Women today are under a lot of pressure. Us women are supposed to be totally awesome, have amazing careers, exercise at least 4 hours a week, clean the house, make dinner, and take care of the 1.7 kids. As if that weren’t enough, there is now an expectation that after having a baby, your body will snap back into the totally fit body you were supposed to have pre pregnancy.
I don’t know about you, but my pregnancies are full of getting to know the toilet, raging hormones, days of laying around exhausted and hoping my kids diapers some how change themselves.
Okay, maybe I’m being a little dramatic. But seriously. I don’t have any idea how I would be able to fit in exercise along with feeling this way and taking care of my kids. Add a career that many women have on top of everything else and the task looks impossible.
For the sake of being real, let me show you a picture of what I looked like three days after I had my first son:
I clocked in at 190 lbs when I went to the hospital with him. I had a total of a 50 lb weight gain. When I left the hospital, I was still 190 lbs (I was there for a few days and was pumped FULL of fluids).
That my friends, is real. That is okay. That is what happens when you make a child. You gain weight. Your body changes. But do you see what I’m holding in that picture?? A BABY! That little man is worth every single pound I put on. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
I guess the purpose of this post is to encourage you. To remind you. To help you. Whatever. Don’t look at articles like this and think “that needs to be me.” Don’t put that added pressure on yourself. Because let me let you in on a little secret: Having a baby is hard work. You will be emotionally and physically exhausted for a few weeks after having that little miracle. The last thing you need to worry about is your body. Once you get the whole being a mother thing under control, then you can worry about the body.
So count me out of this one. I won’t be working my pregnant body out so that I can be super skinny after I have the baby. That doesn’t mean that I don’t try and eat well or go for a walk when the weather is nice. But I am not going to obsess about it. Because I don’t care what other people think about my body. All I care about is the baby that my body is supporting and growing. Because in the end, he or she matters a whole lot more than the stretch marks on my body.
Wow! That post was NOT about fitness. That was all about a desperate need for attention. It's a little sad. She was probably used to getting all sorts of attention with her cute little pregnant belly and now that it was gone she felt the need to put herself out there (practically naked, I might add) so people will fawn all over her. Totally unrealistic and ridiculous.
Great post! I'm about 3 months pregnant and already feeling the exhaustion and laziness setting in. It's good to hear that other people feel the same way, and it's also great that you're in the right mind to understand that you don't need the extra pressure to look super fit after child birth. People like that (link you provided) are just sad, because all she's doing is making regular women who aren't fitness models feel bad about themselves, what good comes of that? Thanks for sharing!