Work it, Momma! (A Pregnant Mom's Rant on A Pedometer)

Lately, life has been busy.  Trying to organize life into manageable bites rather than huge chunks has been helping, but it is still a work in progress.  One of the things that has been severely getting me down lately... my weight gain.

Yes, I know, I'm pregnant, so gaining weight is to be expected.  That said, I only ever gained 25 lbs with each of my kids.  I've already gained 24 lbs with this pregnancy, and I have at least 12 weeks to go.  Yikes!  Considering that I'm gaining at a rate of over 1.5 lb per week... well... I'm not happy with the 40+ lbs that I'll likely be putting on over this 9 month period. 

Anyway, weight aside, I do feel pretty good.  I tire much more quickly than before, and I'm finding I do not have the strength or energy to do half the stuff I want to, which is disappointing at best, but I'll live.  I started trying to exercise on a rather regular basis using my Wii Fit Plus game once again.  Started up in June, but not so regularly until September.  I love looking at that graph and seeing all the colorful lines showing how much 'exercise' I've been doing.  Halfway through September I pulled out my step counter from my Personal Trainer Walking DS game.  It didn't take long for me to remember why I had put it away in the first place.

That thing makes me feel LAZY!

I know that I tend to not walk as 'hard' as some people, and it does say that it will not register as well if you are bare foot (which is usually the case as I spend most of my walking in the house) but when you pace the entire duration of a half hour conversation on the phone, and your usual walking pace is about 100 steps per minute, to only have the thing register about 100 steps is a huge disappointment.  Even worse, since almost none of my maternity 'home' pants have any pockets, that means clipping the thing to my waistband... which is not level and contributes to the problem of not reading my steps.  Even my workout steps where I jog for 10+ minutes were not registering correctly.  I have a pedometer on the 3DS as well, which I hold in my hand while I jog, and it was registering twice the steps the clip-on was.  Double.  And when I would count my steps, they were right in line with the 3DS.

So what is the problem with that silly little piece of technology?  Or... is it me?

I read reviews, tried to find troubleshooting recommendations, nothing helped.  Most everyone loved the little device and found it to be accurate to their steps.  My day would end, I'd feel exhausted and as though I walked plenty, only to see that the counter was still flashing red at me... set at 5000 steps.  What?  I hadn't reached 5000 steps?  Checking it on the DS would make me see red in more ways than that little light provided... 3000 steps.  That was it.  I exercised for half an hour (I try to do 30 minutes each weekday on the Wii Fit), 10-15 minutes of that was jogging, walked my daughter to the bus and went to pick her up, paced while on the phone, cleaned and vacuumed in my 2 story house with basement... and still only 3000 steps?!?!

Needless to say, in my pregnant hormonal state I started to cry, and my poor husband could not figure out why a little piece of electronics would bother me so much.  Yeah... I'm a bit of a 'goal' person.  I wanted that thing to turn green every day.  I work for it.  It motivates me... but now it was making me feel like I was lazy. 

After a good night sleep, I realized I needed to make a change.  I'd been using this thing for well over a month now with poor results (unless I was walking outside, then it was fine) and I did not wish to wear shoes in the house.  It was depressing.  So, I changed where I clipped the thing.  Hips?  Nah... my hips apparently don't move up and down enough when I walk.  So... what moves up and down enough? 

Socks.

Yup... my solution was to put the thing on my sock. 

I admit, I was a little worried I'd lose it, but it actually has been staying pretty well!  It's been there for a week now, and I must say, I definitely feel better about the step counts I've been getting!  I matched it pretty well to my 3DS on the workouts, and my mornings (which I feel like a crazy woman running about trying to get breakfast on the table and my daughter out the door for the bus) is registering closer to 1000 steps in under 2 hours vs the 200 it gave me before!  I actually upped my step target to 6000 last night as I finally met the 'quota' the entire week!  And I'm only about 100 steps from that point by noon today (and I have yet to vacuum the house)!  Most of my days this week registered 6000-7000 steps in the day, and that is without me TRYING to get more steps into my day compared to what it was prior to changing where I clipped this thing.

