post baby body: 9 months

Here it is, the big post baby body update I promised yesterday!

9 months ago I gave birth to my sweet baby Hunter.  9 months before that I became pregnant.  That’s an entire 18 months where lots of changes were going on in my body.

Here I am pretty much newly pregnant, at 10 weeks.

And in almost the same clothes now, at 9 months after having a baby.

Side by side comparison.

Notes

• My hips are still a bit wider
• Arms are looking much stronger
• Weight is almost back to pre-pregnancy (4-6 lb above)
• Lots of my pre-pregnancy jeans are still tight
• My hair is much cuter!

I kept some goals in mind that I wanted to meet at 9 months post baby.  I figured it took 9 months for my body to grow and change, it should take about that long to get back to its pre-pregnancy state.

Weight goal: About 5lb over my pre-pregnancy weight.  <- – CHECK!

I’m hovering 4-6 pounds over where I was before becoming pregnant.  I figured with nursing I would need to keep a few more pounds on.

Fitness goal: Feeling stronger and fitter than before. <- – CHECK!

Yeah… very vague, I know.  I just wanted to make sure I was keeping up with my exercise, both for my body and my mind.  At the time Hunter was born I didn’t know I’d be teaching 10-ish classes a week.  With all that, it’s been no problem getting my exercise in.

How did I lose the weight?

They say nursing will do that for you.  Nope, it really didn’t for me.  I didn’t start seeing much of a change until about 5 months after.  I believe that coincided with more exercise and specifically, more strength training.

I am much stronger than I have ever been, and I definitely attribute that to teaching bodypump 4 times a week (Wondering what bodypump is? Check out the post on it!). Not only am I stronger (I can lift more weight), I have more muscle.  Just as I tell everyone, muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn sitting around and doing nothing.  That’s why strength training is so important!

I’m going to share my teaching schedule.  If it wasn’t for teaching, I’d be curious to see what my workout schedule would look like!  I am most definitely not telling you that you need to workout this much, this is just to share what I do.

Monday – bodypump and fitness yoga
Tuesday – strength + range of motion (SilverSneakers)
Wednesday –  cycle and bootcamp
Thursday – bodypump and sculpt + tone
Friday – bodypump
Saturday –  total body conditioning + bodypump
Sunday – R.E.S.T.

*I randomly throw in a short run… like 1-2 a month it seems.

** Also, I would not recommend doing so much strength training day after day.  It’s always a good idea to give your muscles a day of rest in between to recover.

Fitness is only half the challenge, food is where the real change comes from!

I feel like I eat all the time.  Exercise + nursing + my love for food leaves me huuuuuuuuungry.

I try to eat mostly good for me foods + something not so good for me each day.  A treat of some sort.  Some days there are more treats than others.

Here’s a look at what I might eat in a typical day:

Morning: coffee with milk 2x, custard oats with peanut butter

Pre-teaching: raisins

Post-teaching: chobani flavored yogurt + whole grain sprouted toast with avocado

** more raisins again if I’m teaching 2 classes that day

Mid day: lunch is typically left overs (enchiladas, burger (beef or black bean), big salad) or a tuna sandwich… something easy

Afternoon: this is where I get suuuuuuuper hungry, from about 2-4pm.  I’ll snack on string cheese, a banana, cereal, oatmeal, cookies… really whatever I can get into my mouth

During dinner prep: a glass of wine

Evening: dinner varies – the last few nights have been meatloaf with baked potatoes, salmon pasta salad with asparagus, cheese and bread… tonight we had beef tacos and asparagus.

Late night snacking??  Not much anymore.  When I’m giving Hunter a bath in the evening I’ve started brushing my teeth and flossing then too.  After that I’m good about not snacking!

+ Lots and lots of water all day long.

I’m really finding that when I listen to my body and eat what it wants, I feel satisfied.  Now that I think about it, I’m also not overly full even when I tend to eat everything in sight.  I like that.  I guess I naturally fell into intuitive eating.  I tend to get hungry about every 3 hours, and just make sure I get as close to balanced as I can with protein, carbs and fat.

Hooray for intuitive eating!

Miscellaneous

At 9 months Hunter is nursing 4-5 times a day (typically 5) with no nighttime feedings (I need to share that nighttime sleep update!).  I am surprised that my cycle hasn’t returned yet.  Nursing is definitely working as birth control for us.  I’m hoping as we continue to drop feeding over the next few months it returns so we can get into baby making again!  Yup, we want kiddos close in age.  I also feel good about getting pregnant again since I’m so close to my pre-pregnancy size too.

Lastly, I put together a side by side comparison of the change from 1, 3, 5 and 9 months.  It’s pretty cool seeing my progress like this.

Do you strength train?  Nursing mamas, when did your cycle return?  Would it be hard for you to resist these cookies in the afternoons too?

Heather

PS: I added a new page –>post baby body<– you can find all posts related to this topic there.