December 2020

CHRISTMAS

December is a festive month. It is time of uncontrolled consumptions but also time when we make a huge investment into social gatherings. The coronavirus influenced, as expected, all the aspects of this month. Here in Germany we couldn't shop for presents as usually in the last minute amok because of lockdown that closed all non-necessary shops. Also, we couldn't meet at Christmas markets and enjoy the vibe of street food, lovely lights and buying things nobody really needs. We couldn't meet at Christmas parties drinking our brains out whole nights wearing Santa's hats. And just generally on everyday basis due to distance rules one feels less united with random strangers around. 

But most of all because of constant anticipation of what rules we will have to follow this Christmas due to pandemics I felt like I waited more for the announcements than for the holiday itself.

In the end, I have spend Christmas with my closest family, I couldn't meet with my parents, but my brother visited.  As our parents couldn't visit we received this December a lot of packages. To avoid stress instead of Christmas Eve dinner I with my husband and two children had pancakes for breakfast and after it we have spend relaxed time opening presents and playing with new toys and gadgets we got from each other and our families. We had backed chicken for dinner and after it we baked cookies that we prepared together with milk for Santa.

BOOKS

I am taking a lot of notes while reading. It became my new thing but I have no idea when I will get to use them to make my reviews more thorough...

The Confidence Code' by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay

This book is written by two cool ladies and it is a very pleasant reading. It was inspiring and informative but lightly written. I highly recommend.

'Confidence is linked to doing.'

'The Organized Mind' by Daniel Levitin

It was way more informative and rewarding book that I have expected. This book in more research based than just self-help tips that I appreciate a lot. I liked the chapter about medical decision making, but it also made me confused if it is still a book on mind as it seems like the author dives so deeply to some aspects of organizing the thought process that sometimes it feels like one reads an entirely different book.

'Girl, wash your face' by Rachel Hollis

This is a typical self-help book. I was curious about and decided to give it a go. As with most books like this one has to take it with a slight distance to the author. I do not follow her on social media I only know her because her book was recommended to me by Amazon and it had great reviews (that I am surprised about). While reading I thought this book was waste of time but I kept on reading mostly because of my therapy goals that I will be finishing things I start. 

And then came few sentences in the chapter 'I need to make myself smaller' (in each chapter she discusses one lie a lot of women in her opinion unfortunately live like they do believe in it) that suddenly made reading this book worth it. (She just put words on some of the things I have been chewing through in my therapy.) Thank you girl! (btw. this is the style the author addresses her readers - a bit tiring as for me)

loosing weight after pregnancy

FAAP - Fit Again After Pregnancy

Part 1

So here I am after second pregnancy. Some lucky and disciplined ladies put on the recommended 12 kg but not me. Just like in my first run it seemed like I have it all under control but I ended up with more than 20 kg (because in the end I had no nerves to spare to keep checking... actually even my gynecologist gave up on measuring). 

Shortly, soon it is two months after delivery and I have 14 kg to lose?! There are of course good news and bad news. 

Bad ones are obvious it is 14 kg freaking kilo - one do not just loose that much while being highly sleep deprived, and consuming random candy to some how patiently survive yet another intensive day of caring for newborn and playing with preschooler.

Anyway, the only good thing is that as it is my second baby I know that I basically managed to eventually get back to almost my weight that is 58 kg (2kg different from the perfect state but I am not one of those to nitpick over such a tiny details). BUT it took me 2,5 years! So it is a semi good news.

I am writing it while drinking tea and thinking if I should get myself one more piece of chocolate or not... The reasons I am sill without chocolate in my mouth is that I would have to stand up (moving is almost like exercising) and go all the way to the kitchen and because I feel conflicted to write a post about how much I want to loose weight while consuming yet another piece of chocolate. 

What I am actually trying to say here is that I am not a diet believer. I recognize that one way of losing weight is to withhold eating sugary, salty, fatty and other good tasting stuff. But I am not that disciplined and I am a foodie. I acknowledge that there is no way of cutting some kilos while eating like there is not tomorrow. 'Don't Eat A Lot' (DONEAL) is a rule one has to implement but I am opting for gradual change. 

For me the way of getting back to my size is moving, moving, and moving. The more sports I do the more I drink water, which is good for loosing weight, I sleep better which is essential for life, health and losing weight, I eat less because I sleep better and I am happier so I am more inclined to DONEAL to reach my goals. But most of all moving, moving, and moving strategy means for me more guilt free chocolate!

Now it is clear why it took me 2,5 years to get back in shape and kind of in my size. This time I would like to achieve it faster. 1 kilo per month (healthy and realistic enough rate) starting from January as I do not plan to say no to any Christmas specialty. Christmas is once per year and it is one of its perks to eat good food from morning to evening in cozy company of friends and family. So I start from January. I also from the start gave myself 2 months without sports so my body can recover after delivering my second baby. So yeah January it is.

Anyway, 1 kilo per month would mean still 8 kilo too much by the summer. So I need better results.

Lets see in June... 

How I will train? I am actually not sure yet. At the moment I live in COVID-19 risk area and we have hard lockdown all the way to mid-January (although I think it will be longer...) which means my gym is closed. I have some gear at home: weights, bench, step and elliptic - that will have to be sufficient.

Lastly, I was not sure if I am brave enough to take a photo of myself 'before' so I can put also the 'after' one too... It took a bit of soul searching but I decided to do it. My husband is impressed but he warned me that my photo might be used for promoting of some random products online. I have to say I have hard time believing that my purple power ranger outfit will make a cut to promote absolutely anything so I am ready to take a risk...

Me one and half month after my second child was born, 72 kg.

November 2020

This was my first month as a mom of two kids. It was lovely because my husband took holidays to take care of me and our kids. Everyday felt like Saturday - there was so much to do, clean and take care of but it was still like weekend day.

I have managed to finish two books which I am proud of considering the little time and energy I have those days.

BOOKS

'Why we sleep'  by Matthew Walker

I have learned a lot about importance of sleep and I have implemented more strict protecting of sleeping time rules for me and my core family. It is a lot of information but it definitely puts our culture of neglecting sleep in perspective. I highly recommend it but if you have a choice to read it or to sleep please always choose to sleep.

'The way we're working isn't working' by Tony Schwartz

I haven't learned much new from this book because I have read books dedicated to various topics Schwartz is discussing in his book. However, I found it still interesting summary of many concepts I have interest in growing my understanding of. The focus of this book is a lot on applying it in the business world which currently I do not have a need for but if you do this book is a nice reference.