Hello my faithful readers,

Today I wanted to quickly chat about my postpartum body image journey! It has been a heck of a ride for the last almost 10 months. I have learned a lot about my body and have learned to accept it flaws and all. It’s funny because prior to having kids you have this image in your mind of being that pregnant woman that bounces right back after pregnancy and looks great like 1 month post baby. Yeah… then reality sets in! Don’t get me wrong I have seen it many times that it actually does happen for some women and that is great but that was definitely not the case for me.

Weight loss post baby can be very hard! Especially for a first time mom as we are getting acclimated to a new baby and new life. Sometimes weight loss and working out just does not fit in the schedule. Not making excuses because when there is a will there is a way, I am just keeping it 100% real with you. I had a C-Section as well and working out was not on the top of my to do list. I am also exclusively pumping breast milk for my baby so being attached to a machine every 3 hours around the clock is very time consuming. I have learned that everything is a process and I just have to ride this wave and enjoy the skin I am in for the time being.

I started taking walks/ runs with my friend that lives right across my apartment (super convenient) with our babies at our local park. This helped a ton! Just doing this I lost almost 10 lbs in 2 weeks! Remember slow and steady wins the race! It took your body about 9 months to gain the weight and make all the changes. Can take up to a year or more for your body to normalize again and that is OKAY! Don’t feel pressured by what you see social media. A lot of what you are seeing is just glimpses of people’s lives. Go at your own rate and if you are really dedicated to lose the weight you by all means can and will!

At first I felt very bad about my weight as I was so skinny prior to getting pregnant. I had worked out harder than ever to get in tip top shape for my wedding, which I accomplished! I was super fit and then when I got pregnant I gained a lot of weight throughout my pregnancy. I immediately lost about 30 lbs after I had the baby but still needed to lose a significant amount to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. It does take a toll on your self esteem going from such drastic weights in 9 months. I had stages where I did not want to take any pictures at all because of my weight. As you can tell from my social media between the time I gave birth to recently I had not posted many pictures.

However, I realized that I will never live these stages in life again. I needed to enjoy my daughter and take as much pictures with her because one day she will grow up and I will not have any memories left behind with her because I was only thinking about myself. I started to embrace the new normal. This is the new Eli for the time being and I need to accept it. I will not lose all the baby weight overnight but slowly I certainly could and will. Remember your body just did an amazing thing! Formed a child and carried it for 9 months! Give your body a break!

So, for now I will enjoy my mommy body and my little momma pouch haha! I will embrace my stretch marks and all the other changes my body went through. God is still good! I have a beautiful family I get to enjoy everyday. This is my motivation! Don’t focus so much on where you want to be that you forget to enjoy the now!

Hope this helps some of you! 🙂 God bless you!

Sincerely,

Eli<3