VII. The best postnatal fitness goals to set are NOT the goals around your weight, size or shape of your body.
Before I get to the point I feel it is important to underline few things here.
We all are different and we all feel like we want to start with our exercise at different point after the birth. And maybe exercise is not your thing at all and you feel great in your own skin without it- perfect!
There is absolutely no need for 6packs at 3 months postpartum. There is no need for 6packs at all. But be ruthlessly honest with yourself what is it for you that is important. Don’t let anybody decide for you when you feel ready and how much time you have available for your fitness. Nowadays there is just way too much pressure for woman to bounce back way too early.
But what if you feel ready and you mis your exercises or you want to bring it to your life now? What if you don’t know how and where to start or where to find a motivation?
So this is me 12 weeks after Samuel was born. People do comment about how quickly I went back to pre- pregnancy shape of body etc ..
Firstly (not that it is important) but just to illustrate how looks and our perception are relative… I am really not back to my pre- pregnancy fitness level and shape as I still have about 5kg plus and my core strength and cardio is not even close to where I was. Thank you though! It is flattering you think that:)
“How did you do that?” I often hear.
Let me share with you what gets me out of the house to do my exercises almost every day. And it is definitely not the idea of getting back to my favourite jeans.
My little trick (my ongoing motivation- this works even if I don’t feel like to do exercise at all that day) is
“to imagine that amazing feeling I have “AFTER” the exercise” for the rest of the day.
The feeling of: everything is fine with the world, the positivity, the productiveness, the patience and energy I have for my children.
It really is not difficult for me to eat healthily and do my exercises because my goal is not to loose a weight and I know how I feel without it. (…grumpy and sluggish) My goal is to have enough energy for my day. I want to be happy and present for my children and for my husband and in the same time I would like to have some extra energy to fit also time I spend on my “job”. And that I know is only possible if I sleep enough, eat well, and EXERCISE. (I will write about a postnatal appropriate exercises in the later blog post).
So what in my opinion are NOT a good fitness goals:
- Regain my body shape from before pregnancy – Your body will never be the same to start with!:)) It can “look strong again” but it will never be the same. And that is great! Your body did an amazing job to grow little people! How cool is that?!
- I would like my buttom to be bigger, smaller, rounder what have you… bla bla bla…
- I would like to loose a weight.
- I would like to fit into my old clothes.
etc
These are all very short lived goals..if they work for you- great! But these just don’t work for me long term at all.
So instead of beating your self about negative feelings about your physical shape why don’t you try something more positive that will improve the quality of your life???
- I would like to have more energy.
- I would like to participate at this or that sport event.
- I would like to learn how to swim a front crawl.
- I would like to feel more positive.
- I would like to keep up with my kids.
- I would like to be able to carry my baby when it gets bigger.
- I would like my children to have me around for as many decades as possible!
