Emotional Eating or Eating Your Emotions

Last year I had major surgery. I didn’t handle it the best. There were lots of tears. It can be really hard for me to slow down, to not be a part of what is happening at work, to be in pain. I’m not a very patient patient. 

During this time my friends and family gathered around me. They came to my home bearing gifts, usually food. 

I cannot tell you how grateful, each time, that I have people in my life who want to feed me. In fact, I cry big, salty, tears of joy each time they walk in my door bearing calories! This food not only made things easier on my family while I was healing and was out of commission, I believe that it actually helped me heal. 

Each preparation has been the good stuff. Cassaroles, lasagnas, shepards pie, soups. The mushy, hearty stuff that you want when you’re down. I even mentioned to my son that the meals were “hearty.” And he replied, “You’re right mom! You can really tell she put her heart into this!” 

*tears*

I find it so beautiful the way that food connects us. We bond and celebrate over food. We pass down family recipes. Some foods remind us of times in our childhood, or time spent with special people, or even places we’ve traveled to. Food is comforting. We can’t take the emotion out of it because we can’t take emotion out of memories. Food is so much more than fuel. We often feel so much more comfortable with rules and judgements in our diets, but that doesn’t leave us a space for the reality of food. 

Eating is, in so many ways, emotional. And that is ok. Maybe we don’t need to fix “emotional eating.” Maybe we should examine, instead, the ways that we “eat our emotions.” 

We are gearing up to run our Food, Fitness & Freedom Challenge. This Challenge starts on February 3, 2020. Throughout the 6 weeks will go beyond just talking about what we eat. We'll be talking about why we eat the way that we eat, about our relationship with food and how to begin incorporating new rituals and strategies in our lives that makes sense for YOU, YOUR body and YOUR lifestyle. (Plus, there are prizes involved.)

We are sick and tired of seeing women being stuck in the cycle of diets, guilt, shame, deprivation and self-deprecation. We've found a better way and we are so excited to share it with you! You ready to do this? Get more challenge info and sign up here =====> FOOD, FITNESS & FREEDOM: A 6 WEEK NUTRITION CHALLENGE.

Questions? Don't hesitate to hit us up at info@thepushfitness.com.

Xoxo,

Cara

How to Love Your Body When It's Not Loving You back

I’m not gonna lie. I’ve been pouting on the couch for the past week watching RuPaul’s Drag Race. A mere ten days ago I was JUST telling my husband that I think I feel better in my body than ever before. And the next day I woke up with a blood clot in my leg. 

I couldn’t stand. I could barely walk. I went to the doctor and there was talk of surgery and medications and life altering autoimmune disorders. I was scared, mad and depressed. I felt like my body was a backstabbing bitch. 

As a trainer working with the pre/postnatal community I have seen varying degrees of exactly how I’m feeling reflected in the people I work with. Pregnancy and postpartum bring big changes. And sometimes we have to stop doing some of the things we love because our bodies just...can’t. Sometimes our bodies look, feel and move in ways that feel foriegn. 

It can be hard to love our bodies through these changes, especially if these changes feel like our bodies are failing us. So, here are the steps I’m taking to love my body right now...even though I don’t feel like she’s loving me back. 

Stay Neutral 

Maybe love is too much to ask for when we are deep into the depths of physical change or injury. It has helped to remember that nothing about my body so far in life has ever stayed the same...ever. I grew. I went through puberty. I have been bigger and smaller. I’ve been pregnant and postpartum. I have grown older. I have been sick and injured. I am always changing. So, even though I have been laid up, it is probably not permanent. I will move through this the way I have all the other stages of my body. 

Practice Gratitude

A few weeks ago as I was teaching a client the Core Breath she exclaimed, “I’m a bad breather!” I remember thinking, no you’re not! You are breathing, aren’t you? Just because you are learning a new strategy doesn’t mean that you are bad. So we discussed it and broke it down in a way that showed her body gratitude. I was trying to get her to breath into her belly, but she was breathing up into her neck and shoulders. I noted that this was because she had just been pregnant and there was no room in her belly to breathe for months! And how cool is her body to grow a human and adjust to a new strategy that allowed her to do that!?!

Ugh...so here I go on myself (it’s always easier to do on other people than myself!). I got varicose veins when I was pregnant with my first son. Even though I haven’t loved the way they look, these veins have helped me square up with my body image. I have decided to rock swim suits and other outfits that show my legs even though my veins are showing. I have actively chosen to see my strong muscles instead of just the lumpy veins. But now these veins are getting clots in them. I had a lot of years of being really active with these veins. It might be time for a surgery, but I’m glad that I was able to work with them for as long as I could. 

(How did I do?)

