes that interested me...so I went to the gym!

I went to a Zumba class that first day, and I still have to laugh at myself when I think about it. Regardless, I went back the next week, and the next, and found it fun for awhile. I had a free session with a personal trainer and she showed me some basics for the results that I wanted, most of which I already knew. I also tried a couple other gym classes and ended up loving one specifically involving circuit training with a more crossfit-type approach. I quit Zumba after awhile, because even though it made me sweat I felt like for the time I was in class I could get a more effective workout doing an hour of something else. I tried a lot of new things that I'd never done before, specifically in class, and fell into a groove that challenged me. I listened to my body, kept a steady pace and pushed myself where I could.

Staying active wasn't a challenge for me in the beginning, even though I was tired a lot and napped nearly everyday, I mostly looked forward to my workouts. Food, was the biggest challenge those first several weeks, mainly because I felt some level of nausea 90% of the day. I didn't want to eat anything, but I forced myself to at least consume the things I knew I, and the baby, needed. I did really good at first sticking to my normal diet, but all I craved was bread and sugary things. And since nothing else sounded good to me it was really hard not to gorge on these things. I did keep up with fueling my body with the good things I needed, but it was the extra stuff I wanted that I knew I didn't need, that was hard. I did start incorporating bread into my regular diet at one point, convincing myself that maybe my body just needed it. And maybe it did, I don't know, but it didn't make me feel any better. It only temporarily satisfied the craving...kinda. And it made it that much harder to say no to other things. The more I let myself indulge in the things I craved the more I realized how much it was slowing me down and making my energy wane. I wrestled with justifying my choices and kept going back and forth--thinking I needed it, thinking I didn't. Trying to go without it and letting myself have things. Once I realized that I was letting things creep back into my diet out of pure laziness...I cut them out. Which was about the same time the nausea disappeared. So I re-adjusted a bit and got back on the track I wanted to be. I started feeling amazing almost instantly, in fact, despite my growing belly and feeling my little human kick inside of me, when the second trimester was in full swing I didn't feel pregnant at all.

Mid second-trimester I battled more with working out than I did in the beginning. It was winter and over the course of a month my family took turns being sick. I missed workouts because I didn't feel good. I missed workouts because my daughter didn't feel good. I missed workouts because I felt like I needed to recover before I pushed my body. Some of it was necessity. But honestly, most of it was probably plain laziness. I had issues with my hips being tilted at one point which sent my pubic bone to cause me crazy pain. It was weird, but it only lasted a week with the help of chiropractor to 'fix me' and it hasn't happened again. But it was a really hard and emotional week for me because I thought I was done for for the rest of the of the pregnancy. Not only did I not want to feel like that for the next several months, but I hated the feeling of suddenly being able to do nothing. I felt like a failure. I wondered how (if I was the most fit I'd ever been in my life before I got pregnant) why would I have this problem during this pregnancy when I didn't have anything like it during the first? I jumped to conclusions, freaked myself by reading things online, and felt really defeated. After dealing with my crazy emotions for a week I finally found peace in myself and reminded myself what was important. And when the pain disappeared I was so incredibly thankful and it re-energinzed me in every way. I felt amazing again, physically, emotionally and mentally. 

Since then, I've kept up a routine and have been feeling even better as a result. I am 33 (and a half!) weeks along and I feel the best right now than I have the entire pregnancy. And for the majority of this pregnancy I have felt great in every way! I literally feel like I can do everything I was doing when I was 10 weeks along. I have energy. I don't hurt. I feel good. Which is not at all how I felt during my first pregnancy this late in the game. I honestly feel totally different than I did last time and I am shocked. I remember dreading picking something up off the floor at this point when I was pregnant with my daughter. I was winded all the time. I hurt, everywhere. I was exhausted. I felt huge and bloated. Right now I feel like I could go run 6 miles or bench 150lbs (which I totally can't!) without difficulty. But I have that energy. I feel strong. I feel alive. I don't hurt. I don't have a problem bending down or picking up my daughter and carrying her throughout the day. I'm tired--because of my bad habit of getting to bed late and the fact that I have to get up to pee several times already, but I'm far from exhausted. I have ambition. I don't feel like a whale. I don't really feel that pregnant...and I'm having a baby in 6ish weeks! 

At 33 weeks pregnant, I feel amazing. I've gained 21lbs thus far. I've made it a point to listen to my body, eat when I'm hungry and in terms of quality instead of quantity. And instead of my body getting weaker throughout this pregnancy (like I thought it was going to!) it has actually gotten stronger. I have improved the power in my legs, I have visibly improved the look and strength in my arms. I'm far from where I'd like to be some day in terms of lifting heavy weights, and I see women (pregnant and not) do and lift much more than me, but I've lifted more being pregnant than I could when I wasn't and that makes me feel good. Despite the fact that my body is changing and a producing a human-being, despite the fact that cute clothes don't fit, despite the fact that my emotions are all over the place and sensitive, it makes me feel happy. It makes me feel strong and alive. 

Exercise and healthy eating is tough when you're not pregnant, and it's tough when you are pregnant. For me it's not just about looking a certain way, it's about being healthy because it's good for me. It's good for my baby. If eating healthy and exercise were easy it probably wouldn't be important. Anything worth something...takes effort. Mentally, emotional and physically. It takes all of those things to make healthy choices and so for me these last 33 weeks have been a learning process on discovering how strong I can be, and how strong I'm not. It's been an interesting journey, I've learned a lot about myself, and it's not over yet! 

Bringing a baby into this world is a special thing. One I don't take lightly--which is why I've tried so hard to stay healthy and active this whole time. As women we were made to birth babies. We were also meant to have muscle and eat basic, good food. We were meant to be strong. Embrace that. Believe in yourself. Believe in your body. And believe in your mind.

33 weeks

40lb Weighted squats 

 33 weeks

120lb Seated Row

 33 weeks

60lb bench press

 33 weeks

Plank curls

33 weeks

Weighted sit ups

Gluten Free Coconut Date Cookies

Gluten Free Coconut Date Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 3/4 stick of butter, softened (It called for a whole stick but I didn't want that much butter. Also, may be able to substitute coconut oil for butter. )
• 1/4 cup sugar (I used raw cane sugar)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 unsweetened coconut shreds
• 1/3 chopped dates

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375*F.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well until batter is blended evenly.
3. Roll batter into 1-inch balls and place on a greased baking sheet.
4. Bake cookies for approximately 12-15 minutes.
5. Remove cookies from baking sheet and allow to cool on wire rack.
6. Eat and enjoy!