Postpartum Fitness Journey: 3 Months

Three months old and my sweet little boy has officially transitioned form the newborn look to an infant and I am having a hard time handling it.  Because time is going so fast I am also having a hard time blogging (I wrote about Less Hustle, More Balance here) and I am not as focused on losing my baby weight as I was with the other two kiddos.  At three months postpartum, I am soaking up every snuggle session, every nursing session and even the loud baby snores in the middle of the night that sometimes wake me.

S can hold up his head extremely well, can roll over, has become the sweetest thumb sucker and is the most laid back baby.   I will put him on his playmat for tummy time while I fix lunch for the big kids and after about 10 minutes of looking around, I will find him with his thumb in his mouth and asleep.    Oh I love his sweetness!

My Postpartum Journey…

With S being just three months old and still not sleeping through the night, I am still exhausted most days and find myself spending the afternoons trying to sneak in a snooze while the other two have quiet time.

I am still at a stall with the weight loss.  I actually didn’t lose any weight at all for several weeks and then in the last two weeks I have lost two pounds.  I try to only weigh myself once a month and some days that is easier said than done, but I know that I am more than a number on the scale.

In fact, even though the number isn’t changing much I do notice a difference in the way my clothes are fitting and know that I am gaining more muscle mass as I do more strength training than anything.  I also had a phone conversation with a woman who has become a mentor to me about weight loss and nursing.  Especially since S is still nursing in the middle of the night (4am is ugly), my body is once again holding onto weight to produce milk.  Looking back, it seemed that every time my babies went down a feeding, I would lose weight.

A lot of you probably say, “well doesn’t breastfeeding burn calories?” Yes, it absolutely, does, but it also needs calories to produce milk and every woman’s body is different.  Since this is my third child, I know about how my body works: I lose a lot of weight at first, then I hang onto about 15 pounds until babies are only nursing during the day, and then the last 5 pounds usually doesn’t leave until I am completely done nursing.  It is interesting, but it is not deterring me from keeping up with my fitness, building muscle and making sure I am using my workouts to reach my ultimate goals.

Postpartum Fitness

I am back to teaching and am enjoying my classes!  My first week back I was quite sore, but now I am in a pretty good routine.  On the days I do not teach I either go to the gym or do a workout in my garage.  In fact, right now I am a participant in an online bootcamp and am loving the workouts and accountability.  As a trainer, I also need a trainer to push me out of my comfort zone and hold me accountable.

Only one day a week do I use the class I teach as my workout and that it is because I teach back-to-back, I do the majority of the workout with my participants and there is no possible way I could get in another workout.  On the other day I teach, I still do a workout of my own.

Nutrition

With my online bootcamp, I have honed in on my nutrition a little bit and have cut out my sweets and lovely adult beverages during the week.  I am really focusing on increasing my veggie in take, eating when I am hungry and fueling properly after a workout.  I notice when I don’t get the right fuel after my workout it destroys my eating for the rest of the day, so this has been a focus for me.

Goals

I hit one of my postpartum goals: I ran a 10k at a 8:30 pace.  My official time was 52:14 which was a 8:26pace.  I finished 10th in my division and was the 36th female and felt great.  The longest run I did leading up to this race was 4 miles and I was only running once a week so I was super proud of this.  Although I wanted to beat my sweet husband, I didn’t.  He passed me with about a half mile to go and then I almost caught him at the end, but he beat me my 3 seconds.  I surely do enjoy a 10k and hope to do one more before the year is over.  The best part of this race was the night before I got to run a 1.2 mile race with C; she loved it and so did I!

At three months postpartum, I am still working on these same goals:

• Pull Ups: Still not there, but am building up my strength to hopefully get there by spring.
• 5 Workouts: I have done a great job at this.  Actually, this is the first week I won’t get in only 5 workouts and that is because of an extra class I picked up this week.
• Play: I am enjoying playing tennis once a week and it has been good for me.
• ENJOY: I am truly enjoying life as a mom of three.  This season of life is messy, it is tiring, and sometimes it can be overbearing but I am remembering that it is just that… a season.  Some day I will wish I had all my kids in the house needing me and I am embracing this beautiful mess.

This morning, I read this verse to my class members at my church and it really hit home as I knew I was coming home to write this post.  As mom’s we truly praise the Lord because He fearfully and wonderfully made our children, but do we praise Him because he fearfully and wonderfully made us? No matter where you are as a wife, a mother, a woman or even a man, I hope you can see beyond the number on the scale, the size of jeans in your closet or your outward appearance and know that the Lord looks at YOU as His child… the same way we look at our own children.  As I walk this journey with three children and am only three months postpartum, I remind myself that I am magnificent.  I am not magnificent because I can run a 10k or because I am close to fitting into my smaller jeans, but because He made me to carry these babies, nourish them and care for them daily.

If you made it this far on this post, I hope you know that you are wonderfully made.