Thursday, January 27, 2011
My child knew he was not getting enough exercise
We all know that exercise is good for us. It keeps our heart healthy, helps maintain our weight, improves our mood, keeps us at low risk for a plethora of medical issues, the list goes on and on. For those of us who exercise on a regular basis we know it and can feel it if we do not get our exercise in. Kids are the same as us adults... they need the exercise. For the little ones at my house who are not in school yet we dance each day, do work out videos (which is hysterical by the way... there is nothing cuter then 2 and 3 yr old trying to do push ups) we play games like duck duck goose and ring around the Rosie. All in the name of using our muscles. The older kids though... that's a different story. Physical activity is not treated as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic anymore. I learned just recently that I need to pay a little more attention to the amount of exercise my children are getting at home because the amount at school is NOT enough... at least not enough for my high energy boys!
Not to long ago my 3rd graders teacher called me at home to tell me that my sons behavior was a little distracting, and that he was not very attentive in class. My son is all boy and loves to act goofy so although I could picture in my head exactly what she was talking about, I was still taken off guard and a little shocked. This was the first phone call ever I had gotten in regards to him not behaving and I did not like it. I assured her that his behavior would be better the next day. Well the next day came and I got a little note saying that he was still distracting and unattentive in class. At this point in time I am fuming, I promised her he would behave and I thought I had made it extremely clear to my child what my expectations for of his behavior were the night before when I handed down his punishment. For the record I just happen to get lucky with the punishment. The teachers phone call just happen to be on a highly awaited cub scout meeting day. My son knew he would be recognized for his hard work and would receive a marshmallow shooter. I took him to the meeting and then took the marshmallow shooter away before he even had a chance to open it. It sits in our dinning room just waiting for some devious child to pick it up and launch marshmallows at some unsuspecting individual. (I do not think it will have to wait much longer...I foresee an all out marshmallow attack happening in the near future) When I saw the note I just looked at him with my disappointed mommy face and asked "why?" He responded with "I don't know mom it is probably because we only got 5 min outside today" It was interesting to hear him say this because I had been concerned with their lack of physical play lately but had not expressed those concerns with him. Now some might have taken this as just an 8 yr old making excuses for his bad behavior to get out of trouble but I found it to be a perfect opportunity to turn it into an experiment. "Ok Coop. I will agree that 5 min is NOT enough time for any young child so guess what tomorrow morning I am going to help you get some exercise in before school". Since he is trying to run 25 miles before April for a children's marathon he is participating in I decided to have him run one mile before school two or three days a week. At least on the days that I know it is going to be to cold for the children to have outdoor recess. I will admit that waking him up a little early to get on the treadmill might seem extreme to some and on some days he does not want to get out of bed but by the time he puts on his shoes he is in the mood and once he gets on the treadmill he is all smiles. The first week we tried this out the days that he ran he got a good report from school. There was a day he did not run but had gym, he did well and got a good report that day too but the day that there was no gym class and no running he got another note home that he was distracting. I found this interesting so I continued with my little experiment this week. This week however we have had a couple days that it was warm enough to spend some time outside so he has gotten more exercise just from playing outside after school. That said though so far every day this week he has come home with a good report.
