My Mom Stomach – Kangaroo Pouch – aka Sagging Skin after Kids

My daughter is currently three years old and in October she will be four.

FOUR YEARS OLD!

My body is STILL not what it was before I had her – and that is OK!

However, it is something that I want to focus on for no one but myself, and this is exactly how I am going to do it:

Nutrition and Exercise

Now before I get a million e-mails from fellow moms who are also network marketers with the latest product that will help “tighten and firm” my mid-section or “detox” my insides in a week to get me the aesthetic results I am after – hear me out… DON’T.

Just… PLEASE DON’T!

There is a very specific reason I am going through this journey the way that I am…

That reason is this:

I want every mom to know that

1. A) It takes time to get your body back in shape.
2. B) It is unreasonable to put pressure on yourself to get back your body in a certain time frame. (Thank you social media for your constant pressure on moms to get their bodies back)
3. C) That nutrition is the number one key ingredient in the fat loss/weight loss equation.
4. D) That you do not have to spend hours in the gym to reach the desired effect.

 

A little back story before I dive in to my steps…

It took my husband and I 10 years to conceive and carry to term a viable pregnancy. I suffered 2 losses during that ten years and had thought that it was just not going to happen. God had other plans and shocked us when I did become pregnant – and it stuck… so I ENJOYED my pregnancy.

The day I found out I was pregnant I weighted about 122 pounds. I am 5’ tall (not to be confused with my IG post that stated I was 5’5” – wishful thinking), and I was pretty muscular. We realized I was pregnant because I was in the gym (this was also before I had my own personal gym) 5 days a week for one hour and I was doing primarily heavy lifting… but my weight was not moving. My nutrition, up to that moment was on point… so I had assumed I had hit another plateau. My energy was tanking however… I was tired and hungry all the time – and my husband called it. He knew I was pregnant before I did… and when I told him – his words were “I KNEW IT!” (funny note is that we had just paid in full for a week vacation in Cancun with our friends, which is the same thing that happened when we booked a trip to Jamaica about 5 years earlier).

Once we knew that the pregnancy was going to stick this time – I started to ENJOY my pregnancy. Paul would go and get me cheese burgers from Sonic, and everyday on my way home from work I would stop and get a small (not mini) heath bar blizzard from Dairy Queen – like I said I ENJOYED every moment. (And I do understand that some do not enjoy pregnancy and this is in no way to rub it in – it is just my experience…).

The day I delivered – I weighted a whopping 185lbs. At 5’ tall… that is a TON of weight, and my daughter did NOT weigh 63lbs.

I also did not have the easiest delivery… several things did not go “as planned” (my birth plan? My exact words to my doctor were, and I quote, “You GRADUATED from med school, and I dropped out of community college. My birth plan is to go to the hospital when you tell me to, and you do whatever it is you need to do to deliver a happy healthy baby that we have waited over ten years to meet) and I wound up needing a walker for about 2 weeks after getting home from the hospital.

All of that being said I started to focus on my recovery and health slowly, and I mean snails pace slow.

I went back to work full time, was taking care of a newborn – and on top of that, when she was 3 months old, I had the ingenious idea to start the course for personal training. I was busy, stressed, and tired. Overwhelmed I would put it…

Months turned into years. I was mindful of my eating most of the time…

Which brings me to where I am now:

Current Stats:

Weight 128.5lbs

Waist (belly button): 34.25”

MOM Belly: 35.75” (largest section on my stomach)

Hips: 38”

R Thigh: 21”

L high: 21.25”

My focus to tighten my mid-section is going to come from nutrition and from exercise. There is no way one area is going to be able to be spot trained – that is not possible… You must reduce total body fat, and then you can gain muscle. I would be deceiving myself if I thought that ALL of the loose skin will go away, but it will decrease – and that is the overall goal.

My Steps to My #MommyMakeover

Nutrition: Attaining this goal is 80% food (and really if I am being totally honest it is more like 90% food)! That being said – I am not going to deprive myself of things that I love. I will be counting my macros (I use an ap on my phone called “Mikes Macros” to track and log my calories. I have found with my clients that if they deprive and completely cut out al the food that they love that is higher in calories, they will wind up binging on those things later.

My macro goals are as follows (please use a macro calculator such as Mike’s Macros if you are wanting to start your own 3mommymakeover journey as each person is unique and different).

Total Calories: 1,232

Macro Breakdown:

98g Protein

152g Carbohydrates

26g Fat

My total calories may seem low, but I have an office job where I sit most of the day and I need to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat. For someone who is more active the total calories would be higher.

