I’ve now decided to take Fitness Cheerleader to a new level and start selling workout mp3’s. Last week I recorded my first walk and tone workout mp3 that is set to 90’s dance music. Through voice commands, my voice leads you through an upper body strengthening program while you walk. Why? Combining strength moves with cardio allows you to burn more calories in the same amount of time, and building muscle causes you to burn more calories at rest. Win-win! (You can read more about the workout in my article: How to Shred Fat Faster By Walking). In the future I plan to add an 80’s Dance Music version, and a learn-to-run 5K program to offer to you.

I’ve now have uploaded my first mp3 (Fitness Cheerleader’s Walk and Tone mp3 Workout) to Fitness Cheerleader and have made it available for purchase. Several friends have already downloaded it, tried it, and have reviewed it publicly on their blogs. And guess what? They LOVE IT! Here’s what Scarlett had to say about it:

Today I tried this mp3 out for the first time and WOW! I feel incredible. It can be done outside or on a treadmill. For you pedometer wearers, I reset mine right before I began the workout and got almost 3,400 steps! This was just me walking around my house. I probably wasn’t covering as much ground as I would outside, so I would say I could get almost 4,000 if I were outside and not sick! The music is 90?s dance music, which brings back so many memories and gets me moving. In addition, my 4 year old son got out his 2 pound weights and walked with me. He LOVED the music – particularly the “Move it, Move it” song. I can already tell my arms are going to be a little sore tomorrow! Thanks, Fitness Cheerleader!

Chelle also liked it, and gave me some honest criticism about my voice overs, which I’m in the process of fixing and will send a replacement copy to everyone who’s downloaded it:

I did this workout on my treadmill but it could easily be done outside. You do need some weights. I used my 3lb weights and started walking. I had to smile when the music started, it is dance music from the 90?s, I felt so young and it also reminded what I was working towards! So I knew the tunes, then Janice encourages and guides you through each exercise. The MP3 is 40 minutes and I was totally burning once I got going. My arms are sore today! I also realized I need to pay more attention to my triceps, ouch!

I’ll even be doing the workout myself as I progress through the last 10-13 weeks of this pregnancy, and will continue to do it as a gentle post-natal workout (I’ll probably walk with baby asleep in an infant carrier or sling).

I really hope you’ll try my mp3 workout – it’s a great way to be healthy, build strength and tone your arms while walking. It’s safe enough to be done as a pre or post-natal workout, and is a great activity to do on off days or while recovering from injuries.

I’m having a special introductory sale on the Fitness Cheerleader Walk and Tone mp3 Workout! Right now you can get it for $3.99 – LESS than a trip to Starbucks! (use coupon code LAUNCH, for a limited time, regularly $4.99).

(If you are a subscriber to my Fitness Cheerleader newsletter you are automatically entered to win a copy – I’ll be giving away one copy every month for the next couple of months!)

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My brain has been a lot clearer lately and hubby and I have finally begun to tackle a lot of things we’ve neglected over the past few yrs (getting caught up on our taxes, bringing the kids to the dentist, sorting & disposing of clutter, and beginning a debt repayment plan). While it feels awesome to be in control of our lives again, it’s also made it abundantly apparent to us how much more work we have to do to finish cleaning up from that foggy storm. I have many friends I need to re-connect with, I have lots more organizing and clutter to sort etc… I really hope I can get it all taken care of before more “joy” enters our lives. We’re so close, yet so far away because I’m so afraid that the fog that is PPD will roll back in.

Have you suffered from PPD from one baby, but not subsequent babies? How did you prevent it from coming back? Is it possible to set up a support system ahead of time to prevent it? I’d love your feedback and ideas because I’m bound and determined to not disappear into my fog again!

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• Rest
• Water
• Proper nutrition
• Support of family/friends

And as I’m now learning, all active mommies need a good Athletic Therapist or Physiotherapist (and maybe even a good Registered Massage Therapist too).

FIVE weeks ago (after I ran the Harry’s Spring Run-Off 5k) I hurt my foot. Actually both of my feet – I have bilateral (meaning both sides) plantar fasciitis (aka heel spurs). This basically means that when I walk barefoot it feels like someone is stabbing the bottom of my heels with sharp daggers. It’s freaking painful!!!!!!! I’ve been hopping around and “resting” for five weeks, sadly it’s NOT getting better L Not running is driving me my family CRAZY! I’m a nasty, nasty person when I can’t run and I can feel my grey clouds returning – arrgh! Depression – I hate you!

