Looking back at the last 3 years, my body went through so much. Over that time I experienced my first singleton pregnancy, an appendectomy at 36 weeks pregnant, giving birth naturally, breast feeding, my first twin pregnancy, carrying twins full term, having a c section and giving birth naturally in the same day (a story for another day) and breastfeeding twins. Wooooo, that’s a lot! Writing it all down makes it seem unbelievable, even to me, but it just goes to prove how incredibly capable God made our bodies.
After having Brock, I will admit, I had no sense of balance when it came to being a new mom. I felt as though I had to give every part of me to my son and I couldn’t spend a second on myself. I didn’t utilize his naps because I was afraid of not being by his crib the second he woke up. I didn’t work out while he was awake because I thought that was being selfish and all my attention needed to be on him. Taking Brock on walks in the stroller was the extent of working out for me. When Brock was about 7 or 8 months, I felt ready and motivated to finally start the process. I signed up for a LA Fitness gym membership thinking I could take Brock to the day care while I got my workout in; he would get social interaction and I could have the me time I desperately needed to start taking care of myself again. I signed up on a Thursday and on Sunday of that same week… I found out I was pregnant again! This of course postponed my postpartum dreams of getting my body back, for the time being anyway.
My weight loss journey officially began in August 2019, 5 months postpartum with the twins. Until then I was riding out the breastfeeding weight loss as long as I could. I am not completely comfortable sharing all the numbers but I will share that when I walked into the hospital to have the twins I weighed more than my husband. Yes I gave myself grace, a lot of grace, but seeing a higher number than Derek on the scale was a feeling that I can’t even put into words. Breastfeeding twins helped so much and I officially started my postpartum weight loss journey at 180 pounds. I set a goal to be within 5 pounds of my wedding weight by the twin’s first birthday, giving myself 7 months to lose at least 30 pounds. Fast forward to today, I am happily raising 3 under 3 and so excited to share that I am finally back to my wedding weight! You’re probably wondering, how was she able to lose the weight after her second pregnancy while now taking care of three babies instead of one? I attribute my success to the following:
Working Out
Accessibility to a home gym. The idea of taking one kid to the gym day care sounded fun and exciting. The idea of taking 3 kids to the gym day care just sounded dreadful. I knew if I was going to finally get my body back I needed access to a gym at home that I could utilize while the kids napped. I asked for a treadmill as my “push gift” the second time around and was not offended in the slightest when it showed up shortly after the twins were born.
Scheduled work out time. Pre kids, I would procrastinate my workouts because I knew that if I didn’t get up and work out in the morning I could work out on my lunch break at work, I could work out after work, or even later at night. Post kids, I know that if I don’t workout at the set time that I plan to work out, there is literally no other time to do it. It doesn’t matter how many dishes are in the sink or the trillion other things I could do, when the kids go down for their afternoon nap, I workout and everything else can wait. The now or never reality has helped me commit to being the most consistent I have ever been at working out most days of the week.
Easy fitness programs to follow. Pre kids I did some personal training for a hot minute and I really enjoyed writing out my own weight lifting programs. Post kids, if I spend the time thinking of what to do and writing out my own workout for the day, 5 minutes into the warm up kids are already waking up. I knew I had to invest in a few different programs allowing me to walk into the garage, pull up the app on my phone and start.
Nutrition
One word, Arbonne. I spent the first 30 days of my journey trying to do it on my own. I didn’t change my diet too drastically as I felt that I ate pretty healthy and I planned to start working out 5-6 days a week. I was still in the mindset that I could get away with not having perfect nutrition if I worked out hard enough. I got extremely discouraged after that first month as I was putting in way more work than the scale was accounting for. I knew it had to be my diet and I felt that my body needed more structure and honestly just something completely different. I did the Arbonne 30 Days to Healthy Living cleanse and started seeing results instantly. I lost 5 pounds the first week and nearly 14 pounds the first month. Seeing those results really motivated me to keep pushing toward my goal. After the strict 30 day cleanse I continued on with Arbonne nutrition but allowed myself a few cheats on the weekends.
Balance between Motherhood & Self-Care
When you have a goal in mind, it is so important to know what is going to motivate you along the way. Every day won’t be easy and on the hard days you have to be able to remind yourself why you started in the first place. Your motivation. For me there has been no greater motivation than my kids. Hearing my kids say “go mama go” or clap and cheer when I finish a workout has kept me going so many times. Finding balance between being a good mom and taking care of myself was with out a doubt my why. As I mentioned earlier, this was a very hard concept for me to grasp the first time around. I came to realize that I am truly a better, happier mom when I take the time to take care of myself, too. Motherhood is a whirlwind of emotions and I felt nothing but drained at the end of the day when I only tended to the kids needs. I fill a since of fulfillment, even after a long day, when I take the time to do something, anything, for myself, too. Finding that balance has truly been a win-win for all.
Postpartum weight loss has not been easy. I sacrificed my body to grow my family and gave myself so much grace along the way but to finally have my body back and feel like myself again, all while taking care of the people I brought into this world… it truly has been the most rewarding thing I have ever done!
"Do something today that your future self will thank you for."
-Sean Patrick Flanery
