In the Motherhood:4.5 months post partum
For
Next Go Round, Remember:
·
While being pregnant, I was convinced that at the six week mark I
would be back at it working out. Depending on the delivery you have, and how you recover this may not happen. Be gentle on yourself, and let your body heal.
·
I compared myself to other moms that I admired, and I felt bad for
myself that I wasn't up for working out yet. I felt like I should have been going
on walks and running by this time, I wasn't in a place recovery wise to do
this. Walks were okay, running was painful and made my hips ache, and I can't
say that this isn't still the case sometimes. Like I'm not going to be running
everyday still.
·
Having a forceps assisted birth is going to take a bit longer to
recover from. I pray I don’t have to do this again.
·
You may experience an achy/ throbby/heavy vagina, and tears that take
their time to heal and remain sore. Your baby could be eating every two hours
at night and during the day. If you have enough energy to make breakfast by
10:00 am, brush your Hair, teeth and put on deodorant, you’re doing great.
·
After 6 weeks, you may start to have a little more energy, but it’s
going to be a good 12 weeks before you are feeling like your normal self again.
·
Don’t be naïve in believing just because you are
exclusively breast feeding your period won’t show its ugly self again before
8-9 months.
Getting
Back Into shape Post-partum So Far…
12 weeks post-partum: You got that itch to start to work out again.
Also started to work on eating healthier. Energy is starting to return to
normal, or as close to with a baby who wakes every 3 hours still to eat at
night.
21 day fix was a good way to reintroduce working out, it was a
rude awakening and you were in better shape at 9.5 months pregnant that you
were at three months post-partum. Do not fret, too much about this, start where
you are, and listen to how your body feels. It’s a work in progress from here
on out.
Remember: It’s frustrating to start over again, but it’s also
freeing. No pressure to perform at the top of my game. You’ve lost a lot of muscle
and endurance. The 21 day fix was a
perfect re-interdiction workout. I liked that I could do it in my home, and the
workouts were short, and intense. It was fun doing them with mark too. We both
could laugh at how out of shape we were.
After a month of the 21 day fix, Mark and I realized that we only
had 3 months until our super Spartan Race, and if we are going to be ready for
it, especially me, we needed to buck up, and get serious about working out and
running. At this point, 4 months postpartum I felt ready to take my workouts up
a few notches, and I joined the local gym here in Pensacola. I've loved getting
back into the gym and I’m seeing results in my body quickly! Also, I forgot
that I craved being sore, and how much I love feeling strong.
*At 4 months, Ryker
started to sleep in 5.5 hour chunks, thank all that is good and mighty in the
world. It gets better, and you love nursing him in the night, he is precious to
you.
In the
Gym Goals and Diastasis Recti Rehabilitation
I love lifting, and I love running, and my goals right now are to
be able to do a pull up by December unassisted, and be able to run 6 miles. I
think if I can achieve both these things then I’ll be decently ready to do the Spartan
race.
Diastasis recti has been a challenge mentally and physically. I’ve
felt very frustrated because I had little to no stomach muscle left. I quickly
figured out this was because I had a 3 fingers width abdominal muscle separation,
this is considered within the normal range for diastasis, but I knew I needed
to fix it. I did my research, and initially I was really discouraged, because I
had a really strong and toned core pre pregnancy. I started doing very simple things
that I should have been doing from week one after having Ryker, but you know...
I was pre occupied.
To fix diastasis you need to focus on pulling your transverse
abdominal muscles up and in. This is harder to do than you'd think, but it
totally has helped the most. The other thing to do is avoid any type of
abdominal movement that causes you to crunch your stomach muscles. The best analogy
I’ve found for this reasoning is that if your abdominal muscles were a jacket,
the diastasis recti would occur at the zipper. If you crunch up the zipper
portion would naturally separate (if it wasn't zipped all the way up), and thus
make the separation worse, causing the opposite effect.
Start with focusing on drawing in those transvers abdominal
muscles by doing breathing exercises, and lying in bed at night pulling the transvers
abs in, and trying to bring them back towards your spine. It sounds so lame,
but you feel it working.
*During the 21 day fix workouts I had to modify all the ab
movements that were crunch movements, and I really couldn't hold plank, but I
would do the modified plank and just really focus on keeping those transverse
muscles really tight.
I noticed improvement very quickly ( within 3 weeks) and then when
I started going to the gym I noticed that naturally when I’m lifting, in order
to keep proper form, I would tuck my pelvis under Neath me, instead of pushing
my butt out and arching my lower back out, and this caused me to tighten my
transverse abdominals. I noticed too that my abdominal muscle had returned
somewhat and I could do ab movements and crunches and planks again! I'm not
sure if my separation will ever fully close, they say 1 finger width is
considered healed, which is about where I’m at now, and I’m happy with
that!
