Every week, I will be featuring a Fit Mama Friday story of how and why a fit, healthy, happy mama makes sure fitness is a priority in her life. You’ll be reading about all kinds of women and their stories – single mothers, stay at home mothers, moms who are juggling more than one job on top of motherhood, but they’re all committed to working toward fitness, strength and a healthy lifestyle.

Meet Elli Hyde, one of my oldest, dearest friends. Elli is a stay at home mum living in gorgeous Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, with her husband Rich and beautiful baby boy, William, who is 18 months old.  Just a couple of years ago, Elli was a driven and ambitious corporate business-woman. She worked long hours at a high-pressure job in finance, but still found time to get to the gym or out for a run nearly every morning before work. A big believer in adapting exercise choices to your environment, as well as going to the gym she would incorporate running or soft-sand walking on the beach, using the gorgeous views to inspire her. (Yes, she knows she’s lucky!)

When Elli fell pregnant, she unfortunately suffered from ongoing morning sickness. Given that her job was already high stress and high pressure, adding the constant nausea into her situation meant she found herself unmotivated to work out to the same extent she had pre-pregnancy. Despite feeling awful, she still managed to get out and walk most days of the week. Elli ended up gaining 55 lbs by the end of her pregnancy. She decided to give herself 10 months to lose the weight, given that’s how long it took her to gain it all. 10 months later found herself at a new, healthy weight, having successfully lost 48 lbs, a loss she’s maintained ever since. So, how does she do it?

What kind of exercise did you do once you’d recovered from William’s birth? Was it back to your original workout routine?

Since William’s birth, I have walked and walked and walked. It fell naturally into our daily routine. Walking with the pram gave us a welcome change from the apartment environment and I used the beach and Centennial Park all the time for our walks. I wanted to be part of community activity, so I naturally gravitated to the beach and park. A lot of the time, it was more for my mental health than any other reason – I found myself really overwhelmed and quite anxious all the time. That kind of anxious fog really only lifted once William was about 8 months old. I didn’t have the energy to run, or workout at the gym and my priorities, perception and expectations had changed. I was no longer number one.

What’s your routine like now that you’ve settled into motherhood?

Once William was about 15 months, I started soft-sand running and have a couple of girls as running buddies now. It’s really motivating to know the girls will be there, even though we’re all at different fitness levels. We also get some social time in, too, which is great. Now William is old enough, I am getting out on my bike and getting some great bike rides in too. I’ve always had a rule that even if I could drive somewhere, I would try to walk or ride instead.

How do you find the time to work out?

It’s tough – finding the time to exercise and make it a priority is tough. I make sure to plan ahead with Rich so I can lock in 3 sessions a week when I can exercise William-free. If I wasn’t planning it in advance, it would be nearly impossible to sneak in a workout on the fly. Once I go to the trouble of making sure my schedule works with Rich and that William is taken care of, it would be really hard for me to back out of a workout.

What’s your diet like? Obviously that’s a huge part of weight loss.

I’m pretty organized with cooking and my diet. I breast-fed until William was 14 months and ate a balanced diet. No fads, just sensible eating with lots of healthy options. I make sure I always have loads of salad, eggs, cheese and fruit to snack on. Hard boiled eggs ready in the fridge are a lifesaver! Once we introduced William to solids, I did mostly organic and lived by the rules of no white processed foods, no added sugar and no salt. Since I was cooking all of William’s foods myself, this meant all three of us just started eating in this really healthy way. Now we all eat fresh, simple, beautiful food. I cannot stress enough how important real food education is to your children.

Wow, Elli, you are a super-healthy-mama-hero!

Don’t get me wrong, once William is in bed, there’s chocolate and wine. It would be too hard to be perfect, the pressure of parenthood is enough. A woman needs her vino!!

So what are your goals now, fitness-wise?

Well, we want to try for another baby this year, so I am making sure I have a healthy, fit base to start my next pregnancy from. This time around, I will not be over-indulging in all foods and I hope to maintain more physical activity throughout my pregnancy. I’m sure having a toddler will keep me busy anyway!

Thanks for being my first Fit Mama to be featured, Elli!