You had everything under control. Healthy dinners? Check. Regular prenatal yoga practice. Check? Date Night with the hubby? Check. Check. Check. You were healthy and generally happy, but something was missing.
You were longing to hear someone call you Mama…Looking forward to chubby little fingers smearing orange Goldfish cheese dust on your favorite cream sweater. And you got your wish. She doesn’t have your left dimple or your man’s curly brown hair, but she’s all yours. He’s beautiful and loved, but let’s face it. Your bundle of joy wreaked havoc on your body, and you weren’t even pregnant!
November is National Adoption Month, and I’m here to formally acknowledge that adopting a baby (or toddler or teen) does take a toll on your body. You have a loving home. She needs a loving home. Easy transaction, right? Um, no. The adoption process is long and can be tedious.
Even the most smoothly run adoptions can result in a lack of self-care for the soon-to-be mum. Endless paperwork, red tape, background checks into your background’s background, changed minds, and long waits (tick tock, tick tock), aren’t exactly conducive to productive workouts and carefully prepared dinners bursting with luscious whole foods.
You may not have carried Junior for 9 months, but your body is just as beat up and your emotional health just as fragile as if you had. You’ve missed out on sleep, skipped much-needed workouts, under prioritized QT with your sweetie, and spent way too many hours trying to match paint chips with that overpriced kiddie quilt that you just had to have. And the cherry on top – you even have stretchmarks (gasp!) – who cares where they came from???
How can you get your pre-baby post-adoption hot bod back? These 5 simple tips will set you on the right path:
- Make the Commitment. Knowing what you should want and actually wanting it are vastly different. You already know that you should strive for a healthy lifestyle that includes a strong balance of mind and body wellness. However, you must actually commit to taking the necessary steps towards achieving your goals lest they be made in vain. Find a babysitter or a good gym with childcare. Get reacquainted with your crock-pot.
- Set Realistic Goals. In order to reach your goals, you need to commit to eating no less than 6 meals a day consisting of exactly 200 calories each, and you are no longer allowed to ever have chocolate, fruit juice or anything with sugar. Is this a plan that you are willing to commit to for the rest of your life? Obviously not. So be careful not to make plans like this in the name of creating a healthy lifestyle. There is no way that the average person, let alone the average mom, will be able to make all of these drastic changes, and planning to do so is a recipe for failure.
- Find Like-Minded Friends. Women often connect with friends that have similar interests…and responsibilities. Take some time out to think about who you tend to spend your free time with and what you do during that time. If you want to live a truly healthy lifestyle, it helps to hang out with folks that are trying to do the same thing. Find someone who wants to hit the walking trail with Graco’s in tow. Meet up with other moms who bake their own bread << good luck on that one – hee, hee :)
- Take Control of Your Health. According to recent research, there are five major drivers of our overall health, but a whopping 40% of our total health is affected by our own personal behavior. What you choose to eat, how active you choose to be and whether you choose to smoke or use drugs – all of these are completely in your control. Make good decisions and choose wisely.
- Release Your Feelings of Guilt. So you missed an entire week of workouts, ordered delivery 4 nights in a row and finished off an entire pan of double-chocolate caramel supreme brownies by yourself, eh? While this definitely is not the type of week that you should consciously incorporate into your schedule, once it happens, just forgive yourself and move on. After a splurge you should not punish yourself by avoiding your favorite food or skipping meals. This perceived “solution” is more likely to fuel your craving and lead to more overeating. Learn from your experiences, and make better choices the next time around.
- Release Your OTHER Feelings of Guilt. I’m at Starbucks writing this post right now while my kids are at an hourly drop-off childcare center. I NEVER would have done that…until this morning. I got over my mommy guilt about 3 1/2 hours ago. Get over yours. It’s more than OK to carve out some time for yourself if you need/want it. You can take a yoga class by yourself. Your little one will survive without you for 60 minutes. Give it a try. I dare you.
