Weekly Workout

slightly fuzzy group selfie at Sunshine's birthday dinner not too long ago

Which is a bit of a mis-nomer :)

I'm still not feeling as good as I'd like. Initially I thought it was lingering sinus problems from being sick, but as it's gone on and on and I've talked to other people, I think it's allergies. The pollen has been terrible this year and everyone seems to be suffering from it. Coming on the heels of my cold masked its origins, but after analyzing the ebb and flow of symptoms and realizing they worsen when I've spent time outside, I'm pretty sure it's allergies. The near-constant sinus pressure and sinus headaches have definitely gotten in the way of getting stuff done, especially outside, but I have managed to work on a couple projects.

On the other hand, at least I'm staying well-hydrated. When I was pregnant with River we had a false alarm that ended up being a result of mild dehydration. I'm drinking tons of water to keep my sinuses clear, so I shouldn't be having any false alarms this time around.

I've been thinking about my lack of time on the treadmill, and I'm ok with it. In my mind I've been associating running with staying active and having a better pregnancy than I had with Sunshine. But I can have an active, healthy pregnancy even if I'm not hitting the treadmill 5 times a week.

I've been focusing on my building projects (basement patio, outdoor dining set- details tomorrow, and tree house- details Wednesday), and all the lifting, bending, cutting, drilling, etc is keeping me active and healthy. Initially I thought my lack of treadmill time was contributing to faster weight gain, but that hasn't continued to be the case. Yes, I'm careful about what I eat, but exercise is still important, and I'm getting enough to maintain my weight. These days I'm doing more upper body workouts than cardio on the treadmill.

My body feels better (except when I do too much bending and twisting), so backing off on my workouts has been a good decision. And I'm still able to do my monthly races, so I haven't completely given up running.  I do still want to spend some time on the treadmill, but until I finish the treehouse, it's on the back burner. Spending time on the treadmill takes away from time and energy for building, and I need to finish the building before it gets any hotter and more humid. The temps have already started climbing and the humidity is getting worse, so I don't have a lot of time before it gets unbearable and I retreat into our air conditioned house for the rest of the summer.

In addition to staying active while pregnant, I also think my overall activity level before getting pregnant has been a huge factor in the improved pregnancy experiences with River and this little guy. I was pretty sedentary for a number of years leading up to Sunshine's birth- triggering my celiac on my mission and dealing with the after-effects while trying to go to school and work and have a life didn't leave much energy for exercise. I started running again when Sunshine was about a year old, and ran my first half when she was 16 months old. In the eight years since then, I've run a full marathon, 4 more half marathons, a lot of 5k's, and several races of other distances. I've also managed to run on a fairly regular basis while training for those races. So when I got pregnant with River a week before running my 4th half, I was in pretty good condition. And when I got pregnant with this little guy a few weeks after running my 5th half I was still in pretty good shape, despite my struggles to get back on a training schedule after having River.  

So I'll be hitting the treadmill one of these days, but I'm not stressing about it in the meantime.