Sleep and How Badly Do You Want It?

People ask me often how I am motivated to train, especially with two little boys under the age of two. I'll be honest with you, there are says where I DO NOT feel like training at all. There are days when the last thing I want to do is get my incredibly tired self out of bed and go throw my body under a lot of wight a bunch of times.

But, then I think about my goals.
My goals push me out of bed, when my willpower isn't enough.
So what are my goals?
Here are a few of my BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals):
I want to be back at 22% body fat. 
I want a double body weight backsquat,
I want to run a marathon.

Being an athlete well rounded enough to squat twice my body weight and be able to run 26 miles?
Those are big goals.Those are get-your-rear-end-out-of-bed-and-get-moving kind of goals. So in order for me to reach those goal, means there are no days off. That is right, I train my body EVERY SINGLE DAY. Now does that mean I train at the same intensity level every day? No way. So how do I decide when to train and when not to train, since I have two little kiddos and tired is just part of this season of life?

If you look at the picture for this article you may recognize it from the dashboard of the FITBIT sleep tracker. This was my sleep pattern this last week and it is actually a great example of all three of my "levels". So lets break them down one by one.

Level 1 is where I get 6 hours of sleep a night. (I am pretty sure when this happens the angels sing and little forest creatures dance around like in sleeping beauty.) This week was a surprisingly good week because I had two whole nights where I got 6 hours of sleep. When that happens I train at 100% of my ability level. That means I lift as heavy as I can, I go hard on conditioning, and I hit the elliptical during my children's nap time. These are my absolute favorite days.   

Level 2 is when I get between 4 and 6 hours of sleep a night. As you can see, this week there were three of those days. When I get this amount of sleep I recognize that my coordination may be a bit off due to my lack of sleep. Because I don't want to risk an injury, I usually drop all of my weights to about 75% of what I would normally lift. I do conditioning, but at a much more scaled version, and I don't do the elliptical, so I am not over stressing my body. These are the most common days for me right now. 

Level 3 seems to be where I was for most of the past month and a half. These are the nights where my 6 month old son won't sleep at all. I have learned that he does best when I am moving, so I strap him in to my Ergo carrier and I get on the elliptical and I get moving. I cannot begin to guess how many miles I have gone on the elliptical in the last two months, but it has been a LOT. The next day when I get up, I still go in to the gym, I still move m body but I do about 25% of my numbers. I don't do conditioning at all. In the evening I take my boys for a long walk through the neighborhood. And that is it because that is all that my body can take on those days. You have to train smart, or you will end up with injuries, and sometimes that means having several level 3 days in a row and that is alright. Thankfully I think that these days may be coming to an end for our family so I will soon be ramping back up to level 2 or 1 every day,

Essentially when I am saying is that when you are the parent of tiny humans, training can be incredibly challenging. However, it absolutely can be done. I watched a mom this week do her entire workout using her 15 month old son as her weight because her babysitter canceled.

Now THAT is dedication.

The best thing that you can do is sit down ahead of time and decide what your threshold is. How many hours of sleep do you need to feel great? How many do you need to feel so-so? How many is just not enough for real training? Decide these ahead of time and then follow your plan. Be smart, and let your body recover and rest, but at the same time don't use having a baby as an excuse to be out of shape. Because at the end of the day the question remains, how badly do you want it?

C-Section Saturday: Be Ready For What It Looks Like

Welcome to the Farr Fitness' C-Section Saturdays. 

As I have mentioned before I will be using Saturdays to discuss, teach, and learn about C-Section recovery for athletes. Be prepared, some of the information that we discuss will be graphic, but I assure you that I will do my best to cover each topic with the grace of the true southern lady that I am. With that being said lets jump in! 

Today I want to talk about expectations and reality. Things tend to go one of two ways with postpartum expectations. They usually end up being something like this:

"oh my gosh, my body is going to bounce right back and it is going to be wonderful" 

or 

"I hate everything I am going to fall face first in a box of doughnuts since I'm eating for two now anyways."  

And neither of these are good. 

The reality is, your body won't bounce right back. It takes time to heal from the trauma of pregnancy, let alone birth or worse, a C-Section. Your body will not look the way it did originally, no matter what magazines, advertisements, and fitness gurus tell you. You pushed a human being (or had one pulled) out of you, that changes a body. 

