The postnatal recovery period isn’t easy for any new mum.
Recovery from birth, rebuilding strength, regaining fitness, losing your pregnancy weight. Whatever your specific postnatal goals are, these things all take time.
We’re surrounded by images of artificial perfection providing us with unrealistic expectations of ‘snapping back’. But for most of us, this is far from the case.
Time is in short supply and we have to learn to slow down, reduce our expectations and take things at our own pace.
We have to allow ourselves the time and space to recover from pregnancy and birth first.
We need time to adjust to life with a new baby and whatever experience we are having.
Our bodies have been through so much and these changes do not reverse overnight.
Postnatal recovery is not a straightforward process. There’s no ‘one size fits all approach’, we all have different experiences and have to go at our own pace and do what works for us, our body and our baby.
Extreme diets, excessive exercising, running ourselves into the ground and stressing about our progress are not the way forward.
You don’t go to the gym every day for a week and have abs at the end of it. Your body is a direct reflection of the small habits you do consistently every day and the cumulative effect of these habits over time...a long time.
We need manageable goals, small daily habits and consistent action in the right direction.
Eating more protein, staying hydrated, eating a nutritionally balanced diet, moving more.
We need to learn to work out efficiently and effectively so that we are actually seeing results from our efforts, not wasting hours ‘working out’ but getting nowhere.
We need to give ourselves adequate rest and be kind to ourselves when things don’t go to plan.
Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be.
So take your time, go at your own pace and do whatever works for you, your body and your baby.
Bx