I think my son was right at just 8 years old the child knew what his body needed. I have read that children need 60 min of physical activity each day. When I thought about it I realized that Cooper was not getting nearly that amount in. Except on the days that he had gym class but that is only two days a week. I could safely say that he was getting in under 15 min of walking to and from school and was getting about 15 min at recess time. That is only 30 min, half of what I read was the recommendation for children. That's assuming the weather is good and the kids get an outdoor recess. We live in MI so we have indoor recess a lot and indoor recess only includes board games, movies, coloring and quite activities. No wonder my kid was not attentive. Up until this week he would come home from school, work on homework, eat dinner, have a little free play, get ready for bed, read and then lights out. This week weather was nice so I added 15-30 min of physical play time before he did his home work. I also added an extra 5-10 min each morning right before we walk to school for the kids to play outside. It could be a coincidence but I don't think so. The kids do not have school tomorrow but I can not wait to see how he does next week. I honestly think this lack of phyical activity has everything to do with his lack of attention at school. Keeping my fingers crossed
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
200th mile
Well I reached a milestone the other day that I never in a million years thought I would achieve. 200 miles! To be honest I never thought that I would ever be in a position in which I would even be logging my miles. That all changed 7 months ago when I decided out of the blue that I was going to run a 5k. Thanks to dailymile, my friends at cafemom, and a well known program called Couch to 5k I got my butt up of the couch and ran. I can not tell you how much of a sense of accomplishment I feel knowing that I have already put in 200 miles. I am extremely proud of myself not just for the 200 miles but for knowing I have hundreds more I want to log. It is so surreal for me to look back at my life less then a yr ago and know that I could not run a block without having to stop and walk. Now running a mile is nothing. I have changed my life for the better and knowing that I am setting a positive example for my three young boys is priceless. The example I am setting for my boys is already paying off... my 8 yr old now runs a mile on the treadmill several times a week. He wants to enter races and earn metals, which is all fine and dandy but this mama is just happy that he is interested in something that will keep his heart strong and healthy. My 6 yr old who has not completely jumped on the fitness bandwagon said he wanted to run a race too. (proud mommy moment) I of course also love the fact that I have lost about 15lbs since I started running. I would love to say good bye to another 15 lbs and I know it will not happen over night but I do know that it will happen due to my new physical lifestyle. My mood has improved and I know that if I am having an off day just 30 min on my treadmill (or a run outside but I have forgotten what that's like due to all the snow) will work wonders. Best therapy ever and it is free. I think it is safe to say I have become an addict!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
on the road again... well treadmill anyways
Well along with ringing in this new year with a 5k I apparently also rang it in with a muscle strain in my right groin area. Dr. says it is a pulled or strained groin physical therapist thinks it is a hip flexor injury possibly. Who knows but already having issues with bulging disks in my back I was feeling a little bit... I don't know gimpy?!?! I knew that I had to take it easy and since I don't have any races or anything coming up I figured this is the best time if any to be on the IR list. Other then one quick 1 mile run just to see how the strained muscle was doing, I had not run in 16 days. YIKES!
Don't think I was sitting back doing nothing for those 16 days though, haha I wish I had been though. My husband got word from his work that he would have to go to Mexico for a week. My family is not used to my husband having to travel. Sure he has gone away for a weekend before but never for a whole week, so the days leading up to his departure the family all hung out which was sooo nice. Then he left... and single parent mode kicked in.
Just a few short hrs after he was gone I realize my Owen is (6) is sick with a fever which lasts two days. Unable to go to school I spent those two days waiting on him hand and foot. This illness of Owens also landed a phone call to poison control when I accidentally gave him two doses of a decongestant instead of one. Thankfully the poison control operator was able to make me feel so much better when he reassured me that the kid had no where near harmful levels in his system. I can not help but wonder if the overdose on decongestant is what caused Owens nose bleed two days later that would not stop bleeding for over 40 min. uuuggg that was fun!
Then there was the huge project Cooper had to do for school. The kid had to make a musical instrument that was able to change pitches. SERIOUSLY?!?! Come on now these kids are 8! Of course the instrument Coop chose required saws, drills, spay paint etc. Yeah like I am going to let my kid lose with power tools... this family project quickly became "a parent project" Ryan before he left took care of building it with him but I was in charge of getting the huge poster together with him. Since I already completed third grade this annoyed me more then I can tell you!
Then there was the dreaded phone call from Coops teacher in the middle of the week saying that he was not behaving in class. His talkativeness and lack of attentiveness had gotten his seat moved to the front of the room. First time ever getting a negative report about this child and it had to happen while dad was gone... oh lord! At least when she called she made a point to tell me how wonderful Coopers project and poster was. ~hahaha
I better not overlook the snow storm that we had too. Back issues and a shovel... lets just say that was not a whole lot of fun. To make it worse I watch kids out of my house and I had 3 children under the age of 3 trying to help me. Their idea of help is definitely NOT my idea of help. Fortunately the neighbor across the street noticed me give up only half way through and brought his snow blower over to finish up the job. (Thank you MR. Will you ROCK!) Had Ryan been home the drive would have been done in just a few short min. because we do have a snow blower, I just have never gone through the formal training on how to use it.