The other option of "I'm nursing so now I can finally eat for two" is not right either. You have to take care of your body. This is not the time to give up on yourself. Take the extra step, make the extra effort to eat real and healthy food. Get up and move your body as soon as the doctor clears you to do so. You can't take care of a precious newborn baby with zero energy. 

In reality your body will be different, and you need to be ready for that. In fact, I remember thinking that I was marred for life when I first saw my incision. I cried alone in the bathroom at the hospital nine hours after my first son was born. If you want to see what a C-section body looks like you can see those images here. Be prepared, it isn't always pretty at first. If you don't like where your body is after your C-Section, get up, and change it. 

Put one foot in front of the other. 

Don't quit, don't stop. 

You can do this. 

Psalm 139;19 says that "God knit me together in my mother's womb". Isn't it amazing to be a part of the miracle of birth? Isn't it amazing what God made our bodies to do? Your body will look different. Your body will feel different. But your body is incredible and don't you let anyone tell you otherwise.

C:Section Saturday: Make a Plan and Stick With It!

Welcome to the Farr Fitness' C-Section Saturdays. 

As I have mentioned before I will be using Saturdays to discuss, teach, and learn about C-Section recovery for athletes. Be prepared, some of the information that we discuss will be graphic, but I assure you that I will do my best to cover each topic with the grace of the true southern lady that I am. With that being said lets jump in!

Today I want to talk about the number one question I get as a gym owner. Do you want to guess what it is? Here are a few runners up:

Should I buy a treadmill? 

Maybe I should build my own garage gym? 

Should I see a dietitian? 

Would paying a personal trainer be best? 

Should I sign up for a workout subscription? 

But, the NUMBER ONE QUESTION that I get asked is: how do I get fit? 

Here is the trick... there is no trick. 

You simply have to choose/make a plan and stick to it. 

People get so caught up in the idea that they have to have the exact perfect plan and if you don't then your whole fitness effort is in vain. That simply isn't true! That, to me, is like the people that can only start eating healthy on a Monday. If they miss the Monday start time they have to wait an ENTIRE WEEK to start again. 

I have written recently about my various successes in the gym and with my body composition. You can read about those topics here and here. If you want to get fit and healthy, start like I did, simply.  Fitness really isn't that complicated! Pick there manageable goals and go from there. 

My manageable goals were: 

• move my body as often as possible. 
• eat real food
• sleep as much as I can

That was my simple plan. After a couple of weeks of success with this plan I then added to it. 

"Move my body as much as possible" became walking on the elliptical, then running on the elliptical, and now I am running my mile for time, 

"Eat real food" started with cutting out Dr. Pepper, then it moved to eating more meat and vegetables, now I am doing a Whole30. 

"Sleep as I can" is hard since I have a four month old. This originally looked like the traditional, "sleep when baby sleeps", then I put Henry on a schedule, and now he is sleeping through the night and I am back to using sleep cycles to get the best rest possible. 

Do not stress yourself out, post C-section mamas (or anybody for that matter!) the process is much more simple than the magazines would have you believe. You don't need a ton of equipment and you don't need super expensive supplements and meal plans. What you need is to make a simple plan and stick with it. Don't believe my story? Check out the stories of my friends Denise and Rachel. 

Need help coming up with a plan? Contact us at FarrFunctionalFitness@gmail.com and we can help make a personalized plan to fit your goals. 

At the end of the day you are a child of God and you are incredible. Get out there and move your body. Take care of the gift that God has given you.

Parenting vs Coaching

As a coach I carefully watch each athlete's movements. I keep detailed records of each one of my athletes. I can tell you that athlete R has a goofy elbow, athlete M has horrible shin splints when she runs, and athlete C is never fully confident that she is going to get the lift, even when the lift is over. I can tell you which days in the last year (that they have been training with me) that the athlete was sick and what they were sick with. I can tell you when their anniversary is, and what their favorite pass times are. 

A good coach knows more about their athletes than just their numbers. 

A good coach knows their lives, their stories, their dreams. 

Parenting is no different. 

