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Fitness For Every Mom: Real bodies, real health {Episode 50}
103 Plays5 years ago
Fitness for moms, post pregnancy and beyond! Bonnie and Audrey cover this topic in 3 areas: motivation to get fit, methods, and tips for staying fit. It's so easy as a hard working mother to let yourself, your health and your fitness become less important than everything else. This episode offers real advice from real moms on how to change that paradigm. You deserve good health, and listening to this episode is a great way to begin!
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 50. We're super excited to discuss post pregnancy fitness with you today. We're going to talk about the things that motivate us to be fit after our pregnancy. We're going to talk about the exact specific methods that we use and we're going to give some tips for when the going gets hard in this post pregnancy fitness journey. And then at the very end, we're each going to be sharing a little bit of our own post pregnancy fitness journey stories.
Meet the Hosts: Bonnie and Audrey
00:00:34
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Outnumber the Podcast. I'm Bonnie. And I'm Audrey. And we're homeschooling moms to a combined total of 18 children. We know firsthand that motherhood is full of crazy chaos and overwhelming obligations, but it should also be full of love and laughter. Regardless of where you are on your journey, come join us as we work together to find joy in the chaos of motherhood.
Kids' Perspectives on Pregnancy
00:01:00
Speaker
All right, today before we dive into the topic, we're going to start with a little humor segment. I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but one of my darling little boys told me he knew that I was gonna have another baby.
00:01:16
Speaker
And I said, oh, really? How do you know that? Like, you know, is this little child got some clairvoyant, you know, insight into the future or something? And he says, because your belly is so big, mommy, I can just tell. Little jerk. Oh, that's happened to me so many times. Probably at least once after every child, you're sweet and assuming toddlers like, oh, and there's another one in there. It's like, well, no, this is just what I look like. Get over it.
Regaining Shape Post-Pregnancy
00:01:49
Speaker
Yeah, so we want to share that just as a preface to this episode that we all know what it's like to have body changes and crazy things happening during pregnancy and afterwards for so long. So we're all in this together. Let's get to it.
00:02:05
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. That is kind of a good segue into today's topic on post pregnancy fitness. So this topic came about because Bonnie and I got asked a reader sent in a question. How do Bonnie and I get our shape back after pregnancy and birth? And so, yeah, Bonnie and I were excited actually to be asked this because I think we're both pretty passionate about this and have some strong thoughts and feelings and ideas. And we're excited to share those with you today.
Health vs. Societal Pressures
00:02:34
Speaker
Yeah, totally. I will share here, maybe this happens due to Audrey, but I get told quite often, wow, you look really good for having nine kids. And I kind of take it a little bit as a backhanded compliment because I'm like, I think in most people's minds, someone with nine kids would be like a 500 pound blob.
00:02:53
Speaker
you know never having done her hair or looking like a bedraggled hot mess and maybe we do like look like bedraggled hot messes sometimes but you know I was like well maybe you could just say I look nice period. I didn't mean well but I just thought that was funny.
00:03:10
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna get into that one a little bit deeper in a little bit later in the episode because I did put that down in my notes because a lot of times that when people say that to me it doesn't make me feel quite uncomfortable because it's when they're comparing me to someone else who has had oh she's only had you know four kids and you look awesome compared to her like I just Okay, so we're gonna get into that a little bit later. Yes, totally and
00:03:35
Speaker
And another just preface to this is that if you have extra weight or you've not been able to get fit or you don't feel healthy after having kids, this is in no way trying to condemn anyone or judge anyone. We're simply sharing what has worked for us, what makes us feel healthy and strong and vibrant. And we want to share any tips in hopes that it could help somebody else. Not saying we're perfect either. We've got all kinds of issues.
00:04:02
Speaker
our health and exercise. We're just all doing the best we can, right?
Thin Privilege and Personal Health Choices
00:04:05
Speaker
Right, right. I think that's why we were so glad when we were asked to this question and to take up this topic because it is a hot button topic in today's society. The pendulum has swung away from fat shaming and now we're all the way on the other side where we're, I have heard people being shamed or called that accused of having
00:04:30
Speaker
thin privilege, which is the pendulum completely the other way. And so women's body image is a long standing issue, no matter which side where the pendulum is in the swing. So I think the takeaway for me is that for me personally, my health is an intentional choice and it is hard work. And I don't want to shame anyone else for where they are on that journey. And I don't appreciate anyone else, you know,
00:04:58
Speaker
Casting. What's the word my kids, my teenagers use? Oh, throwing shade on me either. Yeah. Throwing shade on me either for, you know, what I look like. Totally. And I also want to say that we're going to be talking about how to make healthy choices and do everything we can to get fit and be as strong and healthy as possible for our kids.
Healthy vs. Thin: A Personal Journey
00:05:21
Speaker
But being healthy and being thin are two different things. And I think it's so important that people realize that.
00:05:27
Speaker
that there are many people who are just naturally thin and will probably always be that way. I'm sure many of us know thin people that eat garbage and never exercise. And conversely, I'm sure many of us know people with weight, extra weight on them that eat totally healthy and exercise all the time. So I just think that's an important differentiation to make because it's very easy to judge people when we don't know what's going on. You know, you've probably gotten this. I mean, even if you didn't eat healthy, you'd probably, it'd probably be fairly easy for you to lose the weight because genetically you're just
00:05:56
Speaker
Trim. But maybe not. I know that genetics does play a big part of it for me, and I feel blessed to have healthy genetics. But not everybody who shares my genetics has my same
00:06:15
Speaker
body type or figure you know what I'm what I'm trying to say is I feel like part of the reason that I'm in the condition I'm in is because I've made choices to be in this condition does that make sense yeah totally totally yeah so it's definitely a combination of both your choices and your genes that's just a little a little side note before you start getting angry that you're doing everything you're supposed to be doing and you don't look the way you want to look right it's just right there's only so much we can control yes
00:06:42
Speaker
Okay, so I will start off by saying that when people ask me this question, the number one thing I say is, if you are out of shape before or during your pregnancy, you're gonna be out of shape after.
