Jen’s says goodbye to 11kg! #182

I gave birth to my first baby, my beautiful daughter, in January 2019. I had kept active throughout my pregnancy, with morning walks along the beach. As all mums of newborns can relate to, the lack of sleep and new priorities saw my exercise and nutrition drop off. Sugar and caffeine seemed to make the lack of sleep more bearable, particularly those coffee sachets (with all of the sugar in them). I have always been a runner but I was exclusively breastfeeding and running just wasn’t comfortable. I was also focused on maintaining a good milk supply. So I made that my priority and was happy to put my fitness on the back burner. I gradually began to get back into regular walks with the buggy during the winter months. It’s much harder to get out and about (and much easier to find excuses) when you have a little person to consider, especially on cold days.

All of the encouragement and the inspiration from the ladies on the private Facebook group helped me to keep motivated.

By September, I was well and truly ready to get things back on track. I first followed Kim’s No Excuses and No Limits programmes with great success in 2017. I found my old programmes and got started. I took my measurements, wrote them all down and got started. Two weeks later, I downloaded the Kim Beach app. It’s fantastic! I especially like the shopping list feature, it is very easy to order the groceries online with the tick off option. All of the encouragement and the inspiration from the ladies on the private Facebook group helped me to keep motivated.

I would do my weights in the lounge, with the tv on. I’d nearly worked my way through the eight seasons of McLeod’s Daughters.

I am a creature of habit. Each night I would put out my work out clothes and set my dumbbells to the start weight. At 5:30 am, I would get up, make a black coffee (which I’d grown to love), and get stuck into my workouts. I would vary my days with full-body workouts, leg/back/biceps, chest/shoulder/triceps, and running. 5:30-7am was my time each day to focus on my health. I would do my weights in the lounge, with the tv on. I’d nearly worked my way through the eight seasons of McLeod’s Daughters. If Sienna woke up during my workout, she got used to just playing beside me and especially liked crawling under me or over me during the ab work.

I like Kim’s app, in that it encourages life-long habits, rather than a burst of 8 weeks.

I made an effort not to weigh in or take my measurements until my first 8 weeks were up. In the past, I had felt disappointed if the scales weren’t reflecting my effort. Initially, I had lost 7kg and was under my pre-baby weight already. I used to do a lot of long-distance running, and I’d never got to this weight through all of those years. I was really enjoying the food. I kept up the consistency and by stage 3 I had said goodbye to another 2.5kg and had got engaged!! We had seven weeks to plan our wedding. It was a bonus that I was already feeling really fit and energised. The wedding was extra motivation to keep up the consistency (as well as the girls on ‘Drover’s Run’ each morning).

Our wedding day was such an amazing day. After a week or two off, I was back into my workouts and really enjoying it. I like Kim’s app, in that it encourages life-long habits, rather than a burst of 8 weeks. I encourage all those new mums out there who are wanting to feel better to download the Kim Beach app. I achieved my success from the comfort and safety of my tiny lounge, with an exercise ball, dumbbells and tv remote.