I am shredded!!

Yep, I'm shredded! I finished the 30 Day Shred on Friday. I did the workout every day for 30 days! Actually, it's kinda funny because I lost count and thought Day 30 was going to be on Saturday and it wasn't until Saturday afternoon that I realized when I had started and that the night before I had already completed Day 30! What a nice surprise! Too bad I didn't realize at the time, though, so I could have celebrated my completion! Anyway, I went for a run Saturday morning but I did not do the shred workout Saturday... it was the first day in 30 days that I've had a break from that!

Overall, I am very pleased with the results I got from doing the 30 day shred. My arms and legs specifically feel really toned. MrKLB thinks they look better than before I got pregnant! My stomach is starting to look pretty toned again, too. I do still have a little work to do in that area, but I don't blame the shred for that... I blame the fact that I've had a huge sweet tooth for the past couple of months! Anyway, I decided that after the weekend I was going to start cutting out some sweets and not have dessert EVERY NIGHT! That will probably do the trick! :)

I was planning to post some pics of me but I have not had a chance to take any because I spend all of my time trying to get good pics of Brady. So, I'll post one of my favorite pics of him here instead. He is 2 months old today!!

20 days down

Well, today marks day 20 of my 30 day shred and I'm happy to report that I've done the workout EVERY SINGLE DAY for the pas 20 days! I can't believe it! Honestly, I thought I'd miss a day or so here and there, but I've been really good at sticking to it. Some nights I've even had to do it really late after Brady goes to bed, but I've done it! MrKLB has even done Level 3 with me a couple of times. He agrees that it pretty much kicks your butt.

Other than working out, I've just been hanging out with Brady. The life of a stay-at-home-mom is hard... your days go by fast and you look back and think "what did I do today?" I still have no idea what I do all day, but I can assure you I'm not just sitting around on the couch eating bon-bons. :)

Brady is doing great! I think each week brings something new to his personality and it's so much fun to watch him grow. He's starting to react to our faces and we're pretty sure he has even smiled back at us a couple of times. I can't wait until he starts to become more expressive and babbling, etc! I'm trying to take lots of photos of him, but it's hard because he doesn't keep any single expression on his face for more than a second so you never know what you'll get when the camera finally clicks! I'll have to update this blog with some more pictures soon.

Half way through 30 day shred + 6 Week Post-Partum Checkup

Today was Day 15 of my 30 Day Shred and also marks 6 weeks post-partum!

I had my OB appointment today and she said that everything is "back to normal" - LOL! So, I'm cleared to resume all normal activities. Very exciting! I took Brady with me to my appointment and he was such a good boy - he slept the entire time! I was so relieved. He did try to wake up a couple of times but I was able to rock him back to sleep and wait to nurse him until I got home. Thanks for being such a good baby, little man!

I'm half way through my 30 day shred and have 5lbs left to lose to get back to pre-baby weight! I've been really happy with the shred so far. I think I'll try to move up to Level 3 tomorrow. My knees are sore, though, and my upper body definitely is feeling it... so it's getting a little harder to keep this up every single day. I've thought about skipping a day a couple of times, but decided that if I do it once it will be that much easier to skip more days and I really want to stick to this... so no cheating!

MrKLB and I are going out to dinner tonight and I'm very excited. We've been good this week and haven't eaten out a single meal since Saturday, so we're treating ourselves tonight. Not sure where we will go... hopefully it will be yummy, though!

Oh, and my friend Carrie had her baby today! Welcome Hayden William to the world! I can't wait to meet you!

Photos

Okay, a few quick photos to share before Brady wakes up from his nap...

My college roommate and her husband came to visit us last week. It was so awesome having them here! They cooked us dinner and made 3 meals for us to freeze! They have a little boy who is 2 years old, so of course, they were great with Brady. This is a picture of Alison with Brady:



And Michael with Brady:


Here is a pot pie that they made for us to eat... how cute that it has our initials on it! Oh, and it was delicious!


And here is a picture of Brady and MrKLB that I just had to share. I found them on the couch like this... how funny that even their arms are in the same position! Like father, like son...



And one last picture of Brady... this is one of my favorites...