Fitness Tips for Moms
00:06:53
Speaker
I know we all think, well, as soon as I have this baby, I'm just going to lose all this weight really quickly. Well, we have to realize that our bodies are like machines, right? Yeah, they're like machines. If we care for our machines like a car and we change the oil regularly and we put high quality gas in it and we rotate the tires, then it's going to be in great condition, even if we need to go off-roading or do something a little more damaging to it.
00:07:17
Speaker
pregnancy, right? But if we have never or rarely paid attention to what we've eaten, or we did before pregnancy, and then we just ate garbage for nine months, and you know, sat around watching Netflix, then chances are good, it's going to be a lot more difficult to get back in shape afterwards. Now, I realize that this is like a little too little too late for those of us that
00:07:37
Speaker
find ourselves at the end of a pregnancy, you know, with extra weight gain or having not stayed in shape. But that's just something I want to put out there if you have a pregnancy in your future, that that's the best gift you can give yourself and your unborn child is to do everything you can to continue exercising and eating healthy before and during pregnancy.
Embracing Post-Pregnancy Body Changes
00:07:56
Speaker
Right. I think if people go back and listen to our two episodes about pregnancy, they will see that you and I are pretty intentional about exercise and keeping in good health and fitness during pregnancy too. Yeah, totally. Okay, so I want to address the phrase, getting your shape back after pregnancy. Yeah, or bouncing back. Everybody's like, oh, I want to bounce back so quickly. Yeah.
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's backward and you're never going to go back. Sorry. Your body's going to be different. Even your brain is different after pregnancy. Bonnie and I found that out when we did our research for a mom brain episode. Even your brain is different after you have a baby.
00:08:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So your body is not going to be the same. Please don't ever expect to go back to what your body was because like, I don't know, I think we've said this before. If I could choose having my body back or having my kid, duh, it's a no brainer, right? So I think people should focus on embracing their new body, their new mom body. And that doesn't mean, you know, sit on the couch and eat potato chips because this is now my mom bought and I have to live with it.
00:09:07
Speaker
But there is a new body in town, and that's the one we need to work with. Not expect that we're going to go back to what we used to be.
Transitioning to Motherhood Identity
00:09:15
Speaker
Not happening. Totally. And I know that when I am in the best shape of my life and eating healthy and feel amazing, I still look way different now than I did before my first baby. I still looked way different after my first baby, even once I got in shape.
00:09:28
Speaker
than I did before, just because pregnancy changes so much. Your hips, your ribs, your breasts, your stretch marks, your skin, your everything changes and that's okay. And I personally want to try to embrace it as kind of a graduation from youth to womanhood.
00:09:47
Speaker
You know, from like young adults, even if you're an older adult that has your first kid, you know, into motherhood, into this blossoming, you're just a different person physically and emotionally and mentally, you know, let's face it. But there's so many more positive ways we can look at it rather than, well, I got to get my body back. I look horrible.
00:10:07
Speaker
why is that so important? That is a beautiful way to put it because just as I would never want to go back and relive high school, I don't want to go back and relive those days before my kids either. Like I love where I am now, my womanhood and my motherhood. And yeah, I'm going to be embracing that.
00:10:29
Speaker
So Bonnie and I have split this episode up into three parts,
Motivation for Fitness: Keeping Up with Kids
00:10:34
Speaker
motivation for getting fit after pregnancy, our methods, our personal methods for getting fit, and then tips that we have to share. And then at the very end, we're gonna share some personal experiences and trouble and obstacles that we struggle with in our own post pregnancy fitness journey.
00:10:55
Speaker
All right, so my first motivation is that I feel a very strong responsibility to be healthy enough to care for and keep up with my kids. I was 42 when I had my number nine, my ninth child. And by the time he's 20, I'm gonna be 62, 63. And I wanna be as healthy and vibrant and fit
00:11:22
Speaker
to enjoy that time with him as I was when I had my 22-year-old and when she turned 20. And so I'm feeling a very strong responsibility at my advanced maternal age to be healthy. Your geriatric age. Well, I want to keep up with him. I want him to enjoy me and not be an elderly grandma mother to him.
00:11:50
Speaker
Even though we can make healthy changes and decisions as adults, I think that a vast majority of what our habits are and what we do to take care of our bodies starts with what we learn as children, right? If we have unhealthy habits as kids, chances are really good that we're going to keep those up as adults.
00:12:10
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. So part of my motivation is recalling how I feel at nine months pregnant.
Self-Perception and Relationships
00:12:18
Speaker
So if you've ever been nine months pregnant, you probably know what I'm talking about. You feel bloated. You feel heavy. You're cumbersome. Your body just feels awkward. You feel like it's not yours. You're kind of clumsy. All these things, it's hard to sleep.
00:12:36
Speaker
Oftentimes at those times I think I'm just so glad that this is going to go away soon. Like it's so hard to live this way, right? And sometimes that is my motivation for not allowing excess weight gain. Okay. Anyway, I know that might sound silly, but for me that's kind of been my motivation for not allowing myself to gain excessive amounts of weight because I just don't want to feel that awkward and overwhelmed with my body, right? Feeling kind of out of place with my body.