So while I still hate that my weight is on such a steady incline, at least I feel like I'm doing something about it (and maybe, just maybe, some of that weight is increased muscle mass *wink*).

Now with that aside... WHY can't they have a pregnancy option on the Wii Fit Plus?  I KNOW I'm not 'borderline overweight' as I'm expecting a baby, but really!  (and I heard the Wii Fit U doesn't have that option either.  Seriously, Nintendo... Moms want to use this thing, and we have other reasons to 'gain weight' than 'snacking all day'). 

;)

At least I will get the satisfaction of that little balance board freaking out at my two day drop of 10+ lbs at once, hahaha.

What Was She Thinking?

I decided a few days ago that I really needed to keep a thought journal on what on earth was I thinking... perhaps realizing that I shouldn't do it again, ha ha.  Anyway, here are a few of my 'What Was I Thinking?" moments this last week...

Wednesday - What was I thinking when I decided that dying eggs with the kids was a good idea?  After all, the kit said ages 7+, and I don't have any kids that age!  At least we got to learn what blue and red make, and blue and yellow... and yellow and red... and purple and yellow... etc.  I also had hands a lovely shade of rainbow!

Thursday - What was I thinking, making white cookies with two toddlers with an infant in the house?  Didn't I already realize that the second the hands were filled with cookie dough, the baby would need attention?  And the kids were uninterested the second the batter was made, leaving me to do all the rolling and cutting of cookies myself... although they did want to watch for a short while.  Not sure why they didn't want to help themselves... perhaps the wet sleeves from the attempts of washing their hands after licking the egg beaters may have had something to do with it.

Friday - What was I thinking, decorating those cookies at the gathering just before we were to pray?  I think only half of the cookies got nonpareils on them... the rest just had some quick icing spread on them so they could said to be 'decorated' before they were consumed by the masses!  :)  At least they were good!  I didn't have many to take home (for which I am thankful, those things are addictive).

Saturday - What was I thinking when I decided to give the kids their Easter baskets in the evening... especially since the day and evening was so hectic that it ended up where they got their baskets just before bath time and couldn't even enjoy them (and wanted to eat everything in there... which really wasn't much, but still... they did enjoy the tiny heart white cookies in the plastic egg!  And they are super excited about the giant butterfly/bunny cookie they will be eating later).

Sunday - What was I thinking?  Really?  I missed half the service with the timing of the feedings my daughter wanted (totally messed up from the day before I think, and I wasn't as good at keeping things the way they normally were).  Also, it continued being an issue through the entire day!  Yikes!

Stay tuned for today's episode of 'What was She Thinking'... when I attempt to take a nap, only to get to lie down for 2 minutes to be awoken by screams of hunger... right on cue.  Where did that hour go to?  Oh yeah... cleanup from gatherings, helping my son on the potty, then helping him with his blanket, telling my oldest to go back into bed, then helping my son on the potty again as this time was #2, then another blanket issue, then saying once again to get to bed and stop running around the room... finally silence... only to have a screaming infant.  At least my husband gets some rest.

Hm.  I think my mommy brain has kicked in for good!  Perhaps I should update with these regularly as they seem to happen on a rather regular basis, ha ha.

Wonder Why Wednesday

I'm gonna try this. I'm linking over to Gaerte Gang's blog.

You ever wonder what happens to our brains (as women) when we have children? I don't think any more, I don't ponder things like I used to... I just settle into the routine of changing diapers, making food, cleaning spills and more dirty bums (and clothes to boot), and revel in those naps that she takes (so maybe I can sneak one in as well... or work my butt off on the books or the cleaning or the laundry). No more researching, nothing. What happened? Is there a switch in my brain that literally gets turned off for the first few years after baby is born... or maybe sometime while we are pregnant with them? Why can't I find it and turn it back on? Or did the wires get re-routed instead?

Now I'm leaving myself wondering why I'm metaphorically referring to my brain as some type of electrical apparatus... too much time on the computer, methinks.