Friday, January 30, 2009

So Easy a Cavewoman Could Do It


I gotta tell you guys, this pregnancy thing: PIECE OF CAKE! :) I can't tell you how fortunate and grateful I am to have such a wonderful and easy pregnancy (SO FAR). I am SO blessed. WE are so blessed because my wonderful hubby doesn't have to deal with the ramifications of me having a bad pregnancy....which is good for BOTH of us! :) I am 16.5 weeks...so we are almost half way there...in just three short weeks, it will be halfway over! How crazy is that?

Well, I'm not going to bore you with how wonderful my pregnancy is....so let's move on to things perhaps more relevant to all of you! :)
I LOVE feeling as strong as I am right now....my energy level is through the roof still and I feel absolutely amazing during and after my workouts. By splitting my cardio and doing it in the mornings, separate from my weights workouts and changing to full body weights (the pic above is from Cathe Freidrich's Body Max DVD which is basically Body Pump on DVD - she is an amazing mother of two!), I can absolutely tell a difference in the quality of my workouts. I think we all get stuck in a rut and ultimately our bodies plateau. The change in my workouts has caused a reaction in my body for the first time in a long time. I am sharing this because I think we all adapt, I think each of our bodies are different and react differently to different stimulus. That's why it is so important to TRY different things - SHOCK your body - make it grow and change because you are forcing it to do something different.

I remember reading an article about Jen Hendershott and she said all of her workouts are different...she never does the same workout. She mixes and matches and does a variety of moves - each time. It's like Cross Fit - constantly shocking the body. And even though I know my body fat hasn't changed, my arms feel more toned, my legs tighter and more conditioned.


The other thing that has changed for me with pregnancy is I am eating more whole foods. I might have one serving of protein powder every other day and that is usually in my milk with cereal. I am eating lots of fruits and veggies and lots more dairy - like three servings a day - cottage cheese, yogurt, string cheese and then other types of proteins come from lean ground beef, chicken, fish. The point here is that my body is humming like a well oiled machine. For whatever reason, I strayed from dairy products (I probably read some article about how they bloat people....and I am sure some people have that reaction) and I found it more "convenient" to eat protein powders or meal replacements. With the baby, I have put nutrition at the top of my list and consequently me at the top of my list and what a difference it has made.

Two points I wanted to make with this post:
  1. Asses what you are doing for your workouts. Ask yourself some critical questions: How long have you been doing the same thing? Have you seen the results you want? How do you feel after you workout? Do you feel your body changing? Are you energized and do you feel powerful?
  2. Asses what you have been eating. Ask yourself MORE critical questions: Do you feel energized by what you eat? Are you eating a lot of processed food? Why? Are you eating fresh vegetables and fruit? How do you feel when you eat? Good? Bad?
I was chatting with Jody the other day and he was asking about whole foods...etc. I told him I group food into three categories A, B and C:
  • A: 100% natural, unprocessed foods: fruits, vegetables, oats, brown rice, chicken, yogurt, olive oil.
  • B: Those foods that are somewhat processed: Ezekiel bread, canned tomatoes, string cheese, lunch meat.
  • C: Foods that are highly processed: white flour, cookies, chips, hot dogs.
I try to eat 80% of my foods out of the A food group, 15% from food group B and only 5% from C. This is what works for me.

Do you know what works for you? :)


Have a great weekend guys!
Love you all!
Jess

8 comments:

Kelly Olexa said...

Darlin, I love you you know that...but I was LMAO here at your two questions- ASSES should be ASSESS right?? ha ha were you throwing a little quiz out there for us?? LOL

:-)
XOXO

Jessica said...

OH KELLY! You CRACK me up! You KNOW what I meant! :) And I THOUGHT about changing it to the correct word, but if you got that much of a kick out of it, I imagine all the other peeps will too so I am gonna leave it! :)

I can always count on you to catch my shizzle. XXOO
Jess

Krissa said...

I am so glad you are doing so well. You make pregnancy look easy :)

I didnt even notice the asses :)

Cathe looks amazing in that photo. She always does though.

April said...

I noticed the asses but then again I just woke up :)

Glad things are going great for both you and Jody!

Love Cathe! She rocks!

p.s. if I were pregnant my 3 categories would be

1. Chocolate
2. Pizza
3. Cocoa Krispies

Jessica said...

Ok you guys, I just read over my blog and if you note the time of my blog, it was LATE.Sleepy people should post blogs. :) I didn't even correct ANY of the spelling errors and there were a lot of them. JEEZ!

I did not, however, correct ASSES. Too funny.

I em reely smerter thun thes. Prumis. :)

Jess

Stef said...

Funny! I noticed the "asses" right off the bat and chuckled!!

I am glad you are having such a great pregnancy. Both of mine were awesome...until the end when I just felt like a waddling cow!

As far as my workouts....my trainer just changed them completely. I am excited to start them!

For my food....unless there is a binge issue, which thankfully there is not at the moment, I eat 90% from A and the other 10% from B.

Take care, sweets!

=)

Anonymous said...

Peanut's Mama! I noticed the asses right away but in your true form I thought you were just tryin' to be a smart-assess!;)\Loved this blog! Although I do have to agree with the poster who said Cocoa Krispies were on her list...they were and still are a big breaker for me..lol.
I like to change up my routine all the time as well. I used to change up my routine every couple of months or so, but lately(as in the last several months) I have been so busy and pressed for time that I have been changing it up every day! Not on purpose mind you...but I am trying hard to fit it all in - or I'm trying to work around my injury...so I'm changing things up. So far, I haven't noticed any set-backs...maybe a little fat loss..which I think resulted in muscle loss as well. But that's okay by me...it seems to be mostly in the leg area, which I hate my legs to be too ripped anyway.
Anyway...am going to focus on the foods more.Your blog really got my wheels turning, girl! Thanks once again for the inspiration!((())))and kisses!

B said...

glad to hear you are doing so well!

I agree with the need to change things up, I hope to get a new program within the next 2 weeks.