So, I have decided to post my journey here --- from the birth of our beautiful twins on Dec 3 ... to being stage ready.
I am not too sure how long the journey will take, or how well my body will respond with the nursing, and diet/exercise, but i will chronicle it here and we'll see how it goes:)
It was hard to believe that just a little over a year after my last show, i was delivering our twins. From being in immaculate condition, to looking like i swallowed a barrel, it was as much a mental transformation as it was a physical one.

Much of my first 5/6 months i couldnt keep any protein down - so I lost a ton of muscle. That and we started out with triplets, and by 12 weeks one had passed, so we were down to twins. The Dr's were saying that it would be a good idea to not work out too hard (and with the minimal food intake that stayed down - it wasnt too hard to avoid any serious exertion)

My hubby runs a health centre, so he would watch me like a hawk when i went in. His trainers would come take my weights away:) LOL
In his words - he said ... "You either train balls to the wall - or not at all" .... and he was certainly right.
I did pilates until the end of the 5th month and then most of my exercising consisted of working in the back yard building a patio. (read .... digging, hauling limestone, moving stones, building retaining walls) Not as much exertion as the gym - and in small doses - but it kept me physical.

The pregnancy was great - and I was very lucky that i had a natural delivery for both twins. They were born 6 minutes apart with very little difficulty --- One that can certainly be attributed to pre-baby training. There's something to be said about having alot of control over your muscles when you most need it!

Post baby -
I started back at the gym at 5 weeks after the twins were born - only 2 times a week.
For the last 2 weeks its been a real eye opener how much muscle i lost. My warm up weight is now my max rep weight!
Its been a little disheartening - but i know it will come back quickly

I took my time over the holidays to eat anything i wanted - mostly sugars (which to me are the worst!) I started this week eating clean - and cutting the sugars out - next week i will be going to the gym more and cycling my carbs.

My average daily intake this week has been something like this

4/5 am - 1 scoop protein shake
8 am - 1/4 cup oatmeal - 2 tbsp raisins
11 am - ground chicken and cottage cheese or ricotta cheese + nuts
3 pm - salad with chicken + nuts
6 pm - chicken breast, vegetables
9 pm - some kind of carb (rice cakes, popcorn, cheese, etc)
12/1 am - apple, berries, etc + peanut butter

I try to eat something everytime I get up to nurse through the night - even if its little.

I am drinking water before and after each nursing --- so -- appx 1 litre every 3 hours

I will post some pre-post baby pics in the morning.

D

I am so glad you are starting this journal and, as a new mom as well, I am excited to see how you do! Good luck to you and your journey and congrats on a wonderful delivery. I cannot imagine the lack of sleep you have with twins. I just have one and she is about to do me in!

Hey there, and congrats on the twins! Looking forward to keeping up with you!

You will be just fine!! I had twins, it seems like it took a good year to feel like "myself" again afterward.

I have been trying to juggle the whole gym / twins thing ... and i think that i finally got into a groove where i can train consistantly.

I started to switch up my workouts - incorperating some sprinting and tabatas, and dropped refined sugars out of my diet.
I took a long read of some of the articles on TNation this past week - and I am encorperating some of John Romaniello's circuit training with my workouts for fat loss.

Starting this week - the following is my training journal.

Day 1
Circuit Training (exact from his sample article)
Day 2
Weight Day 1 + Sprints 3x60m 3x80m
A Lat pull Down + Deadlift
BShoulder Press + Rows
c Calves + abdominals

Day 3 off
Day 4
Circuit training
Day 5
Weight day 2+ Sprints 3x 80m , 3x 60m

A Squats + Inverted pullups
B Decline press + walking lunges
C Calves + Abs

Day 6 off
Day 7 HIIT / Tabata

For diet I am going with the following

Protein 150 G
Carbs - Cycling at 50, 100, 150, 100, 50 g
Fats - remainder of calories.

I am taking 12 G Ascenta fish oil daily - the remainder of it will be primarily olive oil, meat fats, Avacado, and nuts

Hey lady! Totally feel ya on the juggling, and I have no room to complain since you have 2 little ones! :) Good job on the workout, hopefully my routine will pickup like yours... do we get pics soon? I need to find that circuit training article!

ok - SO I finally took some pics - and although they aren't the best quality here they are

Photo - 8 weeks post babies

Here they are ! :)

Photo is from the day we went to the hospital for the delivery. 36 weeks 6 days pregnant.



