Today on Fit Mama Friday I’d like to introduce you to Julie, fit mama and blogger at Happiness is a dish best savoured hot, who has written a guest post about her experience of regaining fitness after two difficult pregnancy experiences. Julie runs a linguistic service from her home; she also teaches French at a local school part-time. (While her blog is written in English, French is her native tongue). Married to D and mama to two girls, R, aged 10 and A, aged 7, Julie was always fit and healthy…until her first pregnancy. Here’s how Julie coped with an unexpected sedentary lifestyle and how she feels about being a fit mama.

While Julie’s blog is not solely about fitness, if you do a search for ‘fitness’ in her search bar, you’ll find a lot of posts about fitness, nutrition and more!

 

Meet Julie.

I was one of those women who think pregnancy should not be treated as an illness, and I planned to change nothing (or very little) to my fitness regimen once I had a baby growing inside of me.

As often is the case with parenting, I was in for a big surprise (and a lot of disenchantment). After happily attending the prenatal water aerobics classes for 3 months, my body started to rebel against the slightest effort. I had what they call an “irritable uterus”: any sustained activity gave me strong contractions. And so I reluctantly let go of all physical exercise.

As any fitness buff knows, this was frustrating to say the least. But I knew I was doing it for a good reason: to keep baby safe and warm until it was time to come out.

Unfortunately, even leading a “normal life” seemed to be too much for my system, and against all odds, I went into labor 31 weeks into pregnancy. My baby was born 9 weeks early, with all the vulnerability it implies. Like most pre-term babies, she had some health complications, and had to remain in the NICU for 5 weeks before she was “sturdy” enough to go home with us.

We both slowly caught up and strengthened ourselves by attending “Baby and me” classes that were aimed at fitness. (Mind you, I did most of the work, while she focused on crying relentlessly, because she was that kind of baby.)

All in all, I would say I was back to my normal level of fitness within a year. It seemed easy enough. I didn’t really have to watch my food intake. I felt confident.

The second pregnancy was another story. Being extremely cautious because of my history of pre-term labor, my doctor put me on complete bed rest as soon as I reached 3 months. Complete bed rest means you lie down all day, only getting up to use the washroom. I could not even take a shower (only baths).

This experience taught me more about the sedentary lifestyle than I could ever learn (or wished to learn). Not only did I barely move a toe for 6 months, I also “compensated” for the legitimate boredom by eating a lot of chocolate. When I was finally allowed to get up (1 week before my due date), I was 55 pounds heavier, and had no cardio nor muscle tone left whatsoever. I couldn’t climb stairs without being completely out of breath. I couldn’t brush my hair without my arm muscles hurting from the effort. I couldn’t sit on the floor (trying to play with the kids) without my back becoming painfully stiff. The only thing I didn’t have were bedsores!

Needless to say, getting back to a normal level of functioning, not even to mention getting back to my previous level of fitness, took forever and was painful aplenty. I took all the same “Baby and me” classes, and unsurprisingly, found them much more challenging this time around. I also got back to swimming (I used to swim for Masters when I was in my early twenties), and it was my precious alone time each week, quietly gliding in the pool. Later, when I was in a good enough shape, I started going to the gym to lift weights. Last but not least, I started running, something I had never done on a regular basis.

All that physical activity eventually brought me back to the woman I had been before, and even better (my kids are now 7 and 10, and I consider myself the fittest I have ever been, especially now that I also focus on “eating clean”). More importantly, it helped me retain my sanity: since I’ve become a mother, exercising is my “safety valve”, the only moment in the day when I can truly focus on myself. Getting away from it all has sometimes been a very good motivation to go for a workout!

The only downside is that I have sometimes felt guilty that I would spend so much time exercising (as opposed to playing with my kids). I get up early to fit it in before the kids wake up, but I still have to go to the gym in the early evenings and to do my long runs on the weekends. Nevertheless, I ceased to feel guilt the day a friend reminded me that I was being the best possible role-model for my kids, who see me put on my sneakers (and eat healthy) day in and day out. Better yet: now that they have become old enough, my daughters participate in healthy food prep and accompany me on my shortest runs (they have started running races as well). As a family, we also incorporate a lot of physical activity in our free time: any chance we get, we go for a hike!

We can thus say that we are now a Fit Family!

Thank you, Julie, for this wonderful post! It’s so important to remember how hard it is to return to pre-pregnancy fitness levels after our bodies go through so much – and in your case, to an extreme! You are definitely a wonderful role model for your daughters.

 

Fit Mama Friday

Every Friday on Fine Fit Day I feature a Fit Mama story of how and why a fit and healthy mama ensures fitness is a priority in her life. You’ll read about all kinds of women and their fitness stories. Some are stay-at-home mothers, some are single mothers, some juggle more than one job on top of motherhood, but they are all committed to a fit and healthy lifestyle. As you’re getting ready for your weekend, I hope you’re inspired to be active after reading about these kick-ass mamas on Fit Mama Friday!

 Do you want to be featured on Fit Mama Friday? Or do you know someone you’d like to see featured? Please contact me for details!