Latest / Fit for Hiking / Ep. 112 Postpartum Fitness for the Exhausted Mom: How to Get Started After Baby
Transcript
- Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential and become inspired to live your most vibrant life. You're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for Hiking podcast. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the fit for Hiking podcast. This is your host, Brady. And today we're going to be getting into a topic that's for the new moms out there. So if you are maybe currently pregnant or you are just entering a season of postpartum, you just had your baby. Or maybe you've been doing this for a couple of years, but now you've added a second baby, a third baby to the mix, and you're still feeling kind of lost about what the heck to do for fitness postpartum when you're exhausted, how to get back into these things after having a baby? Then this episode is for you. So we're really talking to the exhausted mom who's in this season of postpartum, wondering how to find routines again after having a baby. Because it doesn't matter how devout you are in your fitness routine. Leading up to having kids, it will rock your world. Once you actually have a baby and you're figuring out how to do all of this. Um, especially if you don't have a ton of support as far as people helping you or child care, things like that will definitely affect your ability to work out and prioritize your fitness. So we're going to talk about how to get started again after having a baby. How to redefine fitness for you in this season of life. What that looks like. Um, so right now I am not quite five months postpartum with my second, and I've definitely had to learn firsthand now twice, um, how tough it can be to really take care of your own health, prioritize your own fitness, especially during that first year postpartum. When I got pregnant with my first daughter, juniper. I remember thinking, I've got this. I was someone who worked out in a gym or group fitness setting like five times a week, and I was like, nothing's going to slow me down, right? And then I got hit with first trimester sickness. Um, I ended up on bedrest later in my pregnancy for almost my entire third trimester. And then I had my actual world rocked with a baby who never slept for like a year and a half, um, and had really no support. So needless to say. It really flipped everything upside down. As far as my notions around how things are going to go. Fitness wise, and I had to completely rethink my approach to fitness and start from scratch, essentially. So today we're going to talk about how to build fitness back into your life with compassion, patience, and small, realistic steps and stick around at the end for a special discount for our Mom Strong coaching program. I'm really excited about that. Okay, so let's talk about the reality of postpartum fitness. Um, everybody kind of thinks like, oh, it's just all about the bounce back. It's just all about this big transformation after you have a baby, and that's what you're focusing on. But but what a lot of people don't realize is all of the challenges that accompany this, quote unquote, bounce back. First of all, there's all the expectations around the bounce back. You're looking at your body. And now that there's no longer a baby inside, people are you feel maybe like people are critiquing you. You're critiquing yourself. You don't recognize yourself anymore. Um, you still have a little bit of loose skin, a belly pooch, um, stretch marks, things like that. It's all new to you. So your your self-esteem might be not in a great place, which can definitely affect kind of where you're at with your fitness. Then you have other common challenges like sleep deprivation, which is something I just didn't understand the gravity of until I went through it. Hormone changes. Your hormones are all over the place, which is going to affect you mentally, emotionally, energy wise. If you are breastfeeding, your hormones are really going to be in a crazy place until you're done. Breastfeeding and prolactin definitely can affect your ability to be productive, which is the hormone that's produced while breastfeeding. Your core and pelvic floor recovery. Depending on kind of how that journey is going for you and if you have issues or pain, and then just limited time and energy every day is kind of a crapshoot. You are not able to be like, okay, listen up, baby. This is my time to work out. So you need to work around my schedule, right? There is no schedule. And until the baby is more regimented with like their nap times and things like that, which really doesn't come till later. And it's different for every single baby, you are just kind of at their mercy. And if you're the primary caregiver, it's really tough because you have no idea when you're going to have time to do these things for yourself. And if it's going to align with when you feel like you have energy, all the other things that are on your plate, if you're trying to work, if you're trying to cook, if you're trying to, you know, do all these things to keep up your milk supply, it's really, really tough. You have so many different variables. So bouncing back is not only physically not super realistic right away, but also just all of these other components make it a big, big challenge. So just because you're not quote unquote bouncing back, maybe in the time frame that you hoped or thought that you would. Does not mean you're failing. It means that you are very much in the trenches of this is freaking hard. You're balancing a thousand things. You probably don't have that village that people always talk about. I know I didn't and I don't. And it's really, really hard. Don't