C25K before switching to hardcore exercise - yes?

[Kelissi]

I'm pretty couch potato-y right now. I'm 5'6, weigh 130, so I could afford to drop about 15 pounds and still be in a healthy weight and BMI.

I want to get up in the morning and run on the treadmill for an hour 6 days a week when we are actively trying, but I know there's no way I'm going to be able to do that if I just get off the couch and try! I'm planning to actively TTC starting in July or August. I thought I'd start doing C25K to build up my endurance without changing my eating, and then 6 weeks before my July cycle, go over to 6 days a week of running for an hour and also cutting to an intake of 1500 cals/day (factoring in for the cals burned in exercise).

I already eat pretty healthily, so if I start C25K I'm probably going to lose *some* weight. Should I try to keep the weight on (oh, no, I'd have to eat cake, poor me), and then let the weight come off during the 6 weeks right before we actively start trying, or just let the weight do what it's going to do? How close to the sway do you try to have weight loss happen if you have some to lose?

I should mention that as I'm typing this I am eating Talenti Sea Salt and Caramel Gelato. Oh my lord, ladies, yum.

[maidentomother]

I think the sooner in advance (up yo 90 days before) of TTC you start exercising daily, the better. I definitely wouldn't worry about exactly when/how the weight comes off, either. It is very common for pink swayers to lose 10+ lbs in the first month or two and then cease to lose any more, and often it can take 6 months or more to successfully conceive. So maintaining a recently lower weight is probably just as good if not better than being actively in the process of losing.

Of course the one caveat is you don't want to become too thin and risk losing ovulation, so keep that in mind. Do you have regular/non-long cycles? Did you conceive your boys quickly?

I love your profile pic, btw! :)

[Kelissi]

Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply!

At 130, I'm actually weighing more than I ever have, with the exception of pregnancy (and there I think I maxed around 145, although I can't remember totally). Typically I weigh between 120 and 130, so being around 115 should be fine! As far as ovulation goes, sometimes it seems like I can't seem to stop getting pregnant - I even got pregnant with a Paragard in :). DS1 took two months to conceive, DS2 was a surprise when my cervix grabbed a condom, and I had a miscarriage after conceiving with the Paragard in (we decided to pull it, even though it had a high risk of m/c, because the risks of keeping it in were also high and scarier to me - things like sepsis in the second trimester, yikes.). I also get to take a Fertility Awareness Method class with a friend who is an expert over the next three months, so that will be awesome for really really learning my ovulation signs (I've read TCOYF, but am still totally new to temping and charting).

And thank you for the sweet words about the picture! Both my profile and my avatar are with DS2, who I call our little Rohirrim because I am a huge Tolkien nerd - his middle name is one of the Riders of Rohan. I am so excited to be pregnant and wearing a baby again soon!

[maidentomother]

Based on that, I think starting in advance by easing into the excercise is a great plan. I definitely recommend charting, too - though your sway may mess up your cycle, and we consider that a good thing.

I'm sorry about your loss (I was terrified of getting pg when I had my Paragard), I think I would have done the same, though.

Nerdy names are awesome!

[Kelissi]

I'm using the Glow app, and really liking it for charting (although I wish it had more options for describing CM - maybe that's just me using too many adjectives, though).

The loss was hard, but pulling the Paragard was a kind of no-brainer for us. After having had a babe in the NICU (DS1 was born at 28 weeks at 2 lb due to pre-eclampsia), we weren't about to risk something happening again that was preventable. It was also a very, very surprise pregnancy, obviously - that babe's due date would have been on DS2's 2nd birthday, which, for me, is really really close spacing! Honestly, when I found out I was pregnant, I sobbed and sobbed - although I came around soon after, and then sobbed through the loss too. It's definitely harder now than it was then, surprisingly, because I thought, "It would have been really difficult timing if that pregnancy had stuck." Now that I'm wrestling with DH about Baby 3, though, it makes it *so* hard that I was pregnant and had a loss.

Nerdy names are absolutely awesome. Both of my kids have one semi-unusual but not totally weird name and one funky name (their middles are Gwydion and Theoden). That way, I figure, if they want to use their classic name they can, but if they want to use their more unique middle name they can, too! As a Kelley, I wish that my name were more unique, and my middle name is actually my great-grandfather's last name and is totally unusable as a first name, so I wanted my kiddoes to have that option if they choose to use it!

[atomic sagebrush]

I think it's fine to do that with the warning that sometimes some of us boy moms LURVE the types of very regimented programs like C25k where progress is very incremental and easy to see, so I would want you to be sure to give it some time afterwards (which is what you're planning) with a less controlled program. :)

[Kelissi]

I actually just got home from my first C25K in, well, about a year, and, YIKES, was I out of shape, even with yoga! I'm glad to be starting now, since I want to start TTC in August, and there was no way I was going to be able to maintain an hour of good cardio in just a couple of months.

So, right now I'm C25K-ing every other day. My exercise plan for when I'm swaying (which I'm sure we'll get into in more detail when I purchase a personalized plan, which I'll be doing within the week as soon as I have a few more dollars in Paypal!) is daily moderate yoga (I love yoga first thing in the morning - it keeps me relaxed and grounded) and then daily intense cardio (probably at night, alternating type every other day between 60 min of running/fast walking and 60 min of elliptical, giving myself one break night where I drink wine and watch a movie with DH). How do you think that sounds? How soon before we're actively TTC (planning on August) should I bump it up to the intense exercise - 6 weeks-ish, right?

[atomic sagebrush]

Sounds great! i would give it 6 weeks before attempt. :)

[Kelissi]

Awesome. Off to a lavender epsom salt bath for these legs now, because I'm worried that I won't be walking tomorrow if I don't give 'em a soak now ;).