Three Beasts Baking: Bad Weather Blues

Whenever the weather is borderline like this (kind of chilly, rainy and grey) it makes me want to bake, which does not help my waistline. I need to keep busy and think of other things, which is currently much easier consider 2 of the kids are at daycare and the other one is pretty sick so she's confined herself to her bed (poor thing). She hasn't eaten in almost 3 days now, gotta love Gastro.

I really need to find more excuses to make cakes or cupcakes, I'm going stir crazy resisting temptation to whip up a new cake every "blah" day. As promised, I will avoid speaking of cake and go on more about my fitness regime.

Having given birth 3 times in less than 3 year, my body went through hell. I went from a relatively fit 165 pound me before I got pregnant to a 250 pound me near the end of my last pregnancy, mostly baby, water and the fact I'd eaten WAY too many treats in my 3 pregnancies and didn't really have time to recover my form between babies. I vowed I wouldn't live my life as an overweight person blaming the fact I became a busy mom for my excess weight. I knew it wouldn't be an easy journey. Once the baby was born, I shrunk to about 220 pounds once the water weight left, and felt overwhelmed.

Baby steps. We moved 6 weeks after the baby was born, which made my life pretty busy for a while packing and such with 3 kids, but I was happy we were moving back into the area near where my Karate school from 5-6 years back was. When I moved away from the school, I was an orange belt and I loved doing it. I figured going back to the same area was a sign that I should go back, and I did. A lot had changed in 5-6 years and all the faces I recognised were all black belts or higher now. No matter - I was motivated! I relearned everything I had forgotten and have since passed my test to purple belt, and have my green belt test in May. Not too shabby, but I wasn't getting the full benefit of the weight loss in the workout. Muscular strength - sure - I was improving that, and I did shed about 15 pounds, but seemed to stall there. I needed to do more than 2 hours of Karate a week.

I set a CRAZY goal for myself - and I put it out there for the whole world to see on facebook and twitter (well, at least my family). I vowed that by summer 2013, I would run a triathlon. I looked into it, it didn't seem that far fetched considering a "sprint level" triathlon is a 750m swim (I USED to be a lifeguard) followed by a 20km bike ride (I did a 250 km bike trip in 4 days once) and finally a 5 km run (okay - never run that far in my life). I was motivated! I only had one thing to work on, this is going to be a snap! Alas - it was not so. I started the training with a wonderful ap I found called C25K which helps map my runs and work me up to running the 5 km slowly. Considering that this is the first time I'd ever really run, I went out a got actual running shoes (not cross trainers) and a pair of those evil spandex looking running pants (to prevent chaffing) and an awesome sports bra - because I certainly do NOT have the typical runners physique, I'm kind of.. "top heavy".

I started the 9 week training program about 6 weeks ago.. and am only on week 3. I keep getting sick! I also bought a new (old) bike to replace my second hand walmart special from last year that had essentially fallen apart on me. I figured getting on the bike would be easy, having done that bike trip back in.. wait.. 2002? Oh man, 10 years ago.. This ISN'T going to be easy. And it's not. My legs feel like they are going to fall off after 2 km, but maybe next week it's be after 2.5 km and then 3 km.. I'll work up to it.

Swimming, well, I'll start that in the winter most likely and then start block training (two sports back to back) by April or so. Ideally, I'll be ready, only time will tell, but either way I WILL do the triathlon, even if I keep up the rear the whole time, just to prove to myself that I can.

So right now my fitness routine looks something like this:
Sunday: Zumba (am), Bike ride (pm)
Monday: Jog (pm)
Tuesday: Zumba (pm)
Wednesday: Bike (am), Karate (pm)
Thursday: Jog (pm)
Friday: Karate (pm)
Saturday: Jog, bike ride

Most weeks I end up not doing the outdoor stuff due to rain, but that's pretty much been my last 2 weeks. It is supposed to clear up tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get out there for a long awaited jog. My goal is ultimately 170 lbs.. More would be great. I've got 25 pounds to go, and it's never easy, but in the long run I figure I'm doing it for my family and also for myself (I feel SO much better not carrying around the extra weight). Considering all the cakes I've made recently, I'm surprised I don't look pregnant again because of all the sweets, but that's the exercise doing its thing.

And now I'll reminisce about tasty cakes of the past, because I can..

Easter cake