The Gall of Being Sick

I'm all for finding fitness in the chaos of motherhood.

Finding fitness in the chaos of illness? Not so much.

I'm going on day six without a workout. I feel justified skipping out on my fitness regimen when I'm hugging porcelain.

Like a lot of people I follow the "neck rule" for skipping a workout when sick: If you have symptoms above the neck you're generally fine to workout (although you might want to scale back if you're not feeling well), but when you have symptoms below the neck you shouldn't work out. Also, having a fever gives you a pass, too.

Of course, a better rule is "know thy body." You and you alone know when your body would be better off using its energy to heal itself versus expending it on a workout. Trusting your own judgment is a skill to master.

I have now missed two scheduled runs, a swim and a bike ride. Workouts that are hard to pass up when the only triathlon you plan to do for the year is coming up in less than two weeks. Sigh.

When I ended up in urgent care Sunday morning with an IV, I knew all those missed workouts were indeed justified. I also learned that what I thought was a 24-hour stomach virus had not extended to 96 hours, but, in-fact, was my gall bladder rearing its ugly head. Now, when it comes to my gall bladder versus a Sonic jalapeno cheeseburger, my gall bladder will always lose.

I hope to get back in the game soon, but not today. Chicken noodle soup and Jello, while keeping my gall bladder contained, don't do much to fuel a triathlete's (or a busy mom's) energy needs. I'm definitely getting better at trusting my instincts and knowing my body, and my body will let me know when it's ready to move at a faster pace. I just hope that happens before August 7. I can live without jalapeno cheeseburgers, but I don't want to miss my only triathlon of the year.

Mama Sweat Leaching Out into the Webosphere

All the support I get from Mama Sweat readers certainly "feeds the machine" and keeps me motivated. I got further motivation last week when CafeMom bestowed on me the honor of "Baby Mama of the Week." I loved that editor April Peveteaux thinks of my writing "in such a way that you find yourself laughing and relaxing your shoulders in preparation for a good run instead of clenching and wondering who, exactly, does she think she is?" If there's one thing I don't want to be, it's a self-righteous blogger. So thanks to April for her compliment! And you can thank her too for revealing one of my deep dark secrets...

And then, as if I'm not already feeling fabulous about myself, I hear from a friend and Mama Sweat reader who says, because of this very blog, was inspired to find fitness in the chaos of motherhood herself and launched her own blog, Pink Running Shirt, to track her journey. Who says I'm writing for free? These paychecks are priceless. Today she inspires me with a poem than inspires her. Check it out and post it to your wall.

And over at GOTRIbal I write about the wonderful surprise I had in my own fitness journey during a 5K last weekend; how I was the first mother to finish, and how I think mothers should have their own race category. I'm just saying, I'd rather compete against all the other moms who were up with kids in the middle of the night. Fair?

Make Some Noise

Babies aren't self-conscious about grunting. Are you?

True Story: While giving birth to my third daughter I was moaning, groaning, squealing and shrieking unabashedly, to the extent that the woman in the next room asked for an epidural. What she said to the nurse was (I am not making this up): "I don't want to sound like the woman in there."

For those who know I'm an advocate for natural childbirth, you can see the tragic irony. Suffice it to say, I believe labor and delivery departments should be noisy places. As should be gyms.

This week at CrossFit (a place where loud noise is not discouraged), after my second round of 12 overhead squats (five rounds total that included pounding a sledgehammer and running with sacks of sand, if you must know), I started grunting. I hadn't sounded like that since The Boy was born.

Childbirth is one of those situations where you've got to use everything you have, gutteral energy included. With the Olympic lifting I'm doing at CrossFit, I can't help myself; when the lifting gets hard and I dig deep, I find a little extra somethin-somethin that comes within my bowels and flows right out of my voice box.

And there is energy released. According to an old New York Times article about a poor chap who got kicked out of his gym for grunting (like being shunned at a hospital for being too noisy while birthing) an expert source confirmed my suspicion:

Dennis G. O’Connell, a professor of physical therapy at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Tex., has conducted studies on the effects of grunting. He found that weight lifters produce between 2 and 5 percent more force when they grunt, in part because the deep breathing grunting entails can help stabilize the spine.

A-HA! I love being right. So if you're too self-conscious to make lewd noises when physically exerting yourself, you might be cutting your potential short.

