As with any journal I’ve ever started, taking time away seems to beget more time away. Filling in the gaps seems too daunting, and complacency too enticing.

With that being said, I stepped away from this blog for nearly two years. During that time, the close family member experiencing the health crisis passed away. Shortly thereafter, years of trying to get pregnant finally paid off. My husband and I have been reeling ever since.

A part of me wishes I had maintained this blog during pregnancy. I experienced plenty of my own frustrations about the lack of information out there for pregnant women and fitness.

As for my experience, I was agonizingly sick nearly the entire pregnancy. The morning sickness was not confined to morning, and it most certainly was not limited to the first trimester. My nutritional goals became as simple as eating literally anything that had calories (I promise, it was the only time in my life that I had to force myself to try to gain weight). I experienced late-onset placenta previa, which limited my ability to exercise during the last half of pregnancy (other than walking and anything else that involved little to no exertion).

For a brief moment when giving birth,  my body was stronger than I ever thought possible. But for a much longer time after giving birth, my body was weak and unreliable. I experienced back pain, rib pain, hip pain (in addition to all the normal spots you expect to feel pain after giving birth). I couldn’t pick up my daughter. I could barely hold her.

After what felt like ages of pain, it dissipated. Nearly 10 months after giving birth, I am finally starting to feel like myself. I lost the baby weight quickly, but regaining my strength and stamina has taken much longer. I’ve given my body more grace than I ever expected in terms of appearance, but the limitations on my capabilities frustrated me. Although I am now softer, wider, and all-around differently shaped, I am finally capable of squatting, scooping up my daughter, lifting her over my head, and moving without fear of injury. For that, I am thrilled!

I am also writing this entry during an incredibly strange time in world history. Coronavirus has my little family trapped in our home, and I’m desperate for an outlet. An online journal seems appropriate in a time where physical contact is unacceptable and technology has become our opportunity. With no end in sight, there may be a lot more entries in the near future.

In this post, I’m going to reveal something that I’ve only shared with some of my closest friends and family in real life. I have something called Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism.

You’ve probably heard about thyroid disorders (and the chances are even likely that you or someone you know currently has one). It’s important to remember that everyone is different and everyone experiences the disease differently.

For me, the symptom that keeps rearing its ugly head is fatigue. Sure, I’ve experienced the stereotypical weight gain, sensitivity to cold, hair falling out, etc., but those symptoms usually reserve themselves for when my bloodwork is extremely out of whack and I’m reevaluating my prescriptions. But the fatigue never seems to go away. I’ve had it to varying degrees since at least late high school (and I was always a pretty tired person even before that).

I played collegiate tennis. During my freshman year, I literally slept in between every class and tennis practice. I slept every chance I got. I was finally diagnosed with the condition near the end of that year, and my sophomore year was significantly better. I had a bit more energy, and I lost nearly all 20 pounds that I had gained in the years prior.

But throughout the 12 years since then, it’s been a bit of a cycle. Sometimes, I feel good on 8 hours of sleep per night and function totally normally. Other times, like right now, my levels are slightly off, and I get 9-10 hours of sleep per night and feel like a bit of a zombie all day. It’s generally at its worst when I stop engaging in any activities because they all sound terrible compared to sleep and rest.

As you might imagine, this could be a problem for a busy attorney who prioritizes fitness in her life. I need to remind myself that I’ve managed to accomplish many things while experiencing this condition. Because I was never able to be the hardest worker in a room, I had to be more creative and come up with ways to work smarter instead. I truly believe this has been a gift.

I honestly try not to use this thing as an excuse in life. Practically speaking, though, it does affect my life, and I need to figure out how to deal with that. Friday and Sunday, I skipped my workouts. On Friday, I got home from work and spent the night on the couch. I felt similarly on Sunday. I’m trying to learn to respect what my body needs instead of criticizing myself for being lazy.

Due to the fact that my fatigue is pretty excessive right now, this week is going to be all about relatively short lifting workouts. I will be following along with Lauren Gleisberg’s Weight Training Plan 2.0, which can be purchased here: https://shop.laurengleisberg.com/product/weight-training-plan-2-0-home/.

