Exercise during THIS pregnancy...

I had mentioned before that my energy had not been as plentiful as it was while I was pregnant with both Jackson & Charley. I have had to really push to motivate myself to get my exercise in. When I say exercise, I mean lifting weights, and doing more than just getting my normal daily walks in. I love walking, and will walk the kids to downtown or to the park at least once per day. It's better than nothin', right!? Lately, workout DVDs have been my friend! I have enjoyed the shortened version of P90X, P90X3, which only takes 30 minutes to complete and is not as strenuous (for me), and Autumn Calabrese's 21 Day Fix workouts. Honestly... I don't think that these would have given me a great workout pre-workout with the heavy lifting and intense cardio I was doing, but for now, these are awesome!

This morning's workout was P90X3 Eccentric Lower.
It includes: squats, lunges, sumos, pistol squats, side kicks, front kicks, albanian squats, abductor lunge, cross reaches, TT plus, bridge kicks, hip flexor kicks, and calf dogs.

I used two 10 pound dumbbells. To be honest, I should and could have stepped it up with a little heavier weight, but I'll just pat myself on the back for getting through this one without taking any breaks!

I also get an extra abdominal workout when I have these two munchkins rolling around on the floor, trying to imitate what I'm doing.... ! I love it! I think they will definitely be into fitness when they grow up!

Changing my status to Mama of THREE!

I cannot believe how much has changed in ONE YEAR! When looking back at my blog, it really has been just about exactly one year since I logged in and wrote anything. I guess you can say I've been a busy lady, new wife, and mommy as of late. Jackson and Charley consume my every waking moment, and a LOT has gone down. 

Bryan and I found out that we were expecting baby number 3 shortly after our Wedding in August, while moving into our new home, and since then time has been flying by. (PS - we bought and moved into a new home about three weeks before our wedding!!) I started my fitness transformation last November (2013), and was going full force, super committed to a healthy lifestyle with a new way of eating and exercising. I will admit that the stress and hard work of planning a wedding on top of everything else that was happening in our lives made it more difficult for me to stick to my "plan," but I did a pretty damn good job up until my wedding. 

Once I found out I was pregnant with baby number 3, I have to admit it became very hard for me to keep up with the exercise and diet regimen I had been following. With my precious pregnancies, I had a lot more energy and seemed to be much more motivated, and this time has been a lot different. I have been struggling with not feeling so well most days, and my energy has been quite low. On good days I will do 20 minutes of exercise at home (dumbbells, workout videos), and walk Jackson to and from school, which is about 3 miles total. The hardest part of this all has been not being so HARD on myself... ! That has proven to be quite the challenge, as I am very aware that I am my own biggest critic! I am now approaching the half way mark of my pregnancy (20 weeks on Tuesday), and I am finally starting to feel more relaxed and less stressed about the changes in my body, and am allowing myself to just lounge and relax when my other kiddos nap. I am pretty sure my body and mind need this extra rest while we can get it! 

I am super excited to close 2014 with lots of happy and exciting news, and to head into 2015 with an open mind and heart full of joy for the happiness that expanding our family has brought to me. I intend to keep up with my blog, and will most definitely be logging my next "transformation" from pregnant mommy of 2 to tired mommy of THREE UNDER THREE! That's right! We are slightly crazy over here in the Merk household!!