Leave Comparisons Behind

Comparison steals our joy. Most often when we compare ourselves to others we end up feeling worse about ourselves even though we don’t really know the whole story about the other person. What we see of other people (especially on social media) isn’t always the whole story. We all have our own unique light to shine in this world. Someone else’s success doesn’t take away from our own. So, maybe someone else ran through their whole pregnancy, but you felt like a rhino trying to sprint a marathon by your second trimester...that’s your story and it’s ok that you are having that experience. Maybe someone slipped right back into their pre-pregnancy jeans at 2 months postpartum and you are a year out and still wearing leggings.That’s ok. You’re journey is different than theirs.  Maybe someone has varicose veins and has been able to manage them for a lifetime...that’s not my story. And it’s ok. 

How have you struggled to love your body? We’d love to hear about your journey. 

When to see a pelvic floor physical therapist

If you don’t know what a pelvic floor physical therapist is, you are totally not alone. This is partially due to the culture that we live in. When it comes to prenatal care, there are some pretty great measures taken to ensure that we have the safest and most healthy pregnancies as possible. But, after baby comes? Waaa-waaaah. 

Despite childbirth being one of the most traumatic experiences that the human body undergoes, there is shockingly little being done to help postpartum women regain healthy function of their bodies again. In fact, postpartum problems are written off as being normal and something that we as moms should just expect and accept, like a rite of passage.

Our mission is to challenge that position and help give you all of the information and confidence you need to seek help for these issues….because help exists and healing can happen!

This is where a pelvic floor physical therapist comes in. A pelvic floor PT has special training in evaluating and treating your pelvic floor muscles, they understand the relationship of the pelvic floor to the rest of the body and how one area of dysfunction in one part of the body can indicate a pelvic floor issue or vice versa. Best of all, they have your best interest, health and function in mind.

Here are some indicators that you may want to seek out a pelvic floor physical therapist in your area:

1. You pee your pants when you sneeze, laugh, jump, lift heavy, etc.

Despite what you may have been told by your mother, sister or best girlfriends, incontinence is common, but it IS NOT normal. It’s a sign of a larger issue. 

Many women believe that a weak pelvic floor is the cause of incontinence issues, but this isn’t always the case. It can be an indicator of a whole system breakdown among the diaphragm, transverse abdominus, multifidus and pelvic floor muscles. Kegels are not always the answer, and, usually, they’re not enough.

2. Your insides end up on the outside.

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is something that women find themselves faced with after pregnancy childbirth.  POP is when one or more pelvic organs droop down in towards the vagina and/or rectum. The severity of POP ranges from a slight descent where the organs stay within the body to full blown prolapse where organs are actually sliding out of you body. There are many kinds of prolapse, but the most common are the prolapse of the bladder, rectum or uterus. 

Signs of POP include, but are not limited to, a feeling of heaviness and/or downward pressure in the pelvic area, pain or pressure in the lower abs and/or vagina, a bulging out of the vagina, a feeling of things “falling out,” or actually seeing things falling out of your vagina.

This information is not meant to scare you, but rather to educate you so that you know how to best relate this information to your healthcare provider and care for you body the best way possible. It is totally treatable! 

3. Sex hurts.

If this is you, you are not alone. In fact, a study published by BJOG, An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, shows that nearly 9 in 10 women experience pain the first time they have sex after childbirth, and almost ¼ of these women reported still experiencing painful sex 18 months later.

A lot of times, painful sex after childbirth is an indicator of a hypertonic pelvic floor. Hypertonic pelvic floor dysfunction is when the pelvic floor muscles are overly tense, inflexible or even spasm. A hypertonic pelvic floor can make sex pretty painful….which leads to anxiety about intercourse…which leads to more tense muscles and more pain. Not the way we wanna go!

An important note is that one can have a hypertonic pelvic floor whether their pelvic floor muscles are strong or not. Kegels are not enough. Our pelvic floor needs to be able to not only fully contract, but also fully relax.

4. You back, hips, knees and/or pelvis hurt.

Pelvic and low back pain during pregnancy are are pretty common. All of the changes that happen to our core, pelvic floor and posture don’t just go away after the baby comes out. 

The pelvic floor muscles play an important role in stabilizing your low back muscles. When it comes to lumbopelvic stability, the right timing and magnitude of the core and pelvic floor muscles is necessary for these muscles to be able to do their job properly, and without pain.

A pelvic floor PT can help you assess and address the pain you’re experiencing and get you back to doing the things you enjoy.

5. You had a baby, no matter how your baby was born.

These issues do not just happen to women who have had vaginal deliveries. Not only does a woman who’s had a cesarean experience postural changes from the weight of her pregnancy and downward pressure on her pelvic floor muscles, but a c-section is a MAJOR surgery. The scar from the incision is on the surface, but it goes many layers deep. 

Rehab is very important after having a c-section. And, issues that can present following a c-section go beyond the scar itself. A lot of women experience painful sex, the need to urinate frequently, pelvic, groin or low back pain or digestive problems, to name a few.

When it doubt, get checked out!