The definition of a coach is someone who instructs or trains a performer or team. The definition of a parent is to raise, bring up, look after, take care of. Being a coach and being a parent really aren't that different, and yet I struggle more with one than I do with the other.

People ask me often if it is hard to run a garage gym ministry and have two children under the age of two. I will be honest, there are days where it is very challenging. The selfish side of me would love to get through coaching all of my classes without my son interrupting. I would love to get through my own personal training without having to stop to nurse the 4 month old. But that is just my selfish sin nature talking.

When an athlete comes in my gym I ask them how they are feeling, if anything hurts. I ask them about their weekend. I listen to their marriage struggles, personal difficulties, and parenting challenges. 

Do I offer the same dedication to my children? 

Today I was convicted about exactly that. I was trying to coach my beginner athlete class. It is loud, hot, and I am tired from being up with the 4 month old in the middle of the night.   

As I was rubbing my pounding head, my not quite two year old went outside the garage and picked up a handful of crepe myrtle flowers from the ground and brought them to me. Instead of graciously accepting his precious gift, I barked at him to get out of the gym. Seeing his little face fall, as he is still trying to give me his flowers, my heart broke. God spoke to my heart through the big blue eyes of my oldest son. Today God reminded me that my job is to care for, teach, and minister to my family first. I need to remember my calling from God, and not worry about what other people will think. I can't make an idol of coaching exactly the way we would in the classes where there are no children. 

That just isn't reality.  

I had a very wise friend remind me recently that God has given me these precious little boys for a short time, and that time is flying by. 

Lets do a little math right quick:

There are roughly 52 Saturdays in a  calendar year. 

That means that we have roughly 936 Saturdays from the time your child is born until your child leaves for college. 

William is 20 months old. 

We have used up 87 Saturdays of his life already. 

We only have 849 Saturdays left with him. 

That is it.

So now my focus is going to change a bit. 

Don't worry, I will still correct form, I will still be an aggressive coach for my athletes, but secondary to being a godly parent for my sons.

C-Section Saturday: 12 Weeks Post-Op

Welcome to the Farr Fitness' C-Section Saturdays. 

As I have mentioned before I will be using Saturdays to discuss, teach, and learn about C-Section recovery for athletes. Be prepared, some of the information that we discuss will be graphic, but I assure you that I will do my best to cover each topic with the grace of the true southern lady that I am. With that being said lets jump in! 

This post is going to cover weeks 9-12 of my recovery. This last month I have learned a lot about taking care of myself and my family while I'm trying to train. Here are a few of the things that I have learned.

It is July here in North Carolina and it is HOT. The heat index for today is 105. Let me tell you, I feel it.  

I am also relearning how to train through menstrual pain. Having our boys so close together, I didn't have a period between Having William and getting pregnant with Henry. That means that I haven't had to deal with this issue since December of 2013! I had forgotten what it can be like. 

Training when you have a 3 month old isn't easy. In fact it takes everything that I have to get up each day and make it happen, especially on nights when Henry doesn't sleep through the night. 

But, if I don't do it now I will spend years of my life hating my body. 

So for me it really is a question of how badly do I want it? Do I want it badly enough to train when it isn't easy?

Yesterday for example I did my standard strength training and the conditioning workout Rachel, which is: 

6 RFT (Rounds For Time). 

15 KBS (Kettlebell swings) 

1 loop run 

I swung a 25 pound kettlebell American (meaning overhead) 90 times and ran the loop 6 times despite the fact that I was up every hour and half with my son the night before. 

I won't lie to you, it was hard. 

It was ugly. 

I did it in 8 minutes and 25 seconds. Next time that I do it (which will be in about 6 weeks) I want to have it down to 8 mins flat. That is how you train with a 3 month old. You accept that there will be things that you cannot change, like Henry waking up a bunch. What I can control is my willingness to suck it up and train hard anyway. 

So here is the scary part. From here on out I will post up pictures of my physical progress once a month. Part of this is accountability and part of it is to help other C-section moms see what normal looks like. Twelve weeks post C-section, this is what I looked like: 

Weight- 194.3 lbs

Body Fat Percentage- 42.77%
Waist (narrowest point)- 38 inches
Navel- 38 inches
Hips- 45.5 inches
Thigh- 26 inches
Neck- 15 inches
Bicep- 12.75 inches
Forearm- 11 inches
Wrist- 7 inches

I will admit that seeing this is hard for me. But I don't have to stay here. Yes I had major abdominal surgery so I need to train smart and safe You can read the training plan that I am following here.

