Labor. Baby. Joy.

I had a baby this week!  On Monday, January 10th I started having contractions in the afternoon.  The baby we now call Treyden arrived at 9:56pm.  The plan was to have a natural labor as my previous labor experience with my first son took forever doing it with drugs.  I had this hunch things would go faster this time around if I could forgo the drugs.  Well, my hypothesis turned out to be true.  I was in hard labor for 2-3 hours.  And let me just say it was HARD.  I definitely underestimated how hard it would actually be.  Yeah, having a baby is painful.  I now know that firsthand.  But all the pain was worth it.  I got to hold my baby boy.  

Here's the kicker though.  If someone were to ask me, drugs or no drugs I'm not sure I know the answer.  I guess I'd have to say no drugs.  But let me tell you during the very hard part of labor I questioned myself as to why I would have decided to forgo pain medication.  Maybe everything was fuzzy at the time. I'm sure I wasn't thinking straight. 

It's all behind me now and we're experiencing pure joy at it's finest.  Every minute of every day I'm so thankful this little boy arrived safe and sound. 

Not Just About the Scale

I know (especially as women) it's easy to obsess about the number that appears on the scale.  Sure, it matters but it's not the only factor.  In fact I'd argue that two other numbers would be more important over the scale.

The first being body fat percentage.  This is the percentage of fat your body is composed of versus the percentage of lean body mass (bones, muscle, organs). 

Classification           Women (% fat)                     Men (% fat)
Essential Fat              10-12%                             2-4%
Athletes                     14-20%                             6-13%
Fitness                       21-24%                            14-17%
Acceptable                25-31%                            18-25%
Obese                       32%+                                25%+

Body fat percentage can be changed through strength training and eating clean.  Make it a point to know your body fat percentage and use this to analyze where you need to be.  Overall you're going to be healthy and not just thin.  It also mean that your metabolism is working for you at maximum effort.  The lower this number the more calories you're burning at a resting state.   

The second number is your waist circumference.  What's important here is that your waist (around your belly button) is less than half your height in inches.  For example a woman that's 5'5" (65 inches) tall needs to have a waist circumference less than 32.5. 

I think a big mistake we can make is analyzing one area when there's so many facets that make up being a healthy, good-looking person....because after all, healthy is very attractive.
 Don't get me wrong these are great numbers to use as guidelines but also realize where you're at.  Maybe your body fat percentage is over 40%.  It may seem daunting to think about how far you have to go but listen up, it's actually a fairly easy task to lower that number in a reasonable amount of time with proper strength training and eating clean things can be turned around in 2011.

Looking Foward: 2011

I food journal everyday.  It's not pretty but I do it.  I suck it up and look back at what I've eaten and what exercise I've done for the day.  It keeps me accountable and not to mention gives a good laugh to the few readers that are allowed to follow it.  This is what I wrote on my journal for the first day of the year. I had a revelation. 

The last day of the year, wow I went out with a bang!  This morning (1-1-11) I printed out a new weekly weight log and a new set of calendars for 2011.  I realized I've been tracking my weight for 3 full years on a weekly basis and keeping track of my exercise and calories for 2 years.  As I was looking through them my brother walked in and I shared with him what I'd been doing.  His response was, "that's kind of creepy."  Maybe it's a little creepy.  It definitely proves I thrive on making lists, staying organized via paper records and keeping track of what I've done.  My theory is that if I write it down on paper it's proof I did it.  For some reason it gives me motivation to complete the 3 miles, weigh myself every Thursday and count my calories because then I have something to record.  Interesting...and it only took 3 years for me to figure it out because of my reflection on all the papers I'd collected since 2008. 

In lieu of that discovery I'll continue to food journal everyday in 2011.  Sure, there are days that I don't food journal but I'd say I journal 95% of the time.  I'm good with 95% or 90% for that matter, it's still an A.  My rule is that I journal no matter what.  Even if it's a really bad day and trust me I've had my fair share of those lately. 

Then there are the lists.  I really enjoyed reading 20 books in 2010 so I'm going to keep that one going.  I might not necessarily write a review on each book (unless I need to rave about it) but there will be an ongoing list under the "lists" tab.  Along with books I'm going to record victories in 2011.  I hope to keep track of at least 50 temptations that I've overcome.  Most likely they will have something to do with passing up a sweet as I'm going to try my hardest to get back to one sweet per week in the very near future.  And then lastly, I may keep track of my weekly exercise so you can see in the life of a trainer what goes on.  During this pregnancy it worked out really well to set a weekly mileage goal, attend a yoga class and complete 2-4 strength sessions per week.  I think I'll keep track of that as well since I know I thrive on lists and its really interesting to look back after the year is over and analyze.

I'm really looking forward to what 2011 will bring.  I'm at a weird spot this New Year because I hope to have a baby in a week or so.  I'm hungry all the time and I'm eating a lot of calories (my body needs at least 2400 these days) and not to mention the sweet cravings.  This little boy is going to love chocolate cake when he gets older-just sayin'.  I'm anxious to get back my old body and feel like Mandy again but I'm also cherishing these last few days (okay, trying to cherish) of pregnancy.  In the spirit of making lists here's 5 things I'm looking forward to doing in 2011 when I'm not pregnant:

1. Run!
2. An ab workout
3. Have a glass of wine-my favorite, Moscato.  Nothing crazy I just always want what I can't have.
4. Go to an intense, sweaty yoga class.
5. Go shopping for some new clothes!!  (Granted, I know this could be awhile)