So, since I last reported to the blog for duty, I have worked out!!  (I’ve also changed plenty of diapers, lost plenty of sleep, and had a wonderful time with Miss Baby, who’s becoming much more interactive every day and is just the coolest little thing ever–but that’s for another post).

So here’s what has transpired, sweat-wise:

RUNS

THREE!!!  Three lovely mile and a bit runs!  The first one was absolutely and shockingly glorious–it was a cool late afternoon with the birdies singing for me, Snow White style, and I ran with a huge grin on my face… until I went splat on the concrete after tripping on a big rock.  So typical! But I finished it and now have the scarred knee (same one as the Freezer 5K) to prove it.  The next one was very blah (but what did I expect, running in the 11 a.m. Trinidad full sun and heat?), and the one after was pretty good (even though I ran in the same sun and heat).

The issue with running–even with just setting out for ten minutes–hasn’t been the running itself, actually.  I would have done more had it not been for the fear that she’d wake up hungry and find herself bereft of the magical boobies, screaming in her father’s well-intentioned face and rivaling a fire truck in decibels.  OK, so I exaggerate, and she doesn’t really scream much at all.  But her sleeping has been all over the place (or rather, NOT all over the place, as in not happening much during the day at all) and it’s been stressful to think that she may wake up and need feeding the second I leave for a quick run or, conversely (and more selfishly), that she would gulp down two bags of hard-earned pumped breast milk in the time it takes me to run half a mile, at which point the screaming might commence, because she’s a hungry little child.

So, as physically enjoyable as running has been, it’s not exactly a relaxing thing to do, and that, combined with  the midday heat, has made it happen less than I expected.  Oh well.  Not beating myself up here–and her schedule will even out soon enough.

STRENGTH TRAINING

Er, what’s that?  Nope, no planks or pushups; those involve my knees, and my right knee was scraped and out of commission.  I have, however, done two sets of leg strengthening exercises (one session of lunges and such, and another of Core Fusion thighs) with all ten pounds and six ounces of Miss Baby in her baby projector (read:  Baby Bjorn) and that has been both challenging and leg-liquifying–in other words, great.

ZUMBA

No public/group Zumba yet, sadly (see above issues with timing my running and multiply them by one hour long class and two 20-minute car trips and you see where that’s going).  However, I’ve done Zumba at home with DVDs and Zumba tunes twice, and THAT has been beyond great!  She starting to have a couple of periods each morning where she’s happy to hang out without eating and she’s all interested in lights and shadows and moving objects… oh, and ME.  She will stare at me do the most mundane tasks like it’s the most fascinating thing on earth, so having me jump all around (and create shadows, and do it all in front of the burglar-proofing) has been a real hit. And maybe she remembers the Zumba music from all our in-belly workouts?  Who knows.

All I know is that Zumba has happened three times and there’s a system–albeit a flexible one–in place for it to happen. Here’s how that works:

1. I feed The Perennially Hungry One.
2. I plunk her down in her stroller and roll her around after me while I get dressed.
3. I roll her out to the living room and start exercising.  She opens her eyes wide and makes her “oh, surprise!” mouth for the first fifteen minutes of exercise.
4. For maximum baby happiness, I keep her interested by routinely:  poking her, pulling at her feet, tickling her belly, blowing raspberries into her, and shaking her hands or feet all about.  I look like a crazy person, but as long as no one sees and she’s happy, that’s fine by me.
5. Be willing to pick up and feed as needed.  (I haven’t had to yet, but today I did have to feed her right after, and let me tell you, trying to wrap a t-shirt and fabric around me to keep the sweat off her was harder than the actual workout, holy goodness).  And note for the future: make sure the bra is tightened back to where it should be after feeding her; we don’t want a wardrobe malfunction here.
6. If no feeding is needed, finish, run to the shower, and shower so fast that I risk getting soap in eyes so that I can feed her as soon as my 45 minutes of sweaty glory are over.

And that’s Zumba for me these days.  Apparently, all this will help me bring sexy back.  It all looks rather unsexy when it’s occurring and compared to my pre-baby workout routines, I have my doubts, I must say, and also, I remember less routines than I thought I did, but that doesn’t matter, really.  I still drip sweat like a beast after my 45 minutes–interrupted, graceful, or neither.

* * *

So that’s it on the workout front.  Six cardio workouts and two strength sessions in the last, oh, eight days?  It’s not half marathon training, but it’ll get better in the much-missed running department and it’s a great start.  Endorphins are happening, muscle tone is materializing (sloooooooowly), and most importantly, I feel like myself after doing it all. Win-win, right?

I’ll report back with more workout news as and when they happen, BBC-style… but until then, spare me a thought when you do your blissful, uninterrupted, non-baby-time-affected workouts, will you?  I promise not to think evils out of jealousy.  I swear.