What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About My Body After Having a Baby

 

Postpartum body talk can get so loud.

The bounce-back pressure. The timelines. The before-and-afters. The feeling that your body is something to fix as quickly as possible after it just did the most incredible thing.

But mama, what if your postpartum body does not need your punishment? What if it needs your awe?

In this bonus episode of Embrace Your Real, I’m sharing what I wish more moms knew about their bodies after having a baby, especially when the world keeps telling them to hurry up and “get back.” This is a conversation about honoring your body, rebuilding with simple habits, and learning why the slow route may be the thing that gets you further than rushing ever could.

What’s Discussed:

  • Why postpartum can change the way you see your body

  • How awe can shift the way you treat your body after having a baby

  • Why getting back into movement does not have to be complicated

  • The two simple habits that supported my postpartum season

  • Why obsessing over daily results can make the journey feel heavier

  • How slow, steady consistency can create real change over time

  • Why the “fast route” often leads to more starting over

When movement feels like the promise you are ready to keep, the Movement With Julie app gives you five brand-new workouts each week that are challenging, effective, and time efficient with minimal equipment. The workouts are designed to help you honor your body through movement at home, at the gym, or wherever this season of motherhood has you. Head to movementwithjulie.com to get started.

And if fueling your body feels confusing in this season, Macro Counting Made Simple can help you understand your protein, carbs, and fats without restriction or overwhelm. It gives you a simple way to support your body, your energy, and your goals while still living your real life. Head to macrocountingmadesimple.com to get started.

If you loved this episode, you’ll also love: Episode 622: 3 Questions to Ask Before You Start Tracking Macros as a Mom. It is the perfect next listen if you want to decide whether macros make sense for the season you are in.

If you want more from me, be sure to check out…

Transcript

(0:00) Hey, hey beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, (0:06) but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter.

(0:13) I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. (0:19) Stay tuned if you're ready to Embrace Your Real. Let's get it, let's go.

(0:32) Hello, and welcome back to another bonus episode on the Embrace Your Real podcast. Today's episode is a personal one. (0:38) It might be one of the most important ones that I've recorded, especially if you're a mom, or maybe you're about to be one, (0:43) or maybe you hope to be one someday, because the messaging out there about postpartum bodies is loud.

(0:51) Very loud. The bounce back culture, the pressure, the timelines, the before and afters. (0:55) And I, as I have walked personally through my own postpartum season, (0:59) I kept thinking about all the moms out there drowning in that noise and about (1:03) how different my experience was from everything culture told me it would be.

Like it wasn't (1:07) a struggle story, it was actually the complete opposite. I personally fell in love with my body (1:12) in a brand new way. Like the most dramatic transformation of my life happened when I stopped (1:18) chasing the change, and I never once like had to fight my body to get there.

So today I'm going (1:24) to be sharing what I wish more moms knew about their bodies after having a baby. I'm going to (1:29) kind of walk you through my own experience and the two simple habits that I leaned on, (1:34) and why the slow route is actually the fast route. We're just going to dive right in because (1:39) I have a lot to share.

So first, I wish more more moms knew that they can fall in love (1:45) with your body in a completely new way after a baby. And I can tell you exactly when that (1:50) started for me. The moment that it hit me, that my body created life.

Like it literally created (1:56) and birth life. Like what? I still can't get over it. Like my body grew an entire human being.

It (2:03) built a heart and lungs and 10 tiny fingers and 10 little toes. And it created the thing that (2:09) truly means so much to me. Like my body did that.

How crazy is that? And I wish more moms gave (2:16) themselves permission to stand in that awe for a minute because culture isn't going to hand it to (2:22) you. Like culture wants you to look at your postpartum body and see damage to repair. (2:27) But for years on this podcast, I've taught body competence from the perspective of appreciating (2:33) your body and what it can do.

And mom, your body just did the most amazing, (2:38) extraordinary thing that a body can do. And here's why this matters for everything else (2:44) I'm about to share. When you're in awe of your body, you stop treating it like an enemy (2:48) that needs to be punished into shape.