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, I totally get that. And that would be a huge motivator for me, too. Like, that's just so miserable at that time. So yeah, I'm totally with you on that one. So one of my motivators is that I have a desire to feel good about the way I look. I know that if I'm not feeling good about the way I look, that
00:13:30
Speaker
Like I feel different about my clothes. Um, I feel different about, well, just so much. I feel different about the food that I eat. Like, you know, I almost get in this negative cycle about, Oh, I'm hungry and I want to eat this, but this is going to make me feel bad or look bad. And you know, and just like, how can food be good for you or be healthy and make you feel better work for you if you're feeling that way about it.
00:13:56
Speaker
And as part of this, I want to be attractive to my husband. I want him to be attracted to me and us to have a great relationship. Not that other people don't, but this is just, I'm saying for me personally, I want my husband to be attracted to me. And if I feel attractive, then he's gonna be attracted to me. I have found that to be 100% true. If I feel attractive at nine months pregnant, then he's attracted to me. If I feel attractive and good about the way I look,
00:14:26
Speaker
when I'm, you know, not pregnant, then he's attracted to that too. Okay. And then the third, yeah, go ahead. I just want to share a funny thing about that. Oftentimes I'll try something on that I'm either not sure how it fits or it's something new and I'm unsure or I'm feeling bad about myself and I just want to get his, you know, kind of validation. I'll try it on and I'll go, how does this look?
00:14:47
Speaker
And without even realizing it, stand there like so unattractively. Shoulders slumped, got out, frowned on my face like, well, how does this look? And he's like, terrible because
Fitness, Productivity, and Well-being
00:14:58
Speaker
of how you're standing. Like stand up, smile, you know, and just by changing my posture, he's like, looks amazing. You know, he's just trying to tell me that so much of it is in my head and it is easier for me to feel good about myself when I'm treating my body well. I totally feel the same.
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah. And then a part of it for me is that I sew 95% of my clothes. And so I am very conscious of the effort that goes into my wardrobe. And I sew 95% of my clothes for a bunch of different reasons. One of them being that I'm six feet tall and I just can't go to any store and buy something that fits.
00:15:38
Speaker
So I'm very aware and conscious of the effort that goes into my wardrobe. And a fluctuating size makes my wardrobe less accessible to me. And that's depressing to me. So that's a third part of feeling good about the way I look, is what I wear clothes that I've made specifically for my body that makes me feel really good. And if I outgrow those or they don't fit somehow,
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah, that doesn't help me feel good. Yeah, what a waste of all those hours, right? Yeah, yeah. So part of my own motivation, last one I have to say about motivation, is that I am so much more productive, happy, and just a fun person when I'm physically fit.
Balancing Fitness with Motherhood
00:16:26
Speaker
So I noticed that, now this is just part of being pregnant too, but at the end of my pregnancy I also get kind of cranky about everything. I'm overly tired, you know, going up the stairs with a basket of laundry, you're like,
00:16:37
Speaker
Breathing so hard. I get depressed less often when I'm exercising and trying to eat healthy. I have fewer cravings for junk food. I sleep better and then I'm able to get up earlier. So there's so much. In fact, it was only recently that I was like, why am I having
00:16:56
Speaker
Why am I struggling to do a handful of things that I've been wanting to do, like cut back on sugar and read more scriptures and all these other things? And I'm like, I haven't been exercising. My baby kind of had a sleep regression thing. And so I was sleeping in and not getting up and doing exercise. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, look at all the things that it's affecting. Like just my general motivation and ability to like hop off the couch and do what my kids need me to do. I just feel sluggish. I feel tired. So if exercise has not been part of your
00:17:24
Speaker
You know, eating healthy goes hand in hand, but if exercise has not been part of your life recently, I highly recommend just finding some way to sneak it back in because you will be shocked at how many things it positively affects. It just does. Yeah, I couldn't agree with that more. I could not agree with that more.
00:17:44
Speaker
All right, so let's move into our method section. So Bonnie and I, you know, we've got nine kids each, and how on earth do we find time and space to make ourselves physically fit?
Prioritizing Health Over Appearance
00:17:57
Speaker
I want you guys to notice, those of you who are listening, that Bonnie and I are not using words like thin. Like that is not exactly what health and physical fitness means to us, but we're using, because,
00:18:12
Speaker
Yeah. I just want you guys to notice that there is more to fitness than your shape or your size or your numbers or your measurement. And we're going to talk more about this at the end, but I just thought I wanted to flag your attention to that right now in the middle. Yes. And I will just say about that as well. Every single person can get healthy.
00:18:32
Speaker
right? Not every single person can conform with society's ideals of thin or skinny because we're all built differently, right? We will, no matter how hard we try, we will not all look like a supermodel, but we can all be as healthy as our body will allow. So when we use thinness as an ideal, we could never get there and be frustrated forever. When we use feeling amazing and being healthy as our ideal, we can all get there. So
00:18:57
Speaker
Yes. All right. So how do Bonnie and I do it? We've both got nine kids are hands full and no extra time, right? Well, for me, I make health my priority. And so I'm going to loop back to what we were talking about at the beginning, how oftentimes people will compare us to other moms who are maybe less physically fit.
00:19:18
Speaker
and say, oh, you look so great compared to. And that question makes me really uncomfortable. And I often default to, well, it's just genetics. I just happen to have good genetics. Or, well, I'm six feet tall. And so my weight has a lot of room to spread out. Those are like my two default answers. But I feel like there's a little bit of dishonesty in that because I do make health my priority. And I want to start sharing that with people.
