Let me preface this post by saying that I am nowhere near a fitness expert. I’m not even in the shape I want to be in (I’ve got about 10lbs left from when I was pregnant with William that will not budge). But still, I get the occasional DM from someone asking what I did to get back into shape. I’m going to talk about everything from nutrition to work out routine here, so that it’s all in one post.

Cooking At Home

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: cooking at home is so much better for you than eating out. We eat 90% of our meals at home (or at my parent’s house where my mom is doing the cooking). While we aren’t cooking the worst things for you, we also don’t always cook crazy healthy either. We cook and eat what we want, but just simply cooking it ourselves minimizes the usage of cheap flavor enhancers that restaurants use, like salt.

Intermittent Fasting

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, intermittent fasting is when you fast for a short but regular period of time. This could be alternate day fasting, periodic fasting, or daily time restricted feeding (what I do). I don’t even do this on purpose, it just turned out this way with the kids’ schedule. You might have heard that if you want to lose weight/stay in shape, you shouldn’t eat really early in the morning or really late at night. I don’t eat breakfast, because I’m simply not hungry in the morning. I drink two cups of coffee and then have an early lunch at 11:30 when Hollings eats. I don’t snack throughout the day. Then we all eat an early dinner somewhere between 6 and 6:30, because the kids have an early bedtime. That’s the last thing I eat all day – and I eat a ton (dinner is my favorite meal of the day and I go HAM).

Workout Routine

I truly believe that the best way to lose weight/keep weight off (besides watching what you eat) is by including some good old fashioned cardio in your routine. The way I like to include cardio is by running 3.5 miles 2-3 times a week. You guys. I am slow as HECK. I am always running while pushing William in the stroller and sometimes I’m pushing Hollings in there, too. I take lots of walking breaks when I feel my body telling me to, but I also try to push myself. When I get home from my run, I do the following exercise:

-20 squat jumps

-20 hip thrusters

-20 (on each side) dumbbell raises

Then I stretch and cool down.

Lastly, I will say that breastfeeding is also great for getting your stomach back down after having a baby. AND most importantly: all bodies are built differently. Some things work for some people that don’t work for others, and some bodies are just not meant to look a certain way.