Hi everyone, I'm a new mom with a question concerning post-partum body confidence. Previously as a teen I was overweight but lost 55 pounds through diet and exercise and maintained the weight loss over several years until my pregnancy. I gained roughly 50 pounds during the course of my pregnancy but now with my son almost 2 months old I've lost all of it except for the last 12 pounds though a lot of the weight loss was from fluid retention from the last stages of pregnancy. Prior to my pregnancy I had loose abdominal skin from weight loss even after faithfully doing plenty of abdominal exercises and now post-pregnancy it's worse than ever.
I had thought that losing the baby weight would make me feel like my old self again but I now have less body confidence due to all the excess skin after pregnancy and weight loss.
Any suggestions or help for not feeling so self conscious about my post-baby belly? I'm afraid my lack of body confidence is going to derail my efforts at maintaining a healthy lifestyle since no amount of weight loss or exercise is helping it at all. Any suggestions or comments from what other mom's have found helpful in dealing with post-partum body confidence issues would be more than welcome.
Hi, and congrats on the little one! I have a 2.5 yr old son and 9.5 month old daughter. I had the skin problem too and never seemed to find anything to help until recently. I joined an accountability/motivational group on facebook and it has been so uplifting. I have also lost 10 lbs in 2.5 weeks and I am actually starting to see some abs again (and a little less sagginess!! yay!!). Let me know if you want more info and I would love to share with you the workouts/eating plan I am currently doing.
P.S. Having a baby is such an amazing thing that our bodies can do. I have found embracing that fact and just realizing that fitness is a journey and not a destination. I will not stop being healthy and working towards a body that I am comfortable in and you shouldn't either. You got this momma!!
Hi thanks for the reply you are so right that it's amazing what our bodies can do to bring another person into this world. I agree that fitness and health is a journey. I felt like I was on a constant "diet" to maintain the weight loss I lost as a teen but now with a baby I'm trying to quit looking at it like a diet and more as a lifestyle so that I can keep the results long term and be a good influence in my son's life. I don't want him to pick up any of my prior bad eating habits when he gets older. Having a child was the major motivator to overhauling my lifestyle to healthy eating not just weight loss dieting.
Congratulations on your weight loss and your workout results. I would definitely like to know what your eating plan is. Right now I tend to eat whatever is on hand and easy to prepare since my hands seem to be always full with baby. I'm trying to cook a couple meals worth of healthy stuff at a time so when I'm hungry I'll already have it made so I won't just turn to the most convenient option.
Thanks!! We momma's have to stick together and support one another. I am so passionate about healthy and fitness and I always have been but ever since I had the kids it has only grown more important to me. I want to set a good example for my kids and I don't want them to go through some of the struggles that I did. we can chat more. xoxo