have any family here where I live. And we have very minimal childcare right now. I have zero child care for my newborn and it's really tough to prioritize time for myself. So how do we even do this? What does this look like? So let's talk about redefining fitness in this season. So maybe you've been someone who's always gravitated towards like long gym workouts, really intense group classes, things like that. This is going to have to be redefined for you. What once was considered a really good workout might not really be something that you're capable of doing anymore. It might be something shorter, less intense from home. Maybe you're even incorporating your baby. Um, so it's really important to, first of all, not get caught up in, like, I'm failing because I'm not working out in the capacity that I was before. So instead, we're going to focus on functional strengths for daily tasks. Actually having a baby. Both. Both, uh, birthing the baby and then the aftermath. It's really hard physically. Um, and a lot of people only think of, like, the giving birth part. They don't think about the fact that you're carrying around a car seat with a child in it all the time. Um, you know, kind of wonky on one side, having to really use your core in your obliques. They don't think about how you're holding a baby that can grow and get really heavy really quickly in your arms, sometimes all day if they don't want to be put down. Um, the core strain and back strain of wearing them in a carrier, things like that. So you really need to be strong physically for yourself throughout pregnancy and throughout postpartum. So functional strength restoring movement again. Um, and not just like I want to get back to where I was before, but just being able to move your body well again and restoring that core strength and then building consistency over intensity. So really focusing on I'm doing this x, y, z times a week. And that's a priority to me. Instead of just trying to crush yourself in the gym every time you have a chance to go. So what does this look like in practice? First of all, you got to be honest with yourself about whether a gym routine, a home routine, or a hybrid of gym and home will serve you best right now. And this might change as you go. So, for instance, with my daughter juniper, when she was born, we lived at a house that was like way high up in the mountains, nowhere near a gym. And realistically, I just couldn't get to a gym. And I felt so overwhelmed at the thought of going to a gym. So I was doing exclusively home workouts for most of her first year. Now with my second daughter, Quinn, I actually find that I really need to go to the gym. We live in a different house. I'm only about 12 minutes from the closest rec center, and I love getting out of the house and having that designated hour to myself a few times a week. Yes, it's a little trickier, um, logistically, but to me, I find that it's well worth it because I just don't get good workouts at home right now. I get so distracted, I don't really feel like I'm having that time for myself. So right now I prioritize gym workout. So it's changed for me. It's shifted, but it's good to really look at like, okay, what am I going to be successful with? What am I going to actually show up and do? Because you might say, oh, I am going to do gym workouts, but if you're not actually able to get yourself to the gym, then that's not really a good approach. So you need to think about how to set yourself up for success here. Then talk to your partner or your support system about your goals and set clear expectations. So this could look like saying, hey, I really need to go to the gym three days a week. Are you willing to support me to find times where you can watch the kids so I can go do this, or working it out with a child care provider if you have that, or trying to go to the gym while your kiddo is at preschool or school or whatever that looks like for you. Okay, so actually do the work to figure out, okay. Yes, I want to go to the gym three times a week, but how do I actually make this a reality? How do I work out all these puzzle pieces of this constantly changing schedule around everybody else? Yes. It's tough. I'm in the midst of this right now, but it is important to have your partner on the same page as you. If they don't understand that this is a priority for you, then they're not going to make it a priority. So if you say, hey, I really, really need this for my own physical and mental health, and I need you to support me in making this happen, whether that means you watching the kids or all of us going to the gym together, and you walking around at the playground by the gym while I go workout, whatever that looks like. Trust me, I've done it all. My husband and I take turns so one of us will watch the kids. That and one works out and then we swap. Because we only have one car. We've had to do some crazy stuff to ensure that both of us are still getting to prioritize our workouts, because that's really important to us. We know that we are our best selves when we are able to exercise. Okay, so set clear expectations with your support system, whether that's your spouse, partner, or child care. Okay, make the time. Figure it out with the people that are around you who are supporting you. And then you're gonna have to be flexible. As things come up unexpectedly, there's going to be nights where your baby wakes up with a fever and you are up half the night, and your morning workout does not happen. Um, things come up. You can't bring your kiddo to school, whatever it is. So you're going to have to learn to be flexible instead of just dropping it and saying, oh, I just can't this week because there's too