Postpartum Fitness Blog

How to Give Yourself Freedom to Eat Whatever You Want (Without Losing Control)

The truth?

Before I started writing this I ate a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal. Okay that’s a lie. I ate two bowls. And oh man was it good!

I haven’t had Lucky Charms in years!

I can’t tell you why I needed them but for some reason I needed vitamin Lucky Charms and after having the craving for 4 days I decided, yes. Yes. I will eat those Lucky Charms.

Was it worth it? Yes.

Am I going to feel like muck in about 1/2 an hour/tomorrow morning when I wake up? Probably.

Will I eat some more tomorrow? Maybe. I haven’t decided yet.

The thing is, I’m an adult. You’re an adult. While you can be dictator over what your kiddo eats, you get to play all loosey goosey with what you eat.

That means that there are no rules. In fact, throw out the rules. They aren’t helping you get or stay healthy.

Sure you might be able to follow a diet that prescribes so many carbs, so many grams of protein, cheat days and you-can-never-haves for a month or two. But who wants to live their life like that?

I don’t. Do you?

V***** Isn’t a Dirty Word

There’s a lot of shame attached to a woman’s body.

I don’t mean that a woman’s body is something to be shameful of.

I mean that – particularly in my native Canadian/American culture – there’s a lot of hush-hush, “We don’t talk about that”, kind of stuff surrounding a woman’s sexual organs.

Clue #1 that this is an issue is the fact that a lot of women can’t even say “vagina”. It’s hoo-haw, or lady bits, or flower, or va-jay-jay.

We don’t come up with cutesy pet names for our arms. So why do we have to act like our vagina is this dirty thing that needs to be spoken about in whispers (if at all)?

This is a problem.

A huge problem.

Especially for a woman who’s struggling to love her body after baby.

The truth is, in order to boost our body image – the idea of feeling peaced right out in our skin – we need to be able to say vagina without acting like it’s a dirty word.

And that’s just the start.

When Can I Start Running, Jumping, Dancing, Burpeeing… Again?

When can I stop doing heel slides and body weight squats and kegels and this easy-peasy core ridiculousness and start going to my HIIT classes again?

That’s what you’re wondering, right?

You’re thinking, “Jen I am so, so sick of this simple stuff. I want to do a real workout.”

Fair enough.

You’re 6+ weeks postpartum and you’re “cleared” for physical activity. So why can’t you just jump back into your running shoes and train for a 10K?

Because your doctor may have given you the clearance but your body may be going “Woah, woah, woah!”

This is one of the (many) lessons I learned during my postpartum rehab.

8 weeks after I had my kiddo I popped in a BeachBody.com Shaun T workout video (T-25 if you’re curious) and almost peed myself.

Why Losing The Baby Weight Shouldn’t Be Your #1 Goal

I could tell she was instantly uncomfortable sitting in this tiny cubicle at the back of the gym with me – a stranger she’d only met 20 seconds before.

I smiled.

Trying to reveal that I wasn’t interested in tricking her into buying a big, expensive package that was contract-clad and she couldn’t back out from if she suddenly had buyer’s regret.

“Why are you interested in working with a personal trainer?” I asked.

“Because I want to lose 20lbs.” She said, as if she’d declared those exact words at least 542 times in the last month.

“Why do you want to lose 20lbs?”

She shook her head and squinted her eyes as if she didn’t understand the question.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“Why do you want to lose 20lbs? What’s driving you?”

She looked down at the ground and let out an unconscious sigh. When she looked back up I could tell she was about to tell me – a stranger she’d just met 57 seconds ago – the history of a painful internal struggle.

How to Tell if You Have Diastasis Recti

Think you might have diastasis recti?

If you …

Have a post-baby belly that just won’t go away no matter how healthy you eat or how many crunches you do.

Suffer with nagging back pain and just feel like your core is weak (despite all the planks you’ve been doing).

Pee yourself from time-to-time. Maybe just a little. But still.

… You could have diastasis recti – a separation of the two sides of your rectus abdominis (your “six-pack abs”).

How to Engage Your Core (Without Sucking Your Belly Button to Your Spine)

When I say “engage your core” what do you do?

Do you suck it in?

Do you brace your abs?

Do you clench your butt?

Relax.

Seriously.

Relax.

Engaging your core is a lot more of a gentle movement than a lot of mamas believe.

Which is why I’m going to teach you how to properly engage your core in this video.

Because the better you are at (properly) engaging your core, the better your results can be.

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