The real question isn't if I can do it, it is how badly do I want it?

Psalm 139;19 says that "God knit me together in my mother's womb". Isn't it amazing to be a part of the miracle of birth? Isn't it amazing what God made our bodies to do? Your body will look different. Your body will feel different. But your body is incredible and don't you let anyone tell you otherwise.

C-Section Saturday: 7 Reasons to avoid a C-Section

Welcome to the Farr Fitness' C-Section Saturdays. 

As I have mentioned before I will be using Saturdays to discuss, teach, and learn about C-Section recovery for athletes. Be prepared, some of the information that we discuss will be graphic, but I assure you that I will do my best to cover each topic with the grace of the true southern lady that I am. With that being said lets jump in! 

Recently I wrote a post in which I said that I would strongly counsel any woman against a C-section. I experienced a lot of backlash about that post, and I would like to set the record straight. Make no mistake, while I encourage women to recover from their C-sections, I do not encourage women to have C-sections at all. There are several reasons for that, and I'll get to those in a minute but first, have you ever seen a C-section? Go ahead and take a look at this one.

 I'll wait. 

Ok, now that you have that lovely little gem in your mind, realize that was just a short clip. The real deal is not nearly as simple as they make it look on television. 

In the United States of America, the C-section rate is up to 33%. They are having their abdomen cut open, in order to bring a child in to this world. Think about that for just a second. 33% of all women giving birth in the USA are doing so via C-section.  If 33% are doing it, why then do I counsel against it? Here are my 7 Reasons to avoid a C-Section

• A C-Section is a major abdominal surgery. It therefore comes with all the risks of major surgery.   
• The recovery is months to years (depending on how yours went) despite what doctors may tell you. You just put your body through an incredible marathon event (pregnancy) that requires recovery and now you have to recover from major surgery as well.
• That awful pulling you feel on one side of your incision,.. yeah that doesn't ever go away. In fact, you can expect to feel that for the rest of your life. 
• Oh and on the other side you might be like me and experience complete numbness. No feeling, at all. 
• Breastfeeding an infant (especially a larger one!) when your abdomen is cut open is incredibly painful. Many C-section mothers find themselves unable to continue nursing due to the amount of pain it places on their abdomens.
• Despite the work of birth rights activists across the country, the old adage of "once a C-section, always a C-section" is still very true. Just because a VBAC is listed as a service at a hospital doesn't mean that it is encouraged or even really offered to expecting mothers.
• If you notice that baby was puled away from mama just as soon as it was out. That is common practice with C-sections in the United States. I was not able to see either of my boys after they were born until I was moved in to recovery. It doesn't exactly allow for mother and child bonding. 

In conclusion, I am grateful that C-sections exist or my sons and I might not. They are a wonderful tool to save the lives of women and children in danger. However, the use of C-sections to avoid labor pains or to prevent "vaginal stretching" is a gross misuse of modern medicine. Before you allow doctors to talk you in to an elective C-section because it will be easier, please carefully do your own research to determine if that is the right choice for you. If I could go back in time and somehow magically be able to give birth naturally (and safely) to my boys, and avoid the horrific scars and lengthy recovery time, I would.

C-Section Saturday: Getting Back to Work

Welcome to the Farr Fitness' C-Section Saturdays. 

As I have mentioned before I will be using Saturdays to discuss, teach, and learn about C-Section recovery for athletes. Be prepared, some of the information that we discuss will be graphic, but I assure you that I will do my best to cover each topic with the grace of the true southern lady that I am. With that being said lets jump in! 

Normally when a mom says that she is getting back to work after having a baby, people envision a woman going back to an office job of some sort or maybe back in to a classroom. My world doesn't work quite like that. For me, getting back to work means getting back to the gym. 

Don't get me wrong. I have coached while I was recovering, but up until this point I had hardly lifted at all. I had picked up weights to put them away, or lifted the occasional 45 pound bar for a smaller athlete. But that is it. 

I missed it, a lot.  

