Last night I challenged myself to my next full body strength training session. I’m focusing on at home weight workouts for this week and next, so I popped in another Cathe DVD. This time I went for the Supersets workout from the same DVD I used earlier in the week.

Yowza! Ouch! My biceps! My legs! I forgot about some of the moves she does in this workout, which certainly present more of a challenge than the Push Pull workout. Although it was harder than I remembered, it still felt very manageable to me. I actually enjoyed feeling my muscles that way again. And it gave me two great biceps moves I want to share with you all in the FFF Features this week. 😀

Using weights again gets me pumped up (ha!) for making some new weight training plans for in the gym. I love using DVD options for cardio, but generally much prefer doing weights in the gym. Although I have to say I will miss my little workout buddy when I go back to the gym for weights.

When I exercise at home Makenzie always wants to keep me company. We even had to buy her a special mini dumbbell so she would stop trying to lift up my 5 pounders. And she loves the resistance bands.

She is such a little mini-me. I just hope I’m not creating a monster! 😉 I always make sure to tell her we workout to get strong and to stay healthy. It’s amazing how much having a kid has changed how I discuss and approach exercise. I still view exercise as a very necessary component of my success in getting back in shape post-pregnancy, but don’t focus on it for the calorie burn. She catches on to every little nuance of things I say or do. If I said even once that I needed to workout to make my butt smaller (for example), she would undoubtedly end up saying “mommy makes her butt smaller” every time I workout for the foreseeable future. It certainly motivates me to keep a focus on health. I don’t want her viewing exercise or choosing healthy food as anything more than something we enjoy and that helps us feel good, strong, and healthy.

Question of the Evening – Has anything stuck with you from your own parents’ approach to fitness or food during your childhood?

I made it through the day! I feel so much better right now too. I knew that still focusing on eating well and getting in activity would help overall. It certainly did. I ate my typical meals and completed the 3rd level of the Slim in 6 Circuit workout. An hour of body movement always helps cheer me up.

Now are you ready to learn the details of the last two nights? Middle of the nights are not my emotional friend. The past two nights I have experienced a severe case of “Maniacal Mommy Mind”. The diagnosis:

Maniacal Mommy Mind occurs when all sense of reason leaves the mother, resulting in unnecessary feelings of guilt, doubt, unattractiveness, resentment, and more.

That disease does exist and I have lived to tell about it. Here’s how it all plays out…

Step 1: Braedon wakes for one of his night-time feedings. 45 minutes later I put him back down to sleep. He won’t fall asleep. I try to soothe him, yet he still fusses.

Step 2: Peter wakes up from the commotion and offers to help me out. I proceed to get all “mommy territorial” and tell him the following: No. Go back to sleep. You have to get up for work. Its my job to handle Braedon.

Step 3: The exhaustion sinks in. The tears start trickling out. I feel overwhelmed too easily in the middle of the night. Peter, still calm, comes in and saves the day. How does he do that?! Then, proceeds to calm me down and try to help me fall back asleep. I start crying more.

Step 4: The following happens -

• I believe I should have been able to handle Braedon by myself. I begin questioning if I’m good enough as a mom and then, as a wife, because Peter lost sleep for work.
• I go over how Peter does so much. He comes home and immediately lets me get away for an hour to get in a workout for my “me-time”. I proceed to feel guilty over wanting me-time and working out.
• I’m exhausted and emotional which makes the fat-talk all too easy to slip in.

Step 5: I proceed to break down with these crazy thoughts and get swallowed by the “Maniacal Mommy Mind” until I finally crash back to sleep.In the morning, as tired as I may feel, I DO regain perspective. Part of motherhood is the 100% commitment and it is truly a blessing. Peter and I are a team. I should not have so much pride that I inhibit him helping meet my needs. Some days and nights will present challenges. They won’t last and I can manage. I do not want to lose the positive relationship I built with myself, so I give up the negative talk and choose to care for my body. (And sometimes re-read things like my guest post for Samantha to keep myself in check.) So Maniacal Mommy Mind, it’s about time you leave me alone. I know better than what you try to tell me. Oh, do I know better. This is my mind now.

Question of the Evening – If a mommy = Have you ever faced Maniacal Mommy Mind? Not a mommy = What do you have trouble getting help with?