This morning I paid $20 for 22 minutes and 36 seconds of motivation and massive muscle fatigue. It was totally worth it! My friend, Anna Claire invited me to a group class with Amanda with whom she's done several personal training sessions. I got up, played with the baby, fed the cat, fed the dog, spent a few moments with my honey and managed to eat a little protein, complex carbs and an orange before heading out the door by 7:45 to drive to our 8 am class. I can't even begin to tell you how accomplished I felt just getting to the class on time. =)
We had a little warm-up and I'm a little embarrassed to say that I was tired about 3/4 of the way through the warm-up. Then we got our workout assignment - 100 push ups, 100 air squats - 100 sit ups and 100 jump pull ups. And we were timed which is why I know it lasted 22 minutes and 36 seconds. Thank goodness we could divide the 100 into smaller sets of reps. I did 5 sets of 20 reps. I huffed, I puffed and I laid my face in the grass where I'm pretty sure my very own dog has peed (but I didn't care at that moment) and I finished! I am so proud of myself! I just kept telling myself "You can do this." A few of the final push ups were a little sketchy but they got done. I also took a walk with Dan, Max and Hoover this evening. I am not quite sure how my body will feel tomorrow but I know that I WILL FEEL GREAT!
Today was a major hurdle for me. I had a really tough pregnancy in terms of how my body reacted and couldn't really exercise very much after I found out I was pregnant. There was sort of one thing after another and it all culminated in pregnancy induced hypertension, bed rest, pre-eclampsia and ultimately peaked with me being hospitalized for post-partum pre-eclampsia about a week after Max was born. The whole thing could have been a lot worse and I'm grateful it wasn't. Still, three days in the ICU is an eye opener and it had a really strong impact on me. I became fearful for my health. I'd never had high blood pressure or anything before and, unfortunately, I still have it. I have to take medication (which makes me feel about 100) to control it and I was really fearful that I would hurt myself by exercising too much, too hard or in the wrong way. I was sort of paralyzed.
When I decided to join you gals I made an appointment with the doctor to talk about how to exercise healthfully while being mindful of the blood pressure. She provided me with good information and I put that to use today. I'm happy to report that nothing seems amiss. I really feel empowered. I still have a couple of weeks of walking ahead of me before I can run or jog but as I learned in "What to Expect the First Year" you can't crawl before you can sit. So, I'm practicing my sitting in anticipation of crawling, then walking, then running and I am trying to remind myself every day how important a good foundation is to the success of whatever you may be building.
O happy day!
p.s. We had a great time at the ball and will fill you in on a future post. Mindy, it will be a while for pictures because while I rememberd to bring the 10 pound camera I forgot the 1 gb memory card!
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3 comments:
Wow Barb! I'm impressed! I know I couldn't do 100 push ups, 100 air squats, 100 sit ups, and 100 jump pull ups. In fact I don't even know what some of those are. Air squats? Jump pull ups? Never mind, don't tell me they sound hard!
Girl, your post just totally motivated me and made me feel so proud of you and everyone else who has joined us in this journey! I feel like by encouraging each other we are empowering each other with the strength to challenge ourselves but at the same to accept where we are at this moment! Living in the present moment is the most awesome feeling - just doing what YOU can do TODAY and no worrying about how it compares to everyone else...That's the key. Do whatever it is that YOU can do for as long as YOU can do it and then be content in that and be proud of your own accomplishments! I think that's really what it's all about! =) You rock!!
I had no idea you were still struggling with high blood pressure. Pregnancy can sure do a number on your body. I’m amazed at how much different my body handles things after being pregnant.
I applaud you for seeking your doctor’s wisdom on how to exercise right while working to manage your blood pressure. I think by doing so, you’ve set yourself up for incredible success! How true that we must sit before we crawl – and crawl before we walk!
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