How did I get back to a regular exercise routine after having a child?
The six weeks that I was not allowed to workout after giving birth to our daughter was probably the longest time I took off from exercising since I was 14. Although those first few weeks of being parents kept us busy with all the new experiences, emotions and feelings, I could not wait until that first day of week seven when I would workout again.
Exercising at home
I was quite worried in the beginning. Will I be able to find time in a day to exercise? What would be the right type of workouts to begin with? Given our schedules, it wasn't feasible for me to go back to the gym right away, at least until I go back to work after a 3-month maternity leave. So I committed to exercising at home. To make that commitment even stronger, I decided to start right away with a 2-month Insanity program. It seemed to me like a great way to get back in shape faster and stay motivated with a program that already had all the exercises lined up for me every day. I was not concerned about my weight as I only gained 16 pounds and lost all of it within 7 days after delivering our daughter. My main goal was to flatten my stomach, tone my muscles, and get stronger. I like challenging myself this way using defined time commitments, let it be exercise programs like this, fitness challenges or detoxes.
After completing a full 2-month program I even continued it for one more month, inspired by our upcoming beach vacation in Mexico. I was happy with the results and continued exercising at home after the trip. To make time in a day for exercising, I was mostly working out very early in the morning, before our daughter was waking up, which was not easy. If early morning didn't work or she was already awake, I would let her be on the play mat next to me while exercising. Later on I let her crawl around me or even hang on me as an extra weight, which was really fun and a great bonding opportunity for both of us. Overall, I truly believe that if our kids observe us exercising regularly, eating healthy and taking good care of ourselves, they will grow up being more aware of their health, body and nutrition.
Another thing I did a few times was 'mommy and me' yoga classes. Although not a true intense yoga class, it was still a great way to stretch. It also felt very special to me to have my baby next to me while practicing yoga. I would definitely recommend this for all new mammas out there.
Transitioning back to the gym
Since before having a baby I mainly exercised in the gym, at some point I really started feeling a withdrawal from the group fitness classes. So when our daughter was 6 months old I decided to join the gym again. Before delivering a baby I was a member of Equinox gym, which was right next to my work. But rejoining the same gym after returning from maternity leave didn't seem feasible yet for several reasons. As all my lunch breaks were occupied with pumping, I could only exercise early in the morning or right after work. But our daughter's night time started around 7 pm and I wanted to maximize my time with my family during those few hours before and after work that she was awake. My ideal scenario was to take late evening gym classes on the weekdays and morning ones on the weekends. So I had to look for another gym and was able to find one very close to our house that offered 8:00 pm and 8:30 pm classes and a few early morning classes on the weekends. When I joined that gym, I had some special offer for personal training sessions, so for the first 5 months or so I had one personal training session and 2 group classes a week. After that I switched to just 3-4 group classes per week.
The truth is that while I loved this gym's schedule convenience, proximity to home and the sauna, which was a great finish to a late night workout, I was not very happy with a number of other things. Specifically, diversity and intensity of group classes was significantly lower than in my previous gym, and fitness instructors seems much less motivated or motivating. However, for a while availability of late night classes close to home was over-weighting all the downsides. To make it more satisfying, I also purchased a pack of classes in the nearby barre studio where I started taking classes once a week, just to mix things up a bit. This set up lasted for about a year.
Finding my perfect exercising setup
Overtime I got so unhappy with my gym situation that I started losing motivation. And that was the main red flag for me and a signal to look for another exercise arrangement. All other alternatives near home didn't offer late night classes and, therefore, were not a good option. My prior gym, Equinox, however, had multiple locations, with 2 of them next to work and one not far from home. Besides that, that gym had a pool, which was a huge plus for me. At that time joining that gym again would only make sense to me if I could squeeze in lunch classes near work during the week and use the other location closer to home on the weekends. So I did a 2-week trial to see if I could accommodate it in my work schedule. I realized that with a little bit of extra effort and extra planning that was possible. And I have to admit that my work schedule can be quite unpredictable, so some weeks I can hardly make 1 lunch class and the other week I can fit 3 of them in. So I try to balance it out by exercising at home as well when I need an extra workout. All in all, on an average week, I exercise 3-4 times in the gym, which includes spinning, tabata, another interval training class and something else, such as yoga, Pilates or barre. I could not be happier with my current gym offerings, instructors and multiple locations. Besides that, I exercise at home most of the days when I don't go to the gym, at least 15 minutes, using an app that provides daily high intensity exercises or YouTube fitness channels.
I have experimented quite a lot over the last 2 years with different ways of exercising before I found my ideal set up. I was able to stay motivated on this journey as getting my pre-pregnancy body back, staying fit and exercising regularly has always been a priority for me. And therefore, I always made sure to find time in the day and motivation for exercising, despite all the challenges that come with being new parents. Fortunately, my husband has also been very supportive of me and helpful with arranging our schedules to make sure that I can fit my exercising in. He knows how important it is for me.
What did I learn from this journey? Start with understanding what's truly important for you at this moment and set your priorities. If your priority is to go back to the gym while not sacrificing quality time with your family, you'll need to find an arrangement that will make it possible, like a gym near home or lunch time workouts. But if you want to exercise only because you think you should but it's buried in your priority list behind a lot of other things, don't be surprised you can't find time or motivation for it. Communicate your priorities to your family, friends or significant others. And if you can't figure out how to make it work on your own, ask those around you for advice or recommendations. You'll be surprised how much energy and motivation you can get from those who love you and care about you.
New beginnings
As I write this post, I'm getting ready for our new adventure - our big move from Boston to San Francisco. While I am super excited about it, I'm also terrified about starting a lot of things from scratch again. In particular, I worked so hard on finding my perfect exercising arrangement and the gym that I really loved, and now I'll have to do it all over again. But this also means that I can explore new types of fitness activities, studios and gyms that my new home city has to offer. I will keep you posted on creating my new "perfect bubble"!