30 Day Shred - Days 9-11

Still shredding... I did level 2 on days 9-11 and today will be Day 12. I actually really like level 2 - maybe more than level 1. I'm not sure how many days I'll do level 2 before moving up to 3, but I'm definitely going to wait until after my 6 week post-partum checkup which is this Thursday. I've been trying to keep the workouts as low impact as possible until I get the official clear from my OB, but I think everything is fine. I'll probably start level 3 some time next weekend, though. I'm proud of myself for doing this 11 days straight so far... it's hard to even get in a 20 minute workout with a newborn, but it's important to me so I'm making it work. I can definitely tell that my arms look toned and lean because of this workout. My abs feel good, too, but of course still have a lot of work to be done after pregnancy and childbirth. Still, I'm sticking with it and going to do the full 30 days to see how I feel and look after that.

Not too much is new other than that. Brady is growing fast but the days are still pretty much the same... eating (a lot), sleeping (some), crying (depends on the day), and looking around. We've been doing story time with him and tummy time, too. He likes those some days and others he does not. He does really like his bath time, now, though. Once we started putting him in the infant tub rather than sponge bathing him he totally loves it! It's so cute. MrKLB and I bathe him together every night before his last feeding and it's just a great time with him because he looks so happy. He is rewarding us by sleeping for very long stretches at night. The past few nights he has been in bed by 11 and not woken up until 5 or 5:30! Awesome.

I think I have some photos I need to upload so hopefully I'll get to that soon!

jennifer

30 Day Shred - Days 5-8

Okay, I'm still shredding! I did Level 1 again on days 5-7 and moved up to Level 2 today for Day 8! Day 5 was really tough because my muscles were starting to get sore from the previous days. Days 6 and 7 went better, though. I started to get a little bored yesterday after having done the same workout 7 days in a row, so I decided to try Level 2 today. I was a little worried about how hard it would be, but it really wasn't that bad. There are some tough moves in there, but she always shows a modification you can do if it's too hard, so that helps. My knees were actually starting to hurt a little after 7 days of Level 1 and surprisingly Level 2 was a little easier on the knees. Level 2 focuses more on static lunges and squats while you're doing arms so while it is tougher on the muscles it is easier on the knees... at least for me. Anyway, I used 5lb weights for the first two circuits and then the 1lb weights for circuit 3. Oh, and as of this morning, after 7 days of shredding I am actually down to 6.5 pounds that I want to lose compared to the 8lbs when I started. So, yay!

It has been a fun week. Brady had his 1 month pediatrician visit on Tuesday and everything looks great! He weighed 9lbs 11oz (44th percentile), was 22 1/4 inches long (65th percentile), and his head was 38.8cm (57th percentile). Brady will go back to get his first round of vaccinations in another month. On Tuesday and Wednesday, my college roommate and her husband came to visit. They cooked us diner on Tuesday night and made extra that we could freeze. Then we met MrKLB for lunch on Wednesday and Alison made us 2 pot pies that we could freeze for later. They are awesome! It was so fun to see them and for them to meet Brady! Tonight MrKLB's best man from our wedding is coming to visit to see Brady, too, and we're going to cook out.

That's about all the time I have for an update now. Brady is doing great and I'm enjoying my time at home with him! I'll try to post more pictures soon.

30 day shred - Days 3+4

Okay, so I am still doing the shred and did days 3 and 4 this weekend. Day 3 was really tough... especially all of the pushups. My arms were starting to get sore from Days 1 and 2, so it was tough. Day 4 wasn't quite as bad, though, so maybe I'm starting to build some muscles! I am still doing Level 1 and using the 5lb weights, but I did use the 1lb weights on Day 4 for one move... I think it's called lateral raises? I felt that my form wasn't very good using the 5lb weights for that one move so I am moving back down for that one and keeping the 5lbs for all others.

I'll be doing the shred again later today so we'll see how it goes!

Oh, and Brady turned 1 month old yesterday and we took a picture of him with Mickey Mouse that MrKLB and I bought at Disney world when we went last Christmas. We'll be taking the same picture every month for his first year to watch him grow!



In other news, my friend Alison is coming to visit for the next couple of days so Brady and I will have some company while MrKLB is at work! I'm so excited to see her and for her to meet Brady!