Meet Emma
One of my amazing clients is being featured today on Fit Mama Friday! Meet Emma – mama to Willa, 15 months, married to Chris, and an incredibly busy lawyer at a civil rights firm in Manhattan. Somehow she manages to find time to train with me, as well as squeeze in her own workouts. When Emma and I first started working together, she was mainly concerned with gaining strength, having noticed more and more how much stronger she needed to be just to keep up as a mama to a growing daughter! Her progress has been amazing. Emma has been steadily decreasing her body fat, as well as easily lifting weights she was struggling with only a few months ago. I am so proud of her and excited to share her story today!
Emma, were you fit prior to getting pregnant with Willa?
Fitness has always been hit-or-miss for me. I played sports growing up, then abandoned them for dying my hair and listening to punk rock records in high school. After college I started working out again, but always for intense periods at a time. Then I would languish in my studio apartment feeling vaguely guilty about not having gone to the gym for weeks until I got inspired again.
In my early twenties I joined a pretty hard-core gym across the street from the non-profit organization where I worked. A colleague convinced me to sign up with a trainer there, who would waive the admission fee and train us for $200 a year if we agreed to be featured in his infomercial at the end of the twelve months. Against my better judgment, I agreed. Around four months in, I started feeling wary of his diet advice (which involved instructions to eat a pound of lean protein at night before bed, and nothing again until midday the following day), and after ten months he was fired from the gym for embezzling funds. So, I never had to be in the infomercial and I got a free ten months of gym membership. I’m not sure I’d do it again, though. I got into spinning and kickboxing when I belonged to a much more reputable gym for about two years before I got pregnant, which kept me focused and reminded me what I liked about feeling fit and healthy.
I remember you telling me about that crazy training experience – I can only begin to imagine what that infomercial would have been like! So, when you got pregnant, were you working out? And did that continue?
When I got pregnant I was terribly nauseous and I had a month-long trial right after I found out I was pregnant, which was hard. I was living in a hotel in New Jersey eating grilled cheese sandwiches and packaged Indian food. And, other than one colleague, no one knew I was pregnant. When I got back I started working out again, but I’d lost momentum and my workout sessions got spaced further and further out. Eventually, with a huge deadline looming four months before I gave birth, I just gave up.
You’re definitely back in shape now, though! I can’t believe what great progress you’ve made. We train once a week and then you work out on your own – how are you fitting it into your schedule?
Yes, in addition to my training session with you, I try to make time for at least one cardio session and one other weight training session per week. At least, that’s what I aspire to. Most weeks I manage it, but it takes commitment from my husband, who is fantastic about working around my schedule, as well as motivation from me, to actually get to the gym. I have a pretty demanding job, though, so it requires some creative scheduling on my and my husband’s parts.
Cardio has always been much easier for me than anything else, so I have to work doubly hard to actually get into the gym and lift some weights. Somehow putting on my headphones and running around has always felt easier. Usually I go to the gym for a strength training session one night after I put my daughter to bed, and either double up with cardio or work in two runs on the weekends. It’s not ideal in terms of balance, but it works.
You really seem to be enjoying the weights more, though. Maybe it’s because you’re getting stronger and fitter. What’s the main motivator for you to work out?
I work out primarily because of how it makes me feel. After I gave birth I felt unhinged, and getting back in the gym made me feel more like myself than I had in months. It also reminded me that even though I was breastfeeding and my body felt like I belonged to someone else, it was important to keep it intact for me as well. And, working out gave me goals to work for that felt tangible and attainable.
What about diet? You’ve also been reducing body fat – have you consciously made changes to the way you’re eating?
I was raised vegetarian, and my diet has always been vaguely healthy. But when I got pregnant, I started wanting meat and ice cream – two things I’ve never been crazy about – all the time. Thankfully those cravings subsided after I gave birth. I need to work harder than before to find and prepare healthy foods these days, but I’m more motivated now that I have a tiny person to cook for. In particular, I’m aware that her attitude towards food will be forever shaped by mine, and that it starts early. So I know that crash dieting and binging on junk food isn’t an option, which inspires me to cook more and keep perspective on my own diet.
That’s a great perspective to have – our example to our kids is such a huge way they learn when they’re still so little. And Willa will also see that you work out and stay fit, too. What benefits for motherhood have you found as you regained your fitness?
I think that the more I take care of myself, the better a role model I am for my daughter. She may not notice now, but I know she will in year two or three. Being active is so important, particularly in today’s culture. And I firmly believe that happy kids have happy parents, and we all owe it to our children to value and work on ourselves. So I suppose the primary way that being fit has benefitted me as a mom is ensuring that I am a happy, healthy person who projects those values for my child. I am pretty grateful for that.
Has your healthy lifestyle rubbed off on your husband as well?
Yes! My husband, Chris, has taken up running again since I started working out post-baby, and is running two half-marathons this winter. In fact, he does most of the shopping and cooking and works out more than I do. So maybe I can’t claim credit. But it’s nice that we’re doing it together.
It does help having a partner in crime. Or running. I know Chris is great about helping you schedule in your workouts – is time really your biggest challenge for working out?
Time and work. It’s hard for me to balance work and workouts, especially now that there’s a baby competing for my time. I often feel like even when I don’t need to physically be at work, working out takes more mental energy than I have. But I’ve gotten accustomed to my routine, and I know that the rest of the week will be vastly easier if I fit in the extra three hours a week it takes to stick to my workout plan. So I do it – most weeks.
Yup, you rock! Any goals coming up that you want to share?
Since I am a litigator, I have a busy fall and winter coming up. This year, my goal is simply to stick to my workout plan and continue making progress in terms of my strength training. Next year I may take up Parkour or competitive badminton. But this year let’s keep it simple.
Good plan. (Although, if you do take up Parkour, I want to see an infomercial of that!) Thank you so much for being on Fit Mama Friday, Emma! I love training you and seeing your progress. You are one kick-ass fit mama.
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! 🙂
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