I get very torn between creating my own workouts and using pre-designed workout plans from some of my favorite people in the health and fitness space (see this post from Wednesday, May 2, 2018 for a list of those podcasts/videos/blogs).

I get a kick out of doing a workout plan and knowing that others are going through it with me (or have gone through it before me). As much as I believe in customizing workouts to suit your own body and goals, I often fall back on these predesigned plans for three reasons: (1) the aforementioned community element, (2) I doubt my own knowledge and assume that other people know better, or (3) I just don’t have the energy to create a whole workout plan.

Right now, I’m in a bit of a rut. I can’t seem to stick with any one pre-designed workout plan long enough because, by design, it is not customized to my particular goals. For instance, my arms are naturally well-defined and I find my shoulders and upper back grow quickly, so I don’t like to do workouts that are upper-body intensive. I’d rather not do a ton of direct ab work. I am interested in growing my glutes and hamstrings, but not my quads. I also find that I can maintain low body fat while still having a full healthy face, so I prefer to stay pretty lean.

Point being, I think it’s time to design my own workout program, with the goals of creating something that prioritizes weightlifting for the body-shaping benefits but also fat loss for revealing all that hard work.

In the meantime, the next week or two may consist of some predesigned workouts. Today, I’m doing this workout from fitnessblender. I’m feeling like some good sweaty cardio. Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!

Rest Day.

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. I try to make sure that any rest days I take are either (i) planned in advance or (ii) a response to genuinely listening to my body. This rest day, however, probably didn’t fit into either of those categories.

I don’t know about you, but I find myself at my most tired on Fridays. The work week really has a way of depleting my energy and leaving me glued-to-the-couch exhausted by Friday evening. Normally, I can plan my workouts well enough that I plan for my rest days to fall on Fridays. Being self-aware and knowing your patterns can make your fitness planning much more successful. If you know you hate working out in the mornings, maybe stop fighting the uphill battle of trying to drag yourself out of bed at 5:30am to work out. If you know you can’t have chips in the pantry without eating the whole bag, don’t keep chips in the pantry. There are very few universal rules in this health and fitness game. It’s all about knowing yourself and figuring out what works for you.

So Friday, I rest. Next time, I’ll plan for it.

Today is going to be a busy day, with a full day of work and a busy night planned after that. Therefore, although I’d consider afternoon to be my ideal workout time, today called for an early AM workout at 6:15 a.m. before work.

Morning Workout – Leg Circuit

Circuit 1 (3x):
20 Curtsy Lunges (10 each side)
15 Hip Thrusts
15 Squat Jumps

Circuit 2 (3x):
20 Step Ups (10 each leg)
20 Jumping Lunges
15 Pop Squats

Circuit 3 (3x):
20 Side lunges
15 Tuck Jumps/Box Jumps
60 Jump Rope

Circuit 4 (3x):
20 Squat Walks
10 (each side) Donkey Kicks
10 (each side) Hydrants

I took about 30-60 seconds rest in between each circuit. The whole workout took me around 35 minutes. Nice start to the day!

 

On Wednesdays, I typically work from my home office, which gives me some scheduling flexibility. I was originally planning a lifting workout today, but the weather is absolutely gorgeous (sunny and temperatures in the 80s), so I decided to do a 2-part workout today instead:

Morning Workout – Cardio

I did 45 minutes of cardio outside, starting with a 5 minute warmup, then moved into the following sprint pyramid:

0:10 – Jog
0:10 – Sprint
0:10 – Walk

0:20 – Jog
0:20 – Sprint
0:20 – Walk

0:30 – Jog
0:30 – Sprint
0:30 – Walk

0:40 – Jog
0:40 – Sprint
0:40 – Walk

0:50 – Jog
0:50 – Sprint
0:50 – Walk

1:00 – Jog
1:00 – Sprint
1:00 – Walk

0:50 – Jog
0:50 – Sprint
0:50 – Walk

0:40 – Jog
0:40 – Sprint
0:40 – Walk

0:30 – Jog
0:30 – Sprint
0:30 – Walk

0:20 – Jog
0:20 – Sprint
0:20 – Walk

0:10 – Jog
0:10 – Sprint
0:10 – Walk

I kept running until my timer reached 25 minutes. I finished with a cool-down walk for another 20 minutes. It may just be the heat, but I was gassed after that sprint pyramid. It felt great to get some sunshine and some sweat outside finally, though!

