It's hard in this day and age where everywhere you look celebrities are stepping out 4 week post baby and looking like they were never pregnant. With there size 0 frames, unbelievable body transformations and multimillion dollar weight loss endorsement deals it's no wonder women feel the pressure to slim down immediately after baby is born.
As an athletic and slim woman I found the weight gain progress during my pregnancy one of the biggest challenges. In the first trimester the changes my body went through depressed me, my bump looked more like I should be laying off the hot chips and chocolate and more like I should be hitting up the gym than it did a baby bump. I was self conscious and all to aware that people were noticing but not game to ask. As my bump grew more round I started to embrace it and by the end my very round belly was my bodies pride and joy. Throughout my pregnancy with Cooper I gained (i can't believe I'm revealing this) 17 kilos, and once Copper graced us with his presence I was a woman on a mission to get my body back, certain that breastfeeding and exercise would be my savour.
It was a lesson I learnt pretty quickly that while breastfeeding watching what you eat is not an option, and to muster the energy to exercise I needed to eat. I was so conflicted over those first few months, convinced I could lose the baby weight quickly, but finding that any time I manipulated my diet to reduce calories or carbs my milk supply would drop. I was so upset, nothing was working in my favour and an internal battle was waging between my desire to breastfeed and my desire to lose weight quickly.
In the end, breastfeeding won out - and rightly so, after all it is your job as a mum to put your child's needs before your own. They say that it takes 9 months to put on and 9 months to take off - well for me it's taken a year, after I stopped breastfeeding at 8 months I was able to look more closely at the foods I was consuming, but that alone wasn't enough, I needed to work on my portion sizes and increasing the amount I exercise.
Now all of that is not to say that my body has returned to the way that is was before. It hasn't and to be honest that's totally OK by me. Yes I am now almost exactly the weight I was pre-baby bump but the composition of my body is completely different. I am softer in places where I used to be quite firm, things are a little less perky and my hips are a little wider - but my body has done an amazing thing, it has given me Cooper, it carried my baby boy for 9 months before my arms could, it was a vessel, his home and it provided him the food and nourishment he needed to grow healthy and strong.
I guess I'm finally able to say I am proud of my body, flaws and all, and I hope that other women can feel the same. I guess getting back to my original comments, who knows what goes on behind the closed doors of a celebrity mum, they may not breastfeed and therefore can diet as they wish, they have nanny's and chefs, personal assistants and people at their beck and call 24/7 - it's an unrealistic goal and after a year I'm glad I did it my way.
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| Something for all new mums to remember |
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