Two weeks ago I gave in went and saw my friend Barb who’s both an Athletic Therapist (she and I went to school together) and a Physiotherapist. She’s awesome! My feet feel better already! Woot! In addition to her awesome treatments twice a week, she’s given me exercises to do at home to help – like massaging my feet on a soup can, stretching my calves and icing my heals. Also, today my feet are being molded for custom orthotics (dear awesome work benefit plan – I LOVE you!). I’m slowly getting better and Barb is also workign with me to correct the underlying causes of my injury (balance, strength, flexibility, biomechanics etc…).

I’ve now decided that all athletes need a good team of medical help to keep us active. They say it takes a village to raise a child, right? Well guess what? It also takes a village to raise an athlete

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Sun – fun swim
Mon – swimming lessons
Tues – stay home & Skype daddy (hubby)
Wed – McDonald’s playland, Skype daddy
Thurs – fun swim? Skype daddy?
Fri – Dinner with Oma & Opa
Sat – indoor playground? relax, clean up the tornado of solo-parenting aftermath, wait for daddy

I really really thought I could do this. I followed my plan.  I got out to run.  I ate healthy.

But an email came that shook my foundation, my strength, my courage and self-confidence.  “Honey, I’ll be home next week, but the week after I have to go away again.” I crumbled into tears.  When will this end?  How can I continue to be strong?  When can we be a family again?  Will it ever happen?  Am I waiting for a ship that will never set sail?

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Work is busy – it’s so awesome!  I love being busy, setting To Do lists, and game plans to accomplish all of my work.  My running is really helping with my feelings of being alert too.  My body is in pain (delayed onset muscle soreness – DOMS), but I like to think of it as the pain of fat melting away.  A gentle pain is good – it tells me my workouts have been hard enough to illicit an adaptive response.  The running has motivated me to eat better too – recovering from my workouts is so hard without the right fuel – I can tell when I haven’t eaten well enough, or rested enough by my running pace.  And my house… is cleaner!  I have more energy and motivation to clean!  The surprising part is that planning and preparation actually leaves me with MORE computer time.  I love my evening computer time – with the exception of Glee, I don’t watch TV.  I hate sports announcers yelling at me, whiny families mis-treating each other, reality shows have lost their appeal… The list goes on.  My favourite shows were the reality shows that had people preparing for an athletic event – the trials and tribulations of training – something I can totally relate to and I haven’t come across too many of them lately.

So I’m starting my own little virtual reality show…. I’m going to be coaching a virtual “Learn-to-Run” program.  My intended audience and participants are the Mamavation Moms from www.bookieboo.com but I’ll set it up so you can also follow along through my health and fitness blog www.lazymama.com if you so choose. I haven’t decided if it’s best run as an email newsletter to participants, or as a forum, a combo of both or what.  Maybe a Learn-to-Run Ning community?  I dunno – I want to find a way to implement it that really minimizes the technical work required to run it, freeing up time to spend motivating and educating.  I have to research the technical side of things before I set it all up.  Basically I want to inspire people and since I love running, and know running and have a Kinesiology degree, what better way is there for me to inspire?  I love the enthusiasm of beginner runners – watching their surprise as they learn what their bodies are capable of doing.  It’s amazing!  Watching Chelle discover running last year was really inspiring. In her words… Woot! Woot!

So yeah – that’s what’s going on with me…

In other news: My mom is doing WAY better!  She’s still in the hospital but is out of critical care and is now in a ward.  She called me from her cell phone that my dad had brought in to her.  Apparently they don’t have patient phones?  I think my dad is just too cheap to pay for the patient phone He didn’t want to pay $0.50 to leave a message on my voicemail from the payphone when my mom was admitted, and instead had my Aunt call me.  LOL!  This apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree… Anyways – my mom and I had a good conversation but she had to stop to catch her breath a few times. Pneumonia is NASTY!  But in a way it’s been good because she hasn’t had a cigarette since Friday and she’s even talking about quitting smoking!!  Which is awesome and I totally support her.  After seeing her on Sunday I truly believe that the Lord didn’t give her a warning, he gave her a second chance.  I really want to support her in any lifestyle changes she decides to make as a result of all of this.