Evening Workout

Circuit 1 (3 times):
15 – Light Shoulder Press
10 – Bench press
60 – Jumping Jacks

Circuit 2 (3 times):
10 – Bicep curls
10 – Tricep Kickbacks or dips
10 – Burpees

Circuit 3 (3 times):
10 – Flyes
10 – Reverse flyes
60 – Up and out jacks

Circuit 4 (3 times):
15 – Light wt. side lateral raises
15 – Light wt. upright rows
15 (each side) – LR boxing punches alternating sides

When it comes to my workouts and planning, I can’t claim to be an original (or to even have any idea what I’m doing). I borrow heavily from other trainers and bloggers, so even if a workout isn’t copied from them directly, I can say that each of the following has heavily influenced my frame of mind and workout style:

• Lauren Gleisberg (https://www.laurengleisberg.com). I follow her blog and have bought virtually all of her workout programs.
• MindPump (https://www.mindpumpmedia.com). I highly recommend checking out their podcast for tons of fitness and healthy lifestyle information.
• Fitness Blender (https://www.fitnessblender.com). Tons of free full-length home workout videos. I also like their ridiculously affordable workout packages.

 

 

If you’ve spent any time in the health and fitness space, I’m sure you’ve heard plenty of admonitions that there are “no excuses” when pursuing your health and fitness goals. I tend to agree with that admonition, but probably for a completely different reason.

Sometimes, I take days (or even weeks) off training. Usually, I have articulable reasons for doing so (recovering from injury, illness, etc.). Sometimes, I don’t. Sometimes other life priorities win out, and I don’t take the time or energy for training. But I wouldn’t call any of these things “excuses.”

There are times in my life when my health and fitness goals are a very high priority for me (although I truly hope they’re never my highest priority). During these times, I’ll sacrifice almost anything to make sure I don’t miss the gym or neglect my nutrition. But there have been plenty of other times when other goals or pieces of my life overshadowed my health and fitness goals. During my first year of law practice, my job often won out. During these last few months when a health crisis has threatened a close family member, spending time with family wins out. Although I don’t plan on completely  neglecting my health for any significant length of time, it isn’t always a top priority, and that’s totally okay!

If, in your life, you find yourself routinely and consistently prioritizing everything else over your health, then maybe it’s time to reconsider your priorities. But if you’re pursuing things that just matter more to you right now, then don’t feel guilty about “making excuses.” Focus on what matters to you and get back to fitness when you’re ready to prioritize it. Balance is great, and I try to at least keep my health and fitness running on the back burner during some of these seasons of life, but we’re (hopefully) playing the long game in this life. Be purposeful about what matters to you, and when you pursue it, it won’t be an “excuse”–it will be a decision.

I should start by saying that I feel woefully unprepared for this, but everyone has to start somewhere. I’ve been reading health and fitness blogs for as long as I can remember, and have always dreamed of starting one myself. I’m being completely honest when I say that I don’t expect for this site to generate many views. That’s okay. I truly mean it when I say that I’m doing this for me, and if even one person out there can relate to my story and gain something from seeing it expressed on the page, all the better.

As I write this, I’m 29 years old. Obviously, that’s not old. But don’t you sometimes feel like you struggle with things that you should have gotten over by adolescence? Maybe we all struggle with finding our identity, especially as the world and our lives around us change.

Growing up, I identified strongly as a tomboy. I played almost every sport. Although I was a runt, I wanted to be seen as tough and strong. In high school, I began embracing my feminine side, in terms of physical appearance. Nevertheless, I strongly identified with my tough athletic side and had a fierce argumentative debating side to me, also. Over time, I’ve lost a good deal of that edge. Nevertheless, I became a lawyer.

Now, I find myself a gentler, more feminine, but still athletic attorney trying to navigate my way through the boys’ club of corporate transactional law.

All in all, my life has been pretty great. It would be crazy for me to complain. But like most of you, I have my own struggles and challenges that I don’t typically share with the world, and I’m not sure why.

This blog is my journal of navigating the world I love of health and fitness while trying to juggle work as a busy attorney, health conditions, and family struggles. I hope you find some value in it.