So you’re ready to get back to a healthy life, right? But how? Things are so busy! Believe me when I say that I get it. Life gets busy. You’re doing the whole mom life things and working your butt off and it feels like reaching your fitness goals is a far fetched reality.
I can confidently assure you that it is not a far fetched reality.
How do I know that? Because I’ve achieved it postpartum and so have my clients and many other women. You CAN do this.
But, you’re probably thinking “I seem to keep bouncing back and forth in weight and I don’t seem to be making progress!”
Go with me here…
Let’s say you go on one of the newest fad diets you’ve heard about. You lose 10 pounds. Hurray right?
Well…
3 months later, your 10 pounds is back and your workouts seem to be the same boring thing over and over.
It’s a vicious cycle isn’t it? So… How do we stop that vicious cycle to keep that weight off and feel good and not only meet our goals, but exceed them and keep them.
It’s all about learning to create a new lifestyle.
But what is a healthy lifestyle?
Healthy living does not mean boiled chicken and kale in all of our smoothies.
So you’d like to lose weight and spice up your boring gym routine. Let’s do it!
Forget all the pre-conceived notions that society tends to shove down our throats for postpartum healthy living and what it means.
Forget boiled chicken, and kale at every meal and most definitely forget waist trainers and “getting your body back.” Your body never left, mama! It may look different, but it absolutely never ever left.
One thing before we move on…
There’s no such thing as one size fits all. Because if there was, then it means we’d all look the same, act the same and be the same.
Another thing to keep in mind is that skinny does not equal healthy. There is a dangerous trend that seems to be going around that skinny equals healthy and that is absolutely not true.
Reaching Postpartum Fitness Goals Step #1 – Creating Goals
Goals are different than dreams. Dreams are what we think about while drinking our coffee of a morning (which, by the way, I do weekly coffee talks on my YouTube channel which you can subscribe to here).
The difference between goals and dreams is that goals are written down.
Setting goals is huge when it comes to postpartum healthy living. I created a full guide for creating goals that you can achieve. If you want to throw in your email below I will send you the printable for free.
Don’t worry, I won’t spam you, because, well for one, I hate spam and for two, I literally wouldn’t have time to spam. Ha!
Once you set your goals, you’re going to be ready to roll to the next step.
The reason that I am such a huge fan of goals because they act as your compass. They quite literally guide the steps that you take and the decisions you make regarding your workouts and the foods that you eat.
Reaching Postpartum Fitness Goals Step #2 Guard your calendar
You have goals that you want to keep that you made in step #1. But, let’s face it, you’re a mom and you’ve got so much work to do that you can hardly see straight.
This is where you guard your calendar and only put things on it that work you towards your goals.
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. Amber, there are things on my calendar that I can’t say no to and I get it. But allow me to say this with all the love in my heart…
You and you alone are in charge of you and your family’s calendar.
Let’s do this – it will help, I promise.
Make a list of the top four priorities in you and your family’s life. Example for our family: faith, family, fitness, and jobs.
Now you might be thinking, fitness for your son? Of course!
Now, he’s not in the gym lifting weights with my husband and I, but we absolutely make certain that he gets physical activity by running around outside, climbing and jumping, and simply being a kid. That’s his fitness.
Make sense?
As far as “jobs” go, that’s in regard to mine and David’s career, and we are starting to teach our son, the importance of work and that work doesn’t have to be life sucking and boring.
Based off of those four priorities, those are the things that take priority in our lives. And believe me, it fills up our calendar, because all four of those things have all kinds of sub categories.
As Joshua gets older, and chooses extracurricular activities, we will still guard the calendar and make sure he doesn’t over commit himself.
Still making sense? I sure hope so. Because healthy living is not only about physical health, it’s about mental and spiritual health as well.
Which leads me to my next point…
Reaching Postpartum Fitness Goals Step #3 – Guarding your mind
This is super important. Guarding your mind against poisonous things that might be posted on social media.
There are many, MANY things that are posted on social media that are so photoshopped and posed that it is absolutely out of this world.
This past year, I even went through a lot of people that I was following on Instagram and un-followed them because it sometimes made me feel bad about myself.
