Tuesday, October 17, 2017

brain dump: work your *ss!

okay. i bet this is a common line that come out of everybody (okay.. perhaps every other women) when they met a new mother that get back in shape quickly "wih.. enak ya badannya langsung balik.." trust me.. for some people, it doesn't come easy. and although i was considered as lucky to be fall into that category, i will say that i'm not lucky. i work my *ss to get my body back. so stop saying that it's easy.

if you just had one baby, then it might be easy for you to get back in shape. pas aku punya anak pertama, gampang banget turun beratnya krn urusin anak sendiri, gak ada pembantu waktu malem, belum lg hrs pumping, kuliah dan magang pagi harinya. jadi stress plus menyusui dan gak ada yang masakin (aku ga bisa masak, jd katering dan katering waktu itu ga enak), akhirnya badan pun susut sendiri tanpa olahraga. aku pun jadi terlena dan males olahraga dg dalih badan udah capek semua. hasilnya apa? sampe anak setahun berat badanku pun masih nyantol 3 kg, padahal aku cuma naik total 10 kg, berat lahir anak 3 kg, jd total aku cm turun 3 kg dlm waktu 1 thn. padahal itu udah ga makan enak.. malem jarang makan snack alhasil asi seret waktu itu, bahkan sering kering kalo udah waktunya presentasi.

then i had my second one. and i realized my tummy was bigger than my first one. and after delivery, it didn't shrink as much as my first one. when i had my first one, my husband said that my tummy shrunk like a balloon after being popped. flat. but on my second one, my tummy wasn't as flat as before. and i felt easily exhausted. at that time, i was completely on leave so basically i had nothing to do. i had a nanny that helps me with my first one and cooked too! so i had enough food. i was more pampered than my first one. but i was easily exhausted, so i wondered, did i lose my stamina already? so i decided to start exercising early. with my first one, i just got back to exercise when he was a year old. with my second one, i did the exercise from 6 months, and i did a super light exercise at first and i finally got my weight back when she was a year old. unfortunately, i found out i was pregnant again couple months later.

with my third one, i decided to get back to exercise sooner. partly because my husband loved to travel. and travelling with kids need extra stamina. trust me. i've been travelling with two kids and a baby bump twice in two months in my second trimester. and i was fine. so exercise... i originally use NTC apps to exercise, but most of the exercise are super killing, and i can't do most of them as soon as i want to. and luckily a friend of mine told me about blogilates. blogilates is mainly pilates, and cardio. but mostly no weight except for your body weight. basically she had this calendar going on, so you can see every exercise you have to do daily. yes, daily people.. okay.. with one day rest, but you still have to stretch on that day, so basically every day. she combined cardio and exercise that targeted certain area.

i started when my last one was just 3 months (let me remind you that i had all my children through natural birth, so exercise is okay sooner than you think). and i started with the beginner calendar. and the first thing that i noticed was my abs muscles were weak. i couldn't do a roll ups properly. so for the whole month i followed the beginner calendar, and at the end of the month, i started to feel my muscles are stronger. i could do a proper roll ups. so i followed up the next month using the current calendar and i've been exercising ever since. although i still have few more kilos to shed, but i feel i'm stronger in stamina. but i can't say the same about my flexibility. i use my rest day to rest instead of doing yoga or stretching.

what i like about blogilates is that she keep changing the exercises so we won't get bored or getting accustomed with it. although i have tendency to have favorites, but i still do most of them. although in some exercises, there are few moves that i skip, mainly because i hate, partly because i didn't use mat so my elbows or my knees got hurt. when i use the mat, i do that move, but when i were too lazy to take out my mat, i just skip it. if you want faster result, do her PIIT, it will make you breathless. i still can't do 4 rounds, usually i will do 2-3 rounds according to the time that i got. but i'm okay with that.

so people, if you want to get back to your pre-baby shape, then exercise. i would say that you should eat healthy too, but i'd be lying since i didn't do that. i eat whatever i want, and luckily, i didn't gain much because of all that eating. so when you meet new mother that get her pre baby body fast, perhaps she is exercising and eating healthy and not dieting. and do not envy her, especially if you didn't exercise and just hope that you will lose your weight naturally. ps: i also breastfeed, but i can't lose my weight with just breastfeeding, so get your *ss moving!