Find Love in Fitness

I have 7.5 weeks left (hopefully) and I still find just as much love in working out as ever. In fact, I might just love it even more after seeing so many positive effects it has had on my pregnancy. My doctor says that staying active is one of the best things you can do while being pregnant and she anticipates an easy final few weeks and delivery as a result. We will see! So what's been up in my pregnant fitness world?? Daily  runs or walks with JJ. We both start the day at 6am with about a mile walk. Right after work we also try to run 3-4 miles or walk for 45 minutes if it is too hot to run. JJ has been so great for me and baby girl. I love seeing him so excited and I love the way it makes me feel after a long day of sitting at work (sidenote: sitting all day makes me feel miserable.) We also try to do a short family walk before bed. This has become a fun tradition that we can't wait to include our new family member in! People ask me "isn't running uncomf...

Here I am at the 6 month mark of being pregnant! Hard to believe in 3 months we will be meeting Baby Jaworski (name still being decided.) The last 6 months have been amazing and challenging. The fact that my body is able to grow a human being blows my mind, but I absolutely love it. I am happy to say I have continued to work out daily since day 1 of being pregnant. Has it been easy? No! Has it been worth it? Absolutely... so far! So, what has been so hard about working out while being pregnant? It is NOT the fact that I am carrying 15 extra pounds around. Although it is challenging and eye opening that everything is harder when you are bigger. It is NOT the fact that my body is working overtime to grow this little girl. In fact, this is fascinating to me and only makes me want to continue to workout so my body can be healthy enough to help grow this baby and result in an easier delivery and recovery. It is NOT that I am so tired some days because I wake up every...

Happy Monday! I am very happy to be saying that I accomplished my goal of completing the Mini Marathon on Saturday. You see, I have been doing the Mini for the past 10+ years. It always falls on my birthday weekend so it has been one of my favorite weekends for a long time! A little different scenario this year- I have a 5.5 month old baby girl growing inside of me! Here is my story on how I completed 13.1 miles while pregnant. October 2014: Me, Jake and my parents sign up for the Mini Marathon in May.  December 2014: Jake and I find out baby Jaworski will be here in August. We tell our families. My parents ask about the Mini Marathon and I say without hesitation "I am still doing it."   January-March 2015: I start to follow a beginners training plan (Hal Higdon) knowing that I just cannot push it. First few weeks of training were miserable being in my first trimester. I felt like I was running with the flu every time. I continued to take it easy unt...

Happy Sunday! Hope everyone had a great, active weekend. Even though the weather was not ideal, I managed to log 10 miles for the two days. Saturday JJ and I ran 3 miles, and today I ran 4 miles then grabbed JJ and ran 3 more. We are really ready for warmer temps consistently .  JJ get so tired after runs. He falls asleep everywhere! Baby Jaworski is also doing great! I am 18 weeks and feeling good. I still get occasional exhaustion, but overall I've felt good and kept up with all of my workouts. I often get asked why I like to run or why I like to workout. The answer is easy for me. The endorphins from my workout make me feel amazing and working out has become a part of me, a part of my daily schedule and a part of my family. We use fitness to spend time together, stay healthy and reach goals together which are three things all families should have on their radar (in my opinion).  Another reason I truly love to run and workout is because I know there are people out there who ...

Hello! It sure has been a busy but great few weeks for me. It is hard to believe I am already almost 16 weeks pregnant with baby Jaworski. The last post I talked about how I am keeping up with running and working out even though I am pregnant. I am happy to announce I am still keeping up with my running and other workouts. Before I get into those details...another exciting family announcement that ties well with my love for fitness.    This is JJ! Our new baby. Jake and I adopted him from a lab rescue, Love of Labs. He is absolutely perfect and not to mention he loves running, walking and hiking! I have always wanted a dog that could go on runs with me and JJ has fulfilled that for me. He is 1 (ish) and already so well trained. A farmer took him into a shelter a few months ago and then Love of Labs fixed up his attack wounds and put him up for adoption. Dogs are amazing sidekicks for living a healthy, active lifestyle.  Now, on to pregnancy + fitness. Since hitting the s...

Happy Sunday! I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day! Jake and I announced some pretty exciting news yesterday: That's right! Baby Jaworski will be here in August and we couldn't be more excited. We found out Christmas Eve, and let me just say it has been one heck of a ride these last few months. This shirt couldn't be more accurate with Mini Marathon training underway. Bye bye to 8 minute miles for this mama to be!  Let me start by saying pregnancy is NOT a handicap, it is a challenge and a blessing rolled into one. Since finding out, I have continued to work out pretty much every day despite feeling pretty miserable. For those of you who don't know, the first trimester is filled with exhaustion, sleepiness, nausea and mood changes. Therefore, most of my 530am workouts have been eliminated and I have been working out at night and/or at our home gym. I have been determined to stay active and continue my fitness routine throughout this pregnancy. My w...

Box Jumps! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We have traveled to Chicago, Bloomington, and South Bend- and are so lucky we got to see all of our family. I sure am happy to be back and have the whole week off of work. A week off of work means lots of good workouts planned. I am dedicating this post to a workout of the week, which is box jumps this week. There are so many reasons to love this workout and the benefits are amazing! I like to do these at the gym (LA Fitness), but they can be done absolutely anywhere, including your home with no equipment. I take a stepper and put 4 lifts under each side to make the stepper high enough to jump on. You can use actual boxes if your gym has them, stairs,  sturdy ottomans at home, even your bed!  After running a couple of miles I love to do the following with box jumps: 15 jump ups 15 dips ( arms) 25 abs Repeat 4 times You can also jump completely over the box, jump up to one leg, go faster, slower, really whatever challenges yo...