Getting out of maternity clothes

When I had my first child 5 years ago, I was not exercising much, and I didn’t work out after I gave birth. I gained 55 pounds when pregnant and stayed in maternity clothes for 6 months after she was born. The second time around, my maternity clothes were way out of fashion, and I vowed to get back into prepregnancy clothes as soon as possible.

By the time I got pregnant with my son, I was the best shape I’ve been in since high school, and my eating habits were much improved. I told myself I was going to stay in shape and exercise throughout this pregnancy and not lose all the progress I had made. Ha! I get freakishly huge when pregnant. (Yep, that's my belly below at 39 weeks.) I had to stop doing TurboKick at about 5 months and switched to Zumba (which was a sight).  

By 8 months pregnant, I dropped the gym membership because I knew I wasn’t going to go for a while. My son was born in October, and as much as I wanted to get back in shape right away, Thanksgiving and Christmas were right around the corner. I decided that I was going to enjoy the holidays. I was nursing, so I ate whatever I wanted.

But in January, I committed to getting in shape. Les Mill Combat, a mixed martial arts home workout program, came out, and I was stoked. I bought it and committed to the 60-day schedule. This was working out 5 days a week. I wish I could say I did the full 60 days, but I did make it on this schedule for 42 days. I was certainly not feeling anywhere close to how I did before getting pregnant, so I heavily modified a lot of the exercises (no jumping, push-ups on my knees, etc.). But, I still lost 7 pounds and 3 inches off my waist, 2 inches off my hips and dropped 4% body fat. I was out of maternity clothes after 30 days and really starting to feel great.

The before pics on the left were 3 months postpartum. The after pics on the right are after 6 weeks of Les Mills Combat.

 

That was a year ago, and I’ve been up and down, off and on with my eating and workout outs since then, but I keep going, and with my next program, I plan to have an even better transformation.

Pursuing Me

This is my first blog post (ever), which is pretty scary, as sharing personal information is not something I'm comfortable with. But, this year is all about stepping out of my comfort zone. 

I’m a stay-at-home mom of two: a five-year-old girl and a 16-month-old boy. I do part-time freelance writing and editing work during the occasional naptime or between 8 pm and midnight, and I help people meet their fitness goals through coaching.

Being an SAHM is great, but it pretty much means your life revolves around your kids. And every time you make an effort to have a life of your own (or let’s be honest, to pee alone or shower undisturbed), they find a way to barge in. As I write this, my youngest is pulling all the papers off my desk and pulling everything out of the trash, probably looking for food, because he never stops eating. That being said, I have made it a priority to be fit; I’d like to feel confident in my post-baby body. But finding the time to fit in fitness and good nutrition is HARD! And I don’t just want this for me; I want to set a positive example for my kids (because, of course, everything I do has to be related to my kids somehow).

I work out at home and at the local Y when I can. I also do my best to keep junk food out of the house. We do decently well, but there’s always room for improvement, and sweets are a big struggle for me. I do well for a while and fall off the wagon. The past two years have been rough for me. I’ve withdrawn and not pursued the things I wanted. But no more! I’ve chosen to make a huge effort to improve myself this year through personal development, fitness and proper nutrition. To stay on track, I am sharing my journey to find a better me.