I really feel I cannot say it enough. I love you all!!! Katy, Caitlin, Chelsey, Gabriela, Allison, and a good handful of others were tweeting with me today about their excitement for baby B’s arrival. Over recent weeks, your many comments showing support and friendship have meant so much to me. I have seen a pretty sizeable increase (to me) in readership and subscribers over the last week or two. [Side note: Hello to all you new readers!!!!] I feel incredibly loved. It humbles me and rewards me to be in the midst of so much encouragement.

I completely credit all this to the anticipation of Mr. Baby B and his first appearance on FFF. Believe me. I feel it too! I cannot wait to give that update and share the whole experience here with all of you. So at the risk of sounding desperate and pushing you all away, I have to say this -

I will still need you!

After Baby B’s arrival and the anticipation dies down, I hope you will continue to read. You motivate me to continue the blog, which allows me to grow as an individual. As I adjust to two children, I know this outlet will remain a great source of friendship. I will need you. As I work towards my many goals over the course of the year, knowing you all are there cheering me on will inspire me. I will need you. As I share my life, my passions, my heart, my all…I will need you there because a large part of what makes blogging so enjoyable is you. The community. The relationships. The friendships.

Even when you don’t have the chance to comment, seeing that people are stopping by to check in on me makes me smile. Knowing all of you out there care enough to want to either visit, provide an ear to my random ramblings, or share some of your own insights brightens my day. 

I do have some fun things coming up here on Faith Fitness Fun as well.

• new blog header design and official customized logo for the blog!
• plans to regularly post short video clips of favorite workout moves to really share my love of fitness (perhaps a weekly feature :))
• more recipes to go along with my goal of one new recipe each week
• more of my meal/snack ideas with a weekly feature – to depict the possibility of losing weight without deprivation
• Body After Baby progress and complete honesty on the journey
• more little M and baby B antics for all the kiddo lovers out there
• and of course…more of the same fun and musings you already enjoy since I refuse to change the whole premise of this site! 😉

Thank you for everything you have given me so far. I hope we can continue this path together in the future of Faith Fitness Fun. It’s going to be a good one…and it wouldn’t be without you. Pssst…did you catch my special message for ya?

Question of the Evening – What does your blog and its readers add to your life? Have you ever posted something that made you feel incredibly vulnerable? I feel pretty vulnerable after this post, for sure. I hope it didn’t come across as whiny, but sincerely showing my gratitude for your involvement here.

Catching up from the weekend? A few fun posts for you:

• How I Scored A Better Deal At The Gym
• My Current Favorite Workouts
• A Fun Survey I Shared
• LAST DAY TO ENTER – CSN Stores Giveaway

Fitness is my passion. Or one of them at least. I love finding new ways to challenge myself physically. It motivates me. It gives me strength. It makes me downright giddy inside. No wonder I anticipate going for such goals again.

I have already discussed the general manner with which I plan to approach fitness after giving birth. I believe shooting for a gradual increase in intensity will help me stay motivated and continue to see improvements. Now, for more specifics!

Weight Training
My heart lies with strength training. I believe it always will. I gain such a sense of accomplishment from seeing my body get stronger and stronger. Plus, there are so many fun ways to mix it up! Listed below are some steps I plan to use for getting back into weights workouts.

1. Light at-home circuit workouts 2-3 days per week.
2. Begin back at the gym with 1 or 2 full body workouts a week, focusing on using machines to reacquaint my muscles with the moves.
3. Ease back into Bodypump style classes 1x/week with the above workouts.
4. Move on to more traditional workouts 3 days per week – adding in more free weights moves. Beginning to add more intensity with things like supersets.
5. Branch out to 4 day workout rotations with a focus on free weights and compound body moves. Add in even more fun and intensity with plyometrics, drop sets, giant sets, and more. Not sure what all that means? Stay tuned and I will be happy to share as I progress to these workouts. We can do them together!

Standard Cardio
Since I love all aspects of fitness, I love cardio as well. The only requirement I have for cardio is that I have a variety. I can’t do machines every workout. Nor can I go to class after class after class and upkeep motivation. I plan to incorporate the following for cardio workouts, rotating them regularly. I have a lot of cardio options, including the running I mention later, but will make sure to not go overboard.

1. At – Home DVDs: Turbo Jam and Cathe Friedrich are my top options currently. I already own them and they never let me down. Cathe tops everything though! She has a great variety with kickboxing workouts, fun step routines, and some great high intensity boot-camp style drill workouts. I LOVE those! Maybe eventually I will get to add Insanity or Turbo Fire to my collection as well.

2. Spinning: That will be the main class I use at the gym since I can do kickbox DVDs at home. Perhaps I will fit in an occasional Zumba as well.

3. Machines: I like to use machines (especially the stepmill) on occasion. Its a fun challenge to switch things up that way and they are great for interval style workouts. Must have a magazine though!

Running
I know running is cardio, but I’ve included it separately. Why? Well, I want to give running a more solid effort. I have always shied away from running because I felt I was no good at it. Now, I realize from blogs that its a personal challenge and I expected too much from myself before. I don’t have to excel at something to feel accomplished doing it.

I want to give it a real chance. I used to love running, but lost sight of it somewhere along the way. I plan to start out with the Couch To 5K program and run my first race ever. Who knows if it will lead to more running? I also have my thoughts on possibly doing a longer distance at the end of the year, depending on how it fits into my overall fitness picture and how much I enjoy it again. That’s all I will say about that for now. Don’t want to get all you running fanatics too excited.

Yoga/Stretching

I know I need to continue focusing on flexibility. I let stretching slip way too often in my past and my body could feel it. I want to make sure I stretch fully after each and every workout. Ideally, I will also manage to fit in yoga 1x/week as well. However, with the gym’s schedule and the cost of yoga studios, that may not be feasible. I will look into options though and do what I can to focus on keeping my muscles limber. Foam rolling will certainly be involved!

So, that’s part two! I’m so ready to get started!!!!

Question of the Day – What workout have you refrained from trying or fully giving a chance because of fear/uncertainty/not feeling good enough?