Back to work as a mom of 2

It finally became a reality, I returned to work.  I ended up putting it off a couple days longer than I had expected but I'm back at it after only 6.5 weeks.  A lot of people ask why I didn't take the full 12 weeks of leave that is offered, for me, taking that much time off didn't make sense.  I needed to get back into the grind so I didn't get too far out of the routine.

We were very lucky to find a daycare that is not only affordable but offered us the perks of having family members there that can visit Morgan regularly and help us out if we get into a pinch which will happen because both my husband and I have jobs that require travel.

On top of everything else, I am still working on getting my bikini body back and I'm proud to say that in the first 2 weeks alone, I lost 3 pounds of fat which I'm happy about because if you google what a pound of fat looks like, each one makes a difference. 

I've had many people ask what I eat and what I do for working out.  Since everyone is different in their goals and body types, I'll give you an overview:

Nutrition:

• I eat 6 meals a day that consist of protein, complex carbs and fat.  I do my 100% best to never go more than 3 hours without a meal and learned my lesson to never, never miss a meal!  Must feed the body to maintain and for me gain muscle mass.
• Staples in my diet are egg whites (we buy the liquid ones so you can drink them if you are pressed for time), chicken, lots and lots of chicken, broccoli, sweet potatoes, greek yogurt, spinach, natural peanut butter, brown rice, steel cut oats, whey protein and WATER! 

Workout:

• I'm doing my best to be a force in the weight room right now.  Since I am trying to put back on the muscle mass I lost when I was pregnant, I am lifting as heavy as my body will allow which at this point is nearly 100% of my pre-pregnancy strength.  Funny, the only body parts that are not back to 100% are my back, which has been my weakest part for a long time, and my chest which was by far my strongest part pre-pregnancy.  I have no idea why but I'm struggling to crank out 10 push-ups right now and I used to be able to do 50 easily.  I'm stumped :)
• As for cardio - I'm not doing any right now.  Again, my focus is building muscle so I focus all my attention on moving weights and feeding my body. 

A lot of women have the perception that they cannot lift heavy because they will get bulky but if that were the case, I should look like Ronnie Coleman.  It takes so much work to gain muscle mass naturally (meaning no help from drugs legal or not legal) so ladies, don't be afraid of the weights, embrace them!!!  But if you are going to lift, make sure you are feeding your body as well so you aren't undoing all that hard work in the weight room by not eating enough or eating crap foods that don't provide your body the fuel it needs to grow.

So that right, I'm balancing it all.  How well am I doing?  Well, my kids are thriving, my husband did exceptionally well at his recent competition (3rd place finishes) and our marriage is strong, I'm excelling in my career, and I'm kicking butt in the gym.  I sorta feel like a super hero some days....I think most moms do :)  But that feeling doesn't come without sacrifice.  In my opinion, the only way to balance everything is to not try to do everything.  I focus on the things that are the most important and don't waste energy on the things that don't matter.