Your body has done a lot in your life, mama.
And just like anything else, your bod has gone through a few stages:
The healthy, strong stage when you were eating perfectly and getting to the gym regularly, were super into cycling, or made it a point to get out and walk the dogs every night.
The run down, exhausted, icky stage when you were sick, or had a surgery where you had to recover with a diet of clear liquids, gatorade, and saltines.
The stage where you went up a couple pant sizes because you spent a summer at home with your mom and enjoyed amazing food, but were enjoying all the fun and none of the stress.
The stage where your bod was busy making another person his/her life; where you were bloated, constipated, and round, but also had gorgeous hair and nails for nine months.
And, the stage you're in right now, where you've brought that beautiful soul into the world and you're left sporting a squishy tum, stringy hair, and more than a few stretch marks.
Life after birth is one of the hardest times for mamas because our hormones are going haywire while trying to get back to normal, and our minds are foggy with no sleep and hypersensitivity to baby sounds. Our bodies have just been put through the wringer in the most literal way possible, and we're expected to come out of it and take care of little life. But the fact is, our bods don't always let us feel up to it.
It's easy to get discouraged when you look in the mirror and don't recognize the person looking back at you. It's hard to wrap your head around how to get back to a body you feel beautiful in, when you're pretty much acting as a milk machine for your little one. It's frustrating beyond belief to look at all the mamas who you are so sure have cracked the code on "getting their body back" that you just want to curl up and cry that you aren't there yet.
Whether you had your babe 2 months ago or 2 years ago, every mama has gone through the discouraging feelings of wanting to look different than they do and resenting their body for not looking different.
Well, I'm here to tell you mama, it's time to start loving your body.
In all of it's stages, in all of it's forms, your body is incredible, and beautiful, and regardless of what every blog you've read or fitness guru you've subscribed to, you don't have any body to get back to. The fact is the body you're in is just one stage that won't last forever.
It doesn't mean that you can't be working towards changing the way you look or feel or carry yourself. It doesn't mean that you can't have goals for weight loss or dress size or miles run.
What it does mean is cherishing your body for all that you have done in it, and all that you are currently doing with it! You are a mama who is looking after your babe with your whole heart, and if that means that your old jeans don't fit right now, that in no way diminishes how beautiful you are.
Be kind to your body. Love yourself, and remember to see yourself the way your little babe does-- with wonder, and awe and complete trust. Trust yourself that your body will transition and shift and change again and again and again...
Focus on moving forward, and embracing a new stage in the amazing body that you have been blessed with.