Gosh – I don’t know how to conclude this post – conclusions and closures are always something I have a hard time with.  I hate sayign goodbye at parties – I often just leave.  Not because I don’t want to wish my friends well – it just seems so pessimistic, here’s a hug goodbye in case I never see you again… I don’t like saying goodbye – that’s what funerals are for.  So don’t look for good conlusions and closures on posts, ‘cause you won’t find them J

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After hubby’s car ordeal I decided to take my truck in for some routine maintenance that ended up costing us $300 (oil change, engine flush, air filter, cabin air filter etc…). It was a good thing I brought it in because it was discovered that the cabin air filter was missing – not clogged and dirty – missing, as in never ever there. A cabin air filter filters dust, debris and emissions from other cars. They should be replaced every year, but I think this was the first time mine has been checked in the 7 yrs we’ve owned the truck. My routine maintenance has saved my life. Every day because I had no cabin air filter I’ve been sucking in carbon monoxide from the traffic I’ve been sitting in for an hour to and an hour from work each day. I’ve felt light headed, foggy, headachy and have been having an incredibly hard time focussing and functioning at work. Every night I’ve been exhausted – falling into bed most nights when the kids went to bed. I’ve had no energy to do anything – gaining weight, eating poorly, drinking a million coffees everyday and not exercising. I’ve felt amazing over the past week being off from work and not driving in my truck.

Unfortunately being home this week with our dog has brought to our attention that she’s sick. She’s a 10 yr old rottweiler that we rescued when she was 1 yr old – she’s trained for several marathons and 1/2 marathons with me over the years and has kept me company through 2 maternity leaves. Molly has been having bladder control problems that have been controlled by a weekly estrogen pill. WIth everything going on over the past 3 months hubby and I forgot to give her her pills – Molly has been leaking on her doggie bed. No big deal right? Just wash her doggie bed and give the dog her hormone pills. It’s not so simple because her pee spots are tainted red – she has blood in her urine. Yesterday and today I took her out for a run and when she peed on the grass her pee was dark red – almost pure blood. Molly’s kidney’s are failing and because of our car expenses we’re not sure what to do – we can barely afford a regular physical for her, never mind extensive tests, medications, surgery or even euthanasia for her. Hubby is bringing her to the vet tonight at 5 pm.

With worrying about my MIL, the dog, our cars and the normal Christmas stresses of cleaning, baking and wrapping I’ve been an emotional eating mess. I ate ALL the chocolate turtles + 2 other boxes of chocolate – arrgh! Yesterday and today I tried to redeem myself by running. According to my Nike + I ran 3.93km yesterday and 3.75km today (though both days I ran the exact same route).

Tomorrow (or tonight) we hope to pack up the car to head to trek up to Ottawa to see my MIL for Christmas. Though with everything going on it would make more sense to stay home with the sick dog, I just couldn’t live with myself if she took a bad turn and we missed out on seeing her at Christmas. I’m going to bring my running gear and try to eat as healthy as possible – though that’s always hard when being away from home. Here’s to a better week next week!

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When my hubby travels I miss him – I miss him so much that I mourn him. Apparently I love him very very much. I say apparently because when he’s around I don’t really notice how much I love him, but when he’s gone I do notice. It’s really the only way to explain how down in the dumps I feel when he’s away. It’s funny that way isn’t it? When our hubbies are around we hate them for being so lazy, unhelpful etc… but when they’re gone you truly figure out how helpful they are and how much you miss their companionship.

Yeah so that’s how I’ve been feeling lately. Like I’m in mourning.

Everyone thinks I need help with the kids. But really they’re awesome – totally awesome. They are so used to my hubby’s travelling that they are very helpful. Yes – they’re a lot of work, but we’re so settled into a routine that looking after them is the easy part. Dealing with the loneliness, mourning and feelings of being abandoned is the hard part. That’s the part that no one understands. Dinners are when I feel the most low. It’s so hard to eat a third meal in the day without adult campanionship. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because before kids and before my hubby started travelling a lot he and I bonded quite a bit over our dinners out? (I really wish we had saved that money instead but hindsight is twenty-twenty now isn’t it?). Not having any free time to explore my hobbies (running, fitness, scrapbooking, shopping) is also hard. So the combination of stress, loneliness and lack of free time turns my brain to grey cloudy skies.

It’s the clouds that keep me from reaching out. They interfere with rational thought processes. I really don’t know how to ask for help because I don’t need someone to pick up milk, go get gas for my car or anything. I need someone to be my friend. Yanno – randomly stop by to say “Hi” with chocolate of course because a good friend knows that chocolate cake, or chocolate chip cookies makes everything better.

