3 months Postpartum: the Body
Happy weekend peeps! So glad this week is over-I always find coming back from vacation is so busy. Laundry, cleaning, unpacking, and then being slammed at work! Yikes! Also, sleep has been few and far between so this mama needs some chill time this weekend!
Last week my little guy and I celebrated 3 months old and 3 months postpartum, respectively. I always found 3 months to be such a milestone. Everything is still hard, no doubt, but by this point nursing is usually in a rhythm, you’re getting some (key word: some…I guess some is better than none!) sleep, some smiles, and you’ve somewhat gotten used to baby and the new family dynamic.
State of Mind
This month brought an interesting dynamic to the postpartum body edition. Going on vacation at 3 months postpartum with your 3rd baby can be tough on your confidence and mind. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that it weighed a little bit on me (no pun intended ha!). I am definitely heavier than I was, and what I want to be, and was reminded of this about 100 times when packing for the trip haha. Packing shorts, bathing suits, etc. was tough especially when hardly any of it fit. Not to mention making sure I had nursing friendly clothing! Basically 70% of my closet still does not fit me.
However, I was determined to not let it ruin an ounce of my excitement for or during the trip.
I focused on these things heading into this trip and threw my bathing suits on with confidence:
My body has created 3 human beings in 4 years (!!!!)
The extra that I’m carrying is allowing me to feed and nourish my baby.
I’m only 3 months out and I need to respect the process
My experience will not be determined based on whether or not I’m at my pre-pregnancy weight. End of Story.
In saying that, you can bet your bottom dollar I took advantage of the weather and was extremely active down in florida. Tons of walks, runs, good eating and gym sessions were had because I have some goals to crush. And, yeah, body positivity is great. But something I always remind myself is that there’s nothing wrong with respecting and loving your body and still wanting to see change!
The Stats
The good news: down a pants size. The bad news: I only have lost one more pound. I’m slowly inching my way into the 140s which is going to be a HUGE milestone for me (I was around 135/136 pre-pregnancy). On delivery day, I was rocking about 170 lbs so getting into that 140s range is going to mean a lot to me. Also, disclaimer here that many people may not believe I was 135 when I got pregnant but I was strong/muscular and muscle is so much more dense than fat so that is why I weigh a lot more than what people may think. I know a lot of people are very touchy about disclosing how much they weigh (I totally get it) but I want to be completely transparent on my road to fitness so I’ll be sharing everything!
The scale can be tricky. As I’ve stated before, I know that by being consistent with workouts and nutrition may not show on the scale right away, and show in other ways like losing inches or just looking leaner. So, my hope is that from month 3—>month 4 is when I see a 2-4 lb drop that gets me into the 140s. Because whether we want to admit it or not, the scale does matter to all of us, at least a little bit! I think the fact that its measurable has something to do with it.
Nutrition
I’m definitely doing a much better job of increasing my protein macros and decreasing my carbohydrate macros which was a goal of mine over the last month. Since I’ve returned from vacation, I’ve been more strict with my post dinner snack which is going to help me for sure in the long run.
My meals for breakfast and lunch are always pretty basic. Breakfast i generally have eggs and oatmeal. Mid morning snack is a quest bar, followed by lunch which is usually chicken and a salad. Mid afternoon is a protein shake and dinner varies every night. I usually post my dinner on my instagram stories so hop on there for meal ideas!
My biggest battle from Month 2 continues to be eating some sort of processed carb at night (ie. cereal and granola). I’ve not had any all week since I got home from vacation and I’m determined to stick to it. Instead, I choose greek yogurt with some fruit.
Goals for the next month include staying strict with the bedtime snack, and ensuring my macros are on point every day, not just 4 or 5 days of the week.
The workouts
Right now I’m grinding out about 3-4 strength workouts per week. Generally, they are broken up into lower and upper workouts. Usually I get 2 lower, and one upper in. The 4th day is usually a workout filled with some HIIT weight exercises and simple accessory work that I make up on my own in my basement with bands, and kettlebells.
Cardio wise I’m slowly trying to increase my HIIT workouts. All the way through 10 weeks postpartum I strictly focused on steady state cardio with some HIIT thrown in here and there.
My goal is to ideally get 3 days of HIIT in with one steady state. On average right now I’m getting 2 HIIT and one steady state, which is alright. As the weather continues to improve I would love those workouts to be at the track doing intervals. I find that these work excellent for me in terms of fitness and burning fat.I also find that being active outside of workouts is super important, so I try to ramp up my general activity. Getting anywhere from 8-10 miles a day is definitely a goal of mine over the course of May, June, and July.
How I’m feeling & how I battle sleep deprivation when working out
How am I feeling? I guess thats a loaded question. I feel 100 times better than I felt when I was pregnant. And about 2000 times better than the first month postpartum. My incision is fine and I feel great working out-no issues other than fatigued muscles lol!
But I still have such a long way to go before I really, truly feel like myself. I’m up 2-3 times a night and I think thats not so bad….but when you’re going on month 3 , 4, 5, 6 of doing it …it gets real old, real fast.
How do i find the motivation/fit in working out when I’m not sleeping well?
Well, thats pretty tough. Because there are some days where I don’t want to do it. Sure, not sleeping is definitely a legit reason to not workout.
But, at the end of the day, it is still an excuse regardless of whether or not its valid reason.
So, I grind it out. And getting to where i want to be is an accumulation of little choices I make each and every day that add up to be big choices. Like, take a nap or go for a walk. Eat the yogurt or the processed cereal. Tons of tiny decisions on the daily that will make or break whether I get to where I want to be.
I also get creative with workout times-I try to avoid super early AM workouts for obvious reasons (normally when I get a good amount of sleep I love them), and try to do more on the weekends when I have help.
My biggest motivators are knowing how good I will feel about myself when I’m strong. How much more energy I’ll have because I’m fit and healthy. And …. the feeling when my clothes fit me great, and I’m a confident Bad ass bitch.
Exercise of the month:
I’m (hate) loving burpees at the moment. What a great exercise. No equipment needed, works the whole body, raises the heart rate, and you don’t need much space for it! BOOM.
Thats all for now!
Have a great day! xo
Alex