I talked a lot about my pregnancy about the pressure to look and feel a certain way. I gained 80+ pounds and mentally had a lot of days feeling the opposite of the glow. Social media can create an illusion that as a pregnant woman you should have a perfect bump and love every minute of being pregnant. After having a baby, the pressure doesn’t go away, it just changes. You find yourself comparing yourself to others who just had a baby and are back to their pre-baby weight. You feel this obligation that as soon as the baby is out, you need to start dieting and exercising right away otherwise you will be viewed as “letting yourself go”.
Having a baby is the best blessing in life but it’s also really, really hard. I spent a lot of my newborn days with 5-day old baby vomit in my hair, driving for hours to get the baby to sleep, watching more Netflix then you want to know and pretending I had to go the bathroom so I would have an excuse for 5 minutes in peace!!
I had no time for anything besides surviving.
I had lost very few baby pounds and remember getting asked multiple times when I was expecting after delivering my baby (ugh those ones hurt). Yes, it can be hard, but I gave myself time and every Mom deserves this too.
When I was ready (not when society made me feel I should be ready), I started exercising again. I focused on fueling my body with nutritious whole foods, drinking a lot of water and making sure I was getting good fats and protein in every day. I also didn’t beat myself up when I had those days where I only ate what was at arm’s reach and took less than 30 seconds to prepare (as we all have those days!!).
This is a picture of me doing some filming at Hybrid Fitness 9 month pregnant and 9 months post-baby. Its been 9 months, not 9 weeks or 9 days and I still got a while to go to get in my prebaby shape, and that’s ok.
Healthy weight loss and body transformation is a process and how long it takes, is different for all of us. Unless you have been blessed with an incredible set of genetics, give yourself the time you deserve. Remember it takes 10 months for your body to change to be prepared to have a child, it’s not instant, so post-baby weight loss shouldn’t be either.
My advice….
Focus on just surviving those newborn days. Yes, having a new baby is so incredible but there are also those days of darkness that will just take all your energy to get through. And on those days of brightness, focus on just enjoying life with your new bundle of joy, because it’s such an incredible time that goes way too quickly.
Once you have gotten out of those newborn days, don’t stress about “dieting” just focus on eating well. Make sure you are fuelling yourself with whole nutritious foods as much as possible. Move when you can, as much as you can. But don’t forget to give yourself credit for all the exercise you do naturally through baby walks, babywearing and baby bouncing!
But most importantly, be proud of your body, regardless of how it looks. Love every new stretch mark, varicose vein, and your new c-section scar if you had one like me.
Your body is not ruined; you’re a goddamn tiger who earned her stripes.
You just gave your baby the best gift possible… life.
That makes you beautiful and incredible.
Xo
B