00:19:45
Speaker
it didn't just drop out of the sky and I was born like this. Sorry, you can't get that way because that's basically what I'm saying. If I say I'm six feet tall or I have good genes, I'm basically saying, well, you could never be like this.
00:19:58
Speaker
So I want to share with people that I have made health my priority. And then I can go back and share with them my motivations, why? But it can be more of a conversation starter than when I say, oh, well, I'm six feet tall because that's sort of a conversation killer. And I know what I'm doing when I say that is I'm attempting to end the comparison because that makes me very uncomfortable. And I don't think it's a healthy thing. But anyway.
00:20:26
Speaker
That's my
Personal Health Choices vs. Genetics
00:20:27
Speaker
method. Number one is to make my health my priority. Totally. Yeah. And my thing that I'll share about my method is very similar. Having a healthy diet and caring for your body must be your number one priority. I know that sounds a little drastic. People are like, no, I have to take care of my kids first or I have to. But think about it. If you don't eat, how long are you going to last?
00:20:53
Speaker
maybe a half a day before you get a splitting headache and you're miserable and cranky and starving, right? If you don't sleep, how long are you going to last? Not long. I mean, we can all survive on very little sleep for a long time, but you know, so think about for a second, in order to run your household and care for your children, what's the first thing that has to happen? You have to be focused on your
00:21:13
Speaker
bear basic needs which are feeding yourself, sleeping, and caring for your body. Now, people might have different opinions about what that means. For me, that means some basic form of exercise and eating regular meals that are healthy. And I highly encourage other people to make that their number one priority as well because when that doesn't happen, I am significantly less helpful to my family.
00:21:38
Speaker
I think that before we take care of our kids, before we serve our community, before we serve our spouse, we have to take care of ourselves because you cannot, what do they say? You cannot fill from an empty bucket. And too many moms are out there pouring their buckets out everywhere around them and there's nothing left. And they're miserable and they're depressed and they're cranky and they're tired because they're not taking care of number one. And so many people think that that's selfish. It's not. It's selfish to not do it because eventually everyone suffers if you don't take care of yourself, right?
00:22:08
Speaker
Yeah, that is so good. That is such a good point. If mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. So there you go.
00:22:15
Speaker
Yeah.
Balanced Exercise Approach
00:22:16
Speaker
All right. So, um, my number two point on method is exercise. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about my struggle with exercise when we get done to sharing our personal experiences at the end. But, um, I try to rotate between, um, think about exercise and physical fitness from, uh, like a three legged stool. Um, there's strength and there's endurance and there's flexibility. So I try to rotate my exercise between the three. Like if I can, um,
00:22:46
Speaker
oh, you know, lift 100 pounds, but I can't reach down and touch my toes, then I'm really strong in strength and I have no flexibility. Or if, you know, if I can, you know, do reach down and touch my toes, put my hands flat on the ground, but not run a mile, then I'm strong in flexibility, but I have no endurance. You guys get the idea. It's kind of obvious, but I do try to strengthen myself and be at least
00:23:15
Speaker
I have a little bit of competency in each of those areas. So I do rotate between those three forms of exercise. Right. You know, along those lines, sometimes I think, okay, am I fit enough to do something?
00:23:29
Speaker
you know, to care for a family member in an emergency
Enjoyable Exercise for Consistency
00:23:33
Speaker
situation. If there was a fire, could I grab a kid under each arm and book it out of my house, right? Could I jump out the top window and not die? Could I sprint down the road to save my child from, you know, of course, motherhood scenarios. What's going to happen? Somebody's going to endanger my child. But there's so much about being physically fit that helps our families as well, right?
00:23:54
Speaker
Part of my methods is that I've always tried to find something that I love. So I will not exercise for exercise sake. I just won't. If I hate it, I won't do it. I know that about myself, you know? And so some things that I have done that I've loved that have made exercise into something fun that I've craved instead of a chore.
00:24:12
Speaker
have been like hip-hop dance or like Zumba, something fun like that. Swimming, I really enjoy. Walking with friends that I want to talk to. I love running, especially to popular music because it just kind of feels like a dance party. And then it just never feels like a chore. It's always something exciting.
00:24:32
Speaker
Right.
Diet and Exercise Balance
00:24:33
Speaker
Right. And I think if people are following us on our personal accounts on Instagram, they'll see that we're not just saying this, but like this summer in October, no, this fall in October, you had something you were doing. You're trying to run 25 miles in October. And then my next method point is about diet. And I had this all summer. I was doing my
00:24:56
Speaker
summer salad campaign where I would make a pretty salad and post a picture of it and eat it, post a picture to my stories in Instagram. I guess we can put our personal Instagram accounts, link those in the show notes. So people do want to follow us, but like, we're not just telling you this, but this is like, we're sharing ways and things that we really, really do. So for me, diet is super important to be physically fit.
00:25:21
Speaker
I highly recommend the book Eat Right for Your Blood Type to know which foods are highly beneficial for you. So just as a starting point to know what your body likes. And also that book does have exercise recommendations for each blood type, which is very interesting as well.
00:25:45
Speaker
But anyway, for me, diet, it's a whole bunch of nutrient dense food and colorful foods, low or no sugar. And then if you're a nursing mother, you have to consume a high fat content to be able to
00:26:04
Speaker
keep, get the baby what they need and to be able to build, build and make milk yourself. Oftentimes when moms will ask me about, you know, they're struggling with breast milk supply, I'll be like, and how much fat is in your diet? Cause you got to have it to make milk. Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:20
Speaker
So one thing that I always tell myself that I saw on a, I think it was like a World War II propaganda poster, but I just loved it so much, is the saying, eat food, not too much, mostly plants. So I think that has turned me pretty well. The first one being, don't eat junk, don't eat garbage that comes out of a processed plant or a fast food joint. Eat food, real food that you know where it comes from, right? So sometimes when I'm revamping my diet, I'll look at everything I'm eating and going, would a toddler know where this came from?
