How to improve your “Mum-bod”
As you’re growing your little one, your tummy stretches and you start to notice some other changes to your body. Your boobs are now under your chin and your booty is nice and juicy looking. You think, “hey sexy momma, I can deal with this look!”
Then your little bundle arrives and you go to the toilet for the first time to meet your jelly belly - cue the shock music, or the Minions saying “dun, dun, dunnnnnn”!
Your boobs slowly deflate and, in most women’s cases, become smaller than they were pre-preg. Your bum flattens out because your hormones have changed - they thought it would be cool to take that away from you too - you’re just left with some lower back pain where your spine is now readjusting to a new posture and has to carry a baby and a sometimes a car-seat too!
Your hormones are everywhere, your vagina is either throbbing or on fire and everywhere from your belly button down feels numb and like it belongs to someone else! Day by day swelling settles down and you no longer feel like you have a vagina that belongs to an elephant; but the wobble is still there, like a water balloon that’s just been deflated enough to no-longer make that explosive and impressive splat against your opponent in a water fight!
So there it is, the by-product of your amazing little human. Thanks for that mother nature, I feel great! You say to yourself, “right, time to get back into shape, eat right, walk every day, possibly wear a corset, and then train as soon as the midwife gives me the all clear! Okay, GO!”
Your fool-proof plan
A fool-proof plan that needs no consideration for the fact that life has changed and responsibilities are different. You are now on baby time, energy levels are like a yo-yo from sleep deprivation and then, when weaning starts, baby and children’s food means lots of mums turn into real-life food-bins!
With the amount of energy you feel that you exert in a day, surely you should now resemble a 100metre sprinter! But, unfortunately, although it feels like we are chasing Usain Bolt around all day, our bodies really need to get out of puff with cardiovascular and resistance training to significantly burn calories and build muscle.
There are a handful of lucky ladies who are blessed with memory foam type bodies and just spring back into shape. No discredit to the other mummies who work hard for their bodies and demonstrate sheer discipline when it comes to their lifestyle and nutrition. I salute you!!!
Then there are the rest of the mummies and, from my experience of working with mums for many years to achieve their body goals, I can confidently say that at least 80% of ladies find that their body is just different post-partum.
The slimmest of women with little body fat notice that their tummies get a ‘wobble on’ just from a few weeks of slacking off from training and making unhealthier food choices. Many women have a little pouch at the bottom of their tummy - some complete with tiger strips. Others notice that their body is just far less forgiving and it takes a lot more work to get them back to a place where they are comfortable in their new skin.
Physical vs Mental challenges of “Post-Mum” body
Although this blog is about the physical side mum-life, I have to draw attention to the mental side of this topic as it is very much a game player in body-satisfaction or, in most cases, body dissatisfaction.
In the same way that nothing can quite prepare you for life as a mum, nothing prepares you for these physical changes and nothing really can. It’s just another phenomenon that you have to experience to appreciate!
We also give ourselves such a hard time about being a perfect mum, all too often comparing ourselves to those ‘perfect’ mummies on social media and we seem to do the same with our bodies.
GIVE US A BREAK BRAIN!!
Mum-life wisdom: How to get your body back!
Body confidence has always been a challenge to women - baby or no-baby! Especially with the frequent exposure of photo-shopped and perfectly posed social media images; it has the power to make the most unshakable self-esteem have a wobble during an “ugh” day!
Try to recall how you felt about your body pre-baby. I guarantee you will see old photos and appreciate what you used to take for granted - but remember when you would stand in front of the mirror and grab parts of you wishing that they were a little more like this and that?
Something that is so important to note is establishing what is really important to you. If one of your goals is to have a bikini body that you can be proud of, then work for it! It will take discipline but it is possible - even with children!
With all the will in the world you can achieve any goal you set yourself if it means that much to you. Seek the help of a coach if you are really serious about achieving specific goals, it will help you to achieve them with a lot more precision.
If you have smaller ambitions, or don’t want to set your sights too high to start as that just seems scary, think of small, achievable steps that will help you to become a healthier or fitter person.
You never know where starting out with smaller, achievable goals could lead you! I dealt with my mum-bod dissatisfaction by focussing on setting goals for my health and strength which would ultimately benefit my little one far more than me looking great in a swimsuit!
Being free from back-pain means I can run around with him on demand. Reducing my internal fat means I am healthier for him and more likely to live a longer life where I can support him whenever he needs me.
This is cliché but so, so true - your body has done an incredible thing by growing, carrying and birthing a baby - it has changed and expecting it to be exactly the same is like expecting a glass of wine to be a grape again! Wine is far superior, and so are you ;) remember that super-mum!