Two Pregnant chicks (I am NOT one of them)

When I was pregnant, both times, I did nothing. Less than nothing. Picture me just laying on the couch. I craved cheese fries, peppermint ice cream, cheese, potatoes.....it was bad. Really bad. I had no clue. I didn't know I could should workout while pregnant. If I had only walked I probably would not have gained 60 pounds. Yep. Your read correctly. 60 pounds. I am here to tell you my kids were big, but not 30 pounds :) Thankfully I did not have any complications during my pregnancy - but that also kinda reinforced my do nothing status.

Do you see that? Limited Edition! I HAD to buy it every time I saw it!

Baked Potato soup. Ate it by the truck load

Cheese fries. Duh

Now, two ladies I workout with have totally inspired me and this blog post. I worked out with Jenn as she went through pregnancy #2 and Maggie during pregnancy #1. They are awesome. They are strong. I love that they worked out while pregnant and smiled the whole time.

Jenn - CFA athlete and mom of two little boys

Maggie - CFA athlete and 36 weeks pregnant with baby #1!

1. First things first. Pregnancy + double under's = peeing your pants. True or False? 

TRUE!!!! I just hope it gets better someday because when I forget to check the WOD and don't wear the appropriate clothes it gets embarrassing :)

OMG true. So true. I had to stop all jumping around 28 weeks....even after I thought I emptied my bladder, I would still pee myself!! I'm hoping I will still have double unders post-pregnancy since I haven't been able to do them in a while!

2. What's the hardest movement/exercise to scale while pregnant?

Cleans. You don't want to develop bad habits but that belly gets big and you have to go around it. 

I have found it pretty easy to scale/substitute most movements in CrossFit, but I feel super lame doing push-ups and burpees now. I was doing squat thrusts instead of burpees for a while, but started to get dizzy with the up and down movement. Now doing a wall push-up and air squat....

3. When did you realize you needed to start scaling movements or scaling back?

I felt like I slowed down at about 31 weeks and needed to scale a lot more.

I was a little anxious about CrossFit during my pregnancy from the beginning, so I started scaling early on. I also had horrible morning sickness for the first 18 weeks, so even though my belly wasn't in the way, I was feeling nauseous and winded if I overdid it. I would say around 20 weeks is when my belly started to become more noticeable during workouts.

4. Best workout clothes you found while pregnant?

I wore regular workout pants that had a fold over option. The band helps hold the belly in place so you don't feel like your belly full of jelly is all over the place

I have a Gap maternity activewear shirt that I have loved during my pregnancy, because I've been able to wear it throughout. I also really like my long-sleeved Old Navy activewear shirt.

5. The movement/exercise you never had to scale?

Deadlifts, air squats, kb swings, 

Overhead movements....strict press, push press, etc. I was really proud of myself that at 30+ weeks pregnant, I was able to follow the strength programming based on my pre-pregancy max for strict press! I also did 16kg kettlebell swings for a long time, but recently scaled down to 12kg.

6. What was your biggest concern about Crossfit while pregnant?

I am very competitive and I like to work hard. I was always upset with myself when i couldn't go as fast or as heavy as I wanted to. I realized though that there is plenty of time to get back at it

Pregnancy is so overwhelming your first time....so many changes in your body, little aches and pains, and you don't know what is "normal" or what you should be concerned about. I was worried that I wouldn't know when to push through for the sake of the workout, or when to scale back, but I really haven't found that to be a problem at all.

7. Best advice you got while working out and being pregnant?

Listen to your body and don't worry about what anyone else does. All women are different in their comfort level and most get more comfortable the more babies they have because they know what their normal is. 

Just to do what you're comfortable with. I had to stop comparing myself to other pregnant women who were doing CrossFit, and do what I felt good with. I scaled back on weights from the very beginning, because that is what worked for me. I am so impressed by other women, especially Jen, who are able to physically and mentally continue to lift heavy.

8. Worst advice you got while working out and being pregnant?

I went to the hospital for my 20 week ultrasound and the dr. that I saw stared at me like I was a crazy person when I told him I did crossfit and wasn't planning on stopping. He told me that I shouldn't be doing anything that made me out of breath. Hello have you been pregnant because sometimes I needed to stop and catch my breath while climbing a flight of stairs. Find a dr that supports your decisions and find a new one if they don't get you. 