This past week was a good one for work outs. I managed to get in 5 times - although the workouts are less than 50 minutes including cardio - its been great to be back in the gym.

I lost so much muscle that its been hard to see what my max rep weights are. When i went back 4 weeks ago - my old warm up weight was my max rep weight!!!! That was a shock.
FOr a few weeks i was only in once or twice .... but in the last 2 weeks the work outs have been more consistant and my strength is coming back.
It has been a great opportunity to focus on form - and feeling each movement.

I still have no waist to speak of --- I was very lucky that
a) i didnt wind up having a c section ... and
B) that my abdominal wall didnt give .

The latter was both a curse and a blessing. It made it extremely hard for me to eat anything - and feel at all confortable - as the space was at a major premium. The twins managed to find space - but my diaphram moved up significantly - my stomach moved up my lungs compressed - and i was wheezing and huffing and puffing like a fictional character when i did anything! It was pretty bad - but all for a great cause.

Looking forward to a hard workout week - and starting the step mill and sprints

TNT143 wrote:
Hey lady! Totally feel ya on the juggling, and I have no room to complain since you have 2 little ones! :) Good job on the workout, hopefully my routine will pickup like yours... do we get pics soon? I need to find that circuit training article!

Here is the article
http://www.tmuscle.com/...adical_fat_loss

The sample circuit training routing is posted there.

There is also a new article on Tabata that i will be trying - i love the tabata (especially with the kettle bell) - I just don't want to feel like i am taking on more than i can handle right now:)

You look great!!!!!!!!!! You will be back in no time! Thanks for the article, and the little ones look beautiful!

OMG your twins are gorgeous, a boy and a girl lucky you, congratulations.

You were like me when I had my kids not very big in the stomach region, except you had two in yours no wonder you couldn't keep anything down, what a tiny little bump for two, lol.

And I think alot of people will be jealous of your starting weight esp after only two months of twins, I was back in the gym two weeks after I had mine, lucky I had a good free creche there, good luck with your journey.

Hey lady, just checkin in... how those babies doin? How are YOU doing?

TNT143 wrote:
Hey lady, just checkin in... how those babies doin? How are YOU doing?

I am great --- Tired and drained but great :) The babes are doing well - growing and smiling away now. We have some heart issues that we are dealing with for our little girl (the second twin) - but right now she is Asymptomatic - so we are playing it by day on that front. She has fantastic doctors - so i am confident we will get it sorted out and she will be right as rain soon.

As for how i really feel .... I feel like i should be in better shape than i am --- its been 11 weeks since the babies were born,and i honestly feel like i am holding more water under my skin NOW than i was 4 weeks ago. I havent noticed any significant change yet - but it may be becasue i am forgetting how i looked last week - and am still focusing on how i looked a year ago.
The workouts have been good - havent been able to go to the gym more than 4 times a week - and my time is pretty limited when i am there, so i have to make the most of the hour+ that i have. My strength has come back remarkably fast - I am at about 85% of my old lifing weight.

About 5 weeks ago i hit a bit of a stumbling block with my oldest twin. He was always extremely colicy and had terrible gas pains. It was enough to make a woman go loopy! I started doing alot of selective removal of items from my diet to see if that was causing an issue --- took out nuts - no luck after a week - took out milk (left all other dairy ) and no luck . After pulling my hair out - i started to do alot of research and decided to take all dairy (including whey out) and TADA....... the change was drastic. we were scream free for about a week and a half - when i foolishly grabbed a whey bar out of starvation (it was all i had in my purse) - and later ate some frozen yogurt .... and we spent almost 2 full days with the screaming again.
So, needless to say - Whey is out - milk ,cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc etc etc ... are all out. I have added some soy proteins against my better judgement -- and this past weekend managed to get some Egg protein powder - so I should be ok again.


I also have been feeling hungry 23 hours of the day - so i have been eating more than i was anticipating. Its all clean - but the extra calories (especially in the oatmeal i am eating) may be whats causing the water retention.
I will definitly take some more photos this week and hopefully we can see some kind of improvement in my physique.

Hey lady! Know the feeling about being tired and drained... and I'm right there with ya on looking at how we looked before and how we are now... its tough!

Glad to hear you figured out what's causing the issues, its terrible, but you're doing good with getting the protein back in! :)

Look forward to seeing pics soon and hope all is well!