And you start treating it like the miracle worker. (2:54) It just proved itself to be like that one shift changed my entire postpartum season. And I (3:00) believe that it has the power to change yours as well.

The second thing I wish more moms knew (3:05) that getting back into it can be incredibly simple. Now, okay, when I was ready and clear (3:12) to start moving again, I made a decision. I am not coming at this from a bounce back perspective.

(3:18) I'm not going to try and lose the weight as fast as possible. Honestly, like results weren't even (3:23) the assignment. The assignment was simple.

It was to honor my body. Like that's it. That's the (3:27) whole strategy.

And alongside that, I started counting macros again, not like not all my macros. (3:33) And I did not do it to restrict. I did not do it to shrink, but I wanted to make sure (3:38) that I was actually fueling the body that I had.

And I think that that's important because (3:44) those two habits alone, movement and mindset, that's literally all I did. And I'm telling (3:51) you this from someone who, yes, I got cleared and yes, I started that. And then my body (3:57) really started to reject the movement part of things.

And my mind was like, Oh, this is hard (4:02) because I love movement so much. And my body physically could not move the way that I wanted (4:07) it to. And so I needed to really go back to my roots and be like, okay, how can I (4:12) make sure that my mindset is strong in this moment? That movement is not what I thought it would be (4:19) or what I wish that it could be right now.

And so mindset was so important in that moment. (4:25) But the two habits, like physical habits that I focused on overall were movement and macros. (4:30) That's a whole nother topic for a different day.

And I did do a postpartum, a two part series (4:35) about my raw, honest postpartum experience. So you can go check those out if you haven't listened to (4:41) those. But when I committed back into my workouts and I committed back into movement and my body (4:47) physically allowed me to do that after months and months of pelvic floor PT and really just trying (4:52) to get my body the rest that it needed, I didn't overdo my workouts.

I didn't restrict myself. I (4:57) didn't force myself to lose weight faster than it was natural for me. I just showed up and I just (5:02) chose those two habits, like fueling my body with enough macronutrients.

And I really focused on (5:08) protein and fiber. I didn't even focus on carbohydrates and fats, because I've been doing (5:12) this for long enough that I didn't need to even count all through macronutrients. But I really (5:16) wanted to make sure that I was eating enough protein and overall fiber.

And I showed up for (5:21) my movement. I've been doing this for years. I know what a good workout looks like.

I know what (5:26) a structured workout looks like. So I followed my movement with Julie workouts. And that's all I (5:30) did.

I didn't do anything extra on top of that other than walking. I was intentional about walking (5:35) and I did weighted walks, stroller walks, sometimes jogs. I didn't even start doing (5:40) jogs until months into being intentional with my movement.

I just did walks and then my walks (5:46) turned into weighted walks over time, like eight pounds. I use an eight pound weighted vest. (5:50) It weighted vest, so it wasn't even a heavy, heavy weighted vest, but it will compound over (5:55) time.

But the third thing I wish more moms knew was what was happening when you stopped (5:59) watching. So when I was getting back into movement after having Blake, I wasn't checking on my (6:04) progress every single week. I wasn't even checking daily.

I wasn't standing in front of the mirror (6:08) analyzing my body. I knew my body was changing, but because I wasn't obsessed with it, I genuinely (6:14) didn't realize how much until one day I literally looked back and I was like, oh my gosh, (6:18) consistency doesn't happen until it does. It is so crazy.

But in about the same amount of (6:25) time, nine months into my journey, and keep in mind, this is not nine months postpartum. (6:29) I intentionally started my postpartum journey back to strength at 15 months postpartum. But (6:37) at 15 months postpartum, in about nine months, the same amount of time that it took me to grow (6:41) Blake and birth Blake, my body had completely changed.

Not because I forced it, not because (6:47) I pushed through some extreme plan, but because I took the slow and steady route and let consistency (6:51) do what consistency does. And that's what brings me to the biggest thing that I wish most moms knew. (6:58) And that is slow and steady is ironically way faster than the fast route.