00:26:47
Speaker
a chicken nugget? No. We have to know our source. Secondly, not too much, right? If I find myself struggling with my weight or just excess lethargy and sweet cravings, I'll just try to cut back on my portions and sometimes it's because I'm eating the wrong stuff, but sometimes it's just because I'm eating too much and so I need to cut back a little bit.
00:27:09
Speaker
And then the mostly plants thing, we could almost every one of us needs more vegetables in our diet. Let's just be honest, right? And so making a concentrated effort to add more plants to my diet is always helpful. I personally also have realized that I am a foodie. I love variety and I love really great tasting food. So if I don't have those two things going for me, then I make bad decisions. I default to sugar and junk to make up for the bland
00:27:33
Speaker
Boring food I'm eating. And some people are not like that. Some people like the same consistent foods, but figure out what works for you and make sure that you're getting what you crave.
Nutrient-Dense Diets for Moms
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah, my husband and I definitely became foodies when we lived in Portland, Oregon because there was so much good food there. And the supply, like in the Willamette Valley there, there's like 180 different crops that are grown and there's just Yupik fields everywhere. And so we really, really got into food when we lived in Portland, Oregon.
00:28:06
Speaker
And so yeah, we like to eat nutrient-dense and colorful food, like I said. But one thing I do is, if I'm hungry, I don't have a lot of time through the day to just sit around and eat. But I don't have to be conscientious about eating. And so I make sure that...
00:28:24
Speaker
Everything I put in my mouth is going to add nutrient value to me because I just don't have time to waste. Like if I've taken time to get something for myself to eat, it better be adding nutritious value to my life because I'm not going to have time to eat again for, you know, another however many hours or whatever. That's kind of sounds drastic, but sometimes my days are like that.
00:28:46
Speaker
True. And I also think that this is a big stumbling block for busy moms. As we're starving, we have no time. And so we grab a cookie and run. And it's like literally the worst thing because it's not going to last. It's going to give you a bunch of processed sugar and carbs in your body. And then you're just going to be starving and cranking and probably go back for another cookie later, right?
Monitoring Thyroid Health Post-Pregnancy
00:29:05
Speaker
So in order to maximize
00:29:08
Speaker
you know, every bite that we take, it has to be nutrient dense and it has to be full of protein and fat. If we don't do that, we're going to keep coming back for the same processed junk and not realize that we're sabotaging ourselves because we're hungry and we need food, especially nursing or pregnant moms. So important.
00:29:25
Speaker
Okay, all right, and my last method, way I keep myself healthy, and I think this is super important for every pregnant and nursing mother, any mother, as we go through this process, this journey of motherhood, it does tax our thyroid. And thyroid function is super important because we're talking about fitness. If you're having a weight plateau,
00:29:53
Speaker
It is very possibly due to a thyroid misfunction malfunction and other signs just some other quick you can Google it and get a big list of signs but some other really good indicators are
00:30:09
Speaker
hair loss and like your eyes, if you look at yourself in the mirror and your eyes are kind of bulging, bulging out of your head a little bit. And then if you're struggling with infertility or miscarriage or all that, and then the weight plateau, those are like the combination of those are pretty significant.
00:30:27
Speaker
pretty good indicators of a thyroid malfunctioning. And pregnancy and nursing is very taxing on our thyroid. But our thyroid is also what controls a lot of our health. Things are hormones and a lot of weight issues are controlled by our thyroid. So if you're a mom, either use whatever method is your method to get your thyroid checked and in
00:30:54
Speaker
functioning properly, whether that means you go to your healthcare provider or you do it natural. There's ways to look it up online and do it. Take care of your thyroid and everything will be better for you.
Tracking Health Habits
00:31:09
Speaker
That's a great tip.
00:31:10
Speaker
Okay, so speaking of tips, we're gonna move on to our actionable items for this episode. My first one is to write down everything you're eating. So I can't tell you how many times I've thought, I'm eating pretty healthy. Why is it hard for me to name it? Have energy, curb sugar, lose weight, whatever. And it's usually because I'm sabotaging myself without even knowing it.
00:31:30
Speaker
So all it takes is a notepad by the fridge and a pen and write down everything that goes in your mouth. Everything from the first sip of water in the morning to, you know, your last bite of treat before bed, whatever it is, write it down. And after a couple of days, just kind of take a look and see what's happening. And usually it doesn't even take me a couple of days. It's like halfway through the first day I'm like,
00:31:51
Speaker
Oh, I realized that I don't quite make it to lunch because my breakfast wasn't hearty enough. You start to be aware of what's happening instead of just reflexively putting food in your mouth because you're hungry. I also like to write down extraneous movements I'm doing. So anything beyond basic motherhood. So like if I go for a walk or if I run after kids at the park,
00:32:10
Speaker
You know, a lot of people have smartwatches that do the same thing or track their food on MyFitnessPal or something like that. So many technological tools for this, but sometimes just a notepad works just as well, just so you're aware of what you're doing.
