HOW TO GET YOUR PRE-BABY BODY BACK
This post has been a long time in the making... literally four years and three kids long!
Before I dive into how far I've come, I need to explain where my body started. Pre-babies I was itty-bitty, an even 100lbs! On my 5 foot frame, I was a healthy, fit, and active person. You could always find me in the gym, hiking with my then-fiancé, and loving to cook and eat clean. Healthy living and eating has always been a huge part of my life so when I got pregnant, it was difficult to watch my body change in ways that was out of my control.
Each of my pregnancies were extremely different. There were shorter amounts of time in between each one, and different starting points from when I began to workout again. Here's what happened to my body during each pregnancy...
1. Charlotte: This was by far my most difficult pregnancy. I was put on bed rest at 33 weeks for pre-term labor, and on D-Day, had gained a total of 47lbs.
2. Clementine: Clementine was a breeze in comparison to Charlotte, maybe because my body was already used to the stretching and the growing pains of pregnancy. On D-Day I gained a total of 42lbs.
3. Russell: My boy was the best on my body! I was only 6 months postpartum with Clementine and never fully lost all the pregnancy weight before we conceived Russell. As a result, I was starting out at a higher weight of 110 lbs and was 140lbs on D-Day.
To say my body has been put through hell and back is a bit of an understatement. The hardest part of recovery for me has been gaining back strength in my pelvic region, which took two solid months after my third child. I literally felt like my pelvis was going to fall out, and let me tell you, if you haven't pushed a kid out, there is no worse feeling than not having control of your muscles down south.
PATIENCE
I truly think one of the hardest parts of this whole process is being patient, and allowing your body to recover. Once that strength came back, you better believe I was hitting the elliptical, pushing my son in the stroller (walking) around the track countless times, and doing workouts that integrated using my body weight and light weights to build strength.
Even once you start getting into a routine, there's the second phase of patience, which is waiting to see the results! Let me tell you, it DOES NOT happen over night. Just because you had one incredible week of working out and eating right doesn't mean you're going to see those lbs dropping. I feel like we live in a world where we all want fast, easy results and that just isn't the case with getting your body into the best shape possible. So remember to give yourself that grace, you won't lose it all within a week or even a month. This took me 9 months!
WHEN I STARTED TO GET SERIOUS:
It wasn't until 9 weeks after I gave birth to my third child that I decided to take my workout regiment seriously.
I got in touch with a trainer at my gym that a girlfriend recommended. Our first meeting was just discussing my daily habits, my goals, and EATING! Eating is huge! I'd say 80% of getting that pre-baby body back is watching what you eat. As my trainer likes to say, "Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym." (I love that, because iT'S TRUE) When I talk about eating, I'm not talking about a "diet," but a TOTAL lifestyle change. Small, frequent meals are key! I am CONSTANTLY making healthy decisions about what I put in my mouth.
Once we began to train at the gym, it wasn't until about 4 months in that I started to notice a difference in my body. My arms were starting to tone, my face was losing it's fullness, and I could finally see that torso again! When I noticed these results I decided I wanted to weight train with my trainer 3x a week instead of the two days I started out with.
Cardio is another important element of my workout routine that I started out doing 3-4x a week. My weapons of choice are the stair master and treadmill. Each day I had different goals with my cardio: DAY 1, high intensity with alternating levels of speed, DAY 2 a medium level intensity, and DAY 3-4 lower-medium intensity. I changed up my cardio once I started to see results, and now I'm down to doing it 2-3x a week at most.
THE IMPORTANCE OF HEALTHY EATING:
I try to prep and cook 70% of the meals I eat, making it easy to know exactly what I'm putting in my body. When you eat out, or buy things that are processed or pre-made, you never know exactly what is in it unless you're really good at reading nutrition labels. By making your own food, you can better control and portion what you're putting into your body. I always try and eat good healthy fats like avocado (I eat at least 1 a day) and healthy lean proteins including salmon, chicken, and organic red meats.
The one HARD thing to give up for me was JUICE! I loooove juice. I'm actually craving it right now writing about it. That's not to say I don't give into cravings; I definitely do! I just choose them wisely, and when I was first starting to lose the baby weight I made sure that my "cheat meal" was once a week. I made sure to indulge at that cheat meal because I didn't want to deprive my body so much of something to where I would crash and throw all my good eating out the window.
Stay tuned for a post on my healthy eating regiment and what my typical meals look like! I'll give ideas for yummy recipes and snacks!
TODAY
I am officially 9 months postpartum and couldn't be happier with the body I have. Being consistent and patient with all my workouts and eating habits has gotten me the results I have. It also doesn't hurt to have a super supportive husband and friends that feed my love for health and fitness. I can proudly say that I am back down to my pre-pregnancy weight and feel even stronger than before. I think I have a bit more muscle too!
Stay tuned for a complete workout guide for my favorite gym and at-home based workout routines! Until then, you can check out my daily workouts with my trainer on my insta stories!!!