post by Sajida Pellegrini
Anyone who has had a baby understands what it’s like to feel uncomfortable in their own skin. Pregnancy, although a beautiful and enriching experience, can also leave a women feeling less
than desirable. Hormonal changes, exhaustion and lack of sleep can contribute to weight gain. Although the answer seems simple, eat better, exercise more, sleep when you can, it’s often a lot harder to implement than it sounds. That’s why we are focusing our Essential Series in May to fitness. Erin Kathan, has been a personal trainer and yoga instructor for the past 10 years (plus she’s a mom herself) and she shares her secrets to getting back into a fitness routine for the “mom” lifestyle.
We had sit down chat this week and I asked her what every mom is dying to know about getting back into shape after baby. Whether you have a new born or a 10 year old these tips can help you get on track!
1) What are the number one mistake people make when deciding to start a new fitness regime?
Often people try to overdo it! They try to make drastic changes too quickly such as make a major overhaul to their diet or promise themselves they’ll start to exercise an hour a day every day. My motto is ‘slow and steady wins the race!’. In my experience with my clients as well as with myself is that slow steady changes lead to long term success. Focusing on building upon the success of small changes to your lifestyle can compound over time and are ultimately much more successful. After 10 years of working with clients I’ve learned that the ‘all or nothing’ approach doesn’t work, and is probably the most common cause of failure to achieve results.
2) Do you need to join a gym or work with equipment to get back into shape?
No! This is such a great question, because often people will decide to get into shape and will have really lofty goals including buying a gym membership, buying a bunch of equipment for their home, or believe they need to make things complicated in order to get in shape. Working out at home, especially for moms is the way to go! You can hop out of bed in the morning before the kids get up, and follow a workout video on DVD or can use high intensity interval training using very minimal equipment which is highly effective in getting their heart rate up, burning tons of calories and increasing strength and metabolism. Also, for me, driving to the gym, working out, having a shower, and driving home can cost a lot, in time and money (consider child care expenses while at the gym)! I know that for me, I’ll be more successful if I can cut out some of the driving time to and from the gym and funnel that time into my workout at home.
3) You have worked with many different types of clients including professional athletes to stay at home mom’s what is your favorite type of client?
I especially love to work with women. I feel I understand women’s bodies as a result of being a woman myself who has gone through the hormonal changes of pre and post-pregnancy and helped many clients through the hormonal changes of menopause, as well as having been able to watch my body transform pre and post pregnancy.
4) How often and how much does someone has to work out to see results? What is realistic?
Results can be felt as quickly as one week. Your ability to be motivated to get to the gym can be fueled by the results of one week of eating better, working out, and therefore sleeping better. So, typically the way a person feels is usually apparent first, which becomes the motivating factor to continue with the habits you’ve started to include in your lifestyle. As for visual results, in about 2 weeks results can start to be seen, especially if you are committed to a healthy diet.
5) What are the common “problem areas” that new mom’s have and is there one type of exercise you recommend?
The dreaded ‘mummy tummy’!! For those of us who have been pregnant, we’ve all been there and most of us have struggled with trying to flatten out that bulge that remains post- pregnancy. It’s not fun, and can sabotage our self -esteem and therefore our efforts to get our post-baby body back. As frustrating as it can be, it can be a relatively simple problem to solve using the proper strategy. Diastasis recti is a common result of pregnancy, where the abdominus rectus muscles are literally pulled all the way apart laterally until none of the fibers remain in contact. That leaves a gap in the abdominal wall which provides space for abdominal contents like the stomach to push forward bulging out and giving us that 5 month pregnant belly look! Unlimited amounts of crunches won’t necessarily solve the problem unless we practice proper form during crunches or other abdominal work. Focusing on pulling the belly button in towards the spine and performing a pelvic tilt throughout your core workouts is imperative in strengthening all the muscles of the core. Pushing the abdominal wall up and allowing it to bulge outwards during exercise movements can actually aggravate diastasis recti
and will therefore not help in our efforts to flatten our tummy. Precision in form is imperative in regaining control over the mummy tummy!
6) How important is diet? What are some “small” changes that women can make in their diets that will help them see results?
Diet is so incredibly important. How you look is a direct reflection of how you eat. A small but impactful diet change that you can make is to avoid sugar….in all its forms! For example, flavored yogurt, ketchup, sugar or honey added to your daily coffee or tea, fruit juice, white bread, white pasta, and white rice which are ultimately taken into the body as sugar all need to be kept to a minimum or eliminated if possible. These seemingly small amounts of sugar can add up over the course of a day or a week and add not only additional calories that we don’t need, but will adversely affect your blood sugar levels, and can cause the body to store fat! This blood sugar imbalance can also cause you to feel hungry sooner and will cause you to crave more sugar, and so the cycle continues…….
7) You are the mom of twin 3 year olds and you are a trainer for Body By Bennet plus you have your own holistic fitness studio ( with child care!) , How do you balance it all?
Well, I’ve definitely realized that you can’t have it all. I’ve made some sacrifices in order to try to excel in all the amazing opportunities I have been given in my life. The best resource I’ve found in my life is to continue practicing yoga and meditation. It sincerely helps me to stay focused, remain calm in spite of chaos, and helps me to remember to just slow down and breathe. I really feel that the skills I’ve learned through practicing yoga and meditation has increased my ability to truly savor all of life’s opportunities.
Join Modern Mama and Erin Kathan on Tuesday May 1st for 10:30 for our Essential Series - Body Back event! Not only will you learn a great workout routine you can do from home , but
you will also meet other mama’s who are getting into fitness too! Bring or wear your baby under one and for those of you with toddlers we will have Nanny Service available! Register
at www.modernmama.com as a Bonus you will also receive fitness passes to some of the hottest classes around town! Hope to see you there!