00:32:27
Speaker
Right. Right. That is awesome. I have one of my recommendations is my fitness app and we'll link to it in the show notes because that helped me see what I'm going to share in my personal struggle. And it was simply by you can put in your exercise and you can put in
00:32:45
Speaker
your calorie goals and then it's a little bit so when you use an app like MyFitnessPalette it's a little bit time intensive at first because you have to enter everything that you're eating but after you do it the first time then you can it will remember and you can just pick something that you've already put in and so that makes it a lot a lot faster you just go through and tap the things that you ate because you probably already ate them before
00:33:09
Speaker
and the time speeds up a lot. And then you can see where you are on your fitness schools, whether it's to eat certain macros, like, okay, I want 50% of my diet to be fat because I'm nursing a baby, or if it's I want to eat less than 2,000 calories a day, or if I want to get 30 minutes of exercise, all that can be tracked with MyFitnessPal. So that one was really an eye-opener for me, and I totally recommend that app.
00:33:39
Speaker
All right, my number one tip is to commit.
00:33:43
Speaker
Commit to caring for yourself. Don't give up on exercise or diet or a supplement or whatever you're doing, but give it time to work.
Simplifying Meal Planning
00:33:53
Speaker
So put your shoes on and go exercise for five minutes before you decide you're not gonna exercise that day. Like get into it, give it a chance. And then try a diet for at least five days before quitting. Or when I say diet, I don't mean like the,
00:34:15
Speaker
a number of calories, I just mean like, okay, I'm gonna eat more nutrient-dense foods. Well, try that for five days. You mean the true meaning of diet, right? Yeah, not diet as in depriving yourself of food. Yeah, so try any diet for five days before quitting. Give it a chance to work. Or if you're gonna try a new supplement, maybe to help out your thyroid, my tip here is kelp, and I can link to kelp in the show notes. Kelp is really good to help get your thyroid working correctly.
00:34:31
Speaker
denying yourself food, the elimination of certain
00:34:44
Speaker
try it for one bottle before you decide it's not working. Like just commit, commit that you're going to do this for you. For all our motivation reasons that we talked about, make a commitment and stick to it. Yeah, totally. So my next tip is to really simplify your meal planning. So so many of us, especially foodies like myself are like, what are we going to eat this week? And I like, you know, create all these, you know, come up with all these amazing recipes that are going to taste so good and buy the groceries for them. And then real life hits and we make like two of them.
00:35:14
Speaker
because they're too complicated and nobody eats it. They're too complicated, take too much time, et cetera. So instead, what has worked for us in staying on a healthy diet is to create a list of about five meals, four to five meals for each meal of the day. So four or five breakfasts, lunch is more like two or three. We do not vary in our lunches. And then four or five dinners that are healthy, easy, and that you look forward to eating.
00:35:43
Speaker
buy all the ingredients for them, like basically every week, so make them not too different, you know, similar, and then just rotate them. So instead of going through all the hoopla of, well, I want to make this eggplant dish this week and I'm going to go buy eggplant and then it goes bad in the fridge because I didn't have the time or the energy or whatever.
00:35:59
Speaker
Just stick with things that you know and are familiar with and are easy and good and then just rotate them.
Positive Influences and Accountability
00:36:05
Speaker
Maybe change them up a little bit. So like an example is salads for lunch. When I'm eating healthy, a salad is almost always what I have for lunch. And it's very easy to take a basic, you know, bed of lettuce and mix it up. Like I'm going to try this cheese this week and sprinkle it on top. I'm going to try these veggies this week. Next week, I'm going to add some fruit to it, you know, whatever.
00:36:24
Speaker
just to have those basic standby meals always there. So you're not always trying to reinvent the wheel. It just gets too difficult. Yes, I totally agree. And salad for lunch, just keep on hand lettuce and like good nutrient-dense lettuce. Just get rid of the iceberg, OK? And do romaine and spinach and mixed greens and good nutrient-dense lettuce. And then vary your topping so it's not like, oh, another salad. But make your...
00:36:52
Speaker
I have a highlight saved in my Instagram stories of all the different ways that I made salad this summer. So just start with lettuce and then mix it up. Yeah. Yeah. Just a couple of simple, easy ideas are for breakfast, a green smoothie and toast with avocado or nut butter. Super easy. Most children will eat it.
00:37:10
Speaker
You know, you can make it in less than 10 minutes for yourself if you're starving and you, you know, have all these needs from children. Salads for lunch, like I mentioned, dinners are like grain bowls, burrito bowls, that sort of thing is super easy and really customizable. I've found in the past that making different meals for myself is a nightmare. You know, like I've tried to eat something a lot healthier than I'm wanting feeding the kids. It doesn't work. So I have to just make something that's customizable. So if the kid really refuses to eat pecans, he doesn't have to have.
00:37:39
Speaker
the same pecans I'm having on my meal, you know what I'm saying? So be flexible, realize what real life throws at you and don't ask astronomical feats of cooking and culinary planning from yourself. Okay, my next tip is to surround yourself with positive influences. Get yourself an accountability partner or get your whole family on board.
Realistic Motivation Sources
00:38:04
Speaker
do healthy things with friends. So instead of going out for a coffee and a great big cinnamon roll, go for a walk with a friend to get healthy habit friends. Follow people who have motivational accounts on Instagram or on social media or Pinterest.
00:38:22
Speaker
um, like food, health, you know, healthy food accounts, healthy exercise accounts, um, just health in general accounts, like misery loves company. And it's a very easy to surround ourselves with people who look like us and, and eat like us. But if we want to break out of something, like find an example, find somebody to
00:38:46
Speaker
to influence you for good. Yes, and I would also share here, try to find people who kind of have similar lifestyles as you do. It's kind of maddening for me to follow fitness accounts that have no children and their full-time job is fitness. I'm like, okay, not me. I need to find somebody who has kids and will tell you how to use your toddler as weight or whatever, or shows you how to make really healthy quick breakfast that a kid will also eat.