There were also posts that I went through that I deleted because I realized that I had overly posed the picture and it simply didn’t look real.
Here’s another interesting tidbit. I sent out a survey to my email subscribers and asked them several things and one of the questions was “What is the most frustrating thing about fitness influencers and bloggers?”
The number one answer to that question was the fakeness of online fitness coaches/models.
Now, I’m not a model by any stretch of the imagination, but I am a coach. And, because of those answers, it was then and there that I made it even more of a focus to be as real as possible both in my blog posts, YouTube videos, and social media accounts.
Because, guess what?
Life isn’t always Instagram worthy.
Sometimes we need our hair done and we may have not showered for a few days.
This is why I will post some bloopers in my Youtube videos or I have even made a video where my hair desperately needed to be washed and done. Because, I want you mamas to see that life isn’t always picture perfect and that’s totally okay.
There it is right there ->
The point is:
We are on this whole reaching postpartum fitness goals journey together and we walk in the same direction encouraging each other and cheering each other on.
Put positive things into your mind. My favorite way to do that is to get up every morning before my man and my son and read my Bible with a cup of coffee.
It is the absolute best way to start my day. This puts my mind in the right place and helps me to see myself in the best light possible.
I’m telling you, it works, you should give it a try.
Because it is absolutely vital to the overall journey to have positive things go into your mind.
Ever hear the phrase ‘garbage in, garbage out”? that means that if you’re putting crappy things into your mind crappy things will come out. Which is why I start my day the way I do.
Reaching Postpartum Fitness Goals Step #4 – Get a Plan From a Professional
It’s time to get rid of that free workout plan that you grabbed off of an infographic on Pinterest.
We don’t know who made that or if they even have the credentials to make such a thing. Because, guess what? It could be some random person that lives in their mama’s basement that hasn’t seen the light of day in 10 years.
NOBODY KNOWS.
Investing in this journey and grabbing a plan from a professional is one of the most important things you can do.
Also, make sure the person is actually a professional. It kills me to see how many people on Instagram get taken advantage of from people that claim to be professionals when they actually aren’t.
And while nobody can guarantee results, check the credentials and what they ‘preach’. Are they preaching weird drinks and quick fixes? Then you probably don’t want to stick around with them.
If there’s a freebie offered by the professional, then hey, you do you and go for it if you want. But if you don’t know for sure? Then run the other way!
Bonus tip along this same line of getting a plan – keeping it simple and with the basics always wins out.
Because, guess what? Solid studies that are done by scientists and doctors who know what they’re doing often have a common denominator that goes back to keeping with the basics.
THE BASICS OF WEIGHT LOSS?
- Solid workout plan
- Calorie deficit/calorie periodization
- Exit strategy once the goal weight is reached and keeping with a solid workout plan
That is weight loss broken down into the basics. You’ll notice that there are no weird drinks or quick fixes.
Reaching postpartum fitness goals such as weight loss and building strength takes time, effort, and commitment.
I have 30 day instantly downloadable plans that you can look at here that are made for high calorie burning and helping women get stronger and more confident.
Let’s round this whole thing out by summarizing, shall we?
Think of your entire journey to reaching your postpartum fitness goals as a house.
Steps 1-3 are the foundation of your house. It provides a solid base and when the storms come (such as over the top schedules, hormones, cravings, etc.), that foundation is what holds your house up.
Think of your workouts as the walls of your house and then the foods you eat as the roof.
They all work together to build this beautiful house that equals your healthy lifestyle.
Make sense?
Excuse my house analogy, but girl, I love me some Joanna Gaines and that’s what came to mind. I’m pretty sure I love her so much because of how real she is and she is super creative and I am… well, not creative like she is.
Anyway! One last thing. Don’t ever think you can’t do this. Because you can. If I can do it, then you can do it. Because, guess what? I didn’t have the guidance on the journey that you will have if you stick with me.
I’ll do my best to take the guess work out of this journey for you.
Believe in yourself. You CAN do this!
Remember, if you want that free printable of how to create goals you can achieve, throw in your email below.
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