I also ran a 5k (for real), ran 2 training 5k (at least), and signed up for a virtual half marathon. I missed out on signing up for a 10k at Disney (forgot to account for time zone differences and logged in 7 minutes after it opened and it was sold out).

Time for the 5k race: just under 41 minutes

PR for training 5k? about 37 minutes

Progress. I’m definitely making progress. I noticed this past weekend that a set of steps I am usually a little winded going up?  I felt like I could run them! I LOVED that feeling, that knowledge that in the past I couldn’t do something that I can now.

So, week 11 I was able to compare to weeks 3 and 7, and guess what?  My “starting” number of jumping jacks for week 11 was the ending number for week 3! How cool is that?!

In case you were wondering what I was doing there, I was doing 30 seconds as many as I could, followed by 90 second rest – 10x, trying to increase the amount each time. Let me tell you, 46 jumping jacks in 30 seconds?!  That’s really moving.

Day 1 – I found the weights were almost too light, so either increase weights OR increase difficulty of exercise. Then, the cardio progression – you do 10 rounds of 30 seconds followed by 90 seconds of rest. In week 3 I did jumping jacks, so I thought I would do the same and compare.

LOVED seeing the progress I have made (yeah I know the weeks are flip flopped…oh well).

But, you know, sensory issues…they’re hard to deal with because most people see a child who looks normal, who can pretty much talk fairly normally, who can seemingly DO things normally.  They seem to be able to function, yet, their reactions are extreme.  I know that sometimes the parenting style can seem to others to be spoiling them a little, or pandering to their needs, or something.  I know, for a fact, that when your child is having a meltdown tantrum in public that others DO judge your abilities as a parent, and I know you will question your own abilities.

People, parenting children who need help with integrating all the sensory input is hard.

Not only that, it’s hard on a marriage too.  *Family…don’t worry, we’re good*  Families who have children with Autism have a high divorce rate.  It’s because the stress of having to deal with the quirks inherent in Autistic children is tough.  It’s also tough because it’s extremely difficult to find someone who is willing to babysit your child, if your child can even be left with them.  Which in turn causes parents NOT to get away and focus on themselves.

Now, here is where I’m going to pull in adoption.  MANY adopted children, especially those adopted internationally, have sensory issues.  Those sensory issues can be totally misunderstood.  For example…

a child loves to jump on the bed, run through the house, be tossed up in the air by Daddy, go outside and swing high, go fast down a slide, etc.   That child is seeking sensory input.  This was one of my children.

another child can eat a meal and half of it be spit out, and yet they are starving.  The things spit out can be the same of what they have eaten in the past.  Like they love mashed potatoes, but diced potatoes are spit out.  Or they love chicken cut up, but can’t stand pulled chicken (like you’d eat BBQ style on a bun).    Those children likely have ORAL sensory issues.  Yes…I’ve dealt with this too.

another child  will love listening to music and sing, and crave NOISE of any kind while another child will cover their ears or whine.  Or sometimes a child will just start screaming and crying and you have no idea, only you had the music CD playing in the car.  I had a child who anytime music was played around them, they cried.  I didn’t put things together for months, but sensory issues to sound will still set them off today.  They don’t go from  calm to whiney to tantrum over a span of time, they go from calm to tantrum in like 1 minute.  While another one of my children, if it is too quiet in the house, they will make noise.  They seem to crave that noise.

Some children will be able to vocalize that the shirt with the applique has a scratchy backside to it that is rubbing them wrong. Sometimes a sensory input can be to temperatures – take wearing 2 shirts (you know a t-shirt with a sweatshirt over it) in the dead of winter. Sometimes just the knowledge they are doing so will set off an overload. Wearing a bathing suit under regular clothes to the pool? Impossible for some kids. Tags. seams. applique backs. dresses that tie in the back. ALL cause problems for one child.

In my newly adopted children, I noticed, that even IF they didn’t have sensory issues from living in an orphanage (they were both in foster care) they DID have sensory issues from trying to process all the different sensory input they were now dealing with…all that NEW sensory input.  It would make my girls a little more cranky than normal.

Princess2’s predilection for drawing on all surfaces?  In a way it’s sensory related.  She NEEDS to use her finger and hand muscles in a fine motor skill kind of way.  She was eating with chopsticks daily, she was using those muscles a LOT in China.  Here?  Not so much.   She is soothed by the feel of water flowing over her skin, it’s calming to her.  She CRAVES it.  Thus, she seeks it out.  Yes, even at times I don’t want her to do so.

First story was about a week home.  Little Miss Stubborn looked me in the eye, turned her bowl full of dry Cheerios upside down onto the floor.  What followed was the first skirmish of our stubborn war.  She refused to pick them up, and tried to show me that I could NOT make her do it.  30 minutes later I was still showing her HOW to pick up a Cheerio and put it in her bowl while repeating “Clean up the Cheerios” to her.  30 minutes of this and she finally caved and cleaned it up.   That has played out multiple times with different “things” she dumped out.  

