FREE CrossFit class every Sunday at noon! One mother's mission to spread the word about fitness and raise a healthy family.

Pregnancy - 37.5 weeks 10/19/11



Well it's been a few days since my last post and although I haven't worked out since 10/7, we have been busy.  I've decided to take the rest of my pregnancy off from the gym since it's been a real challenge the last few times I went in. The most difficult things I've been dealing with are the inability to breathe (even during strength training) and the strange sensation in my hips.  My hips don't feel sturdy anymore and I've noticed some cramping when walking for a few hours at a time.  The best way to describe it I guess is that they feel unstable as if they may pop out of joint which could be due to the hormone relaxin.  Wikipedia, "Relaxin widens the pubic bone and facilitates labor; it also softens the cervix (cervical ripening), and relaxes the uterine musculature. Thus, for a long time, relaxin was looked at as a pregnancy hormone."


Instead of focusing on training, I've been spending some quality time with my 2.5-year-old daughter who's world is about to be turned upside down by her baby brother's arrival.  We've been to The San Diego Zoo a few times, Balboa Park, a pumpkin patch, Disneyland, the beach and plenty of parks and play-dates with her friends.  


I'm really looking forward to joining everyone back at CrossFit Elysium and miss training with my fellow athletes.  Here are a few pics from our adventures. 


Merry-go-round at Balboa Park


"The Scary Lady"


Visiting the hippos at The Zoo




There was a true connection with these two, so cute!



A pumpkin patch in Bonita





Trying to find our way out of the corn maze





Another day at The Zoo

10/7/11 WOD - 36 weeks pregnant

I trained with the 9:30 a.m. Elysium class today. I decided to take a good break as my hip joints feel pretty loose.  The hormone relaxin has definitely kicked in.  We were at Disneyland last week and I felt my hip pop a few times due to the several hours of walking.

Warm-up: CrossFit warm up x 2

Strength only today: 4 worksets of max rep shoulder to overhead.  I went back and forth between the push press and push jerk at 80% of my three rep max (or 95 lbs).

***Score: 14, 13, 12, 10 all at 95 lbs

Here is an example of all three presses:

BIO

I discovered at an early age that being active and fit feels great, so health and fitness have always played a major role in my life. When I was younger I was into dancing, track and field, rollerblading and bicycling. I enjoyed running and skiing all through my teens and twenties, and ran on the cross country team at CSU, Chico. After college, I trained for and ran several competitive races including the Silver Strand Half Marathon. Later I joined a big cookie-cutter gym, heavy on machines, where I designed my own workouts based on out-of-date methods I learned in college.

After my daughter, Marlie was born in early 2009, I really turned up the heat on my workouts to get back in shape. I followed my usual old routine including a moderate diet but was never able to quite get back to my original shape. A friend who was also a new mom invited me to her home a few times where they had a CrossFit garage gym. I was hooked after the first workout! It was different, intense, and best of all, not monotonous or boring. They were constantly doing something new. In only a few months, I had my pre-pregnancy body back and it was even better than before—this time I was stronger than ever, despite my previous attempts on the weight machines. Another great motivator is that the workouts are generally 30 - 45 minutes including warm-up and cool down, NOT 90 minutes like my old workouts. As a new busy mom, this is very important to me. It didn’t take long to realize this is the best thing I have ever done for my health.

I made more gains and improvements in my level of fitness during my first year of CrossFit than I had in the past 15 years of working out. I am now in my mid 30s and can easily say I am in the best shape of my life. I owe it all to two things, CrossFit and good nutrition. A healthy, well balanced diet that provides adequate sources of high quality protein, low glycemic index foods and the proper fats and oils will dramatically change your overall well-being and improve your workouts tremendously.

My successes inspire me to want to share this lifestyle with others. Health and nutrition have always been frontrunners in my life and those who value the same are invited to join us. I believe that if you’re going to do something, you should do it right; and when it comes to fitness training, that means CrossFit. CrossFit has been proven to work by measurable, observable, repeatable facts that we call “evidence-based fitness” so it's only a matter of time before you can see the results if you put the time in.

One of my mentors once told me I was training to “not suck at life.” I challenge you to do the same! Come by or email me and let’s get started!

Certifications/ Education-

- CrossFit Level I Trainer certification - 2009
- B.A: Journalism with an Option in Public Relations from CSU, Chico
- Minor: Health Sciences from CSU, Chico
- Basic Life Support (BLS) certified
- PADI Open Water Diver certified

Email: stacie@crossfitelysium.com