One of the nights he was gone I had to take all the kids to Coopers cub scout meeting. Now normally I would not have taken all the kids to such an event because it lasts way past Jackson's bed time. In a normal situation Ryan or I would take him and the other would stay home with the other two children. I thought about not going at all and just skipping it but Cooper was being recognised this night for his hard work fund raising. So camera in hand I head out the door with the three boys. Of course when I get there I realize the memory card is not in the camera. For the love of God can I not catch a break? As if that is not enough while we are there another parent says to me... "two coworkers of my husbands went to Mexico for work and they got shot just while eating dinner. It is very dangerous" ~uhhh are you kidding me? Some people should make a conscious effort to actually think before they let words fall out of their mouths. Not helping lady, not helping!
My physical therapy was supposed to start two days a week this week. With Ryan being gone and my parents visiting my brother out of state I had to cancel one of the appointments. Thank goodness my in laws were gracious enough to come over and watch the kids one of the nights so I did not have to miss both apts.
Of course I wanted Ryan to come home to a clean house so every night once the kids went to bed I would bust out the cleaning supplies and bust ass getting as much as I could done before I had to get to bed. I did great in this department and came up with 3 garbage bags worth of stuff to throw away. I always feel so much better when the house is clean despite whatever is going on around me.
The day Ryan came home I took the kids to get hair cuts, the kids wanted to get him flowers, (I got him beer) we made a poster and we baked cookies and when we knew he was close we hid under the table and shouted surprise when he walked in.
So as you can see I was not just sitting on my butt eating Bon Bons this whole time I was taking a break from running. Ryan is home now, thank God, and I am getting back into it slowly. I was able to run 1.5 today and unfortunately the strained muscle is killing me now but was not horrible until 3/4 a mile in while I was running today. I hope that with stretching and ice I can get this thing under control. I also got in a mile walk and the 30 day shred. Doing the 30 day shred I realize that my arms must be made of jello or wet noodles, and I do not even own weights so I was using 1lb soup cans. Note to self get butt back in the gym for some weight training. hahaah
Don't think I was sitting back doing nothing for those 16 days though, haha I wish I had been though. My husband got word from his work that he would have to go to Mexico for a week. My family is not used to my husband having to travel. Sure he has gone away for a weekend before but never for a whole week, so the days leading up to his departure the family all hung out which was sooo nice. Then he left... and single parent mode kicked in.
Just a few short hrs after he was gone I realize my Owen is (6) is sick with a fever which lasts two days. Unable to go to school I spent those two days waiting on him hand and foot. This illness of Owens also landed a phone call to poison control when I accidentally gave him two doses of a decongestant instead of one. Thankfully the poison control operator was able to make me feel so much better when he reassured me that the kid had no where near harmful levels in his system. I can not help but wonder if the overdose on decongestant is what caused Owens nose bleed two days later that would not stop bleeding for over 40 min. uuuggg that was fun!
Then there was the huge project Cooper had to do for school. The kid had to make a musical instrument that was able to change pitches. SERIOUSLY?!?! Come on now these kids are 8! Of course the instrument Coop chose required saws, drills, spay paint etc. Yeah like I am going to let my kid lose with power tools... this family project quickly became "a parent project" Ryan before he left took care of building it with him but I was in charge of getting the huge poster together with him. Since I already completed third grade this annoyed me more then I can tell you!
Then there was the dreaded phone call from Coops teacher in the middle of the week saying that he was not behaving in class. His talkativeness and lack of attentiveness had gotten his seat moved to the front of the room. First time ever getting a negative report about this child and it had to happen while dad was gone... oh lord! At least when she called she made a point to tell me how wonderful Coopers project and poster was. ~hahaha
I better not overlook the snow storm that we had too. Back issues and a shovel... lets just say that was not a whole lot of fun. To make it worse I watch kids out of my house and I had 3 children under the age of 3 trying to help me. Their idea of help is definitely NOT my idea of help. Fortunately the neighbor across the street noticed me give up only half way through and brought his snow blower over to finish up the job. (Thank you MR. Will you ROCK!) Had Ryan been home the drive would have been done in just a few short min. because we do have a snow blower, I just have never gone through the formal training on how to use it.
