Get in my belly!

Davis attempted cereal for the first time last night. This is how it went:

He was proud of himself.

Do I have to exercise? Can't I just eat this brownie instead?

This week will start my 4th week of Baby Boot Camp, and I am so proud of myself for sticking with it.  I have never in my life exercised on a consistent basis....who are we kidding, I have never really worked out period.  There was a stint in college where I went to the gym almost everyday for about a month, but that's about it. 

Having a baby changes almost everything in your life, but one of the things I am struggling with the most is what it has done to my body.  Maybe that makes me extremely vain, but it's true.  I can manage through night after night of interrupted sleep, changing dirty diapers all day, constantly walking around with a spit-up stain on my shirt; but when am I going to fit in my clothes again?!?!?

I, like many pregnant women, had these big plans of exercising through my pregnancy and then training extra hard to bounce back right away after giving birth; but then my couch got in the way.  And then there was the pizza, and the chicken wings, and the ranch dressing....oh the glorious ranch dressing.  I surpassed my weight-gain goal by 10-15 lbs during pregnancy and then immediately lost all but 10-13 of it - things were looking pretty good.  But then I hit a plateau and not a single pound miraculously fell off.  In fact, some crept their way back on - sneaky little rascals.  Enter Baby Boot Camp.

Being fairly new to Houston, I wanted to make some friends who also had young children and so Baby Boot Camp seemed like a way to kill two birds with one stone.  As I like to believe is the case with most things, I was right!

I ventured out to my first class feeling a little nervous that my lack of athleticism would be blatantly obvious.  There were about 10 other women in the class with babies ranging from Davis' age (14 weeks at the time) to around 2 years old, and they couldn't have been more friendly.  I pushed myself to complete every exercise to the best of my ability...which became less and less as the class went on and my muscles were crying out for mercy...and was so proud of myself at the end of class.  I had made it!  The class meets three times a week, and so even though I was having trouble walking, I attended every class that week and got to know some of the other moms a little better. 

It has only been three weeks so I am not expecting to see immediate results (I think that is why so many people give up working out after about a week or two), but I can definitely tell that my legs jiggle a little less, and if my soreness is any indication...I will be in great shape in no time.  Steve claims he can see a difference, but I think he just needs to have his eyes checked....sweet of him to lie though.

My favorite part of class is that we essentially have a personal trainer who keeps us moving and pushing ourselves, but we can also trade war stories and tips during the lower impact exercises.  Then there are the babies!  Toward the end of class, almost all of the babies are out of their strollers and either crawling around trying to eat grass, or their moms are holding them using them as weights during workout.  By the end of class, I can only imagine how it looks to passerby's.

Here is the website for Baby Boot Camp - they have them in almost every city: http://www.babybootcamp.com/  The class I go to is StrollFit in Houston West

Last Monday, I went to baby time at the library with some of the moms from class.  Here is Davis with his new lady friends: