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Okay, I get a bit giggly at my own cheesiness whenever I can work my last name – which is “Learn” – into a blog post. And now that I’ve got that tidbit out of my exhausted brain, I can tell you some of the AWESOME things I learned while on a roadtrip with Kelly Dean of The Tummy Team to Medford, OR to audit her accredited course “The Importance of Core Strength in the Prenatal and Postnatal Client”… This is going to be rambly because – hello! – I’m still on the roadtrip while writing this, and I’m going on 3 hours of sleep and way too much caffeine. Don’t hate.

Kelly Dean & Myself at her continuing education course

Kelly has been mentoring me for two years, and this was not our first road trip together. I love her dearly, and we talked the WHOLE time, and I got a ladybug in my pants and had to take them off to fish it out while she drove us at 65 down I-5, and I was privileged to spend 8 hours with some midwives, doulas, maya massagers, gyrotonix instructor, labor/delivery nurse… It was bliss to watch them take in this vital information on helping their lady clients find healthier flatter tummies through an understanding of diastasis and core anatomy. Plus I learned a ton!

One of the many great qualities of Kelly as a teacher is that she puts herself on the table and lets us feel her core! Where is the wordpress setting that lets me make this not be sideways?

I’m telling you, if you ever get a chance to take a road trip with a licensed physical therapist who specializes in your favorite topic, do it!!!!! I got to drive her prius and buy her coffee and – call me a Kelly groupie – but I was just there to soak it all in, let her teach me and watch her teach others. Sheeee issssss incrediblllllllllleeee!!!!

Kelly demonstrates how to check for a diastasis in a 30 week client… fun to feel the baby kick us!

This is how I write when I’m not trying to teach or make a certain point… and when I’m just really excited and when I’m low on sleep -slash- high on coffee (don’t worry, I’ve also been drinking lots of water) So here are random things I’m learning while I’m sitting here listening to her on my big, bouncy birth ball… Did I mention I slept overnight in a birth center? I really wanted to sneak a long, hot bath in one of those ginormous birth tubs at midnight last night, but I didn’t… sigh. ANYWAY, MOVING ON!

• Muscle responds quicker than connective tissue. The muscle rebuilding is going to make you feel better whether you have a small or large separation.
• SI problems, pelvic floor problems, and sitting a lot are co-related to a wider diastasis at the bottom above the pubic bones.
• If you have tight chest muscles (from nursing babies or too many pushups/planks) then when you stand up, and your ribs flare because your pecs attach to your ribs, then that will pull your diastasis wider at the top.
• If we challenge a weak muscle to the point where it fails and recruits another muscle to do its job, then we’ve taught that weak muscle to give up and pass the buck to another muscle. If we challenge a weak muscle to the point of fatigue and STOP before it gives up and passes the buck to a stronger muscle, then we’ve truly put our nervous system on notice that we want THAT muscle to do ITS JOB not wimp out.
• No muscle in the body needs to be fully engaged and tense all the time. (please no comments about how our brain is our biggest muscle) but we get stuck in modes of movement that force certain muscle to always be “on” and never relax which also creates dysfunction.
• There is much debate about whether a diastasis is a separation or a stretching or a weakness, and the terminology and hyperbole confuses the issue which is that people are INJURED and have trenches (my choice of wording for this sentence) in a muscular area that should NOT have a trench in it!!!! Can we just stop arguing as experts, and all bring our stuff to the table and respect that [most of us] are genuinely wanting to help our clients get better? Kelly is really good at not arguing the jargon, so this is MY own observation, not something I learned at this workshop.
• For some people, mental sanity is more important than their physical health. Kelly and I both feel strongly that if someone loves to run, but it’s tearing them apart, we’re going to help them run in the safest way possible because we recognize that it feeds their soul. We just want it to be an educated choice and have the information of what it’s doing to their body and why it’s contributing to their pain and health issues.
• Midwives in workshop reporting that their pilates instructor, bike riding, kickboxing clients have the hardest time RELAXING and letting baby out thus ending up with c-sections because they are so TIGHT from being good at activating their transverse but terrible at dissociating their TvA from the PC mucle. “It’s like you’re squeezing the toothpaste down but the cap is still on!” LOL!
• If it takes 21 days to learn a new skill or habit WITHOUT stress, pain or small interruptions of the two-legged, begging, drooling variety… then how can we expect a mom in labor to suddenly find and activate her god-given girdle muscle to assist her uterus in pushing out baby…
• The pelvic floor has both fast-twitch (sneeze!) muscles and slow-twitch (constant gardener) muscles, and we need both of those fiber types to be strong but not short/tight for us. A true kegel is a lift (targets slow-twitch) and hold (fast-twitch) but we ALSO need to learn how to LET THAT MUSCLE GO
• Final thought: Nope, no more for now. My brain is fried, and what happens in Medford, stays in Medford!

Oh my goodness, I could keep writing and writing and writing… This was 8 hours of amazing information, some new, some old, some a rethinking of what I already know, some very mind-blowing to me. And this is a workshop with a woman I talk to ALL the time. I feel like I can always keep “learn”ing … can’t we all? Goodbye, Wise Women & Trillium Waterbirth Center! Thanks for hosting us!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

When my sister, Aleta, asked if I’d like to be a part of a “laid back” walking team for the Cascade Lakes Relay, I was pretty excited. I’m in my third year of doing Portland to Coast – this year as a competitive 8-person walker with Team Toe Jammin’ since we took 6th last year – and I’d heard that CLR is much less congested and better managed than PTC. I figured it would be a good “prep course” as I upped my training a month before PTC. Here are some of my pictures…

The Cascade Lakes Relay is in Oregon, and it starts at Diamond Lake and ends in Bend. Here is our first set of walkers at the inflatable starting line. They left our cabin at 5:30 a.m. I was in Van #2 so I got to sleep in. Tee hee! Here I am getting ready for my first leg which was 7.3 miles in HOT weather with 882 elevation gain and 772 elevation loss!

I was told that wasn’t the proper way to wear my jugs… Portland to Coast is very rigid about walking in your set rotation, but CLR lets you choose your legs as long as you stay in the same van. So I did the first leg in the first rotation of Van #2 and then the last leg to finish the race for my team. Here I am starting taking the baton from the final walker in Van #1 to start the rotation of Van #2 walkers. I’m tucking my iPhone into my sports bra… what better place?

One thing about the CLR race is that the temperatures are extreme. The gal handing me the baton in the photo above (Tori) is the same as the gal below in the black (aka: Ninja). She had to dress warm for a leg that was in the 30′s F and then dress cool for a leg that was in the high 80′s F. It was 95-F when I cross the finish line. Go Ninja-Tori!

And this next one is a BIG bug! At the first big exchange for us, in the middle of the night, we encountered these HUGE flying beetle things that I thought were bats when I first saw them! Check this guy out compared to Linda’s fingers!!! Blech!

Like I said, me and my sister were on the same team for this race, which I loved! She’s 10 years older than me – which she will not like me telling you – but you should have seen how uptight she was while I got ready to walk. She sure watched out for me and nattered at me, and I loved every second. It was great to be on “her” team. Here she is having a “wardrobe malfunction.”

One thing is for sure, we never lacked toilet paper on the race, and there were brown or blue bathrooms all along the course. The Cascade Lakes Relay was very fun for two reasons: First, it only had 17 walking teams out of 190 teams total, and the race organizers were EVERYWHERE supporting us. Second, I had a wonderful team to travel with. It wasn’t about winning for us. In fact, we were the last walking team in! It was about laughing and doing our personal best.

Did I tell you that I also had one of my besties on the team with me. “Misstoria” as my kids call her, walked in Van #1 while I was in Van #2 so we always had to catch up at the big exchanges. Above, she is taking care of me at the finish line where she handed me ice water that felt like heaven going down. Here we are walking the last bit of her second leg together. Good memories!

This next one is the Rockin’ Walkers team waiting for me to arrive at the finish line. They had been sending me texts, telling me they were waiting for me, telling me to take it easy in the heat, but I couldn’t answer due to bad reception and a broken screen. But just knowing they were watching for me kept me going on that last, dusty, hilly, 7-mile leg. They were worried that I would be unsupported because the vans couldn’t follow on that last finishing leg, but CLR had support stations every mile or so.

Here is “Misstoria” with ice water for me as I trudge toward the finish line. It gave me an extra burst of speed that propelled me through my teammates, so we could all cross together. I yelled really loudly when the announcer called our name and number, and he said something on the intercom about “Well, someone’s excited!!!”

And now this family friendly blog is going to go a wee bit PG-13 as tell you about the near-nekked elf that passed me on my last leg! There I was out in the dessert, and I hear footsteps and I turn to say “good job“… and I see, well, not much! The guy had on nothing but a red/green elf g-string and a jingly santa hat! After I shrieked in surprise, I laughed so hard I could barely start walking again. I think he got the costume leg mixed up? I do have a picture, but I don’t want to scare anyone away from this site… LOL! Here is our costume gal dressed as a roller derby queen! It was a cold morning!

If you’ve done a relay race that you’ve enjoyed, this one or another one, I’d love to hear from you. This is becoming a fun sport for me that doesn’t tear my body apart and keeps my core trim and tight. I love walking!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Our April, 2012 trip to Montana

Montana is a place of rugged beauty and stark contrasts: Immaculate Escalades with cattle-grill-guards parked next to beat-up Subarus still displaying blood stains from last year’s hunting season; the sharp cut of the Mission Mountains against the rolling plains; the dirt on the faces of beautiful children out playing in the fields; the poverty of shanty houses with luxury homes in the hills above; waking up to cows in our front yard… Not something that happens in our home town! My son claimed that red truck as his own…

On several mornings I was able to make oatmeal with rehydrated fruit on the woodstove. We used local honey as a sweetener.

It’s very exciting to have running water. You can see the 5-gallon tub we’ve been hauling water with. On this trip, my husband finished attaching the drain to the drain-field he dug on the last trip. The water is powered by batteries stored under the house which are in turn powered by our solar panel. He installed a switch under the sink, so can save energy when we don’t need water. No hot water yet…

The kids spent a lot of time on their grandparents organic farm just down the hill. My husbands parents raise much of their own food: gardening, raising cows and chickens and turkeys, and harvesting herbs that grow locally. They rarely go to town and get what they can’t grow from Azure Standard.

I guess you want to see a picture of The Shabin. It’s the lovely 12×20 2-level shabby blue shed that we’ve turned into a cabin. Here it is right before we left. We have to board it up to keep out the rats and … passers by. You can ready my other blog about Montana and The Shabin by CLICKING HERE

Here are more cows. It was calving season, and the field across from us was full of mamas and babies. Funny story: the cows would always gather at the fence and moo and beller at the farmer’s grey pickup truck as he loaded hay for them. Then they’d run along behind him as he drove the hay onto the field. Well, we also had a grey truck with us, and I made the mistake of coming by the field at feeding time. I thought they were going to stampede me! As soon as they realized I wasn’t driving the right truck, they went mooing and lumbering back to the other side of the field. Silly cows!

As I mentioned, my MIL raises chickens but not really for food. She adores them, especially silkies. This little puffball followed her everywhere. She made me sear I wouldn’t put a picture of her online, so I settled for my daughter holding “Angel” the chicken.

Here’s a close up shot… Like I said, she’s a fluffy little thing. You can barely see her beak!  

And here’s me, myself … Showing the sign my parents had made (I know you can’t really see it) … But it says welcome! And our friends certainly are!

I’d be honored to hear your comments or see this pinned. Thanks! Wait, here is one of my favorite pictures of the bluebird bus I can see from my kitchen window. Yes, it’s parked in the field, listing into a ditch. I’m not sure why someone in the family parked it there…

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

We are blessed with a life estate in Montana where my husband grew up as a boy, running wild and free. Twenty acres of land currently used by his father for hay and cows and chickens now also holds a tiny, blue cabin. It’s a shabby little 12×20 shed with two levels, making it roughly 480 sq. ft. We’ve dubbed it “The Shabin.”

Shabby Shed + Cabin = The Shabin

We never experience a dull moment here. Each time we return, the cabin is dusty and overgrown. We also plan plenty of projects. This time we worked on connecting a water line to The Shabin from the well that was dug a couple years ago. We also connected some solar panels, so we can have a little electricity. Here is a fun picture of my husband sitting behind them up on our mini deck…

staying off the grid

We are normally the visitors in these parts, and we are always blessed to go visit with local family and friends while we are here. However, this time around we got to have visitors of our own. My sister and her family came and dry-camped with their tent trailer for a few days on our property. It was great to have them right outside our front door, and it was fun to be the ones to show the sites to the “city folk.” My sister was quite thrilled when my husband’s father started mowing hay in the field  next to us.

my sister taking a picture of my FIL mowing hay.

We always get asked about the wildlife here. This year we’ve seen plenty of deer, a flock of Canada geese, hundreds of butterflies, and hundreds of these horned caterpillars. It’s hard not to step on them, and the kids enjoy getting them to crawl onto their fingers.

Does anyone know what kind of caterpillars these are?