One of the nights he was gone I had to take all the kids to Coopers cub scout meeting. Now normally I would not have taken all the kids to such an event because it lasts way past Jackson's bed time. In a normal situation Ryan or I would take him and the other would stay home with the other two children. I thought about not going at all and just skipping it but Cooper was being recognised this night for his hard work fund raising. So camera in hand I head out the door with the three boys. Of course when I get there I realize the memory card is not in the camera. For the love of God can I not catch a break? As if that is not enough while we are there another parent says to me... "two coworkers of my husbands went to Mexico for work and they got shot just while eating dinner. It is very dangerous" ~uhhh are you kidding me? Some people should make a conscious effort to actually think before they let words fall out of their mouths. Not helping lady, not helping!
My physical therapy was supposed to start two days a week this week. With Ryan being gone and my parents visiting my brother out of state I had to cancel one of the appointments. Thank goodness my in laws were gracious enough to come over and watch the kids one of the nights so I did not have to miss both apts.
Of course I wanted Ryan to come home to a clean house so every night once the kids went to bed I would bust out the cleaning supplies and bust ass getting as much as I could done before I had to get to bed. I did great in this department and came up with 3 garbage bags worth of stuff to throw away. I always feel so much better when the house is clean despite whatever is going on around me.
The day Ryan came home I took the kids to get hair cuts, the kids wanted to get him flowers, (I got him beer) we made a poster and we baked cookies and when we knew he was close we hid under the table and shouted surprise when he walked in.
So as you can see I was not just sitting on my butt eating Bon Bons this whole time I was taking a break from running. Ryan is home now, thank God, and I am getting back into it slowly. I was able to run 1.5 today and unfortunately the strained muscle is killing me now but was not horrible until 3/4 a mile in while I was running today. I hope that with stretching and ice I can get this thing under control. I also got in a mile walk and the 30 day shred. Doing the 30 day shred I realize that my arms must be made of jello or wet noodles, and I do not even own weights so I was using 1lb soup cans. Note to self get butt back in the gym for some weight training. hahaah
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Happy New Year
Well here we are in the first week of 2011 and I am so excited to see what this year holds for me.
This year has already started off so much different then 2010. This time last year I remember thinking "ok this is a new yr and it is going to be better then the last" after all 2009 was probably the worst year I had ever had. We live in Michigan and like many others here. our lives were dependant on the automotive business. Although my husbands job was spared we took a huge hit and it was a very very rough year. I vowed that 2010 would be better and fortunately it was. So starting off this year already on a good note is a great feeling.
I always make New Years resolutions although I do not know why because I do not think I have ever kept one. One year it was to not cuss so much but that shit never lasted. (ha ha although since I am around so many children I am much much better then I used to be) Another year was to quit smoking (which I have since done but I quit about 5 years after I made that New Years resolution) then last yr I said that I was going to do a chin up. I know this is a strange resolution but the mentality behind it was that I would have to get in shape and lose weight to be able to do that. I of course could have just said my new years resolution was to get in shape and lose weight... but that would not have been very original now would it? (besides I am sure I have used those resolutions in past years as well with no luck) Whats funny is that I never even tried to do a chin up last year. Typical! Even though I never tried to do a chin up I did get a membership to the YMCA and I went 4 days a week for a whole 5 months. After I lost only 4 lbs in those 5 months I was discouraged to say the least! I did not give up though I just switched it up a bit and started running. I do not go to the YMCA half as often as I should now because you do not need a membership to run but I am in significantly better shape then when I stopped going 4 times a week. So even though last years resolution was a fail, I don't really care because good still came out of it.