That you don't need to work out! A lot of women make excuses during pregnancy, saying you are growing a baby, and don't need to do any extra working out. I have felt so much better after a workout....it helped my morning sickness, energy level, mood and probably helped me not to gain a ton of weight. And it's also good for the baby!

9. Food you craved the most?

Both pregnancy's I loved tuna sandwiches and Indian food

DONUTS. It's bad....I really love/hate Dunkin Donuts for opening one 2 miles from my house during my pregnancy. Also, obsessed with pomegranates. Thank you to my wonderful husband for helping me to balance my diet by surprising me (several times!) with donuts in the morning, and also de-seeding 100 pomegranates during my pregnancy. 

10. Do you think that working out helped with your energy levels?

Yes Yes Yes!! I had terrible morning sickness and exercise was the only thing that helped. Pregnant or not exercise makes me a better person from my energy level to patience with my kids. 

Yes....so much. There were so many days that I wanted to come home from work, put my PJs on, and stay in bed the rest of the day. I would push myself to go to the gym, and would feel so much better after. It really helped me to make plans to meet people at the gym, especially Ann, to get myself there....I think the combination of working out and getting social time with friends helped to boost my energy a lot.

11. Jenn -  how did pregnancy #2 compare to #1 with gaining and loosing weight?

I gained 15lbs less with the 2nd baby since CF'd and lost most of it pretty quickly. I still have 5 lbs to go to pre prego weight and another 8 after that. 

12. Maggie - What is your workout plan/hope for after baby #1?

I would really like to resume CrossFit after the baby....I feel good about the fact that I know I can scale things, and do what I am comfortable with, and the coaches at the gym support that. I have heard that in some ways, post-pregnancy working out is more difficult than working out when you're pregnant, so I am trying to be realistic! 

13. Most embarrassing workout while preggo moment?

I pee all the time and still do

Besides peeing myself on the regular? When I wore a "maternity" workout shirt, and realized when I got to the gym that it didn't cover all my belly. Damn you Target....

14. Advice you would give to other pregnant women?

Workout whenever you can fit it in. If it's your first pregnancy you won't have as much time after the baby comes and if it's the 2nd or 3rd pregnancy it's alone time that you probably wouldn't get otherwise. If your spouse is supportive of exercise there will always be a time to fit it in

That it's OK to workout during your pregnancy! And you should! There are so many benefits to you and the baby, and even if it is just a few days/week, that is great.

15. Did you feel judged working out while pregnant?

Yes, not from anyone at the box but by family and friends who don't understand the benefits for you and your baby that exercise provides. 

Not at all....everyone at the gym has been so wonderful and supportive during my pregnancy.  A lot of my friends and family who don't do CrossFit have been surprised that I have continued during the pregnancy, but I explain that I do what I am comfortable with. They have not been judgmental about it.

16. What was the most supportive thing someone said or did that kept you going?

My CFA Family always made me feel good about whatever I was doing no matter if I could do half the work the rest of them could or not. You have to find your community and you will feel supported everyday. 

It was really helpful for me to have seen Jen go through her pregnancy working out consistently, but also being cautious and taking care of herself.  She has given me a lot of helpful advice, and I loved being partnered with her during workouts, as she pushed me to keep moving but was so supportive.

 

The best day that I have had at the gym was when someone came up to me after a WOD and said that she didn't let herself quit because seeing me workout pregnant was so motivating. It was so nice to hear that since I was feeling a little down that day with all of the scaling I had to do in the workout. It's a good reminder to tell people nice things when you think them, since you never know how it will impact their day!

Thanks ladies! Can't wait to see how you keep up all your hard work!!!!!!

Cold War 4 Recap - Team Danger Zone

Cold War 4 is in the books! It was a pretty great day made even better by a great team.

Danger Zone

It was a long day of go go go. Here's how it went down:

WOD #1:

WALL BALL REPS

2 partners (Holly and Steve)

800m Run:                                              

Sub 4 Minutes: 50 Reps (Steve and Holly!!!!!)

