Easing Back Into Fitness

Having a baby obviously causes your body a lot of stress, it changes so much throughout the nine months and those changes can be scary. I’m not a celebrity that feels enormous pressure to get their body back to how it was pre-pregnancy as quick as possible so I didn’t do anything about it. I was slightly naive thinking I would bounce back really quickly afterwards, fast forward 9 months and I still have a mummy tummy. It gets me down so much, I never feel comfortable in my clothes and I have finally got the motivation to actually do something about it. Since I have struggled a lot with staying motivated I thought I would write a post on how I’m easing back into fitness.

Growing up I had always been slim so seeing the scales showing a number that was a lot bigger than what I was used to during pregnancy scared me a lot. In the end I stopped weighing myself so the last time I checked I think I was roughly 12st 8lbs, before having a baby I was 9 stone 6lbs, so that’s a lot of extra weight. After having a baby you loose about a stone instantly, this being your baby, water and placenta so I was roughly 11st 8lbs. Very very slowly my tummy went down but now it has that unsightly overhang that most mothers have after having a baby. I don’t like it, I hate the way it looks and all honestly, it’s uncomfortable because when I sit down it’s in the way and it hurts. Since having George I’ve tried to be healthy, tried working out but I just never stuck to anything. Recently I was searching through all the pretty A/W clothes and thought there’s no point buying anything as it won’t look nice on me or it won’t fit properly, I’m fed up of feeling like this, I want to buy pretty clothes again and feel good about myself so I decided to do something about it!

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Motivation
I follow Kayla Itsines on Instagram, a personal trainer who also has workout programmes you can buy. I can’t afford to buy the workouts however I’m using her tip of taking progress photographs. She says to take them on the same day and time every week and also to do a weigh-in on the same day and time every week as well. I’m doing my weigh-ins on the same time and day however I’m only taking monthly photographs. This technique is working as it’s pushing me harder so that I see a change. Such a simple thing to do but so effective.

Routine
Brent loves his fitness and spends most nights researching it so I asked him to help me with exercises, I’m using my knowledge from my dance college days and also using some moves from Kayla Itsines Instagram videos, I’ve put together a routine that pushes me and seriously tires me out. I work out Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday’s.

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Food
I’ve been eating healthy, salads, lots of meat, tuna, salmon, lots of veg and sweet potatoes. For someone who never drunk water I now guzzle it. I’ve completely cut out all fizzy drinks and only eat chocolate on a cheat day. Whatever I haven’t finished on my cheat day I save for the next week. Even on my cheat days I am still trying to be as healthy as possible. I went to a BBQ and was surrounded by Doritos but I didn’t even have a crumb, I was so proud of myself. After every workout I am having a protein shake as this helps my muscles to recover.

What I Eat In A Day Example:

Breakfast – Scrambled egg on wholemeal toast
Late morning snack – Fruit smoothie
Lunch – Falafel salad (baby spinach, cashews, red pepper, red onion, falafel, pepper & pomegranate seeds)
Late afternoon snack – Chilli & lime cashews/pistachios and a flapjack
Dinner – Lime chicken, sweet potatoes with red onion and red pepper

Progress
In my first week I lost 2lbs, my second week I had lost 3lbs and my third week I lost 1lb so a total loss of 6lbs in three weeks. So far that’s 6lbs of the 25lbs that I want to loose, I am thrilled with that result!

I’m going to write an updated post after a couple of months, I will also include photographs in that one, I just hope I’m brave enough to share them. I’m proud of what I have achieved so far, I’m so focused on feeling good about myself again that I’m pushing myself to even do burpees and that’s an exercise I never thought I’d choose to do! I can’t wait to feel like my old self again, to buy the clothes I want without having to worry if it will show my overhang, to sit down without having my waistband dig into me. If you have also been struggling I hope this helps you in some way to become motivated. Leave any tips below and we can do this together. Let’s do this!

What are you favourite healthy meals?

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