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My everyday:

I use to be a night owl, and would dread the mornings. allowing my children to wake me as my alarm clock. It made me crabby and put me in a bad mood for the remainder of the morning. I then one day realized I needed a change, to change not only my habits but my perspective. That’s when I started doing mindful mornings. Essentially a take on Tony Robbins and Hal Elrod’s miracle morning and it really changed my life. Waking up and getting my workout in as well as some time to myself to reflect, catch up on emails or do what I need to get done without interruption was what I needed to make self care a priority and get my well-being taken care of. You can read more about my mindful mornings HERE

Recently I’ve been skipping a majority of my mindful morning routine and just making time for my workout and getting ready because it’s winter and cold, and dreary. So I now wake up between 530-630am, some days I’m more tired than others and I allow myself some extra sleep. The boys rise time is 750am and for the most part they usually stay in their room until then which still allows me about an hour of time to myself. I’m eager to get back into my full morning routine once the weather warms up a bit.

My supplements:

I don’t eat or drink anything before my workout other than my pre-workout supplement. Sometimes I drink a tall drink of lemon water.

I take the Cara Loren bucked up girls prenatal pre-workout (pink lemonade flavor) every morning prior to working out. It’s safe for pregnant and breastfeeding women and taste really good but also gets me amped up to start sweating. You could say I’m slightly addicted, I look forward to it every morning. (I take my pre-workout in a blender bottle, it helps mix it up perfectly)

Obviously, talk with your health care provider if you have concerns or do your research. You can purchase from the bucked up girls website HERE

BCAA’s are a hot topic and under question if they actually work and are beneficial for you. I’ll let you do your own research in determining if they are right for you, but I do use the Cara Loren Bucked up girls BCAA’s (Pina Colada flavor) during my workout every day which you can purchase HERE. I like the taste better than just plain water, and I often mix it with my collagen that I buy from amazon HERE.

There are many benefits to taking collagen which include bone strength, joint health, hair, skin and nail health. I really believe that my hair is the healthiest when I take a collagen supplement, but I understand it may not be for everyone.

Lastly, I usually end my workout with a protein shake. I always use a blender bottle with about 8-12oz of almond milk to shake up my protein as it provides the best end result without a clumpy drink. You can get them anywhere but we’ve bought several from amazon HERE. My favorite protein is by Orgain, the vanilla or chocolate flavor, but I also like the Vega Cold Brew kind. Both are certified vegan and gluten free. I also occasionally have jays protein by 1st Phorm, they offer several super yummy flavors and do offer a vegan kind but he gets the level 1 and it’s tasty.

If you’re wanting to try out the Orgain protein you can get 30% off your first purchase using code: mariwags when shop on their direct site HERE.

My attire:

I have a variety of workout wear, I love athleisure clothes and pretty much live in that everyday. I love me some good high quality leggings (AKA expensive) but I also enjoy a good deal. I own about 6 pairs of the colorfolkala leggings on amazon and they’re only $23. I’ve posted about them several times and have had them for almost a year now and they still hold up. You can purchase through amazon HERE. I also love my army pattern that I own by the same brand but they are a little bit more money $29 however, thicker quality. You can find them HERE.

As for sports bras I love my free people tanks, but don’t think they are always the best for high intensity workouts. I still own several and wear them nearly daily. Purchase HERE. Otherwise I just like target sports bras that you can purchase HERE, HERE, HERE or HERE for a nursing friendly one.

My Workout:

/:/=I try and work out everyday. As a nurse working nightshift though, I sometimes just don’t have the energy to get up so I choose to sleep instead. A usual work weekend for me looks like… work out mon-fri, may or may not wake up early to work out saturday/sunday before work and then work out after I sleep on monday. If you didn’t know I work 12 hour night shifts so on my days I work I would wake up around 3/330 to work out and get ready, cook dinner before I leave my house at 6pm to head into work. I get home around 8am the next day, head to bed and then wake up around 3/330 again to work out. Sleep is very important when working shift work though so sometimes that just trumps working out and that’s okay.

I have been using the sweat app as my work outs for over a year now. It’s convenient because it’s on my phone, I can take it anywhere at anytime, and if you do the kayla workouts you don’t usually need more than just some dumbells to get through your workout. I am currently doing the Power at home program by Kelsey Wells. It requires more gym equipment and I would say is more strength training which is nice to switch things up. Other than the luxury of a daycare at a fitness center, I have never been a fan of packing up and driving to a gym to get my work out in. Home workouts are just what I prefer. It’s easier for me, it’s more convenient and I feel like I save a lot of time just walking downstairs rather than getting everyone ready, driving, and checking everyone in at the fitness center. Whatever you prefer, do it because you enjoy it.

Want a FREE weeks trial of the sweat app? Click HERE

What my typical week looks like. Mon/Wed/Fri I do 10-20 minutes of cardio followed by a resistance workout in the sweat app (currently doing the power at home program). Tuesday/Thursday I will do 30-45 minutes straight cardio on either the stair stepper or stationary bike or a combination of both. Saturday/Sunday I will do 10-30 minutes of cardio mixed with a challenge workout of any kind on the sweat app. Sometimes I will do a workout with jay instead. In the summer months I usually walk the boys everyday around our neighborhood, to the park or on a family walk which is just on top of my morning work out.

Postpartum, I started working out at 6weeks. I did two weeks of the post-pregnancy program and then two weeks of the power post-pregnancy program and then jumped right into the BBG workouts by Kayla Itsines. I had to take lots of breaks in the beginning and modified a lot of moves until my core strength started coming back but it slowly got easier and I slowly got better and stronger. In the beginning months I would shoot for working out 4-5 times a week and have progressed to 7 days a week.

Diastasis Recti is very common in postpartum mothers. For months I was eating healthy and working out and was just really dissatisfied with how my stomach was looking despite how hard I was working to get into shape. I had several people suggest going in to see if I had DR and I kind of ignored it for a while because I didn’t want to make an excuse for my stomach being the way it was, and was so grateful for birthing three babies so was actually okay with the fact that might just be how it is forever type of thing. But I then after reading that abs and core work outs could harm DR and make it worse I decided to go ahead and schedule an appointment with a physical therapist that specializes in pelvic floor muscles. I figured that if there isn’t anything I can do to change it then fine, but if there is, than why not learn the correct way to strengthen my core so that I can heal it and improve my pelvic floor strength. It turns out I had about a 2 inch gap in my lower abs. Seeing a PT was important to me to learn the best exercises for me and what I specifically needed to work out. There are tons of pinterest/internet DR workouts out there, but how do you know what you really need to work on without being seen and evaluated.

My Home Gym:

We have slowly acquired a home gym. It’s far from fancy, but it’s functional and gets the job done. Everything we own is second hand either from craigs list, facebook market place or play it again sports. We have a bench press, stationary bike (not a pelaton) a stair stepper, leg press, and a handful of weights, bands and a ball. It’s in in our basement with a pool table in the way and a shit ton of toys and sits next to our downstairs family room. If they are up during our workouts, they either watch the TV down there or play with their toys while we work out. Below are some pics of the space.