This year I received the greatest gift of my life: my baby boy River. I wouldn't trade that for anything. But pregnancy and birth left my body looking and feeling a bit beat up. I gained 50 pounds by the end of my pregnancy. My body has been left with stretch marks in several different areas. And there are other changes I won't be writing on my blog but that have left me feeling somewhat broken. I am 9 weeks postpartum and I have only lost 2 pounds in the last couple of months. I am realizing that I need to be proactive in getting my body where I want it to be. I can't get away with just eating the same amount of calories I did before pregnancy and expect the weight to shed off, because that isn't happening, even though I am breastfeeding. If anything breastfeeding might be causing my body to hold onto weight.
Before pregnancy I would exercise a few days every week. I would go for a run or spend some time at the gym. I stopped working out when I became pregnant because I was sick and I was also nervous to exercise while growing a baby even though I knew logically it was okay. Now my body is feeling the effects of not regularly exercising for 10 months and birthing an almost 9 pound baby. I just started going to fitness classes and wow I am starting from square one. It's as if Ive never worked out a day in my life.
I heard so much about pelvic floor exercise being important while I was pregnant but I didn't do anything special to strengthen it. Now my pelvic floor is destroyed and I understand why it was talked about so much.
Even though my body was built to grow and birth babies, it still came at a cost. Even though I was made to breastfeed, the whole first 2 months of nursing were painful and many tears were shed. But that is going much better now which gives me hope for the rest of my body.
The funny thing is I didn't think I looked good enough before I was pregnant, and now when I see photos of myself from before I think I just looked amazing comparatively.
I feel old and plain looking and worst of all I feel broken. I have a lot of work to do with my mindset and my body. I need to be proactive more than ever. More than ever before I can't live passively and expect to see the results I want.