The little Queen of Stubborn thought she did NOT have to learn English.  She held out for 6 months.  She did NOT speak English for 6 months, and refused to learn English (or at least tried to not let on she had learned some English).

She didn’t want to remain buckled in a car seat (that was a battle I’ve tried to forget).

Cleaning her room?  Dressing in appropriate outfits?  Wearing appropriate shoes?  Taking baths (while sitting)?  Eating the right foods and drinking the right drinks?  All battles which I’ve won.  She will sometimes still sneak the bad things, but she’s learned that she does have SOME control over food.  I mean, we aren’t terrible and refuse all treats for her.  We just don’t allow her a non-stop diet of candy.  

Sports?  She wanted to play soccer.  So we signed her up!  The first practice she *gasp* SWEATED.  It was August.  In the deep South.  It was HOT.  Like “what did we do to deserve to BURN like this” hot.  So, after that first practice she said she did NOT want to play anymore.  I told her she had to finish out the season, and thus started the season long battle of wills.  The parents won in as much as she finished the season with the appropriate amount of time spent ON the field.  She won in the fact that we couldn’t make her run after the ball, or move from the spot 1 inch inside the line that marked the edge of the field.  We count this battle a draw.     When it was time for softball, we asked her, “Do you want to play softball?”  She replied with a question, “Do you sweat in softball?”  She did NOT play softball.

I knew with her creativity and stubborness that homeschooling would be interesting.  It is.  She has looked me in the eye when we were first starting with her and said, “Momma, you can’t make me learn to read.”  That was over three years ago.  She’s right…I can’t make her learn to read.

2 years ago she added, “You can’t make me swim.”  ::sigh::  I’ve told her that she doesn’t have to do swim team, but she must be able to swim well enough to be on swim team (which means 25 yards unassisted).  She could blow bubbles in the water last summer, and after a full year of PRIVATE swim lesssons almost weekly, she would not blow bubbles in the water anymore.  She refused to kick.  She refused to move her arms.  Today, 2016, it’s been 3 years of PRIVATE swimming lessons, one on one people.  3 years.  At $30-35 a session. Her instructor has told me, “I have NEVER had a child take this long. I have NEVER had a child be so stubborn. Even the kids with major disabilities do not take this long.” Luckily, I’m more stubborn? She can now swim 1/3 of the way across the pool doing freestyle. She can NOT float on her back. She can almost do breast stroke 100% legally. She can almost do butterfly stroke (well that would be about 30% legal).   3 years.

But, back to reading.  2 years I stopped reading things for her.  I stopped helping with games like Super Scribblenauts.  I don’t help with Minecraft.  I don’t help with other games which require READING.  She can spell words.  She creates “cards” for us all the time with words in them. It got to the point where she was interested in learning to read, but she made NO progress. None.  Zip. Zilch. It was frustrating. We finally had her tested, and she is severely dyslexic. She has auditory processing disorder. She is VERY VERY VERY ADD.

I have many many examples of her obstinate and stubborn self. But you know, without that stubbornness she would NOT have made the progress she has made in reading at this point. She works so hard.

This week we did more intense versions and a series of planks on Wednesday (10x 30 second holds with 15 seconds rest between). I even decided on Wednesday (after ALL that workout and circuits) that I would attempt to “run” a 5k, just to see because it’s my “challenge” for April 2. I did a walk/run kind of thing, and I did it.  (This was 3/9)

I feel GREAT about that time and pace.  I was only slightly worn out and sweaty afterward. What is amazing to me is that I barely made a 5K walking 3 weeks prior to this! (next photo – the Garmin tracker missed one of the indoor laps or something, I did 16 laps 3 times for 3 miles then I did 4 laps (which is .25 miles).  So, it was like 52 minutes or so.  (That was 2/17)

and then there was about Jan 15 where I could not have even attempted this.

Even better?  a NSV this week was HUGE for me!

Those shorts above? At the weight I am currently (which was high weight last summer) were perfect fit. I have NOT really lost any weight in the past 6 weeks, and I was feeling discouraged…but this?!  This re-energized me. Something is definitely changing alright.

The good news? I didn’t get as sore as last month after day 1.  I actually saw a .5 pound decrease after weeks of steadily seeing it go up, AND clothes fit looser. Paying off. But man….some days I don’t want to do the workouts!  LOL

I decided to attempt a more difficult level today…and nope.  It was quite humorous, but yeah. Nope.

week 5 day 5.

2 rounds of circuit. I lost my results from last month, but I know I have improved. 1 – I did 2 rounds. 2 – I did more difficult levels of everything. 3 – I am fairly certain I did more of the exercises per round too. I AM stronger, I can feel it. Truly that is the most important thing, I feel stronger.

Yeah right.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1  of squats, then push-ups…rest then repeat.  O.o

Then 2 cardio finishers in a row?!

I didn’t die.

I did the goblet squats, push-ups from knees (for 10->6) and elevated (5-1) on the first round.  Then bodyweight squats and elevated push-ups for the 2nd round.

