When I gave birth, I had no idea what would happen or what to expect. I was told so many different things from other mamas on what it would be like, what to eat, how breastfeeding would be and truthfully I wish I didn’t listen because my experience was different. I think everyone has a unique experience. Here are the REAL things I wish I had known before embarking on my postpartum journey. Especially my weight loss journey.
1. Breastfeeding doesn’t make the weight “fall off.” So many people were telling me to not worry about my weight postpartum. If I chose to breastfeed that the weight would “melt off.” WELLLLLLLLLL NOT FOR ME! I actually gained weight postpartum and ended up being the heaviest I had ever been in my life. I felt like food controlled me because of the endless hunger I experienced, leading to everyday binges. I was able to lose about 10# with tracking and exercise, but the process was painfully slow.
What I would have done differently: I would have tracked at maintenance. I think just trying to maintain my weight would have been ideal especially if I knew about the hunger I was going to have. I would focus on not gaining or losing and just eating a flexible diet at maintenance calories.
2. Not eat so many sweets at the beginning. Honestly, I ate way too much Crumbl cookie at the beginning. I thought I could eat what I wanted and lose weight like everybody told me and that totally backfired. Next time, I will plan to have more nutritious snacking options.
3. You are starting over from scratch on your fitness journey (at least that is how it was for me). I worked out my entire pregnancy with Violet, heck I even coached at F45 the whole time and did the workouts. Regardless, I still lost a ton of muscle and struggled to get it back! I remember when I was cleared to workout again, getting back into it was HARD. I couldn’t even do a knee pushup. I felt so defeated. I still feel like I am nowhere close to how I was, but I am still showing up and trying.
What I would do differently: Start on pelvic floor work asap and stick to it! My core was the biggest area that held me back when it came to building back my fitness. I was struggling with severe back pain which made it hard to stay consistent on certain lifts. I am currently working on getting pre/postnatal certified, so I know going into a second pregnancy I will have more tools under my belt.
4. Baby sleep is not as intuitive as you think. Man oh man. I could write a whole blog post on this. The baby sleep topic is wild to me. I thought babies just slept and it was fine but NOOOOOOOO…… Violet fought every single nap for months which made it challenging to do ANYTHING! When she did get to napping on her own, she napped for 30-45 min at a time. This was when I could work out and do whatever I needed to do. In turn, this also made for a difficult time and contributed to my poor mental health.
What I would do differently: This one is hard to just “do different.” We practiced independent sleep early with Violet, but babies are babies and sometimes they just don’t nap for long amounts of time or sometimes need to be nursed to sleep. Maybe I should have given myself a little bit more grace.
5. How different my body would be. No matter how many creams I used, I still got stretch marks across my whole entire low belly and loose skin. I wasn’t one of those moms that got “lucky.” Genetics plays a huge role in this as my mom had to get a tummy tuck due to these issues after having 5 kids. I am still struggling with my body image some days, but I am learning a mindset shift here.
What I would do differently: Honestly, not much I can do with this one. I would just go into it with a brand new mindset that I am creating a new life as a mom and my body is the least important thing about me now!
