5 tips to help you balance motherhood and fitness

But first of all, though, I am super excited to let you know about an upcoming free postnatal workshop. So this live three-day workshop is on again, it hasn’t been held for six months. This is for you. If you are ready to get back into fitness back into running, perhaps it’s a gym, you’ve had your baby, but you’re just not yet quite sure of the steps involved. So it’s fun, it’s interactive, and it will leave you feeling a lot more confident and empowered about the steps to take to help you get back into fitness post birth. In these three days, we will cover pelvic floor readiness. So how to know if your pelvic floor and core is ready, your body strength and stability and we’ll discuss it step by step plan to help you know exactly the next steps you need to move forwards. It’s free, it’s live. It starts at the time of recording. It’s on Monday, the second of May. So goes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, they are short sessions, only short videos, interactive sessions. And I’m here to support you during these three days. So head to fitnestmama.com/free for the link. And the link is also in the show notes. And if you are listening to this episode, after this event has already been held, still go to the link because there’ll be a waitlist for the next three-day event coming up. And I look forward to seeing you there. Right. Let’s get into this episode.

Okay, so I have been, a bit of a confession here, I’ve been trying to get a little bit more organized in business, I have been feeling really time poor. And I’m trying to be constructive with my time. So I’ve been hearing all about batching. And I was thinking you know what, today I’m going to find, I love a good quote, who loves a good quote, I love an inspirational quote. I love a funny quote. So I’m talking about Instagram here. So I thought okay, let’s start to think about my Instagram content over the coming month. I know some people are really good at this, I tend to post on the fly if and when I feel like it and I’m ready to because life is a mum, as we all know is busy. So anyway, I thought I’m going to include a few quotes. So this got me onto Google. And I Googled motivation, exercise quotes. So the idea was I wanted to put some quotes up that were really motivational, helping with the exercise side of things when it comes to pregnancy and postpartum. I was blown away. So I’m going to read out a few of the quotes I came across and I hated what I was saying. So let me just read up first of all a few of these quotes, and then I’ll say why I hated them. And this led me to develop this podcast episode today about juggling motherhood and fitness. Because these quotes today just they totally rubbed me the wrong way. Okay, so I googled motivation exercise quote, so you can go and do the same thing. So here’s, here’s a few of the quotes I came across. If it’s easy, you’re doing it wrong. No excuses, just do the work. If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow, and there’s a couple more, bear with me. Do more, be more. Everything hurts and I’m dying. Excuses don’t get results. If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up. Okay. So I hated all of these quotes. That’s just, as a mum, with three kids, you know, I know what it’s like to be pregnant. I know what it’s like to have a newborn baby. Like, all of these quotes are all negative, they all have negative associations, they all depict pain, they all depict hard work. And, you know, as a mum, if you’re pregnant, or if your mum and you’re feeling sleep deprived, like this is just not what we need. So this led me to develop this five tips to help you balance motherhood and fitness. Because it’s not so much about fitness. I don’t believe in this stage of motherhood, I believe exercising after having a baby and recovering after having a baby and feeling stronger. It’s not about fitness, it’s about feeling good. It’s about mental health release. It’s about having the confidence to be able to run around with the kids at the park. And that’s what it that’s what it is for me. And I know it’s different for everyone. And if this doesn’t resonate with you, that’s okay. This episode might not be for you. So I’m going to go through and talk through my tips to help you balance motherhood and fitness so that you don’t look at these quotes and think, Oh, I have to push harder. Oh I’m sleep deprived. You know, but if there’s no pain, there’s no gain. Like they’re just, that’s all just rubbish. So let’s go through a few tips to help you figure it all out. Because it’s not easy. As a mum, it’s easy to go to the bottom of the to do list. You know, there’s so much that we need to do in our life. There’s kids to feed. There’s places to be. There’s appointments. Life just seems to keep getting busier and busier.

So my first tip is to discover your why. What is your why? Why do you want to improve your fitness? Why do you want to get stronger? And I’m not talking about the “Let’s lose 10 kilograms” sort of why. I’m talking about the deeper wh. Is it about your mental health? Is it about being able to run around with the kids confidently without fear of leaking or hurting yourself? Is it about having the confidence to jump in the waves in the ocean with the kids? Like what gets you excited? And what is your real why. And this will be different to everyone. And I think if we can know this why it helps with the motivation. It helps with that intrinsic reason why we want to do it. And we all know that life is busy. So if we can keep coming back to our why this might be one really motivating factor for you.

