Oh no. . .the holidays are here!

And I have already indulged my cake craving.....and more wine than I should have, it's going to be a difficult holiday season.

Parties, lots of nyama choma (barbecue meat), sweets and decadent desserts, it is a time when the gains of the past year can quickly be eroded. How do I intend to keep myself focused?

1. Keeping to my portions rule even when out and about.

    I attended a function recently where the plate served was mostly fish and lean pork....I breathed a sigh of relief I did not have to be that worried.
   Keeping off carbohydrates and most sauces as well. Not knowing what goes into your food is to blame for a lot of weight gain. A lot of accompanying sauces have butter as a base, dressing your salad in mayonnaise rich thousand island sauce takes away the whole point of the salad. I intend to be very conscious about what I put into my mouth.

2. Nursing that one glass of wine....

   Gone are the days where nights out were accompanied with drinking that would be the calorie equivalent of a small loaf of bread. I intend to nurse one glass of wine, finishing off my glass of water several times during the meal. Beer is out of the question, I have worked too hard on my belly to watch it grow again without a valid (little baby) reason.

3. Making time to work out....

   I was at my mother's over the weekend, and yes, I carried my workout mat, ankle/wrist weights and some exercise MP4 that I could play on almost any device. I worked out early in the morning on the day of travel, I woke up extra early to do so because I knew that finding time to do the same in the next few days would be difficult. I did tae bo in her parking space, and made it difficult by using the wrist weights. I did miss one day but considering I was travelling and busy, I think I did pretty well. I intend to continue doing this, remain motivated and find the time to work on my body.

4. Not being a couch potato

   This means waking up early, keeping busy. We have come to define rest as not doing much, just lazing around. It doesn't have to be that. I am redefining my holiday period as an active rest period. Taking walks with my little one, and playing with her. She is 10 kilos now, and quite a handful, she is also learning to walk, holding on to her for long periods of time is a work out in itself. My television remains off, and I don't miss it. Active rest, that's the key.

5. Water water water!

  It's time for a lot of sugared carbonated drinks, the African way of celebrating christmas...I will keep away from these, even the diet kind. It will be water or tea. No extra calories sneaking up from behind!

6. Brown brown brown!

   Brown rice, brown ugali (stiff porridge), brown bread (home made rye mostly),....I will try to keep to food that has not been processed too much. All in moderation of course. These are all carbs, when I chose to eat them, I will eat those that have additional nutrition.

7. Cheat days!

  Without cheat days or cheat meals, any lifestyle change for health can become a daunting task almost doomed to fail. I know I will have cheat meals, but I will make up for it. I will not starve myself, but I will push my body to realise its full potential. I will utilise those fat calories in that piece of black forest that melted in my mouth in a 45 minute run, or a High Intensity Interval Work out, I will lift more, push further, and I will smile while doing it.

Have an active holiday won't you?

Breast feeding Kenyan style, and the expanding hips that came with it

I did a lot of research when I was pregnant. My husband used to joke that I was taking a degree in pregnancy. One of the things that was constantly repeated was how breast feeding helps mothers lose weight. I was planning to breastfeed so I was happy that I had nature's given tool to help me get back into shape.
I welcomed my little angel into the world, and yes, begun breast feeding after not so few hiccups (not the forum to discuss cracked nipples, latching problems, supply issues, sleepless nights....) but the weight did not fall off. In fact, after the initial first two weeks weight loss, it seemed that my hips and everything else seemed to be getting bigger, how is this possible? My little one is deriving nutrition from my body, taking away from what stores I had accumulated when I was carrying her for this very purpose.
The problem was, I was breast feeding Kenyan style.
Soon after giving birth, Kenyan mothers are drowned in food. Porridge is the food of choice, I drank it so much in the first two weeks, that it was pouring out of my ears. It is supposed to increase food supply. They are told that they have to gain weight in order to 'take care of the little one'.
It is all well intended but such practices do more harm than good. The extra calories required to make milk are much fewer than the mountain loads of food lactating mothers consume. Fluids are what makes a major difference in supply. This is from experience. That and a lack of stress, and being rested.
If I have another child, I fully intend to breastfeed. However, I will not bow to pressure to drown myself in food for this purpose. I know better.

I don't know what I weigh and honestly, sometimes I don't care

I am often asked how much weight such and such an exercise 'cuts' and how much weight I have lost, or how much I weigh. . .there is an obsession with weight for very understandable reasons. My answer usually is....I don't know how much I weigh. And it's true. I don't.
I am concerned with my overall weight, it is one of the reasons I embarked on this journey. But it is not the only reason. I know how constant weigh ins can serve to discourage me so I generally avoid them and focus on other indicators of progress. Today, my indicator was the 'mirror test'. . .I looked at myself in the mirror and saw a definite change in muscle definition.
I also define progress in terms of cardiovascular fitness. How I control my workouts, am I constantly out of breath, how far can I go and for how long. Progress can also be seen in my resistance training by how many push ups i can do, how much weight I bench, etcetera.
The good thing about it is, there are so many small things that I can celebrate without being obsessed about my weight. I haven't weighed myself since my daughter was born. I wouldn't be surprised if I weigh more than my pre pregnancy weight, I have been working on building muscle, for the same volume, muscle weighs more than fat. I will however have my body fat percentage checked soon, that, I am very curious about.
I fit into my tiniest dress yesterday. It fit different, my body has definitely changed having had a baby, but it fit. . .

Have an active day!