Start your week off right!

I was looking at articles on this subject to get inspired and came across one that was intended to be amusing but is actually quite sad. It made me realize how far I’ve come since my drinking days. On PuckerMob.com, a site I had never heard of, the article “Case of the Mondays, 8 Ways to Kick Start Your Week“, the author simply discusses immature and disgusting ways to nurse your hangover from a weekend long binge.

This used to be me. Rolling into the office trying to just get through the day, hating my job, myself and everyone around me. That’s no way to live. I live without a drink now and am so much happier. I know to some it seems like a fate worse than death to give up drinking, but really it could not only save your life but help you create the best life you’ve ever had.

As a sober, responsible and inspired human, Monday is a great day for me to reboot. It’s a new week which gives me the feeling that I have a clean slate. Here are a few things that help me start my week off right…

1. Wake up with time to spare. I used to be a consummate late sleeper, snoozing until the last possible moment, then rushing around to get myself ready in the morning and rushing out the door. I still have a tough time waking up, it’s a little easier now that I have natural alarm clocks, my 3 sons, waking me up every morning before 7. I try to get up a little before they do to have sometime for myself in the morning whether to workout, have a cup of coffee or stretch and meditate, it really helps to have that time to myself before the kids wake up and it’s all about them.
2. A healthy breakfast. I used to never eat breakfast. Now I can’t go without it. I’m not that hungry in the mornings but if I skip it I’m become ravenous later in the day and eat things I shouldn’t. Also, eating a healthy breakfast is so important to kick-start your metabolism for the day.
3. Think about what I want to accomplish for the day / week and make a list. Once I’ve cleared my head a bit and my older 2 get off to school I like to think about the week ahead and what I would like to accomplish. What appointments do I have, when am I going to squeeze in working out and updating my blog, what fun activities am I going to do with Tommy, dinners for the week, who do I need to call or message etc… having this list in front of me is a good way to organize.

That’s all I’ve got for today. What suggestions do you have for starting your week off strong?

xo, Hil

Things that surprised me about pregnancy.

My third son Tommy is going to be 10 months old in a few days, I can’t believe how fast the time has flown and that I was pregnant with that little nugget not even a year ago.

I’ve been reflecting on pregnancy lately and what an extraordinary experience it is. I’ve also been thinking about all the things I didn’t know about being pregnant until I actually went through it. I didn’t know much, and anything I thought I knew about came from movies and television shows which pretty much get it all wrong. If this is your first go round with this crazy, exhausting and incredibly special experience, here are a few things that may surprise you.

1. Morning sickness, or for many women all day sickness, usually lasts only the first trimester and many women don’t get sick at all.
2. Fatigue is many women’s worst complaint. I was so tired during my first pregnancy I would go into the bathroom at my job, lay my head on the toilet paper roll and sleep during my lunch breaks.
3. Your baby bump won’t come in until about 5 months so don’t rush out to buy maternity clothes.
4. Everyone wants to tell you their horror story about pregnancy and delivery. Don’t listen to them, everyone’s experience is different and you need to ignore the negative talk. Going into delivery with a good attitude is so important and you’ll get through it with the help of some great doctors, nurses and family members at your side.
5. Watch what you eat. I thought pregnancy was a license to eat whatever I wanted. Turns out our bodies need to make 2 to 3 times the amount of insulin it takes to properly digest sugar than when we’re not pregnant making you susceptible to gestational diabetes. This goes away after pregnancy but come with many risks such as a very large newborn.
6. Contractions feel like menstrual cramps and don’t start off that painful.
7. Labor pains can start weeks in advance to actual labor and delivery. These can get quite annoying and even keep you up at night.
8. It’s very unlikely that your water will break in public. I thought it was like the movies, a women screams that her water has broken and they rush her to the hospital. Not so much. You will likely be in labor for some time and be at the hospital before your water breaks.
9. Core muscles push the baby out so do your planks!
10. Recovering after delivery. No one tells you that you can’t do much walking and have to wear maxi pads the size of Texas for weeks after giving birth. I guess it should be sort of obvious that pushing a small human out of that tiny orifice would cause some bleeding but I didn’t know this until it happened. You can’t do much for two weeks in order for the wounds to heal and even then you need to be careful or they could open again. So take your time, I know it’s hard if you’re normally very active. By six weeks you should get the go ahead by your doctor to workout like normal again.
11. The duration of pregnancy is 10 months not 9.
12. Last but not least, I didn’t expect to feel as beautiful as I did and my husband  ensured that I felt beautiful by telling me that every day.