much going on. Okay. When we take this all or nothing approach, that's when we tend to stay stuck in these cycles of like, okay, I went for a month, but then this came up and now I haven't gone for another two months. Right. So instead of just saying, okay, I can't do it at all, just rework your schedule a little bit and maybe that week you do have to do at home work out. So you make sure that you have at least a few pairs of dumbbells at home, so that you can do that on weeks where it's just not possible for you to do the plan that you normally like to stick with. Okay. Remember that your health matters just as much as everyone else is in your family. Okay. And if you don't prioritize it, nobody else is going to. You have to be the one who says this is a priority. Okay. Everybody needs to understand that mom needs her gym time. Mom needs her at home workout time. Mom needs time to go for a walk by herself or whatever it is that's going to help you pursue your goals. Um, and make it a non-negotiable. Everyone in your life just needs to understand that you can't pour from an empty cup, and you're not going to be the one that doesn't get to ever do anything for their health. That's just not healthy for anybody, really. And also keep your expectations realistic. So for best results, I do recommend three full body gym sessions or at home sessions. As long as you have the weights that will actually challenge your muscles, right? If you're just using like 2.5 or fives all the time and never progressing, you're probably not going to get optimal results. So there needs to be some progression built into what you're doing and then walking every single day, even if it's a gym day, to make sure that you're getting some non exercise expenditure so that your total daily expenditure is high. If you want changes to take place faster, if you're like well okay, I've been doing that, but I'm just not seeing the results that I want. Yeah things are going to be slower if you're only working out like three times a week. If you're able to go more, and it's important to you to get faster results than you will have to make sacrifices to go to the gym more, to go on longer walks, to be more diligent with your nutrition, things like that. So you need to look at this realistically. You can't just, you know, go and consistently once or twice a week and then expect a total body change. Everything about your body composition overhauled over a few weeks. That's just not realistic. Okay. So the amount of effort that you are putting in will definitely be correlated to how rapid your results are and how and how good your results are. That's just how this whole thing goes. Um, also showing up with a plan because. If you don't have a plan and you just show up and you only have like 2 to 3 times to work out a week and you have 45 minutes and it's like go time, you have to get stuff done fast and you're unsure of what to do, and you just kind of like, get on the elliptical and then you wander over to some of the machines and you're like, okay, I guess I'll try this one. That's not an effective approach. You're kind of wasting your time, and if you have limited time to spend, you want to make sure that what you're doing is actually going to move the needle towards progress, instead of just fumbling around and wondering what the heck to do in the gym, what's going to be the most effective, right? So you need to have a plan and one that fits where you're at with your postpartum recovery, your current fitness level, your workout needs, your schedule, and one that can be flexible. That is why I'm such a big advocate for one on one coaching. Like with what we do in Mountain Metabolic, because things are constantly changing. And if you're just following this like rigid plan that you bought for 20 bucks on Instagram or something, then that's not going to really accommodate what's going on in your life in the day to day, and you're not going to have support, accountability, anybody to help you kind of troubleshoot like late night binges or what's going on with these nutrition habits. So what's going on with this mindset? Things like that. So, um, if you can, having some external support and an actual customized plan to fit your life. That's going to really help you get the most bang out of your buck. Instead of just like spinning your wheels for years, you can spend, you know, six months investing in yourself more intentionally and get where you want to go way faster. All right, so also some practical things to keep it going here. Stroller walks. So when you're going for a walk every single day, which you should be for your mental and physical health and your non exercise activity thermogenesis aka your neat um, walks are something that you can absolutely do with your baby. You can put them on your chest in a um, in a carrier. I do that all the time with Quinn or you can do a stroller walk. There's also awesome groups like Stroller Strides and things like that in a lot of communities. So if you want to do it in community with other moms, or you just text some moms that you know and you say, hey, I'm going to go for a walk on this day, do you want to come with me? Then you're getting some external accountability and it makes it so much more fun. Um, and then also habit stacking. I am a big, big advocate of this. So that means linking something healthy to something that you are already doing daily. So for instance, doing air squats while you warm up a bottle, something like that. Okay. So something that you already need to be doing and then link it to a healthy activity. All right. Let's talk about mindset shifts for exhausted moms. First one really, really important I still struggle with