Friday Fitness Tips: Body after Baby

Trying to get your body back after having a baby can sometimes seem more difficult than labor and delivery! As a mom and a fitness instructor I can tell you I have struggled with this first hand. With my first child I gained almost 90 pounds. Yes! 90 pounds! I am only 5’2 so I looked like a tomato with legs. I honestly thought I was eating for two, sometimes three. Let me tell you I was shocked that I did not give birth to a 75 pound baby and I was left with all of this weight to lose on my own. Now, I was no longer cute and pregnant, I was just fat.

I never knew what it meant to ” try” to lose weight. I am a former dancer and like I said, I am a fitness instructor so I was always moving and always exercising. So, there I was, a brand new mommy overjoyed with my newborn son, and so depressed that I was still wearing maternity clothes. I remember thinking, “how is this supposed to work?” I hadn’t showered, I fell asleep while going to the bathroom, I was still figuring out how to use a breast pump and a bouncy seat, and I couldn’t figure out how to get out of my house in under 30 minutes and without a 20 pound diaper bag. How on earth was I supposed to try to exercise? Let alone find time to exercise?

Well, lucky for you I figured it out! And you can too, I promise. I also promise that making yourself a priority during any stage of motherhood will have huge rewards. You will feel and look better, obviously. You will also boost your immune system, increase your energy level and ward off depression. All of these reasons help you be a healthier mommy. That is a great gift to give your family. I am listing my best tips and advice to help you figure out how to make exercise a part of your daily routine.

1. Put yourself first! And do NOT feel guilty!- You can not possibly take care of someone else if you do not take care of yourself. Bottom line, your baby needs the mommy you can be and that means YOU are at the top of the list!

2. Don’t think you have to go to a gym- this can be a lot of work and can be overwhelming. If you enjoy the gym, go for it! Otherwise, stay away! Exercise does not need to happen all at once, 2 hours a day, sweat till you drop kind of sessions. Too much too fast is a recipe for disaster. Baby steps.

3. Get creative! Baby weighs about 5-10 pounds as a newborn and more as they grow. Who needs weights when you have this cutie pie to workout with?! Baby lifts while you are on your back work triceps,shoulders and biceps. Stand with feet apart and squat while lifting baby out and back to you. Working almost your whole body! Exercising with your baby is great bonding and you are already starting baby off with some healthy habits!

4. Think outside the box- while running errands, park your car in a far away parking spot and get in some extra walking in and out of stores you have to go to anyway. Also, doing your housework with baby in a front carrier will burn double the calories!

5. Enlist your spouse or significant other- take turns supporting each other as healthy new parents. Maybe he makes dinner and puts baby to bed while you go to a zumba class, then you do the same another night while he goes for a run or plays basketball with friends. Find a balance that works so you feel supported and not guilty. Plus….exercise boosts libido!!

6. Get a pedometer- I was shocked that I didn’t hit the recommended 10,000 steps a day. Make it a game. Stick one on your pants and forget about it until the end of the day. Figure out ways to beat each days steps.

7. Go easy on yourself- you are a new mommy. Your body has been through a lot. If you are currently exercising 0 minutes a day don’t expect to win a marathon. Start with just 5 minutes. I promise, a consistent 5 minutes will lead to a consistent 20 minutes, then 60 minutes and so on. Don’t overdo it!

8. If you don’t like it, you probably won’t do it- I hate running. Unless I am being
chased. I have tried to be a runner and I quit every time, because I hate it. However, I love to dance! I have taken several adult dance classes but my favorite is zumba. I love to shake it so this is the workout for me. If you love the water, then find a swimming class. Maybe you were an athlete or love to roller-skate? You can combine both loves with a little roller derby! Or work your abs with a hula hoop and your favorite songs. My kiddies loved when I would workout with a hula hoop. I had a smile from ear to ear. Plus it is an awesome workout. Now they do it themselves!

9. Kill that postpartum depression!- I am in no way, shape or form a doctor so I can not make any claims but, exercise can beat the depression just as good if not better than any drugs. I have suffered through post pardon depression and I deal with a little regular depression as well. I think many of us do and it is tough. I use exercise as my drug of choice and I can tell you that it works! It works with your endorphins, balances out hormones and let’s you blow off some steam! And everything counts! Just a 5 minute walk can cure a sour mood. 5 minutes is better than no minutes!!

