Starting Up Again Since the Birth of Ariella!

It's been quite a while since I last posted. Ariella was born February 17th, 2010. Since then, I've been pretty sporadic regarding exercising. I've done what I've termed "baby exercises" where I do exercises such as pelvic lift, crunches, reverse crunches, shoulder presses while holding her. I've done a bare amount of stretching. I've done weights maybe 2-3 times. I've done running a few times, have gone swimming quite a bit, but a lot of times it was just me and Ariella (so, it wasn't so much of a workout). And, I walk most workdays at lunch with a friend for 30 minutes.

This past weekend, I helped a friend move. So, it was several hours of lifting and carrying things down stairs and onto the moving truck. It was an excellent workout! I did better endurance-wise than I had expected. The physical exertion really felt good. On that same day, a friend asked me if I was going to be getting back into trapeze. I had been thinking about it, but not too seriously. First of all, I'm no where near the fitness level I used to be when I did the trapeze. Secondly, I have a baby! It's hard to schedule in a hobby. Plus, since I'm breastfeeding, scheduling and such is even trickier. I remembered receiving an e-mail about new trapeze sessions starting up soon, and I figured I'd take a look just to see.

There was a class that seemed like it would fit into my schedule:
Aerial Choreography:
Want to take your aerial artistry to the next level? This class is for you! This fun and inventive class is designed to help students add creative flair to their aerial work as they learn about and are guided through the process of creating an aerial performance piece. These pieces will be presented before friends and family at the end of class. This class will help students develop a character, pick their music, apparatus, costume, and learn to move accordingly. Since this class focuses on choreography instead of "trick building" students must already be familiar and comfortable on at least one aerial apparatus in order to register for this class. Come prepared to get creative and have fun!

It's on Thursdays from 5pm - 6:30pm. So, I'll go into work a bit early, and I'll only wind up getting home a little late. It will probably require 1 extra bottle of pumped milk for Ariella, but I think it's definitely workable.

I'm no where near where I need to be fitness-wise, so I've come up with a strategy for that. I'm really going to have to watch it, though. If I work out too intensely or start losing weight too quickly, my milk supply might drop. So, that's something I'm going to have to pay attention to.

I'm going to do 2 stretching sessions per day (each about 10-15 minutes). I'm going to focus on flexibility moves rather than strength moves in my trapeze performance, so it will be key to get that back. I'm going to do 2 weight sessions per week for the upper body (only about 15 minutes each). I'm going to do abdominal exercises every other day. And, then I'll continue with my walking at work during lunch. Plus, I'll have the trapeze class on Thursday nights. And, I'll be starting swimming class with Ariella on Saturdays (although that probably won't be much exercise for me, since it's designed for her).

For nutrition, I'm going to add additional protein to my diet to support muscle building, and I'm going to reduce the amount of junk food. This should cut my calories just a bit, but I can't go too far with this because I don't want to mess up my milk supply.

So, wish me luck! I'm very excited.