Brian and I went out in an evening when we didn't have training and he helped me work up to workable numbers for all of our lifts. I was so encouraged at the end of the session. It felt so good to put my body through the movements again. At the same time though, it was SUPER humbling to have to start at 5 pounds on every single lift. 

But, you have to start somewhere. 

So, for all of you other athletes out there, here are my numbers 8 weeks post C-Section:

**********************

I will admit that seeing these numbers is hard for me. 

But I don't have to stay here. 

Yes I had major abdominal surgery so I need to train smart and safe. I have now been training cardio a whole two weeks and this is my first day back to strength training. I know that it is going to be a long and slow road, but I am ready. 

The real question isn't if I can do it, it is how badly do I want it?

Psalm 139;19 says that "God knit me together in my mother's womb". Isn't it amazing to be a part of the miracle of birth? Isn't it amazing what God made our bodies to do? Your body will look different. Your body will feel different. But your body is incredible and don't you let anyone tell you otherwise.

C-Section Saturday: 8 Weeks Post-Op

Welcome to the Farr Fitness' C-Section Saturdays. 

As I have mentioned before I will be using Saturdays to discuss, teach, and learn about C-Section recovery for athletes. Be prepared, some of the information that we discuss will be graphic, but I assure you that I will do my best to cover each topic with the grace of the true southern lady that I am. With that being said lets jump in! 

Weeks seven and eight have been a bit of a blur. I was cleared to train last week so I've been working hard at that. Henry is sleeping through the night (mostly). He typically does cluster feeding from 7-9 and then goes down for bed at 9:30. He wakes up at around 4:30 in the morning and we do a dream feed and he goes back to sleep. At this point it is usually somewhere around 5:30-45 in the morning so instead of going back to bed and awkwardly waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle, I go train.   

Running with a whole bunch of loose skin on my stomach feels pretty gross. I am not a fan of it at all. In fact it was so difficult for me at first that I almost quit running all together. But that kind of defeats the purpose of running doesn't it?!? So, instead I am using these special underwear designed for C-section recovery. My sister-in-law, Dr. Kate is a Physical Therapist that specializes in Women's Health. After my first C-section with William, Kate told me about compression clothing and how helpful it can be postpartum, especially for C-Section moms. I didn't believe her and I thought they were ugly. No way was I going to wear old lady compression clothing....

Now however, I am a convert. 

Don't get me wrong, they are not going to be gracing the cover of Victoria's Secret anytime soon, but they do a great job of helping to pull my belly button to my spine and engage my abdomen. Which makes following my training plan much more enjoyable. I strongly encourage you to consider purchasing at least on pair of these for your post C-section recovery. 

While we are on the subject of training, make sure that you are wearing good shoes and clothes that fit well. The last thing you want to do is fall when you are recovering from a major surgery. 

Here are some of the things I wear when I run:

Underwear- C-Panty
Sports Bra- Motherhood Maternity
Pants- Danskin Capri
Shirt- A tank like these 
Headband- I have thick curly hair, this is a necessity!
Socks- These are great
Shoes- I LOVE THESE SHOES!

So here is the scary part. Ever two weeks or so I will post up pictures of my physical progress. Part of this is accountability and part of it is to help other C-section moms see what normal looks like. Four weeks post C-section, this is what I looked like: 

Weight- 203 lbs

Body Fat Percentage- 44.93%
Waist (narrowest point)- 39.5 inches
Navel- 39 inches
Hips- 46 inches
Thigh- 27 inches
Neck- 15 inches
Bicep- 12.75 inches
Forearm- 10 inches
Wrist- 7 inches

I will admit that seeing this is hard for me. But I don't have to stay here. Yes I had major abdominal surgery so I need to train smart and safe You can read the training plan that I am following here. 

The real question isn't if I can do it, it is how badly do I want it?

Psalm 139;19 says that "God knit me together in my mother's womb". Isn't it amazing to be a part of the miracle of birth? Isn't it amazing what God made our bodies to do? Your body will look different. Your body will feel different. But your body is incredible and don't you let anyone tell you otherwise.

C-Section Saturday: Trolls and Giving Up

Welcome to the Farr Fitness' C-Section Saturdays. 