4:00-4:30: 60 Reps

4:31-5:00: 70 Reps

5:01 and Over: 80 Reps

2 Parnters (Me and Josh)

400m Run:

Sub 2 Minutes:  60 Reps (Yeah!!!! This was us!)

2:00-2:30:  70 Reps

2:31-3:00:  80 Reps

3:01 and Over:  90 Reps

With the remaining time you do max clean and jerks

Steve and Holly getting ready

Coming back into the gym

Steve on the wall balls

Holly on the wall balls - look at that height!

Me and Josh - not really holding hands, but sure looks like it

Josh throwin that ball

Me on those wall balls

Clean and Jerk time

Me on the C&J

Mini Event 1: PAYLOAD...Declassified.

(Time cap 5 minutes)

Two members (one must be FEMALE for barbell movement). One member chooses CLEAN AND WEIGHT, other chooses SNATCH AND WEIGHT. Max reps at declared weight for 5 Minutes. Must meet minimum weight requirement.

Clean Minimums (Steve on that bar for 5 minutes)
SC: 115/75

Snatch Minimums (Me)
SC: 95/65

Burpee Box Jump Up and Overs: 24# (Josh and Holly)

Steve

Holly and Josh flying through burpee box jump overs

Holly

Me

WOD 2: WINGMAN...Declassified.

(Time cap 11 minutes)

For Time: 100 Front Squats, 200 Calorie Row, 300 Double Unders. Total Score is time to complete all three movements. Three members of team will be moving at a time (one at each of the three stations). Fourth member is resting, and can be called in to assist and one member goes out to rest. 

Front Squats
SC: 135/95

Dumbbell Snatch
MS/SC: 45/25

This was brutal. The row was everything. We finished the double-unders first, then the front squats, and didn't quite get the row done. Everyone worked their ass off. Lots of strategy here - I just do what I'm told. Not sure how many people finished the row - but lots of different strategies were seen. The best was having someone on your team that was 8 feet tall. Throw them on that rower! :)

There were optional WODs going on throughout the day. These just gave you some more points

Floater WODs...Declassified:

Floater WOD 1: Jumpt It:
(Time cap 2 minutes) – All 4 Athletes

All 4 athletes will get ONE attempt for a max distance broad jump. All four distances will be added together for a max distance team broad jump.

Floater WOD 2: Squat It:

Time cap 2 minutes) – 2 Athletes

2 members will perform max reps of pistol squats.

Masters and scaled teams will have one athlete moving at a time. Always alternating (left leg, right leg) no matter which athlete is doing the work.

I was pretty proud of me and Holly on this one. Pistols are tough. 

Dance off

http://instagram.com/p/x9_RrnwFdR/   video of our awesome pistols

Floater WOD 3: Carry It: (the boys did this one)

(Time cap 2 minutes)
2 Athletes (Cannot be one’s who did pistols)

2 Athletes and they cannot be the two that did pistol event. RECORD ATHLETE #.
Max distance/lbs. farmers carry. Each athlete picks weight of their choice (2 DBs or 2 KBs). Score will be total pounds and distance.
Available weights for DB
65, 60, 45, 35, 25, 20, 15
Available weights for KB
90, 70, 53, 35, 24, 16

Mini Event #2 (Steve and Holly)

Only two people for this gem. You play follow the leader:

3 thrusters

3 deficit hand stand pushups

Bleh. They did great - but my arms got tired just watching

WOD #3 (swimmy time!)

10:00 CAP

Athlete 1: swim 100 yards 20 Plate Hop Burpees (15#) (me)
Athlete 2:  swim 100 yards 25 Goblet Squats (53/35) (holly)

Athlete 3:  swim 100 yards  20 Plate Hop Burpees (15#) (steve)

Athlete 4:  swim 100 yards  25 Goblet Squats (53/35) (me - but i dove in with only about 10 seconds left)

Alas, there are no pictures. I'm ok with that. No bathing suit pics allowed in January!

We had a great time. Everyone contributed and no one got hurt. Win. Win. Can't wait for the next one!

That four letter word.....

