POST-PARTUM PACK - October 17

Ow! I hate it when they do that! (Bite you!)

I also find it frustrating when the babies change their routines and mess up your plans. I tried to go for a long walk yesterday but my little guy wasn't having ANY of it and I had to turn around and come home...

Hi ladies! My back is much better (yay!) but now I'm fighting a cold. Booooo!

But I'm hoping to take the boys down on the trail with the all-terrain stroller today. That's an hour of pushing 80lbs up big hills, and never fails to make me feel like I'm going to have a heart attack. I was hoping to go to deep water aquafit last night, but spent the evening in bed watching documentaries on my iPad.

I figure that by Sunday I'll be back at the gym lifting and running and rowing and stuff again. I can't wait until our renos are done, then I can work out at home again! There's some stuff I still love doing at the gym, but it would be nice not to have to leave the boys all the time to work out.

I'm very lucky in that having a nanny during the day makes my life very flexible, but she's going away for 6 weeks and I'm trying to figure out what my schedule will be so I can fit exercise into it. Nap times will be key, I think!

I am a mom to two wonderful kids; an almost four year old girl who just started school this year and a 2 1/2 month old boy. A little over a year ago I decided I wanted to be more active. I have struggled with my weight almost my whole life so I decided I was ready to change that.

My daughter is very active - she is in organized activities 5 days a week so our schedule is crazy! In August of last year we started her in karate, which she LOVES. The dojo where she practices also has adult fitness classes - cardio-kickboxing, TRX, bootcamp. I started taking the kickboxing classes at the same time as her karate two days a week and found I absolutely loved it! It was a great motivator to be in the same place at the same time as my daughter's karate class because I had no excuse to not go to class. So I got to the point where I was 25-30 pounds away from my goal weight, and then I found out I was pregnant. I continued with the kickboxing until three days before my son was born and felt great my entire pregnancy. I was back at it as soon as he turned 6 weeks and I got the go ahead to start working out again. I found I really missed it during my time off.

Now that I am off work for a year I am packing as much activity into my schedule as possible. I joined a weight-loss challenge with some friends and friends of friends and I am doing everything I can to win, but I did not decide to get active just to win the challenge. I decided to get active and lose weight and the weight-loss challenge just happened to present itself at the right time. I go kickboxing 2-3 days a week, I joined a strollerfit class once a week and I started with a personal trainer once a week at the dojo where I do kickboxing - and she is kicking my butt!

I have found that while I originally thought I didn't like working out, (I get bored, I find working out to videos not very motivating), I actually quite enjoy exercising - all it took was finding something I enjoy doing where there are people that can motivate me.

I make my health a priority. I make time in my schedule for exercise because I have to in order to get to where I want to be. I know the few hours a week exercise is taking me away from my kids is making me so much healthier so that I can be active with my kids and set a good example and we can have more fun when we spend time together.

Morning everyone! (well, at least it still is morning where I am)

I hurt my back again last night! Grrrr. So my plan of going to the gym today to lift and run might turn into a swimming day if I can find an empty spot in the "slow" lane. I know that swimming is great for me, but I just hate doing it every day. I get so bored doing lanes. I'm thinking about either getting a waterproof iPod case/earbuds or trying to commit to aquafit more.

How is everyone handling the build-up to Halloween? I see candy EVERYWHERE and it's so tempting. I think to myself, I need to buy it anyhow, and maybe I can limit myself if they're itty bitty servings. But I KNOW that I can't from previous experience, so I'm just not getting anything and am planning to turn off the lights to trick-or-treaters this year.

I'm a sucker for Halloween candy, so last year I decided we couldn't have it in the house. So I ordered some pencils and little toys to hand out instead. I don't know what the trick-or-treaters thought, but at least I didn't eat an entire bucket of candy before they got there!!