I’ve been prompted by an email from someone saying they miss my blog – so I am finally updating!
Firstly to my trip to the Big Apple in early November…
Saying goodbye to my little darling (and my big darling), was rather sad and there were a few tears. I couldn’t help but go through things like, what sort of a mother leaves her 12 month old daughter to jet off to NYC with a friend, and so on and so forth. I was feeling quite sick about it all, prior to leaving.
We did have a fantastic time though and Nadia brought home the goods (literally, nearly 10kg of trophy hardware in her luggage!) from the competition. We did a lot of shopping, but unfortunately (maybe fortunately for the bank balance) it was going into winter there so I didn’t really want to be buying much in the way of cool weather wear.
We visited the World’s Largest Chocolate Show – plenty of tastings and worth every minute. Poor Nadia wasn’t able to even sample anything!
We had an awesome picnic in Central Park a couple of days after the comp. Central Park is amazing, so clean, and pristine – much like the city of NY really.
I visited the 9/11 Memorial which was very moving. In fact visited the actual site about 3 times but to get tickets to the memorial we had to line up first thing in the morning as they don’t just let everyone through.
We visited Times Square (a lot), Soho, Greenwich Village, did a hop on hop off bus tour, had dinner with Roman (Final Phase Fat Loss), ate a massive piece of cheesecake, and a full plate of baby back ribs (not at the same meal). Good coffee as usual over there was hard to come by.
Had a great trip, but after a week I was getting really homesick for my little girl and my boy.
The trip home could be described as nothing short of insane; starting in NYC and ending in Mildura about 30 hours later. With all of 2 hours sleep. Anyway, I don’t want to think about that anymore!
Kyah was rather standoffish when she greeted me at the airport. Like “hmmm, you left me for 12 days and so I don’t think I want to hug you or even smile at you just yet’. By the time we got back to our house she was all over me. She started walking while I was in New York :( Very bad timing on my behalf. Oh well, can’t do anything about that. Now she is a little trooper, walking everywhere! So funny. I’m loving this stage of her development. She’s such a happy, sociable little kid. Last night we took her out for dinner with us, dressed her up in a little white party dress with pink flowers on it. She sat in a booster chair and did not grizzle once – she was so interested in people walking past, the Christmas trees, and everything else going on. We were dining al fresco, so let her go for a walk and she just took off, mingling in with everyone, big grin on her face.
Here she is on her birthday, back in October. I love this photo.
And, just a few days ago she said her first word (other than bub, mum, dad). She said ‘pretty’. I always tell her ‘pretty’ when I brush her hair or when she looks at my jewellery or sparkly things. Then she said it again to my mum while pointing at balloons.
Really looking forward to Christmas this year. We have a beach holiday planned and I can’t wait to sit back and relax!
Training is going well, even though I didn’t train once while in NY I didn’t put on any weight – which I find hard to believe. We walked and walked though. Not enough to walk off a big cheesecake and ribs though!
I haven’t even had time to post any pictures from my photo shoot, so here are a few below. I didn’t diet for these photos – I haven’t been on a ‘diet’ since my 2009 competition. Pregnancy seems to have done something very positive for my metabolism. I’m back to training 4 x week (when things go according to plan A or plan B). To be honest I haven’t been very consistent as there is always something that comes up like sleep deprivation or sickness (be that myself or Kyah, or even the day carer’s son). I went through a 2 month patch of severe night waking and was averaging 4-5 hours a night for that time. Thankfully I am sleeping a lot better now.
So, my training regime is 2 x week with a split of back/chest and legs/shoulders, plus two Crossfit type sessions which I structure depending on how I pull up from the other sessions. I’m getting my strength back finally, for so long I felt like a weakling and quite unsteady in the weights room. Sometimes I will do Back/Shoulders which is what I did yesterday. My lats are so sore today. Here’s what I did – try it out!
Pull Up (I used a band, and had a spotter – you could use an assisted machine if you have one available)
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps (with about a minute rest in between, less as the reps get less)
So you do 10 reps and rest. 9 reps and rest. 8 reps and rest, and so on. Total of 55 reps.
Bulldog Row (that’s what I call them) – 3 sets of 10 each arm. One arm rows on a cable (or with a resistance band looped around a pole) while kneeling on all 4s. These are awesome for targeting the lower lats.
TRX Pull – 3 x 10. If you don’t have access to a TRX then you could do reverse pushups on a smith machine, or any other back exercise you like.
DB One Arm Row – 3 x 10
Shoulder stand – basically just standing on my hands against a wall to develop more shoulder strength. I tried to transfer the weight from one shoulder to the other. That’s hard. You might need a spotter for this.
Alternating KB (or DB) Press – 3 x 10
BB Push Press – 3 x 10
BB Upright Row – 3 x 10
As for Kyah and her sleeping – she sleeps like a dream. She is like clockwork. Up between 6-6.30 (that’s cool with me because I am routinely up at 5am – no alarm needed), back to bed 9-9.30am, up at 11am. Back for a nap at 2pm and up around 4pm. Then ready for bed again at 7-7.30pm and sleeps right through. With her molars coming through she’s had a couple of off nights but it’s only rarely. I so swear by the sleep routines!
So, that’s a wrap from this end – I so love being a mum, but do still struggle to fit everything in (like all other mums!) but I’m managing fairly well.
I’d love to hear from you guys – either leave me a comment, or email me via sue@ idealbodiesonline.com (remove space). Hope you are all traveling well and thanks for being patient with me!
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