Exercise

[percival]

Thank you for your comments on the chickenpox entry. Of course she won't be having the vaccine now that she's got the original virus - there's no point ... It was a mild case because I've had chickenpox before. Since I have antibodies, she got them in utero and is still getting them via my breast milk, hence the relative mildness (we still have less than 50 spots, and most of the big ones have already crusted over). She's her usual chirpy self, apart from a clingy Wednesday, and her teeth are bothering her more than the pox. Calamine lotion is nipping the itch in the bud, fortunately.

What today's entry is mostly about, though, is my dismal failure to implement an exercise regime. I subscribed to the Health for Life programme sponsored by Edinburgh University. The reasons for my failure are:
- I need to exercise when our daughter is awake, which is a problem. She tends to go down between 8.30pm and 10pm; she is very difficult to settle. (It's our fault: we don't have a good bedtime routine for her yet. We don't have good routines for anything. What works for us, if we can implement it, is books, quiet play, nursing, in that sequence, all in bed.) This means that we get very little time to ourselves. When she naps during the day, I need to work (housework or work-work) or have some food. In the morning, usually sleep until she wakes, because I need the rest.
- During the past few weeks (make that months), I've been exhausted, especially at weekends. I've also laboured under a cold that involved two days out for the count with a fever and a slow recovery. That was preceded by a severe tonsillitis that meant my husband was out for the count.
- The assessment of the second workbook, which is needed to plan your own programme, was due four weeks before the six-week exercise diary was due. So the time for carefully planning your exercise programme was effectively -2 weeks. Oh joy.

What would have helped me achieve my goal? Probably two things:
- an assessment where your exercise plan is checked by the course tutor for doability
- having a week to develop a realistic exercise plan


So what would a realistic plan look like?
- 1-2 days throughout the week where I go on an extensive, 30-45 minute walk with baby in her buggy, with some stretches before and after
- a morning session for some Yoga once a week
- Kegel-style exercises whenever I can remember them, standing, sitting, etc.
- two five minute sessions of office Yoga stretches every day I'm at work (which is 4 out of 5)

I already walk to nursery from uni four times a week (25 minutes, including waiting at traffic lights)

Comments

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

Would you mind if I sent a friend of mine over to this post? He's a professional personal trainer, and might be able to give you some idea of 'realistic'...

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Sure, why not? That would be great! While we're talking - could you link me to the post where you described your pressure-cooker stew? I now have a pressure cooker ...

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

It'd be summer 2 years ago...

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

http://angelofthenorth.livejournal.com/168872.html

should be one of them

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Ta - have put it in my memories ...

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

I'm just tagging some more recipe/recipes posts

[diegoliger.livejournal.com]

Hi, Im Miriams friend, Ant.

Ive read your LJ and I think that doing a class based exercise session would be a good idea. Find a gym which has a creche and a young mums group/class. The top-notch health club gyms do.

Get involved with a weekly class with them - it'll be good so you can meet other new mums in the same situation as you, so you can support each other and slag off fathers, get friends, get fit.

Id also recommend a pilates class and also doing a general whole-body work out session three times a week, wiht endurance weights and CV work, That wiht your class would be fun. You might try swimming for one of you CV sessions nad take your babe in arms along as well.

hope that helps. We can talk later about a full routine etc.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, and for your thoughtful suggestions and offer to talk about a full routine. It helps, but it's a bit dispiriting - it's exactly the type of answer I feared. I basically don't want to put my daughter in a gym creche because she already goes to nursery three days a week - and it took her bloody ages to settle there. She hates being left with strangers - I can't even leave her with her grandparents, who dote on her, for more than 15 minutes without her getting upset. (It's a natural stage of separation anxiety that she will grow out of in 1-2 years' time.) I also have a very bad attendance record with gyms - joined twice, didn't keep it up each time, and it took me ages to leave and cost me lost of money. So essentially, for me, joining a gym is money down the drain.

However, the Pilates class sounds just the ticket - I need to find one that runs on weekends, and I'm set. I know that Pilates will give me the core strength I need. And once I have baby's sleeping patterns sorted, I might even go straight to a personal trainer like yourself for advice on a good exercise routine that I can do more or less from home ;) I know that less than three times a week won't do much, but I still hope that something is better than nothing ...

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

One of the public gyms in Camden were advertising a class with babies - instead of being in a separate creche, the hall had an area with something like tumbletots on one side and an adult gym class on the other. Child could see Mummy, but was looked after by someone else.

Oh, and I don't know if you've read Freakonomics, but there's a wonderful thing in there about parenting. The things that really make the difference in child outcomes aren't ages weaned, or going to nursery, but things like age of parent at birth and all sorts of stuff that are determined by the time the child is conceived.
Most of the studies-to-support theories don't have large enough cohorts to control for the above. From what I read you made all the right choices before having her to mean she'll be brilliant.

[piperki.livejournal.com]

Here via friendsfriends...just wanted to offer my sympathies. My son is now nearly 10 years old and was an incredibly difficult baby, wouldn't settle with anyone, wouldn't sleep (for months and months he woke up every night 30 minutes after falling asleep, and screamed for an hour). But: it did get better! I was out of shape, but that improved when I got a backpack carrier for him--he hated being in a buggy of any kind until he was well over 12 months. I could walk, climb lots of stairs etc. with him in the pack. At home I could do push-ups and ab work here and there during the day until I'd gotten in all the reps I needed to do. I just couldn't plan a whole hour's workout and execute that.

He still complains if I try to exercise without him and will sit next to the home gym we eventually bought, talking and talking incessantly the whole time...and often if I take a walk, he comes with me, talking the whole time...unsettled babies grow into very bright children. :)