What about pregnancy surprised you most (bad or good)?

Thanks for stopping by!

xo,

Hilary

Post Baby Abs

Getting your abs back to normal post baby is a challenge, for many reasons. First off, you just had a baby and probably feel like shit. But mainly, your body just went through 9 months of transformation and then a small person came out of your lady parts! The last thing you need to worry about for at least 6 weeks postpartum is getting your stomach back in shape.

Another consideration is that lots of women suffer from Diastasis Recti.

“Diastasis recti” means your belly sticks out because the space between your left and right belly muscles has widened. You might call it a “pooch.” – WebMD

Diastasis Recti, or the gap between your stomach muscles caused by the expansion of your stomach throughout pregnancy, makes it much harder to get your belly back in shape. This is because you need to first fix this gap before going on to more intense ab workouts that will really help tone your stomach.

Don’t fret, use this time to relax and enjoy being a mom and when you’re ready to get back to more intense working out you’ll know. Don’t try to do anything to hard before you are ready, this will only lead to a longer recovery and possible injury.

Here are a few exercises you can do postpartum to help pull those belly muscles back together. I also have a video up on YouTube you can check out here.

1. Wall sit. Do this for 10 seconds for 3 rounds.

2. Wall planks. Hold for 20 seconds. This is done so you’re leaning against the wall, then tilt side to side as if you’re doing a side plank.

3. Wide leg squat. Try and hold for 30 seconds. This is a great way to boost energy as well as tighten your core.

Do you have experience with Diastasis Recti? If so do you have any recommendation you can share with us?

xo,

Hil

“What’s your excuse?” and my love for African-American culture.

I actually wrote something about the woman on the left a few years ago when she first appeared in the press. I hate to give her more publicity but the subject of a post-baby body has re-emerged since I had my third son 6 months ago and am already back in pretty good shape. It had me thinking about this lady, who is a self-proclaimed “fat shamer”.

The purpose of this site is never to make anyone feel ashamed of how they look and I apologize if it ever comes across that way! I understand that we all have different body types and lifestyles that make it easier or harder to get back into our optimal shape, especially after having a baby. And “optimal shape” is different for everyone, as the woman on the right proclaims that she is “okay with this” and I think she looks great.

I try to be sensitive to others feelings about their body and weight. I happen to have a skinny frame but have not avoided “image” shaming. I was told both that I have a big butt and “thunder thighs” when I was in high school. I used to struggle with the size of my derriere as in white culture we tend to think that having no butt or thighs is preferred and having really big boobs is most beautiful. So basically, being a rail with big breasts is preferred. Which, I should add, is very hard to achieve as our boobies are made up of fat cells and unfortunately we can’t decide where those go. I didn’t live up to the societal standard. At least according to magazines and television. We still get inundated with images of these supper skinny models and actresses, but I should say that it’s not as bad as when I grew up in the 90s when being a “waif” was all the rage.

This is where part of my love for African- American and Puerto Rican cultures comes in. The first people to tell me I had a nice body were some African- American girls at my high school. They told me I had a “black girls ass” lol! I looked at them strangely and one of them responded, “don’t get mad, it’s a compliment, you have a really nice butt”. And then there was the emergence of Jennifer Lopez. She was one of the first celebrities to have a big derriere and it was considered, arguably, the sexiest thing of the late 90s. It made me realize that there are so many different perceptions of what is considered “beautiful”. And from then on was proud of my bum, even flaunted it as an asset, no pun intended. Now I do exercises to increase the size of my butt!

What’s the point of the story? I guess it’s that if anyone intentionally insults you and makes you feel bad about your body, tell them to GFY.

xo,

Hil