Postpartum Fitness Blog

How to Have a Sex Life You Want to Brag About (Even as a Busy Mom)

Pleasure.

What happens when I say that word?

Do you tense up? Does your stomach roll? Do you feel like we’re going into forbidden territory – like you’re not supposed to talk about this? You’re a mom for goodness sake!

The truth is you’re allowed to feel pleasure – in and out of the bedroom. (Yes. Even though you’re a mom now.)

Our culture has a tendency to assume that once you start a family your sexy card is revoked and you no longer get to experience the joy of great, pleasure-filled sex.

But that doesn’t have to be the case.

You can – truly – have a sex life worth bragging about, and my friend Janna is here to help.

Want a Stronger Core? Try These 4 Exercises

If you’re looking for a quick workout to help give your core and pelvic floor a boost after baby, you’ve come to the right place.

I’m sharing 4 of my fave core stability ball exercises with you today.

All you need is a ball, some comfy clothes, and 10(ish) minutes.

Just remember to check in with your doctor, midwife or physiotherapist to make sure that these exercises are right for your body (especially if you’re working on healing a diastasis or managing pelvic organ prolapse).

And, of course, we want to make sure that you aren’t getting any coning or doming in your abs, and that any symptoms you’re dealing with (like leaking) aren’t creeping up while you’re doing these exercises.

So make sure your alignment looks awesome and your breathing and core engagement is where it needs to be.

Now that all that serious legal mumbo jumbo 😉 is outta the way, let’s do this!

Next Time You Feel Guilty For Missing a Workout, Remember This

Do you ever feel like since you became a mom your stress levels are higher, you get worn out a lot easier, and you just have a much harder time keeping a regular workout routine going?

Me too.

You wish you could just set a workout schedule and stick to it but Mom Life is so unpredictable that it’s nearly impossible to get it perfect every week, right?

And it can be so easy to feel burned right out as a mom. It can come fast and seemingly out of nowhere.

One moment things are amazing. You got your workout in. You ate kale (!) . You even turned down leftover birthday cake at a friend’s house because it just wasn’t worth it.

But then later that night your kiddo decides to throw an award winning tantrum that starts around 4pm, sabotages dinner, runs right through bath time and lasts until she finally falls asleep at 8:42pm.

Then, as if surviving that without racing out of the house and starting a new life as Susan Wallaby (the erotic novelist with a Spanish boyfriend – ooh la la) wasn’t enough, you’re also woken at 2am, 3am, 4am, and 5:12am when your kid decides that she’s up for the day and needs breakfast. Right. Now. And it better be pancakes or else get ready for Terrible Tantrum Tales round 42. Ugh.

And as you sip your coffee and try to forget the fact that the sun won’t even be up for at least another hour you remember that you had promised yourself you’d get a workout in today.

So what do you do?

Do you push through? Suck it up? Make it happen?

Wanna know my two-cents?

What I have to say might surprise you. Here we go…

11 Tasty Refined-Sugar-Free Treats to Delight Your Sweet Tooth

How many times have you said, “I’m cutting out sugar for a week”?

Or, “No. More. Candy.”?

Or, “I’ll just eat one or two” then you’re 2/3rds of the way through the gummy bag before you wake up and wonder, “What just happened?!”?

(Hand raised over here).

Sugar is a sneaky little bugger that whispers sweet nothings of, “Just have one more bite. You deserve it.”

We become addicted to the high and we can’t stop craving that powdered sweetness (especially when we’ve been up every hour trying to coax a cranky munchkin back to sleep).

But it’s obviously not good for us in large quantities. It can impact our energy, mood, gut, heart, immune system…

So it’s smart to cut down on the amount of sweet stuff you eat. No, you don’t have to go crazy and throw out every bit of sugar in your house. Just trying to consume less is a great start.

Yes it isn’t good for you. Yes it’ll probably make you feel like garbage and you’d be better off without it. But having little bites here and there is not the end of the world.

As Chris Kresser says:

“If every now and then you decide to indulge in a piece of dark chocolate or have a scoop of real ice cream made with refined sugar, you shouldn’t mentally and emotionally beat yourself up or force yourself into a week-long “detox” to make up for your dietary transgression.”

So yeah. Like I said, there’s no pressure to quit sugar for the rest of your life. Just eating less is awesome.

But if you’re trying to cut down on the amount of white sugar, and processed sugary stuff you eat, it can be challenging to just cut out the sweetness cold turkey.

Which is why I’m a fan of refined-sugar-free dessert options.

The Secret To Reaching Your Fitness Goals That No One Talks About

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season full of fun and love and joy!

Now that we’re dipping our toes into a shiny, fresh year you might be feeling the nudge to make great things happen.

Have you set any resolutions/intentions/goals for the year?

Whether you’ve jotted down some ideas or you’re simply feeling the pull to make this year especially awesome, there’s an important message you need to embrace.

This idea could be the difference between you actually feeling good and making your goals happen, and feeling like garbage and giving up.

And it all starts with your opinion of yourself (like most self-help-like things, right?).

As moms we can be so hard on ourselves.

One of the most common pitfalls I see moms trip up on – especially moms trying to get back on the health and wellness wagon – is the Perfection Fallacy.

You know the one. The idea that in order to succeed you need to be perfect.

The idea that, if you set a goal but you only get 87% of the way there, you’ve failed.

Like if you decided to eat Paleo for 30 days but on day 22 you ate some sushi (with rice – which is typically not considered “Paleo”) so you feel like a failure and it just makes you want to go out and buy all the chips, crackers, cookies, ice cream, fries, pizza…. you can get your hands on because you might as well just go big if you’re gonna mess up, right?

Or if you decided that this year you’re going to workout 3 days a week but a month in you only get 1 workout done that week because #MomLife is crazy unpredictable and those workouts just didn’t happen so you might as well give up and never workout again because what’s the point if you can’t do it “right”?!

Okay so I may be exaggerating (a little) but you get my point, hey? You feel like if you don’t make your goal happen exactly how you planned, you failed so you might as well just throw in the towel.

And therein lies the danger of the Perfection Fallacy.

It can become so easy to give up entirely when things don’t go exactly according to plan, even if you’re still making progress.

Because that’s what’s actually important – progress.

You don’t need to be perfect to see amazing changes in your life.

So how can you overcome this and feel successful even if you aren’t perfect?

How can you be okay with being good enough instead of the best?

How can you set some goals and keep motivated even when things aren’t going exactly according to plan?

Here are 3 strategies (+ a bonus tip) to help.

[Read more…] about The Secret To Reaching Your Fitness Goals That No One Talks About

How to Actually Reach Your Goals (For Real This Time)

It happens every year.

Sometime between Christmas and New Years you get asked (maybe more than once) whether you’re going to make a New Year’s resolution.

And whether it’s something you believe in, or you think it’s the worst idea ever, there’s always something about the end of a year that brings up feelings of wanting to make the next year great. Amazing. Even better than the last.

And if there’s one thing I know for sure, if you want that to be the case, you need to go into the New Year prepared. Ready. Equipped to handle any complications or issues that block your way and stop you from reaching your goals.

That’s why I’m excited to give you some helpful strategies to ensure that this year you really can reach your goals – whatever those goals may be.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while now you know that I love psychology. I love studying how we can make our lives easier and more fulfilling by tapping into the science of human behaviour.

Because the truth is that it doesn’t matter how much willpower you have. At some point you’re going to run out, and then what?

So you need something else. Something longer lasting that can help keep you going when you want to quit (or get you started again when you already have).

That’s why I love the simple methodology behind Gretchen Rubin’s book The Four Tendencies.