It’s finally Friday! I hate wishing the week away like that, but I can’t help looking forward to the weekend when my week has felt fairly busy and hectic. I love the chance to have a bit more down time, which I certainly plan to enjoy this weekend.

As hectic as things have been, I still make time for those things I value most.

Nothing says fun like the imagination of a two year old. Or the laughter of a 3 month old over the word “polka dot”. Weird kid, but I love him.

I have also kept up consistency with my workouts. This week rocked! I don’t know what it was but every one of my workouts this past week had me feeling on fire. I had two great weights workouts (which I plan to share in the FFF Features), a challenging speed work run, and a strong 5 mile run last night. I also will kick off today with my favorite of a circuit workout plus a spinning class.

Then, I have a feeling I will come home and have a repeat of this breakfast from yesterday.

A scrambled egg with goat cheese, a Mango Coconut muffin, and a sliced apple. Simple, yet satisfying….my favorite type of meal. Although this week my body wants to tell me otherwise.

This week I have faced some serious cravings! They have almost been too much to bear. I must admit that I have felt my motivation in the “Body After Baby” progress waning a bit in the last couple of weeks. I have reached the stage where I have been working hard for a few months, yet still have some solid months of work ahead of me to achieve my goals. I am already over halfway to my goal, but I know the last bit will prove the toughest to lose and tighten up. That knowledge can make things difficult because I have to prepare myself for progress to come less readily than before, which can be tough on motivation.

I must prepare myself for the likely upcoming challenges at continuing onward towards my goals. I must remember that at times I will face intense cravings that I will have to fight. And sometimes I will give in and indulge a bit more than I should, but that’s okay too. I know that will happen and I must prepare myself for it so I can get back on track right away. I must prepare myself that the changes will start slowing down, but always remember that changes happening at all is what matters most. It could still take me awhile to achieve my final body after baby goal, but I can thrive on what I have achieved so far and my other fitness accomplishments.

Let me clarify that I don’t lessen my achievements so far. I relish them! My body never ceases to amaze me with its abilities so soon after giving birth. Nevertheless, I want to recognize that I still have a goal I am working towards and that the path could get a bit rockier as I move forward. I need to stay focused and part of that is openly sharing my thoughts here with all of you. I am committed. I am determined. It will certainly take work, but I need to remember what I’m after. Feeling like my best self. I already feel wonderful, but that doesn’t mean I should stop reaching for what I know I can achieve either…even if it takes reaffirming my determination to get there.

• What is a current goal of yours? How do you keep motivation up?
• What did you eat for breakfast today?

PS – Check out : $9.99 for a month unlimited of their yoga classes to stream online. I plan on starting this afternoon. Yay for yoga!

Time for Part Two of the Body After Baby Q + A! Check out part one where I discuss things like calorie counting, the baby pooch, and more. Now, more of your fabulous questions! Once again, please remember I answer solely based on my own experience.

Do you ever feel like you’re doing well but the scale doesn’t reflect it?
YES! The scale varies so much for me from week to week. I try to focus on the overall trend and also keep other measures of tracking progress. If the scale hasn’t moved for awhile, but I still see measurements going down, notice clothes fitting better, or feel and look stronger/leaner, then I don’t bother with what the scale says. So many variables can affect that reading – like water weight from what you ate recently and your hormones. I also turn to progress pictures for the most motivational progress tracking.

However, if I notice the scale not moving and other measures not displaying progress for more than a few weeks, then I know I need to take a closer look at things to bust through a plateau. This is another reason why I believe in eating more, not cranking out 2 hours of workouts a day, etc. That way, when you reach a plateau you have room to tweak things such as cutting back a tiny bit more on food or adding a little more intensity in workouts. For me, this usually means just cutting back a little on the treats I inevitably have during the weekends and giving a little extra EFFORT (not extra time!) to my workouts.

How do you know when you’ve reached your “happy weight” and can go into maintenance mode?
I stand by the fact that if you eat whole, quality, nutritious foods the majority of the time and move your body on a regular basis your body will get to its happy place. In my opinion, you know you have reached your “happy weight” when you have energy, feel strong, and you consistently fuel and exercise your body well. Personally, by doing those things, I don’t stress myself and have steadily been dropping the baby weight.

Another thing I remember is the fact that if I have to take on practices that leave me hungry, fatigued, deprived, or less than optimally functioning in any way to lose more weight, I am likely already at my “happy weight”. I think we all need to change our ideal weight or size to match with our healthy weight or size. Be sure the two coincide and if you take care of yourself, your “happy weight” will naturally be where you feel healthy.

How did you determine what you were ready for physically?
I always started out with as light a workout as possible for a week and then checked how I felt. If I felt okay, experienced no soreness/fatigue, and had no signs of doing too much too soon (increased *ahem* bleeding), then I would increase my workout load. In a way, I almost worked backwards from my pregnancy. I started off with moves I could do easily the end of my pregnancy, then gradually added back in things I could do earlier on in the pregnancy until achieving my regular workout intensity. Keeping up workouts while pregnant certainly helped me regain my ability to workout sooner!

I listened to my body and kept feeling great so kept trying just a little bit more. After the first month or two, I found my body able to pick up where it left off quicker than I expected. I will also say though that it took me a good bit longer after Makenzie. I think my body knew what to expect more after the second pregnancy.

You always seem to make progress so easily. Do you ever struggle with the weight loss? Please, tell me you do and that I’m normal!
Of course, you’re normal! Trust me when I say that making progress in reaching my “happy place” does take work. I don’t skip through workouts and keeping track of my eating without a single care in the world. The weight does not just fall off me as I sprinkle rainbows and sing Barney tunes. Heck, no! It. Takes. Work. And a lot of it. I have an avid sweet tooth coupled with a raging appetite from nursing that I always have to be aware of with this journey. I am busy and have plenty of days where I want to not worry about cooking a healthy meal or getting to the gym. I know how much better I feel for it though, and that motivates me to keep going. It certainly is not easy.

Even though, making progress is not what I would deem easy, please note the importance of not making it harder than it has to be either. I make my progress by consistently working towards my health. That’s pretty much the gist of it. I don’t try to restrict food so much that I’m starving. I don’t fatigue myself with overtraining. I don’t jump from this diet to that eating method to this cleanse to that detox and all that madness. So yes, progress is hard for me in the sense I have to persevere through things at times, but not hard in the way I approach my goals.

• What ways do you bust through a weight loss or training plateau?
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