10. Make it a necessity – This is so important. We spend so much time with all of our other necessities…food, clothes, shelter…..a.k.a cooking, laundry and cleaning! But none of this can be done well if we as moms are not taking care of ourselves. Make a promise to give yourself some time each day or even each week to take care of your body. It is a necessity!!

A Mother’s work is never done. We all do so much and the payoff is usually a big one since nothing makes us happier than seeing our families happy. I know many of us have our plates full…or overflowing….but please keep in mind that taking time for yourself is more important than getting all the laundry done. The laundry is never really ALL done anyway;)!

My name is Caitlin Ennis. I am a certified fitness instructor, a hairstylist, a wife,and a mother of 2 children 11 year old boy and 8 year old girl. I work full time outside the home and super full time at home! I love music,dancing,and vampire movies. I dislike cleaning, making school lunches, the post office and the gas station.

Hard Times Come Again No More (spoilers)

In the beginning of the show, I thought the Parenthood season finale was going to completely take place in the waiting room. Yeah, it may not have been the most exciting finale and we wouldn’t have been able to see Sarah dealing with her play or Adam with his job, but I was actually disappointed when the action cut away from the hospital. I was enjoying the close, tense setting of the hospital waiting room, where all the Bravermans were on top of each other, dealing with various ongoing emotional issues while each of them worried about Amber. Some episodes (like my absolute favorite Friends episode, “The One Where No One is Ready” takes places completely in Rachel and Monica’s apartment). This could have also solved one problem this series seems to have: there is just too much going on.

Parenthood is a show whose strengths and weaknesses are often the same things. There are the tearful, big emotional moments that can pack an incredible punch, but they can also feel like the show reaching too far, too fast, or hitting the same beats over and over again. The chaos of Parenthood can be really interesting but also really frustrating at the same time. I thought both the good and the bad were very apparent in the season finale of Parenthood.

As for the good parts, I loved when Zeek took Amber to the junkyard and ordered her not to take away his dreams. I thought this was an impressive scene, so well written and the acting was simply perfection. Zeek’s character seems to blend into the background a lot, but then scenes like this, when he is telling Amber about his days in Vietnam and how his visions of family helped carry him through, reminds you of why you love him.

I also love the Adam and Max scenes. Parenthood the series has moved far away from the film it is based on, but I was amused to hear about Max’s missing retainer, it brought me right back to one of the most memorable scenes in the movie. They flipped it around, in Parenthood the movie, the idea was that Steve Martin was more than willing to go buy a new retainer, and had to hunt for the thing because his panicked son insisted on it; here, Max has no problem getting a new one, and it’s Adam who’s being stubborn, channeling all his frustration over both his work situation and the ongoing stress of having a child with Asperger’s, into finding this one piece of plastic. The scene where Adam tried to get Max to see that what he said at the hospital was wrong was an effective and heartbreaking scene. While I do think Adam put on too happy a face when being fired, given his panic earlier this season when he tried to find another job, I’m glad to see the back of Cory and I can believe that Adam was just trying not to freak out Kristina. The show likes to put the pressure on Adam, and I imagine in a (hopeful) Season 3 where Adam has to deal with the financial and physical stressors of adding a baby to the mix will only give Peter Krause more opportunities to flip out.

Probably different from popular opinion I am a little disappointed that Crosby and Jasmine seem on the verge of reconciling. I like Jasmine but I wouldn’t mind it if her character was written off. Or even better, I think I’d have be happy to see Crosby and Jasmine having to co-exist as Jabbar’s parents, but never again as a couple. I would love to watch as they struggle to do the best thing for Jabbar by splitting up, instead of seeing his parents in an unhappy union. And given the way she’s been written all season, I don’t believe that she’d actually give Crosby a second chance, not even after he stopped trying to win her back, setting up the classic “If you love something, set it free” situation. It just felt so rushed, even for a storyline that’s been playing out for months.

I also didn’t love how Julia’s baby related flip-flopping was handled, even considering how often Joel and Julia have been relegated to the background this season. I recognize that there are a lot of steps that have to be crossed in a story like this – Julia decides she wants another baby, gets Joel to agree, trouble conceiving, then acceptance that they can’t conceive, then deciding to adopt, but tying in the final stages were just handled poorly.

I really enjoyed the finale and I loved the season as a whole. I am really hoping Parenthood will be renewed for a Season 3, we should be finding out soon!

Ashley lives in Bucks County with her husband, their two children, and their shih tzu. Ashley worked in television production for years and now enjoys writing about television, movies, and parenting topics. For more TV, film, and entertainment info check out www.ashleykanoff.com