As I have mentioned before I will be using Saturdays to discuss, teach, and learn about C-Section recovery for athletes. Be prepared, some of the information that we discuss will be graphic, but I assure you that I will do my best to cover each topic with the grace of the true southern lady that I am. With that being said lets jump in! 

After having my C-section recovery stuff up for a while now I have received a lot of feedback. Some of it has been positive and encouraging (thank you gym ladies!) and some of it has been truly awful. When a group of internet trolls found my blog they left a bunch pf hateful comments here on this page and on my personal blog I have heard comments like, "You should be ashamed of yourself" "Hideous" "Lost cause" "disgusting" and worse. 

I will confess, it hurt my heart deeply. In fact, I almost stopped my project all together. However, after a lot of prayer and I talking with B and one of my favorite mentors, I was left with a choice. 

Do I go on and continue writing to encourage and uplift other C-Section moms, or do I stop because some lonely, miserable people said the exact things to me that I am fighting against? 

The answer is: I will continue. 

I will continue to write and document my recovery because I believe in my cause. 

A c-section is a horrific, barbaric surgery that literally cuts your body in half, but it is also a life-saving necessity for some of us. It is a gift that allows us to get to experience our children, and continue to live when 100 years ago we would not have been able to do so. That is not to say that I would recommend it. In fact, having experienced two C-sections first hand I can honestly say that I would strongly discourage any woman from having a C-section unless it was a medical necessity. This is not to "shame" anyone but rather to acknowledge the seriousness of major abdominal surgery and the amount of recovery that is required from it. 

That is why I believe in my cause. Because you can recover from it, no matter what anyone else says. 

I believe that every single woman that has had a C-section deserves to know what it will be like. She deserves to see what her body will be like. She deserves to know that she is not alone. I will continue to write so that other athletes, other women will be able to say, "I know I can do this, I have seen it done". 

C-Section Saturday: 6 Weeks Post-Op

Welcome to the Farr Fitness' C-Section Saturdays. 

As I have mentioned before I will be using Saturdays to discuss, teach, and learn about C-Section recovery for athletes. Be prepared, some of the information that we discuss will be graphic, but I assure you that I will do my best to cover each topic with the grace of the true southern lady that I am. With that being said lets jump in! 

Weeks five and six have been good. I got my incision checked again and so far it looks a lot better. I am getting up and down the stairs like a champ. I am going grocery shopping with both boys. I am getting William (yes, 34 pound William) in and out of is crib on my own. I know this is a little sooner than expected but when you are an Army wife, you have to learn to improvise. With Brian having some special training this week he just can't be here to get William so we are making it work. 

When you have a C-section your skin that normally hangs down over your abdomen after birth can become problematic. Since it is heating up keeping my incision clean and dry is super important. My doctor told me to buy this soap and to use in specifically on my incision. When he first said it, I thought he was crazy but he says it will help everything "stay the wt it is supposed to". I'm taking his word for it and giving it a shot. 

I am able to walk more and for longer duration, but pushing that double stroller around is NO JOKE. Bracing my abdomen on the turns seems to be the hardest part. That, and the fact that one of my two seems to hate our daily walks. Does anybody have any tricks for helping kids to enjoy the infant carrier? 

So here is the scary part. Ever two weeks or so I will post up pictures of my physical progress. Part of this is accountability and part of it is to help other C-section moms see what normal looks like. Six weeks post C-section, this is what I looked like: 

Weight- 210 pounds

Body Fat Percentage- 47.56%
Waist (narrowest point)- 41 inches
Navel- 42 inches
Hips- 47 inches
Thigh- 27 inches
Neck- 15 inches
Bicep- 12.75 inches
Forearm- 10 inches
Wrist- 7 inches

I will admit that seeing this is hard for me. But I don't have to stay here. Yes I had major abdominal surgery so I need to train smart and safe. I will soon (NEXT WEEK Y'ALL!) be cleared to start training (lightly) again! I will be sure to post up the workout that I am doing soon.  

The real question isn't if I can do it, it is how badly do I want it?

Psalm 139;19 says that "God knit me together in my mother's womb". Isn't it amazing to be a part of the miracle of birth? Isn't it amazing what God made our bodies to do? Your body will look different. Your body will feel different. But your body is incredible and don't you let anyone tell you otherwise.