Nina Sy wrote:Post pregnancy fitness can be quite a huge challenge!  Getting into the routine or program itself is like a very elusive lover.  How are you able to get more active and get back in shape?  When did you start working out again, like in a gym setting or at home? How do you manage to stay on track?

I managed to lose all the baby weight and then some, simply by wearing baby and walking everywhere every day (it helped, too,  that we didn't drive but caught the bus everywhere). So by the time I went back to work, I was looking and feeling great.
Unfortunately, being back at work meant less walking, and more sitting on my butt all day and mindlessly munching on snacks. So I've put on all the weight again... arrghh.

For two weeks now, I've been running on the treadmill (in the basement) in the evenings three nights a week, even if it means I start at 10:30 and finish at 11pm then go straight to bed. I'm attempting the c25k program (Couch to 5km) and just did week 3 last night. I'm hoping I can run off the extra flab by the end of the 9 weeks!

@Debbi: You go girl!  Running is indeed a great flab blaster.  Let us know how the program worked after 9 weeks. Its gonna be awesome.  Geez, such time you have to work-out, 10:30pm!  Well, I totally feel you.  I play until 11pm 3x/week.  That's just when the kids are in bed.....  But how do you manage to get to bed almost immediately after that?  What helps with your cool down?

Nina Sy wrote:@Susy:  You're not a nutcase, not at all.  You're a RUNNER.  Its your nature.  In my efforts to make running a routine/training I came across several women like you.  And everything went great for them.  Well, that's because you ladies have been runners for so long. 

How did you manage your pace and time as the belly grew and when the baby came?  And the major road block - the schedule?  Did you have a special diet?

@Nina: Thanks for the kind words!  Re: your questions, before my baby was born, I wore a heart rate monitor and made sure to keep my heart rate below 80% of my max. heart rate (220 - my age).  My pace naturally slowed as I got bigger, and though I did anywhere from 20-30 minutes until about 28 weeks, after that I was happy with 15-20 minutes.  I didn't find it awkward running with a belly, and would have continued -- it was the pressure on my bladder that I started to find really uncomfortable, and that's why I stopped and started using the elliptical after 31 weeks.

Re: the schedule -- do you mean feeding schedule?  In the beginning I ran at night, when my husband came home from work, and I knew that Jade would be sleeping for at least 20 minutes.  I prefer to run when she sleeps because I feel more at ease knowing she doesn't need anything.  Now I can put her in my jogging stroller and run with her in the day or wait till my husband gets home and run at night.

I didn't have a special diet, but I've always been a pretty healthy eater.  I just tried not to eat junk food, as much as I could.

Hope this helps!

Cool !!!  Thanks!

@Nina: Yeah, 20 minutes isn't ideal and I have started going out for longer runs, or doing some speed play if I'm only out for 20 minutes (i.e. speeding up, slowing down throughout the run). With it getting darker out earlier, I'm finding it harder to get a run in on the weeknights, and lately it has also gotten more difficult to run with her in the stroller because she no longer wants to sleep in her car seat, and I don't want her to get bored/fussy just watching me run, so I think I'm going to buy a treadmill, sigh, it's just not the same . . .