Lily's Postpartum Fitness Journey

April 29, 2023

Lily's Postpartum Fitness Journey

Hi Sorrelli sisterhood!! I’m writing from my couch after just putting my 14 month old Julian down for bed. I wanted to share a little about last year. The postpartum path after giving birth to my son Julian has been quite a journey!!

I spent the first 9 months breastfeeding and eating alllll the foods, I was quite hungry from breastfeeding. Julian was born in January, and throughout the summer I didn’t feel quite myself. I didn’t recognize my own body! I think this is best exemplified by this story: I was at a friend’s backyard BBQ last July when a woman asked me when I was due. I realized my diastasis recti was still very prominent and I actually still looked pregnant. It was a dark moment but definitely motivated me to: A) see a pelvic floor physical therapist to work on the diastasis recti and B) start working out & eating healthy again!

My pelvic floor therapist helped me understand that post-c-section, my abdominal muscles were still a long way from being strong and engaged. She helped me understand that the bloated look wasn’t “fat”, so much as muscles that needed to be tightened and re-trained.

I started a postpartum fitness regimen with Andrea from Deliciously Fit and Healthy in August, 8 months after Julian was born. This was great to get my body back into high intensity interval training and to create accountability. That said, after 3 months I noticed some joint pain from all of the jumping and intense activity, so it felt like it was time to try something more gentle.

In January, I switched over to a daily yoga routine, following the instruction of Yoga with Adriane on YouTube. Her practice is a lot about core strength and I realized that many of the core exercises my PT was telling me to do were embedded in the yoga practice.

Since January I’ve committed to an (almost) daily yoga practice, and I’m excited that my post-baby body is starting to more closely resemble the pre-baby size and physique. I still have a ways to go before summer, and my abs are still not as engaged and strong as they could be, but I’m so proud of the progress.

What was your postpartum journey like? Did you also get asked when you were due 8 months post-baby 🙈😂👎🏻?!. Would love to hear as I don’t think we all talk about this enough!!

Lily