Of course, we are not all work and no play. That would make jack a dull boy, right? We go down to Flathead Lake for a dip in the cool water or up to Lake Mary Ronan for some burgers and boating. This is one of my favorite pictures of my small son. Paddle boating is sure a good workout! Whew!

My son preparing to climb into the paddle boat

Here’s a funny picture I took of some random items stacked against the wall of the boat house up at Lake Mary, MT. This thistle was growing up through the theater seats. I find this to be a very VERY very good reason to work on our squatting muscles.

Better have good squatting muscles if you don't look before you sit!

Thunderstorms are quite common in Montana, but this one hit at dawn on Sunday morning. I knew my sister and her husband were packing up to leave, so I thought they were just making racket. Then I was disturbed by some bright flashes. The other night, I counted over 300 flashes from three storms in the mountains within one hour! The first thing my husband says when there are thunderstorms is, “Don’t touch the stove!”

Unusual morning thunderstorm at sunrise. Photo taken from our porch.

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Summertime means road trips with the family, friends or by yourself with one hand surfing on the airstream and the radio cranked all the way up. As fun and exciting as road trips are, though, the road map often directs adults toward weight-gain and children toward boredom. We know, because we – the two families behind this business – have six kids between us, and we’ve traveled a lot of miles, both together and apart. Like I discussed on Get Fit Now Radio, road trips are anything but healthy and fun if you don’t plan ahead.

Stop at a park and play!

Having a “fitter” and “funner” travel experience is more than just plotting bathroom breaks and putting some games in a satchel. We have some ideas that will minimize the moaning and groaning – both from the backseat – and from the scales when you get home. Here are four tips we think will inspire and energize you to make your next road trip healthy, fit and fun!

1. Check your map for active stops, not rest stops - Instead of basing your stops on when everyone’s bladder is full, do an internet search for playgrounds or walking trails near the cities and roads through which you’ll be traveling. You can search for short hiking trails, imagination stations, water parks, zoos, museums or anything you think your travel-mates would be interested in. Stopping to play for an hour might add extra time to your journey, but it will also add extra fun and movement! Plus, if you have two adults, one can go fill up the tank and purchase supplies while the other runs with the kids. Another plus is that parks usually have bathrooms that are cleaner than rest stops!

If you see some water, pull over!

2. Cram your cooler with yummy, healthy treats – Do not, do not, do not plan to buy food at gas stations. Truck travel stops seldom have fresh foods, and you’ll be consuming more food coloring, preservatives and calories than any type of real nutrition. Ask your traveling companions what their favorite, healthy treats are and then fill a cooler with the organic versions of those treats! Things like grapes, bananas, string cheese, energy bars, pre-made smoothies, greek yogurt, 100% juices, and more might all seem expensive when you’re buying and packing them, but it’s more expensive (to your wallet and health) to buy junk food along the way!

Parents play too!

3. Create small busy bags or baskets for everyone – Even adults need something to do with their minds and fingers while they travel, but it’s important not to distract the driver. Avoid games and puzzles with lots of little pieces, because as soon as you lose one part, the whole game becomes useless baggage, so don’t bring the whole box of crayons and markers either. Invest in some trivia cards, a magna doodle or etch-a-sketch, a notebook with a zip pouch, a couple of transformers, some yarn and a crochet hook, a few good novels, some new music, a couple of new movies, and read up on road games.

“I packed goody bags for our long trip to Las Vegas a few years ago. It was awesome. I packed the dvd players and they never touched them. This year, we are going to stop and run around the outside of the car, and I told the kids when we get to the LONG desert part of the drive, we are going to roll the windows down periodically and scream out the windows LOL Just to get out the frustrations and be silly! We sing, listen to books on cd (this year will be my kindle), we play guess what I am, car bingo, and what ever else we can think of.” -Melinda Todd, Trailing After God

4. Crazy can be fun - Like Melinda said in our Facebook discussion about healthy traveling, getting a little crazy is a fun way to get out the frustrations of being cooped up in a car too long! Invent your own silly thing to do as a group whenever the car is forced to stop by red lights or construction. Have a human wheelbarrow race  (one person holds someone else’s feet while they “walk” on their hands). Play clapping games to get your upper body going. Make the car “fly” by everybody flapping their arms out the windows…

What are your ideas? What works for you and/or your family to stay occupied and healthy while you travel? How do you pass the miles without going crazy? Listen to me talk about this with Eleni K. of Get Fit Now Radio!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!