00:39:15
Speaker
or, you know, a fitness account where someone's kind of, their body is built like you. So you see that, okay, when I get in shape, I can maybe realistically expect to look like that rather than, you know, the supermodel.
Holistic Health Measures
00:39:26
Speaker
It's like, it doesn't matter how many pounds I lose, I'm never looking like.
00:39:28
Speaker
to just keep things realistic. Yeah, it'd be like me trying to living here in the flat Midwest and following a motivational exercise account where they went hiking every day up in the mountains. I'd be like setting myself up for failure. You're just never going to hike those mountains. Never.
00:39:50
Speaker
Okay, so my next tip is to throw away the scale. You guys, I know so many people have mixed feelings about this, but there has almost never been a positive time in my life where I've been weighing myself regularly. Now, that being said, I will say that the occasional stepping on to like
00:40:08
Speaker
Um, make sure that you're staying within a healthy range can be good. So maybe your friend, your next door neighbor has a scale and you can go hop on every now and again. But when it's in the bathroom, I find that so many of us are just like obsessively checking and so much affects your weight. It's silly. It's so silly. Yeah. It's like five pounds before and after you go to the bathroom. Come on.
00:40:29
Speaker
Why are we obsessing over these little numbers? It's just silly. Oh, I have this little personal rule for myself. I can only weigh myself under these conditions and I do not meet these conditions every day. So I only weigh myself. Oh, because I have a scale, you know, in kids and I want to make sure they're gaining weight and blah, blah, blah.
00:40:48
Speaker
But here's my little personal rule. I only weigh myself first thing in the morning, if I have not eaten yet, and if I have gone to the bathroom.
00:41:02
Speaker
Because like then I'm setting myself up like for that would be like my lowest weight of the day. So like why not weigh myself at a lowest weight of the day if I'm you know looking. But you would not even believe how many days that I don't get a chance to weigh myself or even weeks on end because I haven't met those conditions. So it's just a little personal rule for myself. Yeah that's smart. And also I like to tell myself if I am weighing myself regularly that I have to wait at least a week between because if I'm hoping for progress there's not going to be any progress within a week.
00:41:31
Speaker
It'll go up and down a couple of pounds and you're never going to notice. So you want a big picture type of mentality. I personally, if I am trying to make progress in losing weight and getting in shape, I like to use a tape measure and I like pictures to track my progress.
00:41:47
Speaker
So I feel like those numbers move a lot slower and pictures move a lot slower, but they're a lot more realistic, right? So the scale can move for any number of reasons, but your picture is going to show you, oh, my clothes are fitting a little bit better or whatever. Same with measuring myself. Just again, it's something that can be done obsessively. And so just be kind to yourself,
Impact of Self-Talk on Children
00:42:08
Speaker
right? Give yourself time to make progress. And lastly, use how you feel as the biggest indicator of success.
00:42:15
Speaker
If you are losing weight and you feel like garbage, something is wrong, right? Losing weight is not the ultimate answer. Feeling amazing is the ultimate answer. And maybe that will accompany weight loss and maybe it won't. But be careful about that. And then finally, I did want to throw this in to remember that any negative self-talk you do can be picked up by your children. So I think we mentioned this in another episode. None of us would ever consider
00:42:41
Speaker
you know, telling our children that their body is not right. There's something wrong with it, right? Oh, you're too, you're overweight or you're this or you're that. We are very, very conscious, most of us about being kind to our children, but we are not so kind to ourselves. And they can pick that up just, just as
Avoiding Comparisons
00:42:56
Speaker
quickly. And then they, and then they mimic it. So that's a struggle.
00:43:01
Speaker
Yeah, agreed. Again, going back to one of my motivations at the beginning, I want to model healthy behaviors to them, but also healthy, positive self-talk to my kids. Since I'm a woman, to my daughters especially.
00:43:18
Speaker
Okay, my final tip is to don't compare yourself to others or even your former numbers. Like we were talking about pre-pregnancy, your body's not gonna be the same. Don't compare yourself to your former numbers, whatever they were, weight numbers or tape measure numbers or whatever, just forget about it. How do you feel and focus on what feels healthy and strong and don't compare, get out of the comparison trap. Totally.
Bonnie on Post-Pregnancy Weight
00:43:46
Speaker
So to wrap up, we each just wanted to share our own personal, quick little personal experience of how pregnancy has affected our bodies. So I personally have gained a decent amount with every pregnancy, pretty much no matter how I treat my body. So I think that's just kind of my body's baseline. And then I usually lose a chunk of weight right after my baby, which is normal. And then I hold on to things for a long, long time, usually until I have
00:44:14
Speaker
usually until I'm done nursing my baby and after I've weaned for maybe three months, that's when my body kind of starts to regulate itself again and I lose the rest of the weight. So I just share that because I think that so many people expect the weight to just fall off after having a baby and or while I'm nursing, so I'm not gonna hold on to any weight and that's just not true for everybody. So I just share my own experience to be aware that that's very common.
00:44:40
Speaker
Right. And I think a lot of women can relate to that. And I think that my position is also relatable. I struggle to maintain enough weight to be able to keep in a healthy condition as I'm nursing my child. Like I was telling Bond before we started recording that my eight month old baby is up to 25 pounds.
Audrey on Nursing Challenges
00:45:04
Speaker
And he's a beast and it takes a lot of effort for me to eat enough food in a day to be able to keep up with his needs. In fact, I did mention in our episode on breastfeeding that I like to exclusively breastfeed for a year.
