Being a new mom and breastfeeding is hard enough, add starting a training program to that and life gets a whole lot more stressful and harder to deal with. Iv had 5 children and although I know better now through education and research I myself used to get trapped on the dieting self sabotaging train of doom. As new moms we are surrounded by negativity and pressure to snap back after pregnancy. People feel they have the right to pass comment on a womans body postpartum without any care of the womans physical or mental health. After having an emergency c-section and surviving sepsis I knew I had to make changes to myself for the better. Nourishing my recovering body, flooding it with nutrients and ensuring my milk supply was at its best quality for my daughter. If at any point someone suggested I ignored all these important factors and ‘dieted’ this is what I’d show them 🖕
I have not dieted through my recovery from sepsis  I have ate nutritious foods, foods high in protein and when I craved snacks and treats I turned to muscle moose products which are high in protein and reasonably low in sugar (please see my recipe pages on cooking with muscle moose products) Training as a new mom consisted of rebuilding my core muscles through breathing, yoga and walking in the early stages…then progressing to small training sessions spread out throughout the day lasting no more than 3min at a time…now I am at a stage were I training weights 4 times weekly 20min each session no more with added cardio when I like such as trampolining…training and breastfeeding can be difficult especially if exclusively breastfeeding.

Best peice of advice I can give any mother on her fitness journey is NOT to chase the scales…what I mean by this is stop relying so heavily on the scales…when starting your journey especially after having a baby the most important and crucial aspect should always be the mothers health and wellness above all else…when concentrating to heavily on the numbers on the scale not only will you impact your physical health (often due to skipping meals to get the weight down) but you also impact on your mental health(issues begin to start with questions such as ‘im trying so hard so why aren’t the scales changing’ or ‘why can’t I lose weight when I’m trying so hard’) add this to your recovering body which needs nourishment and rebuilding and your heading straight for a burn out…when I started my journey I used the scales as a tool to monitor that certain aspects of my lifestyle such as walking or adding in training was working however since working out regularly this is the first time in months iv jumped on the scale…why? Because I don’t want to be hung up on the scales when I know im doing well, my body composition has totally changed and my clothes are all hanging off me but if I had jumped on the scales I would have probably been disheartened on days were my body weight would naturally fluctuate due to life stresses such as lack of sleep(teething baby), effects after exercises(I often carry extra water for 48hrs after training since having my csection), extra weight from menstruation… the list goes on…so if your starting your journey remember dont stress about the scales all these little steps will add up to a great success the key is to just KEEP ON GOING ❤❤❤❤

Exercise and movement is critical to helping heal your postpartum body this much is true, however it is also really important that when embarking on a fitness program that you take your postpartum body into account…alot of P.T give out programs to postpartum women not considering the changes their bodies have been through…the effects that diastasis recti and weak pelvic floor muscles can have on the healing body…it is critical that the program you chose supports the healing process but challenges your specific fitness level…choosing a program that impacts on your central nervous system heavily and has little rest would not be the ideal program to start after having a baby…focus more on rebuilding your core strength, energy levels for life with family and being able to engage specific muscles correctly…this isn’t the time to start explosive jumps/bounds, HIIT training, low rest activities, core specific exercises that put way to much emphasis on the abdomen area…I have had 5 pregnancies and recovered from sepsis all while losing over 27kg, there is always a way when you start to focus on whats important to you.