Mom Sexy Fridays: Getting Your Body Back After Having a Baby

I’m wife to R, mom to D, and lover of life in general. My blog is where I let all the thoughts running around in my head come to life and have their fun. You’ll get some good, some bad, and maybe some ugly, but hopefully I’ll keep you coming back for more.

You can find Jocelyn’s blog here, and also make sure to follow her on Twitter. She’s great! (And don’t even try to start hatin’ on her for how freakin’ amazing she looks after having a kid. She worked hard for that bod, and I will kick anyone’s ass who gets all jealous and weird of her hotness. Of course…”envy” is another story).

Reclaim Your Body AND Your Mom Sexy

As you probably all know by now, I gave birth to our first child, a little girl, back in August of last year. That means we are now officially parents of a toddler. Eep! But what was quite possibly more immediately frightening to me as a new parent than thinking ahead to the toddler stage and tantrums and all that jazz was what was going to happen to my body since I was done being pregnant. I’d never done this before, had all different areas of my body stretched to such extreme limits, so I had no idea whatsoever what the result was going to be. What does one do after carrying around 33 extra pounds? Was my butt ever going to shrink back to its normal size? Were my arms going to stop resembling stuffed sausages? Were my thighs planning on stopping rubbing together any day now? And what in the hell is going to happen to my stomach?? I didn’t even know my skin could expand that far!

Before I got pregnant it would have been considered an oddity if you didn’t find me at the gym after work each day. I usually got in some sort of class or workout on Saturdays, too. I was a swimmer in college, so I was used to being in ridiculously good shape. Once out of school I never really wanted to set foot in a pool again (i since have, but not nearly as often as in days of yore), so I turned my sights to different forms of exercise – biking, running, a little continued weight lifting, etc. Nothing stupendous, but enough to stay in good shape. And I fully expected to continue my regimen as far as possible into my pregnancy. Ha. HAHAHA! Yeah, that didn’t work out quite as planned. What with the getting sick shortly after I found out I was pregnant and having the nightmarish cold/cough combo for almost 8 weeks since I couldn’t take any medicine that actually did anything. And the first trimester tiredness. You know, that feeling of sheer exhaustion after simply sitting at your desk all day. How could I POSSIBLY be expected to exercise? I could barely drag myself from my car into my house. And then at one point I was even put on a no-heavy-exercise restriction, so I had no choice but to refrain.

So that’s basically just a long way of saying I was pretty out of shape by the time our daughter was born. No, really out of shape. Like half a flight of stairs winded me, when multiple flights normally wouldn’t cause one extra puff of breath. Needless to say, I was a little worried about how my body was going to come back from both the pregnancy and the complete lack of cardiovascular capacity. Not to mention the fact that I had lost basically all my muscle mass, too. I was just a saggy, mushy new mom. Awesome.

Now please don’t punch me in the face when I tell you this next part, but it’s all part of the story. I lost my baby weight and then some by about 3-4 months postpartum and have actually managed to keep it off since. I have to credit all of that to breastfeeding and taking almost daily walks with the stroller in the first couple months after D was born, because I still wasn’t doing any sort of my typical exercise. I think I jogged maybe 3 times last fall, but that hardly counts.

So no longer was I a saggy new mom, but I was definitely still mushy. And that has been my #1 goal this year – just to get back in shape, retone everything that had lost its luster, and not feel so out of breath after performing simple everyday tasks. I even contemplated running a half marathon this summer to really put the icing on the proverbial cake, but that notion was quickly tossed out the window when I realized how much training I would need to go from negative form to 13.1 mile form. When was I supposed to do that? These baby things take up a lot of time, time that I probably could have otherwise spent running. Probably.

I took things very slowly, easing back into the whole workout routine, but I think I’ve done a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. I started with slow, short 1.5 mile jogs, some abs, and a few pushups, until I felt my body was ready to move on. That was back in the spring, and I have since progressed to resuming workouts with my trainer once a week, twice-weekly morning workout sessions on my own with a Jillian Michaels DVD, abs and pushups a couple times a week, a good amount of running this spring and summer, and I even threw a couple 5ks in there for good measure. Surprisingly enough, my times in those races were very close to my best times ever, which came years ago when I was training for a much longer relay race. So yes, I’ve been pleased with my ability to actually get myself back in shape after baby, knowing that I want to be in tip-top condition whenever we think about going through that whole baby-making and -birthing process again.

And guess what has magically appeared lately with my rediscovered fitness and confidence in my body? Yup, Mom Sexy! I told a tale recently of how it all of a sudden hit me at the gym one night a few weeks ago during one of my training sessions, but I am feeling really good about how I’ve pushed and worked my body to get back in shape after having a baby. And I want to show it off. Don’t get me wrong – this is definitely not my way of saying oh yeah, look how awesome I am, rub-it-in-your-face taunting. Absolutely not. I have never been one to “flaunt it” or really even consider myself sexy at all. I just want to show that I’ve learned it is possible to reclaim your body after having a baby. Just because we’re moms doesn’t mean we still have to look and feel like we’re *brand new* moms body-wise.

Oh, and those babies? Use them in your workouts! Baby bicep curls, anyone?

How about some lullaby lunges?

Son or daughter squats?

And we can’t forget the offspring abs!

Mom Sexy for me has come with getting back in shape, so now I want to share the love and find it in all other areas of myself as well. Attitudinally, not just physically. We’re moms, and dammit, we are still sexy!

I can’t thank Jocelyn enough for giving us all the inspiration to get into a good workout routine and stick with it. Being good to your body is definitely Mom Sexy, and confidence absolutely comes from feeling good inside and out! Way to go Jocelyn…you deserve every single ounce of the Mom Sexy you have, and you are such an amazing example of just how far hard work and dedication can take you.