Hi Friends! Happy Monday! Mondays are always a great fresh start and this Monday is exactly one of those! I’m back on a journey that I’ve been on two other times before.
A journey to feel like myself again.
A journey to not wearing maternity clothes.
A journey that will end with me buttoning up my jeans without feeling like a can of biscuits about to bust.
A journey to al2getherFIT.
While pregnant I didn’t feel so “al2getherfit”. I felt pregnant and if there’s one thing I do when I’m pregnant, it’s eat. I eat all the good (bad) stuff with little or no regards to when to stop. When you’re pregnant, how many doughnuts or chips ad queso is too much? I don’t know the answer to that.
Now that I’m not pregnant I’m so excited to start this journey again! It’s a journey, a passage or progress from one stage to another and it’s not an easy one. Every one of these journeys has been different and every one’s journey WILL be different.
BUT…before my posts turn back to a majority of healthy eats and working out, I want to address THIS…
This is my post-partum body. Guys, I’m totally putting myself out there with this one.
Motivation Tip: Take a BEFORE picture!
Hours after giving birth, alone in my hospital room I lifted my hospital gown to take a look at my post-partum belly out of curiosity. Still healing, still trying to recover from a 10 hour birth, I saw that pale squishy belly, looking about 6 months pregnant and smiled. I smiled because it brought back memories from my first post-partum experience 5 years back. Five years ago after having Sophia, I looked at my post-partum belly, hours after giving birth, and felt disgusted and terrified. Why did I still look pregnant?! It’s now CRAZY to me that those thoughts were in my head hours after my amazing body just delivered my first baby girl (a human being!!) safely into this world.
This time my only thoughts after giving birth were on my new baby, my two precious girls eager to hug and kiss their sibling every second, and my amazingly supportive husband asking me hourly if I needed anything and how I was feeling. My thoughts were on my family, not my body.
Having been on this journey twice before, I know this post-partum body is so, so, so, temporary (if I have anything to do with it), just like that pregnancy body was. Why is it that we are CONSTANTLY worried about these temporary body situations? Three days before giving birth I was thinking about how large I felt, how nothing fit me, and how I never wanted to put on a pair of pants again. Then I give birth, instantly lose 15 lbs, have a precious baby in my arms, and I’m supposed to be worried about how THIS body looks.
Side note: The only thing that isn’t temporary about giving birth is the baby. And dear Lord help me with these 3 children. It’s really a whole other ballgame people.
Isn’t it weird that some people look at “loving yourself” as a bad thing? Without trying to sound an ounce of conceded, since having kids I’ve really learned to love myself. How did I do that? Well for starters, I don’t compare myself to celebrities on Instagram or magazine covers. Most of social media is filtered through photoshop first anyways…but none of that matters to me and nobody’s post-partum body should even cross my mind. When it does, I’m thinking “Good for them!” Seriously, file OTHER PEOPLE’S BODIES under “things you shouldn’t cloud your mind with” because it has absolutely nothing to do with you. Stop comparing your body to a body it’s not and never will be! Yes, it’s good to look at other people as motivation sometimes but be motivated to look your best, not their best. For instance, I will never look like J-lo. I know…it’s a tough reality for me too (LOL) because I like big butts and I cannot lie.
I’m writing this post to maybe help someone, to maybe get in the mind of a new mother who is down on herself/her body. Choose to love your post-partum body and choose to work on it when YOU are healed and able.
Don’t only fall in love with your body, fall in love with taking care of it, fall in love with taking care of yourself.
I’ve fallen in love with taking care of my body so many times before!
This is one of those times when I worked my ass off to be where I wanted to be. This is my AFTER picture with Sophia.
This picture is also a reminder that it took me 8 months of hard hard work, lots of sweat, sore muscles, and healthy eating to get this way. I know it’s not easy…
If you don’t workout for your body, workout for your mental sanity.
XOXO
