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| He's handsome. |
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| Helping handsome man pick a book. |
Hi, I’m Rachel! I am a momma to 3 young kids and we currently live in Alaska. Do I love my mom body? Sometimes, maybe, it depends. Until quite recently, I had a rocky relationship with my mom body, I would look in disgust at my stretch marks and saggy boobs. I hated the scale. I wore “safe” clothes, like jeans, loose shirts, hoodies, and lounge pants. My husband constantly told me how beautiful I was, or how hot I looked, but I still felt less than confident about my body.
After my last baby, (almost 2 years ago, sniff), I was hovering around 160. For quite awhile actually. I wore my stretchy pants for a few months after giving birth because I just couldn’t fit in my jeans. We ate somewhat healthy meals, and although I didn’t exercise, I did eventually manage to fit into my regular clothes and shed another 10 lbs.
Fast forward to last summer. Still weighed around 150, never exercised, but I felt ok about myself. Then I turned 29! And I started to freak about how I really needed to get fit before 30. I don’t know why 30 is so scary to me, but it is. I had nightmares about being forever unhealthy and a little pudgy, because you know, once you hit the ripe old age of 30, life is just about over, or so I led myself to believe.
Then I watched a few documentaries that literally changed my life. **Food Inc., Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, The Gerson Miracle, and Forks Over Knives. All of these made complete sense to me and my husband. This was the moment we began to change our habits. If you haven’t seen these, I totally recommend them. I felt ignorant as a consumer, and didn’t want to feel that way ever again. So we started buying more local, (as local as possible anyway when you live in the Arctic). We cut portion sizes, only ate meat once or twice a week, bought organic when available and drastically cut down on processed foods. I felt better about myself, I had more energy, and I lost some more weight, nothing drastic, just a few pounds.
In January I decided that I really need to get to work on my body. I was depressed from the lack of sunlight, I was stuck in the house everyday from the extreme temps, and I really wanted to change. I wanted to feel good about myself, not for anyone else. I think that is what is important, you have to do it for yourself, or you may get frustrated and give up. So to give myself a kick in the pants, I started drinking Body by Vi shakes twice a day. I also started working out at home to Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. Home is where it’s at for me. I have 3 young kids, I really don’t leave the house in the winter unless I need to, so this worked for me. My kids would try to do it too, which was really cute by the way. If you don’t feel motivated at home, get out. Go to a gym, the Y, your backyard, anywhere. About 30 days ago I decided 30 Day Shred wasn’t for me, and I bought Power 90 from the Beachbody online store. I am in LOVE you guys. I cut back on my shakes to 1 a day now, do a workout 6 days a week, and I have never felt better. It’s so easy, the packet that came with the DVDs tells you exactly what to do each and every day. No guesswork, simple, and great for beginners. I am now down to 135, and my body has lost a layer or two of fat, I am starting to look toned, my clothes hardly fit anymore, and I have never felt more confident in my life. As a bonus, I have tons more energy, which every mom needs more of anyway.
I still have a ways to go, I don’t worry about the scale anymore and I know I will never have a perfect body, but I have embraced that. I have curves and I love them. I have big hips and I love them. I have saggy mom boob and I sorta love them.
*Can be found on netflix.
Thanks, Rachel for sharing your MOM BODY with us!
Hey everyone, I'm Jessica from www.freckledmama.com
I'm really loving Amber's "Love Your Mom Body" series, and I wanted to weigh in because I myself am going through my own struggle with loving my "mom" body.
The last eight weeks I've been really trying to do just that, not just love my "mom" body but to love my body period ( I wasn't all that crazy about my body BEFORE becoming a MOM). In the last eight weeks I made a serious effort to change my body; I wanted to lose weight..or so I thought!
We have all heard "Big Is Beautiful", that we should love our bodies no matter if we are a size 2 or 22. I never felt that way, and didn't understand why I couldn't just love my curves, or ever wear a sleeveless top. I've always heard big is beautiful, but we see magazines, t.v, and movies and the women are 99% sample size 2.
In my last eight weeks, I have really come to understand how wrong and dangerous both sides of the spectrum really are. I think it is dangerous to try and display ONLY models in sample sizes in beautiful clothes, just as wrong as it is for obese women to be on magazines screaming big is beautiful. (I also really hate that bigger women have their own clothing section, but I'll get to that another time) I really feel like, the reason it is so dangerous is because it is gives false security to continue unhealthy lifestyles. It gives the obese an excuse to not change their lifestyle to be healthy, and to encourage being fat and happy. It gives the women who try so hard to be smaller size than their body deems healthy, motivation to keep chugging those diet cokes and cigarettes to fit into that size 2 (or whatever size is smaller than their build).
It is true that we all come in different shapes and sizes, before and after becoming mommies, and that is beautiful but not the whole story. I really want to let you consider the only way we should be categorizing beauty, since it is in the eye of the beholder anyways and that is healthy!
Healthy is beautiful!
Eating clean, exercising, and keeping active is loving your body! There is absolutely no goal size, no clothing tag, or number on the scale that determines what is healthy for you and your body. I honestly know a size 16 woman who runs five miles a day, A DAY, and runs marathons! She is gorgeous, but it doesn't matter what I think because she knows how beautiful and happy she is because she takes care of herself. That woman will never be a size 2, she just isn't built that way,same goes for a size 2 woman that will never be a curvy size 8. Doesn't that take some of the pressure off?
I've changed my lifestyle in the last eight weeks. I went from, eating crap and never working out to eating clean and working out five times a week. I cannot even begin to explain in all the ways my life has change for the better that it really makes it seem that being twenty pounds lighter is just a bonus. I feel so much better, and happier that it is honestly leaking over into all areas of my life. I feel my body changing, becoming stronger, I have more energy, I sleep better, I feel beautiful and for the first time I can remember I'm actually loving my body. I ran two miles in twenty-six minutes yesterday and I'm SO PROUD of myself. I love my MOM BODY! I know I will continue to loose weight until my body determines it is fit enough to maintain, and I'm okay with that!
I want encourage all of you to get active and eat better.
NO MORE hating your body or feeling down about yourself. NO MORE hating on EACH OTHER! Show everyone how beautiful healthy can be at any size!
I wanted to include some progress photos of myself.
BEFORE.
Excuse the flash, these pictures really weren't meant to be seen. I took these the night before I started working out. I could not even do one push-up.
20lbs lighter, and able to do push-ups. Excuse the messy thrown around room, we've been living out of it and renovating it. These were taken right after I got back from the gym.
I'm not where I'm going yet, but I feel like I'm finally on the right path.
Thank you to Amber for letting me address her lovely readers and for encouraging women, mom or not, to love their bodies!
((if you’d like to be part of the “loving your body” guest posts email me at [email protected])
Thank you Jessica!!
