She was in my ‘preggo’ squad, a small community where I provide meal plans, workouts training and a solid support system for my pregnant clients. These people usually want to maintain discipline and control weight gain or loss all through pregnancy.
So, client Bella had a monthly subscription she renewed daily. But besides participating in our daily affirmative confessions, she was not very active, physically speaking. This made me surprised to see she wanted to remain on the squad.
I took a coaching break at some point and by the time I was back, client Bella was almost full term.
A few weeks later, I got a message from her…
“Coach, my baby X is here…”
Oh, the Joys!
Interestingly, Bella also wanted to know when she could join the nursing mothers weight loss squad, but I advised her to settle well into motherhood first. I then asked her for an authentic picture of her current weight to properly assess what program and duration to place her on. What she sent back to me shocked me to my bone marrow…
She looked amazing!!
It was then it dawned on me why she renewed her subscription religiously every single month…
She was taking all I had been sharing in the squad and applying them to her life quietly. All that time, she had been following our highly disciplined meal plans and prenatal workouts.
She applied all the tips on staying disciplined, controlling cravings, embracing healthy prenatal workouts and enjoying a fit pregnancy in those beautiful 9months.
In her words,
‘…It was not easy at all, no discipline is easy, but it was so worth it, Coach. I had to discipline myself…’
The result?
She managed to gain only 12kg by the time she was ready to deliver. And four weeks after delivery, she had lost 7kg and had only 5kg to lose. The bulk of the residual weight was in her belly and breasts, both expected because the belly will always need time to fully snap back, and the breasts increase in weight because of breastfeeding.
On many levels, this made me happy. I was especially joyful because pregnancy-induced obesity is a big reality in today’s world. (that is excessive weight gain because of pregnancy). Also, over 50% of women find it difficult to lose all that weight, and so end up being remarkably physically different from when they got pregnant.
These things should not be so.
You can get pregnant, gain the right amount of body weight slowly, have your baby, and go back to looking like you looked before. Or at least, be 80 % like you did in University if that was your ideal weight.
I have heard women tell me how after they had their baby/babies, friends from the past would walk by them and not recognise them because they had changed so much. They were tired, not just physically but they were also tired emotionally, mentally and even spiritually. Wives talk about their husbands complaining about their weight gain and then, by consequence, how their sex life suffers.
Trust me, knowledge is power, and the truth will set you free. Please speak the truth to your own self, then get knowledge AND APPLY it. Pregnancy is a very beautiful journey in any woman’s life and if where there are changes, they should be positive only.
As for Bella?
Her story still makes me happy. As a new mother, very little changed about her physical life. Naturally, this meant she could continue to run after her many other assignments on earth, without letting any avoidable physical challenges/limitations wear her out.
It is my desire to have many more stories like Bella’s.
Or even better.
And you, dear pregnant woman, can be all that and more.