And I know that (7:04) that sounds backwards, but let me explain this. Because I watch this play out for so many women, (7:09) here's what the fast route actually looks like in real life. Like you slash your calories, (7:13) you go all in, you do these intense workouts, then life hits, you're exhausted, you're starving, (7:18) your body's screaming at you, you fall off hard, and then you regain what you lost.

You (7:22) sit in guilt for a month, you start over, you sprint, you crash, you restart, you sprint, (7:26) you crash, you restart. And when you zoom out over nine months, the woman on the fast route (7:31) has spent most of the time crashed and restarting. And even though she gave it (7:35) everything nine months later, she often hasn't moved forward at all, right? Now look at the (7:41) slow and steady route, no drama, no extremes, just two simple habits done imperfectly, (7:46) but consistently week after week.

There's nothing to crash from because nothing is (7:50) unsustainable. The progress each week looks almost boring, but it never stops, (7:55) it never reverses, it just compounds. And that's the irony.

The fast route (7:59) is fast for two weeks, but then it goes backwards. The slow route is slow every single (8:04) day and every single week, but it never goes backwards. So over nine months, slow wins by a (8:09) mile.

And the slow route comes with a bonus that matters more than anything in the season. (8:14) I actually got to live during those nine months. I got to be present with Blake.

I got to enjoy (8:19) the food. I never once felt that war in my body, the body that just had given me everything. (8:25) That personally to me is a better strategy.

That's personally a more consistent way (8:30) to approach this season of life. And so I want to quickly recap what I talked about. (8:36) So first, you can fall in love with your body in a brand new way.

Because being in awe (8:41) of your body and what it just did really does change how you treat it and how you look at it. (8:47) And second, getting back into it can be as simple as two habits, movement and macros. (8:52) Again, it doesn't even have to be all macronutrients.

Start with protein, start with fiber. (8:56) I did that because I want to make sure that things were moving. And I also want to make (9:00) sure that I was eating enough protein.

And again, please hear me when I say my postpartum (9:04) journey did not start intentionally back to strength until I was 15 months postpartum. (9:09) So please stop with this bounce back culture at six weeks postpartum. Yeah, you might be cleared, (9:14) but my body was literally not ready to do a dang thing for months and months and months (9:20) until months and months later.

Okay. So please hear me when I say (9:23) everybody's postpartum journey is going to be different. And everybody's timeline is (9:27) going to be different, but please don't buy into that bounce back culture.

(9:31) Third, when you stop obsessing over daily results, your body transforms in the background (9:35) and the change will stun you when you finally look back. And number four, slow and steady is (9:40) ironically faster because the fast route is really just sprinting, crashing and restarting. (9:46) If today's episode had you wondering like whether or not right now is the right time to start (9:50) tracking your macros, or if you want to even start looking at how to nourish your body through (9:56) utilizing the tool of macronutrients.

I have an episode on that episode 622, (10:00) three questions to actors, ask yourself before starting to track macros as a mom, (10:05) it will hopefully help you figure out if this is the right season or if your body needs a little (10:10) bit more time first. I will go ahead and link that in the show notes below. And if you love (10:15) this episode, or if it spoke to you in some way, shape or form, I would love to hear about it.

(10:19) You can either screenshot this posted up on your Instagram story, be sure to tag me, (10:23) Julia led better, or I would love for you to share it with someone who might need to hear (10:28) this message. I hope that this encouraged you. I hope that this inspired you in some way, (10:33) shape or form.

I love you so dang much. Your literal body created life. It deserves your (10:40) awe, not just punishment.

I love you and I will talk to you in the next one. (10:56) All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do.

(11:03) First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julia led better. (11:08) Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks (11:14) and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.

The second thing, be sure to (11:19) subscribe to Apple podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It (11:25) means the absolute world.

And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful (11:30) women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being (11:36) authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface.

So go (11:42) out there and embrace a real because you're worth it.

 
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