this, but it is huge. Is releasing comparison to your pre baby self to other moms that you see out in real life or on Instagram, and then to people who aren't in the same season of life as you. I actually caught myself doing this a couple days ago. I was on Instagram and I came across a fitness professional who looked amazing. She was like in probably her mid 20s, right? Very young, no kids, not married. Totally different season of life. Uh, fitness, professional fitness model. And I was like, wow, she is crushing it. She looks so good. I'm so jealous. I wish I looked like her. Um, and I had to kind of reel it in and take a step back and say, okay, let's look at the facts here. Um, she's about eight years younger than me. In a totally different season of life. I don't know her genetics. I don't know her day to day habits. But I do know that our lifestyles are probably really different right now. She's probably able to work out way more than me. She's probably able to prioritize her nutrition quite a bit more than I am right now. Um, and she's probably way more consistent than I am at this stage. Right? So she looks amazing. All of the work that she's putting in is showing up. She's probably never had kids. Um, so there's just this point where you have to be realistic with yourself and say, why am I comparing myself to someone who's in a completely different stage of life than I am? Or that maybe is doing way more than me, right? Like, why am I expecting the same results as someone who is working out seven days a week when I work out three days a week, right? So be realistic and stop comparing. It does nothing for us and it's so hard in the day of social media. Social media has a lot of great qualities, great benefits. But the comparison is tough, especially when you're not feeling the most confident version of yourself. Um, so really trying to catch yourself when you're doing that and try to just cut it off. Right. Reroute. Do something different. Turn off your phone. Get off social media. The next is to view exercise as energy giving instead of just draining. A lot of times it's like the last thing I want to do is work out because I'm already so exhausted. Um, however, it's actually going to, in the end, give you much more of an energy boost than just like sitting on the couch and scrolling social media or watching Netflix for an hour. Like, if you think about how you feel after doing something like that for one hour versus how you feel after going to the gym, there's not even a comparison. It's crazy how much better you're going to feel mentally. Physically, you're going to have endorphins. You're going to be like, oh my gosh, I crushed it. Now I'm feeling energetic for all these other things that I need to take on. It's crazy how much the days that I exercise, I end up having energy, um, and like mental clarity for so much more in my day versus the days when I'm like, just being kind of lazy and sluggish, then that translates to every other facet of my day, and then I get to the end of the day, and then I'm kind of feeling down on myself. Right? So you're going to feel better both physically and mentally and energetically if you put these habits in place and just kind of make yourself do it, even if you're not feeling it, even if you're exhausted. Next one is focusing on strength versus just thinking, I gotta get my body back. I gotta get my body back. I gotta get rid of this belly. Whatever it is that is like your point of insecurity, um, shifting your mindset from, like, just the physical and how you look to getting strong again and building back muscle, it makes such a difference. It's helped me immensely in my mindset journey. My, um, kind of like mental health around exercise to shift that focus to making sure I'm maintaining or building muscle. What can I do, how it translates to my hikes that has helped me so much. Instead of just like trying to be the skinniest version of myself, because you're always going to meet someone who's thinner than you, more toned, whatever it is. So if that's like your only fixation, you're never going to be happy. It's never going to feel good enough, right? Whereas if you're just competing with yourself of like, can I get stronger on this? Can I feel less winded on the next hike that I do? It's going to feel so much better mentally for you. And then also keeping in mind that something is better than nothing. I think that this is like the the phrase of my life. Like I say this all the time to myself, to my clients on this podcast, something is better than nothing. Because sometimes we get so caught up in the perfectionism of everything of I. If I can't do it exactly how I thought I was going to do it, then what's the point? I've already failed, and I've said this analogy before, but when we when we operate like that, it's the same as getting one flat tire and then deciding to slash the rest of them, or breaking one glass in your kitchen, and then you decide to shatter the rest of your glasses. That is what exactly what we're doing when we say crap. I totally over ate last night, so this whole week is like ruined and I'm just going to start again next week. That's exactly what we're doing. We're self-sabotaging. Instead of believing that something is better than nothing. Yes, that was maybe not our best meal. How can we make our next decision around food a healthy one where we're just kind of like, okay, I'm moving on. I'm not going to dwell on it. I'm not going to harp in it, on it, or make myself feel terrible. And then the final mindset shift here is that for body changes, there's so much more to it than just working out. I think sometimes people obsess over exercise like it is the end all be all for