I’m slowly sorting myself out.. Doing stuff to help myself, yanno? Doing the stuff that would make me forget about being lonely when the hubs is away. Joining clubs and getting into a regular routine. Spending an evening/week doing something for myself and hiring a babysitter to watch the kids when the hubs is away. I think that’ll help. I’ll feel better in so many ways… I’m thinking of getting a treadmill, and training for a half marathon with a Running Room training clinic. I’ve already done a ridiculous number of half marathons so I totally know what I’m getting myself into.

Sigh – this stuff is so hard. Loneliness is hard. I love my girls but they’re still little – not really best friend material…. yet. I know they will be one day, but for now I’m their mother.

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(Ok, maybe just three other titles, not a million). You get the point.

I’m done with my hubby travelling all the time for work. Actually – no – that part is ok. That’s not what really bothers me. What really bothers me are all the people who say “I don’t know how you do it…” and leave it at that. Yeah, thanks – that’s helpful.

I just wish there were more resources for somewhat single parents like me whose spouses travel a lot for work. He travels so much it’s like having sole custody where he’s allowed periodic supervised visitation. He’s been gone 4 of the past 8 weeks, and the 4 weeks he was home he rarely made it home before 8 pm, worked from home after the kids went to bed and kicked me out of the basement for conference calls. He’s worn out from the work too – there’s nothing left of him to share with me after he gives everything he has to work and the kids.

I get the shaft and he gets recognition and rewards from work. He gets the hockey tickets, the pat on the back etc… He gets to eat in restaurants, he gets to eat exotic things I can’t even pronounce and see the world (or at least a lot of different airports). (Oh! Hi Hubby’s work who reads my blog). What the fuck do I get? A box of Macaroni and Cheese that I had to “cook” myself. Kids crying that they don’t want to eat, running around or sticking their fingers in my food. I’m the one picking up the pieces. Consoling sad kids because daddy isn’t there to play with them, tuck them in and cuddle. Being the one the kids yell at for daddy not being home because they really don’t have anyone else to yell at. I’m the one who’s responsible for making sure the kids wear their pj’s on jammie day, bring their silly hat to school and do their homework. I keep groceries in the house, plan the meals, feed the kids, dress them, chauffeur them to school, daycare, swimming etc….

I haven’t had vacation in a long time because I use it all to care for sick kids ’cause no one else is around to care for them. By the time Hubby’s work lets him take his vacation I have none left to spend with him. Not that it would matter because they take his vacation away from him anyways, so I’d just end up with a day by myself.

Nobody cares about me. No one comes over to see me. No one calls me to talk to me. No one takes me out for dinner, or offers to give me a break so I can go to the gym, run, or just fucking hide in a Starbuck’s with my laptop boyfriend. Anyone who calls wants to know how the kids are doing – they’re fine but I’m not and no one fucking cares. This life sucks. I don’t want to ask for help because that’s not the same as someone caring enough to offer. I want to feel special like someone gives a fucking damn about me. But they don’t. I hate this life. I hate everyone.  I feel abondoned and I’ve stopped reaching out because I keep hoping someone will reach out for me to show me they care. 

PS – Should I call my new blog Lazy Mama Fitness or Lazy Mama’s Guide to Fitness or The Lazy Mama’s Guide to Fitness?

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It’s actually very important to take time for yourself every day.  In fact studies have shown that people who find balance between their work and their life sleep better, eat better and enjoy life more.  They have less stress – and having less stress means they live LONGER! 

This past weekend I found some time for my balance.   I took the kids to the park, spent some one-on-one time with my oldest daughter Sierra and I hung out with my BFF (sidekickgirl) at Donnie Wahlberg’s I GOT IT release party.  Here are some pics from the party:

My BFF and I	Donnie Wahlberg	Joey McIntyre (surprise guest)

It’s really important to your well being to take time to do stuff for yourself – so this week I encourage you to do something extra-special for yourself. 

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Maybe I’m just nuts?

I dunno – maybe I just haven’t found the perfect work/life balance for me. I like working – but everyday? Will the grass be greener if I straddle the fence? Work part-time and be home part-time? How much money do I need to make working part-time to live the same lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to? Gah! Don’t you just love Mommy-Guilt?

In other news our new mattress set arrived last night. I had an amazing sleep, but didn’t manage to convince the hubby who had just spent two nights in a row up too late watching football (oh joy football is back…) to test out the new mattress with me ?

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