As someone who is struggling to constantly find the motivation to do fitness and follow a diet rather than eat chocolate daily, any mother who’s had a baby in the past year or two, will know the struggles I face. It’s bloody hard work. I need to lose my tummy and a knock a bit off my inner thighs too, but there’s no easy dreamy way to complete this tough mission. It’s not like any other diets I’ve done before where the weight just falls off, no, this is tough. It’s like pushing all your boundaries at once and still not achieving any results. Not straight away that is. There are no instant results, there’s just a shit load of hard work and a lot of motivational chat from your friends and partner, “you’ve just had a baby, it’s understandable.” It doesn’t help that we’re surrounded by the media of stick thin models who just popped out their baby and are now swooshing down a runway three weeks after giving birth to a daughter named Avocado. Losing weight is difficult anyway, but more so if you’re a mum trying to get rid of your pregnancy tum.
It’s a well-known fact it takes time for your body, especially your tummy to fully recover from pregnancy. I was convinced at one point though, I must admit, that once Emily would pop out, most of my weight would just go with the labour, but it wasn’t to be. That doesn’t happen to real people. Emily weighed 6lbs 9oz when she was born and all I’ve lost is a shitty 6 pounds and have spent the past 6 months trying to figure out why my tummy is still, well a tummy, and I’ve not lost more weight with all this extra walking around, running around and exercise that I’m trying to find more time to fit in. My tummy is still squishy and round when lying down or pretty solid when standing up, and has a few stretch marks that have populated right by my hips. The quick downsizing of tummies only exists on supermodels and not mummies like me. It’s just the sad, unfortunate truth. Losing my tummy weight, although slowly decreasing, is taking its damn time to go.
Losing the weight goes with how much weight we put on during pregnancy they say, so it took 9 months to pile on, it must take that time to fall off. My sister who is petite and smaller in statue lost her tummy within a few days, although I’m pretty sure she’ll argue otherwise. But that is her build, small and petite. She didn’t really put any weight on at all, all her pregnancy weight went to the small cute bump she had to carry my niece in. She luckily didn’t put on any weight around her hips, her boobs or anywhere else. But Fran’s body and shape is hugely different to mine, which is why it annoys me to see famous people who somehow manage to regain their pre-pregnancy bodies within weeks of giving birth. Whilst they preach that they’ve lost it due to a simple task such as breastfeeding, it normally is down to having an expensive fitness trainer, a nanny and tonnes of money to achieve their pre-pregnancy look, which I and most new mum’s don’t have. Our bodies change in shape after pregnancy. I was slim before, but my pregnancy weight went to my tummy, my thighs and my giganto boobs. God my boobs, don’t get me started on the sizing of these bad boys! Ri-di-culous!
Sam keeps saying I should be patient. It took nine months for my tummy muscles to stretch to accommodate Emily full-term, so it makes sense that it can take that long, or longer to tighten up again, but like every other living woman on the planet, results that happen almost immediately is much more preferred! At this moment in time, I’m trying to lose weight, but it’s difficult, especially in this heat, the motivation to run on the spot or do various routines, seems less fun when I’m sweating like a two-tonne tessie. I am currently following Scarlett Moffatt’s Super Slim Diet and fitness DVD, so hopefully, some weight falls off before my holiday in September, only a few months away. But, whilst I hold out on a hope that something drops off, there is a lot of ridicule about women’s figures in the press, the bad side of being a celebrity if you’ve just had a child, making us women not the only women who feel crap about losing weight.
Recently I commented on a post on the Daily Mail app about Rebecca Vardy’s post-pregnancy body and although I’m in no way a fan of her, or Danielle Lloyd or the many other celeb mums’s that were featured in the article, none of them should have received the type of abuse they got about the way their bodies look after giving birth. There are far too many people out there who body shame. This argument, of course, can be used across the whole spectrum, too fat, too skinny etc, but it shouldn’t happen in any case. Why should a woman’s body be ridiculed for having a baby? That’s bullshit. There’s far too many people who are quick to jump on the fact that us mums haven’t lost weight quickly enough. How about a big f*ck off. Having a baby should be celebrated, we’ve just given life and not only is that incredible, any normal person who’s just pushed a baby out of their foo-foo, must be mad to want to get up and give me 20 on limited sleep covered in baby sick.
Blake Lively spoke about the pressures to immediately lose weight after having a baby. “It’s so unfair though because it’s so celebrated,” the actress said. “It’s like, this is what someone can look like after a baby. I think a woman’s body after having a baby is pretty amazing.” Lively continued, explaining that new mums shouldn’t feel the pressure to immediately bounce back to their pre-baby body because they’ve just created life.
“You don’t need to be Victoria’s Secret ready right away because you just did the most incredible miracle that life has to offer,” Lively added. “I mean you gave birth to a human being! So I would really like to see that celebrated.”
And she’s right. Why is there so much pressure on how a woman looks in her bikini or swimming cossie or in her gym sweats or that summer dress she’s wearing? All body shapes are different and our confidence isn’t the greatest after having a baby, so why add criticism and negativity to someone’s day about the way they look? It’s horrible. Having a baby is celebrated, so should the woman who carried it. It’s a difficult journey from pregnancy to motherhood and negativity should be banned!
Let’s face it, it’s really irritating seeing the front of magazines where a celeb mum claims running around after their kids and breastfeeding is the only way to losing all their pregnancy weight. It can be disheartening too. Some mums are very lucky with losing their pregnancy weight, whilst others, like me, struggle. Looking at all those magazines, websites, media, TV shows and whatnot gives a really unrealistic image of how we’re supposed to look and feel about out post-baby bodies.
All us mothers should cut ourselves some slack. Getting pregnant was the easy bit, then it’s a struggle carrying around all that weight that you’re not used to, then pushing them out into the world which is not a walk in the park, our bodies are super-fucking-amazing and we should celebrate it, something I should follow too. I’d like to lose a bit of weight just so I can look semi-decent rocking ideally a bikini, but that’s not going to happen. My worry was how I looked in front of and surrounded by super-skinny mini’s posing in their holiday attire with Sam and Emily, but realistically, I may not lose that weight before September, I may lose a stone but I won’t lose the 3 stone I put on, I suppose all I can do is at least try. Us ladies deserve a medal for the serious wake-up call being a mother does to us, not only in the way we look but for our confidence too. Our bodies are machines, any negative shit we get whatever status we are in society should be met with the middle finger. Lose the weight in your own God damn time. Don’t worry about anyone else, just worry about you and your baby.
Missy, Me & Him 