fat loss, for body copy changes. And yes, it makes a massive difference, especially if you want to look muscular, look more toned, all of these things. But it's not the only thing that matters. So the good news is that even on the days or weeks where workouts maybe just are not happening for whatever reason, focus on what you can do for your health, such as hitting a protein goal, staying in a certain calorie window. Maybe if that's like a focus for you right now, is body recomposition getting a certain amount of fruits and veggies, setting a goal like, okay, I'm going to get two servings of veggies today, two servings of fruits and being diligent with that, getting a certain amount of sleep, doing a stress relieving activity, setting a step goal for yourself. All of these things have nothing to do with a formal workout, and yet they will make a massive difference in your body composition, in your overall health and mental health. Okay, so make sure that you're not just putting all of your eggs in one basket with exercise and kind of forgetting that the other things that you can do make such a big difference to sometimes more of a difference. Honestly, nutrition matters a lot more when it comes to weight loss, fat loss than exercise. Okay, so just keep that in mind. It's kind of an empowering thought when you have a bad exercise week to remember. Hey, there's still so much that I can control here, even if I can't control the ability to get my workouts done this week. All right. So to recap here. Consistency over perfection is the biggest thing that I want to harp on in this episode, because it's not going to be perfect in this season of life. Mamas. Like it's just not. And I've learned that a thousand times over. And the more that you can kind of let go of what you used to deem as a healthy week, a healthy day, a perfect routine, and settle into more of just trying to be consistent. Even when things are not perfect, the more successful you will be in this season of postpartum. And I want to challenge you guys to pick one habit that we talked about related to movement. So maybe it's, um, just getting out for a walk every single day with your kiddo. Maybe it's starting to go to the gym and do a little bit of strength work. Just one day a week, maybe it's habit stacking, and every time you're doing this, one certain activity that you do a thousand times a day, you're going to do some bodyweight squats. Start implementing it. Just do it. Don't wait until next Monday. Don't wait until this arbitrary perfect time frame. Just go ahead and start doing that one thing and then you can start building from there. I definitely don't recommend trying to implement a thousand things at once, because it becomes overwhelming, and we're much more likely to fail quickly and decide, I just can't do it right. So just pick 1 or 2 things. Maybe one habit around movement, one habit around nutrition and run with it. Start today instead of waiting until XYZ time frame. Um, I also wanted to offer a couple other podcast episodes because I've done a few about this postpartum fitness season. So episode 106 Habits of Healthy and Fit Moms. Definitely go back and listen to that one. And then episode 100 is about postpartum weight loss. Real talk. Okay, so if that's something that you're, um, either of those topics kind of appeal to you or this episode has been really helpful for you, you might want to go back and listen to those as well. All right. As promised, I have a little discount for the mamas out there who are interested in coaching. Um, we are running a mom strong program within our Mountain Metabolic coaching, so the structure is very similar to what we offer with our coaching, but we're focusing on postpartum, um, and just really targeting everything that is going to help moms thrive and see success with their postpartum goals. So if you're interested in working with me on this, then you are going to get half off of your first month simply for being a podcast listener. Um, so what you need to do first is either go to the show notes and hit the apply link. You're going to fill out that application form. And then when we get on a call together you'll say, hey, I'm a podcast listener. I'd love to get my first month half off. Okay, that's how you get that super easy. And then we'll go from there. And then another option is you can go to our Instagram. Fit underscore for hiking, and then you can DM us and say, hey, I'm interested in half off first month for the Moms Strong program. Okay, something like that. Just let me know. Hey, I'm a mom. I want to join the program. How do I get this half off first month? Okay. Um, would love to chat with you there. Or chat with you over a zoom call. Um, once you fill out the application, we can do our discovery call and see if the program is a good fit for you. But if you're a mom and you're struggling, you don't have the support you need. You don't have accountability. You have no plan. You feel like you're just floundering and kind of spinning your wheels. Maybe you're six months postpartum and you still haven't really gotten to get in a good routine, or you're your postpartum and you're like, I don't even know where to start at this point. I feel so lost. Then this is your sign to take some action and do this for yourself. Now, instead of getting three years down the line and and still being in the same spot, still feeling frustrated, like you have no idea how to make this all work or put it all together. Um, so I hope that this is helpful. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and I will chat with you all in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at ponytail on Etrailer.com. Happy and Healthy Trails.