·
Any women who want to
know more, check out this website! It has a video showing you how to check for
it on yourself too!
How I Feel About my
Body Right Now
I only wanted to gain 25 lbs., I worked out my entire pregnancy,
and ate relatively healthy, but I could have done better (next time goals, eat
healthier) I gained 33 lbs. (and I was sad about this, and that’s okay). I
thought oh once I have Ryker I will lose most of this weight, and I didn’t
realize that it takes time to deflate. I was weighed two weeks after having
Ryker and I’d only lost 10lbs. I cried (new mommy hormones)
6 week checkup I still had 11lbs to lose to get to my pre baby
weight. 11 lbs., could have been worse, but I wanted it to be better. I was
overly optimistic about this. Some people are probably rolling their eyes at
me. That’s okay, we all have an idea of where we should be, and while I acknowledge that
this isn’t a crazy hard amount of weight to lose, it’s still weight that I had
wished wouldn’t be there. I found that just because my friends bounced back to pre-baby
weight right away, doesn’t mean I should compare myself to them. It just made
me feel discouraged and bad that I’d gained more weight than I had wanted to.
*Note to self, don’t try on regular clothes at 3 weeks post-partum,
you may fit into something no maternity at 6 weeks post-partum, but even if it
fits, you may feel squeezed, and uncomfortable. Choose comfort for now, it’s
worth it. In fact, go buy yourself some pants that actually fit you. It will
boost your self-esteem for the time being. Your pants will fit again, give it
time.
Mark and I don’t own a scale, but I started working out the week
we moved here, so I’d been working out, a few times a week for about a month
before buying my gym pass. Weighed myself 17 weeks post-partum, and lost 6 more
lbs. felt happy I only had 5 more to to get pre baby weight goal.
Nursing is helping a lot with this, and eating healthier.
Side note, just because I’m losing the weight doesn’t mean that my
body looks the same. I’m pretty soft where I once had muscle.
Throw away clothes that just aren’t flattering, and maybe won’t
ever be.
I have many moments where I see my new body post baby and I think
" Damn I look great for having had a baby 4.5 months ago" I'm even
cocky enough to be telling myself what a bad ass I am to be back in the gym and
working hard again for how young my little man is, but then there are times where
I try to fit into a pair of shorts that are just still to snug in the thighs
and hips, and I feel bad again, and I have to remind myself that it's a
process.
Remember, when in doubt it was 9 months in, to build this body,
and it will take at least 9 months to re build this body.
Get rid of the unflattering close, or don’t try them on for a very
long time… case in point. I wore a pair of shorts to the gym the other day, and
it was a mistake. Not only do these shorts not fit very flattering, they made
me realize how white my legs are, and the amount of cellulite I have on the
back of my legs left was disheartening. I went home feeling defeated, even
though I'd had a great workout.
I realized I should probably burn those shorts! Why am I wearing
clothes that don't flatter this body that I have right now? I am not sure that
I ever loved those shorts, and maybe it's time to get rid of them anyways? Life
is to damn short to live in the future. Maybe one day these shorts will be
awesome on me again, but today is not that day. Next month it may not be either.
Buying flattering close isn’t giving up, it’s living in the moment and at this
moment these shorts look terrible on me, I allow you not to wear them and make yourself
feel bad. Get rid of the bad shorts!
I think feeling cute in your workout clothes is a way to help you
bust out a workout, and feel really good about it. Consequently I wore a pair
of spandex shorts to the gym the next week, that are pretty scandalous, and I
felt great in them! They were so much more flattering than the shorts I had
donned the week before, I felt sexy and confident, and I busted out a workout
that made me feel good, and tough.
When I see a bad picture of myself, or I catch a glimpse of my
body I don't like, I allow myself to feel bad for just a minute, and Then I
remind myself that this is the body I have right now, and it's doing great
things, for me, and will become the best version of my new body that it can be.
As a side note, take pictures even if they aren’t flattering. This
isn’t forever, this is just right now and I don’t want to skip out on pictures
of myself with my baby just because I don’t like how I look in them. Again,
life is to short.
In reference to your new body. I’m not living in the pre baby body
that I had before. My boobs are tiger stripped, and will be saggy one day, my
tummy, hips, lower back, butt and thighs all have a little extra padding on
them. I have some saggy skin on my stomach, and extra stretch marks on my inner
thighs.
Focus on getting fit and
strong again. I’m my happiest when I feel strong, I want to be a good example
to my children, when they think of me I want them to think of a mother who is
healthy, strong and able to keep up with them!
As a
side note, Milk boobs are nice to have. Enjoy while you can.
It doesn’t matter when you start your journey back to fitness, remember
to start where you are, allow yourself to feel
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