Looking back at 2010 I am very proud of myself. I wanted to get in shape and although I am far from being in shape I have made huge strides in that area. I exercise at least 4 days a week, when I run a mile takes very little effort and now I run 5k's for fun. I have not felt so happy and healthy in a long time. Lets remember here I have three kids, I have spent about 6 years of the last 8 either pregnant or nursing. It feels so good to be able to take back my body. Not just physically but mentally too, it is amazing how a good work out can change your mood. I find it so interesting that when I get a little down or stressed out I will start to crave a work out almost like a craving for chips. I am just very happy with the changes I made in 2010.
I started 2011 off right I ran a 5k, just because a could and while I ran I was able to reflect on how far I had come in just 6 months. I also though about a resolution for this year, and whether or not to even make one since they have been kinda pointless for me. I was about 2 miles into the 5k when I started to get bad pain in my hip and that is when I decided for sure to make a resolution. Sure I still have weight to lose, would like to get into better physical shape and still do not know if I can do a chin up but in that moment of running with pain just a mile short of finishing my 5k I said to myself "don't give up just don't give up" I think those three little words are all I need to get me though this year feeling good about myself.
I have walked into 2011 with some disk issues in my back, and what I suspect is a hip flexors strain (I hope to find out more at the dr. this week) but I will not give up. This is one New Years Resolution that I am sure I can keep this year and every year after.
This year has already started off so much different then 2010. This time last year I remember thinking "ok this is a new yr and it is going to be better then the last" after all 2009 was probably the worst year I had ever had. We live in Michigan and like many others here. our lives were dependant on the automotive business. Although my husbands job was spared we took a huge hit and it was a very very rough year. I vowed that 2010 would be better and fortunately it was. So starting off this year already on a good note is a great feeling.
I always make New Years resolutions although I do not know why because I do not think I have ever kept one. One year it was to not cuss so much but that shit never lasted. (ha ha although since I am around so many children I am much much better then I used to be) Another year was to quit smoking (which I have since done but I quit about 5 years after I made that New Years resolution) then last yr I said that I was going to do a chin up. I know this is a strange resolution but the mentality behind it was that I would have to get in shape and lose weight to be able to do that. I of course could have just said my new years resolution was to get in shape and lose weight... but that would not have been very original now would it? (besides I am sure I have used those resolutions in past years as well with no luck) Whats funny is that I never even tried to do a chin up last year. Typical! Even though I never tried to do a chin up I did get a membership to the YMCA and I went 4 days a week for a whole 5 months. After I lost only 4 lbs in those 5 months I was discouraged to say the least! I did not give up though I just switched it up a bit and started running. I do not go to the YMCA half as often as I should now because you do not need a membership to run but I am in significantly better shape then when I stopped going 4 times a week. So even though last years resolution was a fail, I don't really care because good still came out of it.
Looking back at 2010 I am very proud of myself. I wanted to get in shape and although I am far from being in shape I have made huge strides in that area. I exercise at least 4 days a week, when I run a mile takes very little effort and now I run 5k's for fun. I have not felt so happy and healthy in a long time. Lets remember here I have three kids, I have spent about 6 years of the last 8 either pregnant or nursing. It feels so good to be able to take back my body. Not just physically but mentally too, it is amazing how a good work out can change your mood. I find it so interesting that when I get a little down or stressed out I will start to crave a work out almost like a craving for chips. I am just very happy with the changes I made in 2010.
I started 2011 off right I ran a 5k, just because a could and while I ran I was able to reflect on how far I had come in just 6 months. I also though about a resolution for this year, and whether or not to even make one since they have been kinda pointless for me. I was about 2 miles into the 5k when I started to get bad pain in my hip and that is when I decided for sure to make a resolution. Sure I still have weight to lose, would like to get into better physical shape and still do not know if I can do a chin up but in that moment of running with pain just a mile short of finishing my 5k I said to myself "don't give up just don't give up" I think those three little words are all I need to get me though this year feeling good about myself.
I have walked into 2011 with some disk issues in my back, and what I suspect is a hip flexors strain (I hope to find out more at the dr. this week) but I will not give up. This is one New Years Resolution that I am sure I can keep this year and every year after.
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