For the cardio – jumping jacks (69 in a minute) and step-ups on the balance beam (49) which I am NEVER doing again, almost twisted my ankles two times and almost fell backwards at least two times, and finally almost took a nose dive over the couch…graceful I am not.

I do not think I am going to be quite as sore as last month, but I did more walking this afternoon.  

Also, I updated the “photos” and took measurements (with string and ruler) since the stupid scale is NOT budging.

Week 4 is the first test week. I don’t like tests. But I understand the need for me to be able to compare myself to what I was able to do each month and see the improvements. With that said, we were told to push ourselves.  Challenge ourselves.  While just actually exercising is pushing and challenging myself, I wanted to really sort of see what I could.

Day 1 – Cardio test.  Pick a cardio activity and push to see how long it takes for various things.  If you swim, count how many laps in 5 minutes. Run/walk/jog? How long does it take to go a mile? Row machine…something blah blah blah I don’t have access to at the moment.    So, really, with my swimming ability (practically non-existent), I chose run/walk/jog/gasp for breath. 1 mile in 10:51 minutes. I was hoping for 15 minute mile pace. I know I can NOT sustain that for a race of any length yet, but I was happy.

Day 3 – This is the strength test day. Do as many reps as possible in 1 minute of each of the following:

Squat – 5 lb goblet squat – 39

Push – from knees – 25

Pull – batwings 3 lb – 40

Deadlift – dumb bell hang 3 lb – 34

Shoulders – dumb bell overhead 3 lb – 38

Core – plank hands and knees 1 minute 48 seconds

Burpees (really?!  I mean REALLY?!!!!) – 12 (full ones with push up from knees and they were NOT pretty)

Most of these I started out great, thinking, oh this will be easy maybe I should have gone harder.  It’s amazing how long a minute is and how quickly I tired out!

Day 5 – Interval Weight Training – this is a repeat of week 1 day 5 (to see progress).  Well sort of a repeat, sneaky program leaders made it tougher!  So, the idea was to do 2 rounds of 10-2 or 10-1 reps of an exercise following immediately by 2 minutes of cardio, followed by 2-3 minutes of rest.

1st 2 rounds – overhead presses followed by running up and down our stairs in the house.  Easy peasy on the rounds, but the 2 minutes of running up and down stairs?!  Without FALLING?!  yeah, not so easy.  First round, 9x up and down.  Second round, I went a little slower because I almost fell on the first round, 8x.

5 minute rest where I was huffing and puffing and thinking, I could just quit.  I could. I really could.

2nd 2 rounds – deadlift/dumbbell hang followed by jumping jacks for 2 minutes.
What was I thinking?!  I mean, I barely make it through 1 minute of jumping jacks. But no, I decided to try this torture for 2 minutes.  104 jumping jacks the first time, 115 the second time.

I may or may not have fallen into a chair after that and contemplated whether I could ever move again.

Week 4 in the books. I didn’t die.  That’s my motto from the week…I didn’t die.  LOL

I was google searching on an actor in Outlander trying to find out some trivia fact that I wondered about (I think ages of characters because I had been floored by the age of an actor in Hawaii Five-O).  Anyway, it led me to his challenge, My Peak Challenge and his favorite charity – Bloodwise which researches blood cancers (which is close to my heart).  This seemed like fate. I wanted to get fit, a program that encourages fitness at whatever level you happen to be and supports blood cancer research.

I started with the PeakStreak – mine was modest. I was determined to keep up with the girls at the park.

That was January 7, 2016.  I couldn’t do the monkey bars. I couldn’t do the sideways rockwall climb thing.  I could balance some. I could swing. I refused to even try the fireman pole slide!

Three weeks later we were back at the same park. I had been doing elevated push-ups and walking as much as I possibly could. I did the monkey bars! I even have video proof.  I decided that YES I could do the entire program, so I signed up.

My Peak Challenge (my personal goals/challenges for myself when I signed up):

1 – Be able to do a SINGLE pull-up.  I could barely hang on the bar and definitely could NOT move my body a single tiny bit.

2 – The nebulous “keep up with the kids” endurance.

Other than that I really did not have any ideas.  As the weeks have gone on, I have found a few other things.

3 – Run/Walk a 5K (signed up for one on April 2).

4 – Be able to hike on our mini-vacation in May without getting out of breath and being overly sore.

5 – Lose fat, gain muscle…and have clothes fit better and such.    Yes, this is nebulous as well.

She had zero phonological awareness. She could not rhyme despite understanding HOW that worked. She could not sound out letters in a word and mush them together to form a word even if she knew how to “read” that word – like the word cat.  She could read it on a flash card.  She could read it in a book.  If you took that SAME flash card, pointed out the letters and had her sound out each individual one and then mush them together?  She could NOT do it, and could not “read” the word.

She also has auditory processing disorder, which led to even more struggles with language.

But that little girl?  She inspires me with how incredibly hard she is working.