As a general rule, I am usually always over on fat and under on my protein and carbohydrate goals for the day, but overall, still in a calorie deficit.

I personally fast through breakfast. I make myself drink 20 oz of water before I allow myself to have my first cup of coffee ***and usually my only cup of coffee***

I fill my diet (meaning food consumed, and not a specific fad diet) with vegetable carbohydrates that are more filling than the grain/bread type carbohydrates – meaning they are higher in fiber to sustain hunger for longer periods of time. I also do my best to eat lean protein. I am not a fish lover… but I will eat shell fish, so I generally stick to chicken, turkey, lean beef, and bison.

I am also drinking a gallon of water (or as close to it as possible) each day.  A gallon is 128oz. I have a 20oz cup and I keep filling it and have had about 80-100oz by the time I leave work and commute home. Disclaimer *** I also LOVE the taste of Diet Coke… not regular coke, it has to be diet… and CHAMPAGNE…*** I have made a rule that I can have no other drinks (besides my morning coffee) until I have had my gallon of water. These are my rules, not saying anyone has to follow them – but I have found that my cravings for sweets has gone down, and I don’t want the diet coke as much as I used to. I still LOVE champagne – that will not change. I have two bottles in my refrigerator that I feel like I am saving, but for no particular reason.

Exercise: I am committing to exercise for 30 min a day 6 times a week. Now hear me out – exercising could mean a weight lifting workout, resistance band training, a TRX workout, a cardio session (jog/walk, bike, rower), an afternoon stroll with my family, or a dance party with my little in the living room… for me as long as it is 30 min of intentional movement… that is exercise to me.

 

I want to show you my schedule and what works for me, and before I get any “mom shaming” for what my day looks like – my daughter is well taken care of and gets plenty of attention – so don’t come for me.

My Schedule: (Mon thru F)

4:45-5:00 AM – Alarm goes off, watch the news

5.00-5:30AM – Get ready for the day, wake up my daughter and let her say “Mommy, I want to sleep for 5 more min”

5:30-5:45AM – Make lunches, pack up the car

5:45-6:00AM – Get kiddo dressed and dropped off at preschool

6:00 -7:00AM (this can be a little longer sometimes because of #houstontraffic) Commute to work.

7:00AM-4:00PM WORK (desk job, not much movement… except all the steps I am getting from trips to the bathroom – HELLO gallon of water challenge!)

4:00-5:00PM – Commute Home

5:00-5:30PM – At home workout (weight or resistance training, or cardio)

5:45PM – Pick up kiddo from preschool (Dad helps with this too)

6:00PM Dinner – playing, learning with kiddo.

6:30PM-7:00PM (M-Th) – Training clients one on one

7:15PM – Kiddo in jammies, brush teeth, read book, lights out! (unless it is Friday… Friday is “FRIDAY MOVIE DAY – where we watch a movie as a family and bed time gets pushed a little later)

7:45-9:00PM – Clean up kitchen (this is also when I fit a workout in if the commute took longer than expected)

9:00PM – Lights out!

One weekends it is different… a little more relaxed.

Now this is MY schedule, and there is not a one size fits all. There are some days when my internal clock goes off at 3:30 AM and I can get up and do some light cardio in the morning, there are other days when I feel like my eyes are cemented shut when my alarm goes off. I have learned to take each day as it comes… but also to make the most of it!

Conclusion:

This is going to be a slow-go process. The reason it is going to be so slow, it will be sustainable. It is something that will be able to be maintained for the long term and not just a challenge that will be completed in 60-90 days and then go back to eating #allthethings and drinking nothing but diet soda and watching Netflix every free minuet I have to myself. (And that is not to say that there is anything wrong with challenges – I like them too – but this is not aimed to get flat abs in one month by doing a million crunches).

I hope to show moms, like myself, that it is possible to lose the body fat in a sustainable and healthy way that is not linked to supplements and wraps/pills that you “have” to take.

If you want to follow along my journey, see my progress and encourage me as I go – check out my Facebook or Instagram. There is not a time limit on this, as I expressed before – I am not putting the pressure on myself to get results in a certain frame of time.

Also to note – we are possibly looking to expand our family (me possibly conceiving) in 2020 – and if that happens, this will change into a “keep moving and don’t gain 63lbs during pregnancy” type of thing if you get my drift… but only God knows if that will happen – and with this pandemic we have currently, I am not excited about the thought of being pregnant during this – but if it happens, it happens! I have faith that God has a plan in all of this!

If you have the same “mom belly/kangaroo pouch” belly and want some results? Message me and let’s get connected! I am taking coaching clients and would love for you to be one of them!

XOXO Meggs!