The Mom Body.
There are two very different takes on this :
1.) the "I just grew a human, pushed it out of me/underwent surgery, and now I have aforementioned human to care for round the clock so there's minimal time left in the day for me to work on my body, so this is who I am and what I look like so society can shove it. Motherhood rules."
Or.
2.) the "you better believe I am going to whip my ass back into shape; yes it's gonna be hard and yes my family comes first but I follow far too many fitness motivation instagrammers to slack on this. Sorrynotsorry for wanting muscle tone and less cellulite and overall good health. Motherhood still rules."
Guess which school of thought I belong to. Bingo. As beautiful as pregnancy and giving birth is, I don't buy into the "once a mom body, always a mom body" motif. Not only will fitness and nutrition better oneself as a mother, but really. Who doesn't love a hot, in-shape mom. Now, we could start splitting hairs here and go into exactly what a "hot mom" means to people, but I'll just leave it at that.
Last time around when I was at the ripe old age of 16 and going through postpartum recovery, my body literally went BOING! and I had obliques on Postpartum Day 1. During a fundus check, my nurse called in the other nurses from the floor so they could all gawk at what a freak I was.
Hate me? Well don't, because I have a perfectly average postpartum body this time around at the even-riper age of 26. Belly pooch? Yes. Cellulite? You got it. Stretch marks? They are hiding under my spandex, but you betcha. I will be facing many of the same challenges of weight loss and toning up that most moms face after delivery. All in all, I don't think I look too bad at 6 weeks postpartum...
There are two very different takes on this :
1.) the "I just grew a human, pushed it out of me/underwent surgery, and now I have aforementioned human to care for round the clock so there's minimal time left in the day for me to work on my body, so this is who I am and what I look like so society can shove it. Motherhood rules."
Or.
2.) the "you better believe I am going to whip my ass back into shape; yes it's gonna be hard and yes my family comes first but I follow far too many fitness motivation instagrammers to slack on this. Sorrynotsorry for wanting muscle tone and less cellulite and overall good health. Motherhood still rules."
Guess which school of thought I belong to. Bingo. As beautiful as pregnancy and giving birth is, I don't buy into the "once a mom body, always a mom body" motif. Not only will fitness and nutrition better oneself as a mother, but really. Who doesn't love a hot, in-shape mom. Now, we could start splitting hairs here and go into exactly what a "hot mom" means to people, but I'll just leave it at that.
Last time around when I was at the ripe old age of 16 and going through postpartum recovery, my body literally went BOING! and I had obliques on Postpartum Day 1. During a fundus check, my nurse called in the other nurses from the floor so they could all gawk at what a freak I was.
Hate me? Well don't, because I have a perfectly average postpartum body this time around at the even-riper age of 26. Belly pooch? Yes. Cellulite? You got it. Stretch marks? They are hiding under my spandex, but you betcha. I will be facing many of the same challenges of weight loss and toning up that most moms face after delivery. All in all, I don't think I look too bad at 6 weeks postpartum...
...but to put my postpartum body into perspective, this is what I looked like right before getting pregnant, at the height of my Paleo & Lifting gig:
I agree, I was a tad too lean. Those abs, though. And that antecubital vein (nurse humor). Now, I need a fat pad or two for breastfeeding so I do not plan on getting quite that lean.
And one more postpartum shot from Oliver's 2-week-old newborn photo shoot (and some bonuses of Oliver because he is just too damn cute).
So, with clean eating underway, I am about to embark on several dates with Shaun T on a regular basis so I can build my cardiorespiratory foundation back up. And from there, it's Tri Training Time, and whipping back into shape while I'm at it!