My Body Journey After Babies

I wanna start off by saying A LOT of body changes come with having a baby. It is such a beautiful process, and it truly looks so different for everyone. As a mom to four littles ages seven and under and also having battled weight issues at different times in my life, I completely understand the struggle. I just want to share my journey with you guys in a raw and honest way.

I am not a person that doesn’t gain weight or body fat during my pregnancies. I learned a lot after my pregnancy with Olivia (where I gained 60+ pounds and had swollen ankles), but the truth is- I have never been one to just gain the recommended thirty pounds or less. With Charlie (my second little babe), I still gained thirty seven pounds and I’m totally okay with it. I joined our local Versus Strength and Conditioning gym when Olivia was seven months old and worked out until thirty nine weeks with my last three pregnancies so that helped a ton not just with weight but also just how I felt.

I nurse all of my babies as well, but usually after giving birth I will lose a little the first two weeks and then nothing until I hit the four month post baby mark. Once I’m at four months postpartum the weight will start to move some and usually by nine months to a year I am back to where I started. Not sure if it was because Vivi was my fourth baby or because of age, but my weight just DID NOT want to move after having her. I gained a total of forty eight pounds and at six months postpartum I still had over thirty to lose. It just wasn’t moving at all, and I was getting discouraged. This is when I decided to try our gym’s Clean Kitchen program.

I started my Clean Kitchen journey on April 7, 2019. I was amazed at how straight forward, but also flexible and able to easily fit into my busy lifestyle that it truly was. I had done every diet fix or eating plan you can imagine throughout the years, but they were always something I could not maintain long term. Clean Kitchen was so different. It allowed me to focus on healthy habits and slowly added them in so that I could get used to making these healthy lifestyle changes gradually and not like a shock to my system. For the first time ever, I learned how to live a healthy lifestyle and how to have a healthy relationship with food instead of the constant restricting, bingeing, feeling guilty cycle. Instead of restricting, I learned to eat MORE times throughout the day, and with the help of my coach (Anna you’re amazing), I dropped the baby weight and saw changes in my body that I honestly didn’t expect after four back to back kiddos.

Clean Kitchen has forever changed my life and how I look at food! I remember looking at my husband during the challenge and telling him that I would never do any kind of diet or eat any other way. Ever. There is no need to because CK changed my life in such a positive way, and literally no food is restricted or “off the table.” I use their cookbook for most of my recipes to this day.

I’m going super out of my comfort zone here, but I wanted to share my results with you guys. Literally dying…like really- as I post these pics but it’s always good for us to remember how far we have come in ANY circumstances and that we are ALL always on a health journey of some kind.

My hope is that this would encourage or inspire someone, and I want you guys to know that no matter where you’re at on your own journey- I’m cheering for you =)

Hugs,

Lindsey