Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Last Questions!

Let's talk about exercise! You seem to be working out a lot lately, is there a goal in sight? Are you training for something? 

Thank you for all of the questions, Sarah!


When she says I have been working out a lot lately, she is referring to her poor Instagram feed that is blown up with pictures of me in the wee hours of the morning at the gym. The pictures serve as a bit of accountability between my friends and myself, saying, "I'M HERE. I'M MISERABLE. BUT I'M HERE. WHERE ARE YOU."

(Note: I look scary in the mornings.)

(Double Note: I am trying to not allow social media to be all-consuming, so I am posting much less ... thusly, the gym posts are going away. And all of the angels rejoiced, ha!)

I've gotten in the habit of going to the gym five to six times a week. I know, it sounds nutty, so let me clarify: I work hard three mornings a week and spend my "rest" days in between doing light cardio. Just to sweat a little before the day begins. I go at 5:00am, so to keep the early morning habit up, frequency is key.

As for whether or not I have a goal, my goal is to maintain where I am. I think it's safe to say that before I had kids, any weight loss goal I set typically focused on the end goal rather than on the means I would be taking to get there. Admittedly, my means have not always been the healthiest, by way of weird dieting and such. But, after Lydia was born, I started working with a personal trainer twice a week. No cutting calories, no cardio. Just doing strength-training twice a week. I continued doing that for a few months and then started adding cardio once my half-marathon training began. And I still ate whatever I wanted--Lydia was still nursing, and burning 700 calories on my long-run days meant that I needed to eat enough for the both of us. She weaned shortly after the half-marathon and I started monitoring my food intake. I dropped the last ten pounds (probably thanks in large part to her weaning) and made it back to my wedding day weight! Yay! I have more energy and I think there is even a muscle somewhere in my arms.

But.

I worked my behind off to get there.

It took hard work to get there and it will take hard work to stay there. So, all that to say, self-discipline and consistency are my goals. I just want to keep on going, keeping up good habits. So! That's that!

I hope that made sense.


Do you guys still have a dog? 


No, we do not have a dog. We had dogs four years ago but they found other homes after Cub was born. :)

Do your kiddos do chores yet? If so, how did you implement that?

The kids are in charge of George the Cat's food and water. Every morning, Naomi lugs the bag of cat food out of the cabinet while Caleb fills George's water dish. Once the chickens start laying, they will collect the eggs, too. They are also responsible for scraping their food scraps into the trash can after meals and for putting their dishes in the sink. Kind of like clearing the table, except they don't touch Mommy and Daddy's breakable plates, ha! Beyond those things and small other things (like picking up their rooms), they do not have set "chores" like vacuuming or sweeping. There wasn't much of an implementation process because we haven't really determined what that will look like. We want the kids to do chores without getting paid for them, simply because they are a part of our family and we all contribute to the household. But, they will get paid for doing things that are above and beyond their "normal" chores ... we just haven't delved into that yet! When we do, I will let you know. :)

Great questions!

Have a lovely day.


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