Okay, the second tip is to reflect upon your face of motherhood. So are you pregnant and you’re working full time, and you come home at the end of the day at work, and you’re exhausted by the end of the day, or perhaps you’ve been feeling nauseous all day? Or perhaps you’ve got a new baby and you’re up all night with the baby crying or feeding? or perhaps you’re feeling so tired, you think your eyeballs are going to pop out of your head? Or perhaps the kids who are a bit older and you’re juggling the school drop off or the childcare drop off, kinder drop off, you’re juggling work, you’re juggling the whole pickup and then getting them to after school activities or getting them fed and bath and into bed and you just feeling like you’re losing your head. So I feel unless we embrace our phase of motherhood. And we try to work with our barriers instead of thinking how can we plow through these and we ignore them. Like if we don’t embrace these barriers, I feel we’re never going to end up with anything that’s sustainable, that fits into our lifestyle. So what I mean by that it is if you’re in the thick of it, and you don’t feel you’ve got any time up your sleeve to drive to the gym, do an hour long workout drive home again. Like sometimes it can take a good hour and a half out of your day. So unless if we can reflect upon that, then you might think, Okay, this week, I’m going to trial 10 minutes that I do in my lounge room while the kids are running around while the baby’s sleeping. Or it might be that the only time you’ve got to spend to yourself is after school drop off or Kinder drop off. You’ve got a quick half hour where you can go to first swim at the local pool like what works for you and your lifestyle.

Okay, number three, it’s similar but I just want you to have a think about what is easy for you? So What can you do that much preparation without much time? What can you do without much brain input if you’re exhausted? So as I said before, for some of you might be going to the pool off to school drop off. For others, it might be opening up an app and doing a 10-minute workout last, your toddler is running around causing havoc. So what works with you and where are you at now? And I know I’m biased. But this is where this is why I developed FitNest Mama. So this is my online program. I developed this because I was in this phase. I had three young children, they were four and under. And unless I just did 10 minutes at home with the kids, it just wasn’t going to happen. And that was the phase of motherhood I was in then. And this was a huge driver behind developing FitNest Mama because I believe we all need access to quality workouts at home at some stage in our life.

Okay, number four. The fourth tip is to pre plan your week ahead. Involve your partner, write it down, tell a friend even better involve your friend. Get your clothes out the night before. Put it in your calendar with an alarm bell. So commit to it. So if we pre plan it, we’re more likely to do it. This is what I’m trying to do with my social media posts. As I just said at the start, I’m trying to pre plan it, rather than doing it on the fly because we’re more likely to commit to it and stick to it. But then, this is where there’s a little caveat. As new mums as pregnant women as busy mums, we need to have a backup plan. So if it all goes to shit, what is an even easier option for you. If it didn’t go to plan and you find yourself at the end of the day at six o’clock at night. Like perhaps you can do a five-minute walk around the block and have some me time when your partner gets home from work. Or perhaps you can go into the back garden and had some beautiful deep breaths and stretches in the sunshine. So what is your backup plan, even if it’s five minutes just to have a bit of you time.

Okay, and then my fifth and final tip for today is to ditch the guilt. So tomorrow is another day. You just keep taking small steps. Just keep doing your best. And you know what if it doesn’t happen, that is okay. It’s the season of life that we’re in. Keep taking small steps and soon you will have climbed a mountain.

So that’s it ladies short and sweet. Hope you enjoyed the episode. Don’t forget if you would like to kick-start or if you’re ready in your phase of life to kick-start your postnatal recovery. Come and join our free three-day workshop that’s kicking off at the start of May so all you need to do is head to fitnestmama.com/free. Putting your name and email and you’ll get all the details.

Have a fabulous day everyone and I look forward to you joining me next week for another episode of the FitNest Mama Podcast.

Thanks so much for listening to the FitNest Mama Podcast. Brought to you by my free pregnancy mini pelvic floor and core masterclass which you will find at fitnestmama.com/free. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. And come and say hi, DM me on Instagram. I would love to hear from you. It said FitNest Mama. Until next time. Remember, a healthy pregnancy, confident birth and strong after birth recovery is something that you deserve. Remember, our disclaimer, materials and contents in this podcast are intended as general information only and shouldn’t substitute medical advice, diagnosis and treatment. I’ll see you soon!