Checking In

I'm checking in to say that this has been an incredibly hard week for me. The baby blues hit along with several inches of rain over several days, plus little guys getting into stuff and just dumping it. Yesterday Baby James, our newest addition, spent all day on me - either being nursed or carried. Having experienced post partum depression once, I'm very conscious of my moods and finding ways to get myself back in the groove, such as through exercise. Fortunately Greg is very quick to take over when he gets home and he makes sure that I get a little time by myself to do my stretching and other parts of my bedtime routine. That half hour of me time makes a big difference at the end of the day.

This week I did find myself getting stronger as I added hills to my walks and as I added more ab work to my evening routine. Being physically stronger makes such a difference in how I deal with my day. I had a particularly difficult time with this last pregnancy because of various physical ailments and lack of exercise, and now I'm so excited to be getting back to my usual level of fitness. I'm even considering getting back into running, a longtime love of mine, though my knees and hips may not cooperate.

My walking goal next week is to add another hill to the two hills I did this week, plus increase my time from 30 minutes to 40 minutes. I'll stay with my current evening routine and add in a short set of weights for my arms. I got a Vegetarian cookbook out from the library and I'll be playing around with recipes from that for myself and the kids.