 

There are a lot of four letter words out there - the one that has been getting me is food. Yep. F-O-O-D. I love to hate it and it loves to hate me. I am working on retraining my brain so that FOOD is not negative, it's not a four letter word, it's not scary. Food keeps me alive. Food enables me to do what I like love. Lift heavy shit and be a good mom (hangry is not a good look for me). 

For a long time I have been trying to loose weight and have not been actually targeting the real problem. I have food issues. My big mistake was thinking that these issues are recent. They are not. They don't even just go back to the "post-college no more sports" days. This goes all the way back to when I was a kid. 

Growing up we did not really eat family meals. My mom was a vegetarian and was not into cooking much. We had a lot of pasta, hamburger helper, cereal for breakfast (enter my love of Fruity Pebbles), and a little meat. I can't lie - having a vegetarian cook your meat is not ideal. I do not remember it ever tasting good. Sorry mom. I'm sure I am not alone in this kind of meal plan - never thought twice about it because I never had a weight problem. I was super active. That my mom made sure of. Always in a dance class, at sports practice, or outside. Period. Always moving. 

Licking my chops....must have been food near by

I did grow up with a lot of "no-no's". We didn't have candy, soda, chips, cookies in the house. There was almost no eating out. Diet soda was for SPECIAL occasions. What this did to me was create a junk food hoarder. Not sure why, but it did. I can remember being at friends houses - a snack for them was a few Cheetos or a Clearly Canadian (man, I LOVED those) and a full bag of Cheetos and a few Clearly Canadians for me. If it was in front of me I ate as much as I could. No off switch. It was like I was scared I would never see it again. I even stole junk food from friends houses. Sad. I know. I would steal Pringle tubes. Yep. Tubes.  I would actually think "who's house has the best snacks?" and that's where I would walk. Ugh - so embarrassing......

my jam

Discontinued - thank god....but my fave

Cue High School. We were on our own for food (that's honestly how I remember it). Why? There were 3 kids and my mom. Three totally different schedules. My brother and I were at some sports practice year round. My sister did Cheerleading and Drama. My favorite dinner was tortellini, rice, ice cream, anything another family was eating, and Prairie Fire Bean Dip from Don Pueblos with my girl friends. I was 5'4 and 115 pounds. Not what you would expect from that healthy diet, huh? 

drool

Cue College. Dining Hall. I had SO many choices. I stuck to the salad bar and pasta bar. I was too scared to eat the meat. I was basically a vegetarian. My roommate finally convinced me to try the Veal Parmesan. Hooked. No longer hanging at the pasta bar I began eating meat. I typically practiced 2-3 hours a day 6 days a week for 4 years. Not much down time. I stayed about the same weight - got up to about 125 by my Senior year. I felt healthy and good. 

No gainzzz here

Freshman Year of College (on left)

Cue Grad School. No more practice. No more dinning hall. No changing my eating habits. No time (or so I thought) to workout. Honestly, I had never worked out alone. I always had a coach. I didn't even know what to do without a plan. I gained weight. A lot. In the worst way possible. I gained weight but didn't realize  I gained weight.....until my husband (then boyfriend) brought me to Weight Watchers. 181. pounds. What. The. Fuck. He knew I was depressed because I was fat. I did not. Had no clue until I stepped on that scale. 

Can you feel the happiness?? Circa 2008

Fast forward. I have tried every "diet" out there. Honestly, what works is lifting weights - heavy ass weights - and eating clean. Meat. Green veggies. Lots of water. Alcohol makes an appearance here and there (love my Champagne), but not like I used to. Now I am adding to that the idea that nothing is off limits. If I want one doughnut I will have one doughnut. Why? One doughnut didn't make me fat. It's all about portions. It's all about flexibility. It's all about mindset. If I make things off limits again I am transported back to that junk food hoarder. I will sneak food. I've done it. As an adult. Ugh.......the shame.

Do you see that? Those are Fruity Pebbles on that Donut!

I want a healthy relationship with food. I want to be strong. I want to set a good example for my kids. I want to be able to hike, run, live, play, laugh.....enjoy life. Life is more than food. More that what the scale says. Do what you love. Be Happy.

Lift heavy shit