00:45:19
Speaker
My second child, my son who is 6'9", I was not able to breastfeed him exclusively. I started introducing vegetables at 7 months. And I've done the same with my 8-month-old 25-pound giant this time as well, my son, because I feel like I'm right on the edge of
00:45:42
Speaker
health and sickness, like any extra, it's even a struggle for me to exercise right now because any extra exertion will cause me to get sick or get a breast infection or
00:45:57
Speaker
get you lose some weight or like I'm just right on the cusp of not being very healthy and not being very fit like on the bottom side of this scale just because of that's the way my body is and so for me I was using my fitness pal to
00:46:14
Speaker
make sure I got enough calories in a day and I was actually putting in breastfeeding the baby as an exercise that required 800 extra calories a day just to see if I could eat that much extra in a day to keep up with him and be able to you know keep up with my other kids and and exercise and and it's a it's a balance it's a struggle for me to to keep my weight up enough to be able to
00:46:39
Speaker
be in a condition that I consider physically fit. So maybe that is not as relatable, but it is another struggle with fitness following pregnancy. Totally. And I will share that when your calorie needs are high, it is extremely difficult to eat healthy because generally foods that are good for us tend to be lower in calories. They just do, you know, vegetables and... Yeah.
00:47:00
Speaker
Um, the healthier fats are a little bit harder to come by, et cetera. So, um, I, I can definitely relate there. I remember being pregnant with twins and they gave me my diet and my, my calorie needs. And I just thought, are you kidding me? Like I'm going to have to sit at the dinner table all day long. This is ridiculous. And I know people think, yeah, what a, what a struggle, but it's a, it's really hard and it's annoying.
Conclusion and Resource Recommendations
00:47:20
Speaker
And it's very easy to default to junk because it fills the calories, but w but they're empty calories, you know? Um, so that is definitely a different kind of struggle. Yeah, for sure.
00:47:29
Speaker
I was having some things, foods that I couldn't eat to complicate matters. I was not able to eat dairy because my baby was having colic at first with that. So that further complicated, what can I eat? I'm just so hungry. I would just stuff anything in my face. Just like straight hamburgers with avocado. Okay. You don't have to put this in. No cheese. Oh yeah. You don't have to put this in here, but I want to know how many calories you eat.
00:47:56
Speaker
What do you try to hit? I was right. I was trying to hit on my fitness pal. I was trying to hit 2,500 calories a day. Oh my gosh. That's hard. Yeah. When I was doing the credit is hard. You have to eat on she anxiously all day long. I remember reading somewhere that, um, what's the swimmer? Michael Phelps was eating like 5,000 calories a day. I was like, when does he swim? All the time, you know?
00:48:20
Speaker
I try to get 2200, but when I'm not, when I'm like really paying attention and making sure it's all really good stuff, I'm eating nonstop. It's so ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. And I, if I don't hit, um, like I'm not tracking it on my fitness pal anymore because I did just get discouraged because I couldn't get 2,500 calories, but my, like I'm, I'm only exercising like twice a week. And, and like you said, everything about exercise is at the beginning. I know it's affecting me mentally because I just,
00:48:51
Speaker
I just don't have the reserves and I would rather not be in this condition. I've had so many people say, oh, well, you know, I'd love to be you and you're serious, but no, you want reserves. You want to be able to keep up. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And if you have one day where you're not paying attention or something and you're miserable and you get sick. Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:10
Speaker
All right, so we have some recommendations for you. I talked about the Eat Right for Your Blood Type book and MyFitnessPal app. Those are really good and we'll link those and our personal Instagram accounts in the show notes. Yep. I have shared clean, simple eats on my personal Instagram account multiple times because I really, really love their recipes. They're delicious. They're macro balanced. They do have some processed foods like they encourage the use of protein powders and things.
00:49:37
Speaker
Some people have mixed feelings about that. But generally the recipes are simple, they're clean, and they're really delicious. So I highly recommend them. I love the Simple Green Smoothies blog. I think we talked about them as well. And smoothies are a great way to add extra calories pretty quickly and easily. You can throw in an avocado, nut butters, all these different things. Also good for kids that have a hard time keeping their weight up or need more vegetables and refuse to eat them.
00:50:02
Speaker
And one of my favorite blogs of late and recipe books is the cookie and Kate blog. So she's actually a vegetarian blogger, but I find myself drawn to, even though I do eat meat, I find myself drawn to vegetarian bloggers simply because they tend to have a lot healthier recipes because they're not relying on meat to get nutrients. And so oftentimes I'll just make one of her awesome salads and sometimes I will add meat or whatever, but I just love her recipes are always really, really good. So a couple of recommendations for me.
00:50:31
Speaker
Okay, all that talk about food, I'm hungry. I know, I'm going to eat lunch. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you've enjoyed this episode, we'd be so grateful if you'd leave us a written review on iTunes. If you have any questions or ideas for future episodes, you can reach us at OutnumberThePodcast at gmail.com and find us on Instagram at OutnumberThePodcast. See you next week.
00:51:02
Speaker
I told my eight year old and down that they're not allowed to pick up and carry the baby anymore because he's 25 pounds. Holy cow. Oh my gosh. 25? Beast. Holy mackerel. Yeah, seriously. I had a sitter come over last night because we took the big kid somewhere and she's like, oh, your baby's so light. I babysit someone. So baby, this other lady that goes to church and he is a beast too. She's like, every time I pick him up, I'm like, oh my gosh, engage core.