Home Sweet Home

I have been feeling the love since my last blog post! I am so grateful to have such an amazing support system to come back to and I'm glad to hear that you all won't mind a few (a lot) of baby posts coming up in the future.

Those of you that have been following me for quite some time know that the elliptical is my go-to workout. It was the only exercise I did when I started my healthy journey because it was something I didn't have to think about, and I could burn a lot of calories in not a lot of time. I was best friends with my elliptical for several hours a week and it really helped me to achieve my goals. I have to say that during my recent exercise hiatus I did miss it a little. I missed the feeling of my heart pounding in my chest and the sweat starting to form on my head. Thats not to say that I missed it enough that I actually sought it out.

When I decided to resume my exercise routine I spoke with my doctor about it first. It used to be that when you were pregnant you were not supposed to raise your heart rate over 140 BPM. I asked my doctor if this measurement was still in effect and she suggested that I just maintain a easy enough pace that I'd be able to carry on a conversation while still working out. The problem with that is that I don't talk when I work out -unless you count me randomly screaming out Jeopardy answers.

I decided to just do what I'd been doing and see how I felt afterwards. After a sweaty 30 minutes on the elliptical my heart rate was around 170 and I was tired. Really tired. I didn't realize just how tired I was until I stepped off the machine and was immediately dizzy. There was no hiding this from DH as I quickly sat down to regain composure.

A few days late he told me he was concerned about me using the elliptical because he thought I pushed myself too hard. I could see his point. I didn't want to risk hurting the baby but that was how I was used to working out. His solution to keeping me in line was to banish me to the bike when we went to the gym. I really hate the bike. I feel like I'm not even working anything, even if I put it on a difficult level and I hate watching my belly move in the mirror as my feet peddel up and down. I agreed to give it a try but after 45 minutes and nearly no sweat I'd had it. I wanted my elliptical back.

Upon discussing my frustration with DH we agreed that I could use the elliptical again however, if the machine ever displayed my heart rate over 150 BPM I'd get off and ride the bike.

Home Sweet Home

Its good to be back to a familiar exercise and a familiar sweat. I'm not able to go nearly as quickly as I used to but I feel good about the exercise I'm getting for me and for my baby. I've also been spending my lunch breaks going on walks with a coworker and I have two prenatal workout DVDs I'll review later. While it was really easy to stop working out, I feel really wonderful about myself for getting back into the swing of things.

What is your go-to exercise?