Bouncing Back

Looking back at the past few years and all the changes and processes my body has gone through, especially the last 3 years through both my pregnancies. It is a difficult thing – learning your body and how it works and then it constantly changes and you have to change things up again in order to care for it. It is hard work for a women and I don’t think many people, especially men and women who have not had children, understand what it means and how hard we have to work to maintain, lose weight and feel good about ourselves.

I remember when I first came to the realisation of what it meant to be healthy. Yes I had struggled through eating disorders and learned all about it in recovery – but that day when I had that Ah Ha moment was magical. Almost 4 years after what I thought was recovering from my disorder (realising that I still had some bad habits) – I realised what it meant to look after your body. Skipping meals was not helping – exercising your ass off and then eating a huge meal was not helping – smoking was not helping. I could not believe that I was eating 6 times a day, healthy meals, exercising for 30 minutes 3 times a week and I lost 25kg in a year. I could not believe it! Where had I gone wrong all this time. I think this happens with most AH HA moments – you always wonder why you didn’t know this before. The answer is because you were not ready – you are growing and you are still growing and learning and this should be an amazing moment for anyone.

I decided today that even though I am not exactly where I want to be in my fitness and weight loss goals I am proud of where I am now and how far I have gotten. Damn it has been one hell of an up and down journey – emotional roller coasters – watching my body morph and change and bounce back to morphing again in my pregnancies. Breastfeeding – sheesh that has done some major transformations to my upper body. Through everything else that life is throwing at us, maintaining your career, caring for your kids, working on your relationships – you have still got this with your fitness and weight loss goals. You are still making an effort! I think I, and every other mother out there keeping it together – deserves a standing ovation. I AM proud of myself! 

The people who look at you and tell you that you are not good enough yet don’t know what you have struggled through. It is not easy, for any mother, to lose the weight and get back to the same fitness level they were at before – not because they don’t try but because our bodies are a little more challenging than they were before pregnancy and of course when we were younger. At least we are working on it – and boy are we gonna get there – and they will be speechless because we would have mastered reaching this goal through way more obstacles than most. And that ladies is just one more thing to be proud of!

This is to anyone battling through a weight loss journey. Don’t look at how far you have got to go, or how wobbly and untoned your legs and stomach might be, your stretch marks – all of it is a sign that you have gotten somewhere and are your battle scars (wear them proud) – you are not the same as you were a year ago, a month ago or maybe a week ago. Stay consistent, keep that goal in mind but remember how far you have come and don’t let anyone make you feel any less of yourself. I am telling you WELL DONE! KEEP IT UP! YOU LOOK AMAZING!