And if you can't grunt while smashing a tire with a sledge hammer... what's the point? All I know is after my 26-minute workout--between wielding the sledge hammer and grunting so much--Mommy was all better.

Fit Mom Mentor: Had one? Got one? Need one?

My hunch is, if you've been a fit mom from the start or began this fit mom journey when your kids were old enough to give you dirty looks, there's been another mom in your life who inspired you.

Just a hunch.

The fit mom mentor is slightly different from a fitness mentor, the obvious being she is a mom. Like a fitness mentor, she shows you the ropes (directly or indirectly) for a particular activity, motivates you to get out the door, or inspires you to take your fitness further than you otherwise would (even if it's not as far as she goes). The added layer for the fit mom mentor is that she does all this with kids on the side (or along with her) so that you see having children is no excuse to forgo working up a sweat or setting personal goals. You love her for this and, perhaps, sometimes curse her because this means, of course, you can and should do it, too.

In the Balancing Motherhood and Fitness survey from last month, the majority of respondents had someone who kept them going, if not with their physical presence--usually a training partner--then merely as an example; someone they aspire to be like. It thrills me to no end that many of the fit moms who took the survey sited their own mom as their fit mom mentor. I am certain that my own road to fitness began that day my mom took me to the gym for the first time (my mom has some serious guns).

Who knows whether or not I will inspire my own children as a fitness mentor. When I read about people like Mary Stroebe, a 92-year-old who competed in last weekend's Life Time Fitness Triathlon along side her granddaughter, I'd like to think I will.

And you? Do you have a fit mom mentor? Or, as a few of our respondents said, do you aspire to be one for someone else?

In the Dark

My childless workout option today required that I finish my workout at 5:45 a.m. so my husband could leave for work. As a morning person, I'm usually game, but having just returned from our vacation yesterday, getting up before 5 a.m. seemed incompatible with life. (Does anyone else feel exhausted after a vacation?)

After pouring over the answers to the "Balancing Motherhood and Fitness" survey from a few weeks ago, however, I know working out at, as one mom put it, "a butt-ugly hour" is how many moms get and stay fit. Of the 221 women who took our survey that week, 36 percent said they work out extremely early in answer to the question: "What's the craziest thing you've ever done to squeeze a workout into your already hectic day as a mom?" (Another 5 percent have exercised late at night.) I'm guessing the percentage of women who workout in the dark of morning or the dark of night is much higher, it's just that the other 58 percent have done crazier things in addition to losing sleep for sweat (and those answers will be included in the book--good stuff, I promise!)

I don't have to worry much about running in the dark during Minnesota summers. The sun is rising these days about 4:30 a.m. and setting after 9 p.m. But winter is a different story. I can't avoid exercising in the dark. I'd go as far as to say most moms need to be willing to start some workouts early or late to maintain a regular workout schedule. Sometimes these workouts can be done (in your p.j.s) at home or under the fluorescent lighting at the gym. But if you have to get outdoors, then be safe. Here's how:

1) Be seen. Wear reflective clothing. Any good running store will carry apparel with reflective material built right in. Some of the material is so shockingly bright it's an eyesore in daylight. I have a neon orange jacket that I read someone else refer to as her "don't kill me jacket." If you don't want to spend the moolah on expensive workout gear, buy reflective tape and stick some on your clothes before heading out.

2) Light the way. Headlamps can prevent you from rolling an ankle in an unsuspecting pothole. They also make great reading lights when you can't sleep. Good to have around for power outages, too. So many good reasons to own a headlamp.

3) Buddy up. No one should exercise in the dark alone. Even if you can't find a friend to join you at whatever ungodly hour you need to workout, there is likely a four-legged friend who doesn't mind. Don't have a dog? I'll bet your neighbor does. Borrow a dog. You'll be doing yourself and your neighbor a huge favor (although picking up dog poop will likely be included).

Fit moms will do a lot of crazy things to make a workout happen. Exercising in the dark is definitely one of them, but we do that so much and so often, it can lose it's crazy luster. It's really only crazy if it isn't safe. So be safe. Leave the crazy for those moments of desperation when only a good sweat will save you.

As for me? There's the free childcare at the gym (they might protest, but I'll counter with bribes), my handy bike trainer set up in the driveway, or I can suggest riding bikes to the park and take the long way there. If all else fails I'll run laps around my cul d sac after the kids go to sleep (while wearing my reflective vest) like one mom said she's done. Crazy.