Update - Sorry it's been a while

Wow, I just realized it's been 4 months since I last wrote in my blog. That's pretty sad, but life sure has been busy. So get this - I bought a personal training studio! Yup, you read this correctly. I have a baby and then decide to really expand my business (I also joined my homeowners association) - am I crazy? Yup, but it's all good stuff.

I'll talk more about buying the studio in another post, but wanted to give you an update on being a personal trainer, small business owner, athlete, and new mom.

Update on my body and training (baby factors aside) - After 5 months of going to see my fabulous Pelvic Floor PT, Becky, I finally got discharged. I still need to work on relaxing my abdominals when only doing moderate exercise, but overall I'm feeling great! No more pubic bone pain! I have resumed running, slowly introducing more mileage, but am up to running 3 days a week, averaging 14 miles a week. I stopped going to Cyclebar - not because I didn't enjoy it, but I don't have time to run, strength train and go to a class. I am strength training usually 3 days a week, anywhere from 20 - 45 minutes - it's usually time dependent. Sometimes I run twice a day - 2 shorter runs or do 2 shorter strength workouts or sometimes I do nothing because I am too tired after work and after Sloane goes to sleep. I have tried plyometric exercises and had no pain or issue (and they weren't as hard as I thought they would feel), although I don't incorporate them into my normal routine usually - no real reason.

Lately, my muscles are feeling super sore and I've had a headache every day for 3-4 weeks. I need a massage to relax them, but it's hard finding time when a therapist is free and when I can find child care and when I'm not working. Sloane has started sleeping through the night (mostly) so at least I'm sort of getting sleep. She is like her momma and is up roaring to go at 5 or 5:30am.

For a while, eating has been bad. It's either non-existent or eating whatever I can find and munching non-stop during the day. I hate cooking in general, so that wasn't happening much and I found that I was eating a lot of sweets. Although I think I fixed that overall now. I ran a 28 days Balanced Habits Kick Start nutrition program at my studio. I was maybe 70% compliant, and it really helped get back in the habit of preparing meals ahead of time to set us up for success and making sure I ate something every 3 or so hours. I even lost a couple pounds. I need to be better about drinking water. Lately, I've been just wanting coffee - not even for the caffeine. - maybe because it's been so cold?

Now, that's how my body is feeling without introducing trying to do all this with an almost 8 month old (side note - how has 8 months passed by already????).

Let me just say, motherhood is HARD. For all those mommas who are either single moms, have no village of help, I don't know how you are surviving! You are amazing! Heck, all you moms are amazing. Having 1 kiddo is tough. Every day is a different challenge. Sloane is crawling now, so life is a lot harder. And she is a GREAT baby! I bought one of those baby jail things to contain her, but sometimes she isn't feeling it.

Let me paint a quick picture and then I'll end this long post. I'm training for a half marathon in April and it's freezing outside, so I decide to run on my treadmill. Letting my husband sleep in, I bring Sloane in the basement with me. She's sitting, playing nicely for a little bit, but then starts crawling all over with a goal of eating as many cords as possible - or climbing up to try and put her hand on the treadmill. I barricade off the treadmill area so she can't do that. Then she's going towards the fish tank wires. Finally, I drag down the baby jail thing (it's bulky and doesn't fold up easily) and stick her in. After a bit, she starts whining for me. I am annoyed, aggravated, frustrated - I have maybe 1 more mile left at that point. So I just plug in my other ear bud (I normally only run with 1 in) and ignore her. Do you know how hard that is? Half of me feels so terrible - like I'm a terrible mom for not going to her, but the other half wants to finish this run for me (and treadmill running sucks as it is). Well I finished my run and of course she fell asleep as soon as I was done. Sigh. At least I did it!