Many women just live with issues and symptoms like the ones described above, accepting them as normal, while others are too embarrassed to bring them up! Your regular OB that gave you the all clear at your 6-week check up isn’t trained to look for or ask about these specific issues. Take a step toward advocating for yourself by finding a pelvic floor PT in your area. Use this locator tool if you need help finding one.

Being a mom does not mean that you are sentenced to life with pain, underwhelming sex and pee pads. To identify and treat the issue, you need an integrated approach with a good team -- your pelvic floor PT, your OB, a trainer who specializes in pre and postnatal exercise and YOU! (And possibly others depending on your unique situation.) If you’re experiencing any of the symptoms listed above, we urge to get the help you need so that you can have the quality of life you deserve.

P.S. We feel really passionate about getting mamas and mamas-to-be the information they need in order to prevent and heal from core and pelvic floor issues. If you’d like more information on how we coordinate with your physical therapist to get your strong and capable email us at info@thepushfitness.com

The Little Gym with the Big Idea; How Fitness Can Help Women Love Their Bodies

What would happen if women started getting stronger and stopped worrying about the size of their thighs?

This is exactly the question Cara Turnquist and Jill McLean, owners of PUSH Fitness, are hoping to discover. These two personal trainers are working to change the way the fitness industry sells “fitness” to women. Your workouts should make your life bigger, they posit. And they argue that most of the fitness industry sells thinness through shame tactics. Undoing centuries of misinformation and misogyny is hard. 

“The truth is that health comes in any size.” says Turnquist. “This idea can really anger some people because we have believed for so long that thinness equals health. But the science just doesn’t back that up. Movement is good for you even if you don’t lose weight when you do it.”

Recently the team decided to change the name of their business from Movement Duets to PUSH Fitness. “We really wanted something that better reflected our community.” says McLean. 

Most PUSH clients are pregnant or postpartum as Turnquist and McLean specialize in fitness during that transitional time. “We were finding that many women feel the worst about their bodies during a time when their bodies have just done something incredibly amazing! It shouldn’t be that way.” 

PUSH Stands for Powerfully, Unapologetic Strength and Health. Turnquist and McLean believe that it’s time for women to stop apologizing for how their bodies naturally change throughout their lives. They have seen firsthand how as their clients get stronger on the outside, they also begin building an inner strength and esteem. They begin to find confidence and joy in their bodies instead of seeing their bodies as a constant, disappointing project. And that is pretty powerful! 

Community and camaraderie in fitness does not have to be based on aesthetic goals. When it comes to their bodies, women don’t need to compete and compare, they can support and uplift one another. Not everyone loves working out the first time they do it. So the trainers have made it their mission to create a community that is fun and uplifting. “You’re less likely to skip the gym if your best friends are meeting you there.” Says Turnquist. 

Cara and Jill teach classes and see clients individually at their gym Mondays through Fridays. To attend a class email info@thepushfitness.com or check out their schedule at www.thepushfitness.com. 

Exercise is NOT a Punishment for What You Ate

Exercise is not a punishment for the food you ate. 

There, I said it. 

It’s the holiday season and you are most likely being bombarded with special tasty foods. In addition your social media is probably flooded with memes about how much exercise equals each of those special treats.  Add to that all your well meaning family members assessing and making comments about your body. 

Whew! That is a LOT to navigate! 

We live in a society rife with fat shaming. We live in fear that we might be just one macaroon away from a life of ridicule. Thin privilege is a real thing. If you are living in a bigger body you are most likely really aware of this. You might feel that your food and exercise choices are being watched carefully. So, enjoying a treat here and there during the holidays might also elicit a bit of stress and anxiety. As a way to deal with these treats many of us look for ways to make them OK. We try and earn them. 

Maybe we know how many miles we will have to run to eat a slice of pie. 

Maybe we have added extra workouts during the week to sweat off the calories we drank at that holiday party. 

Maybe we break into a cold sweat just thinking about how to add up what we ate to fit into our macros! 

This is just terrible math. Calorie calculations have been shown to be 25-40% wrong. How our bodies burn calories is different from person to person. And the whole idea just seems like a misogynistic way to keep women focused and worried about their bodies instead of doing their lives work, connecting with the people around them and living in their power.  

How you look is the least interesting thing about you mama. 

And...exercise should make your life better. It should make you feel strong and proud and capable. It shouldn’t be a punishment for your food choices. 

This holiday season we hope you eat in a way that delights you and makes you feel good. We hope you move in a way that empowers you. And we hope you tell your nosy aunt who wants to know if you’ve lost 5lbs that you prefer to talk about more important things than the size of your thighs and your body in none of her business! 

"Boucing back" after baby

Resilience.

“Do this ONE exercise to flatten your tummy!”

“Get your body back fast!”

“Reduce your stretch marks and cellulite!”

These are common messages women are bombarded with everyday. We learn from a young age that our body is inherently flawed and that we must work tirelessly to fix it. The radical notion that a woman’s body might be permanently changed by a pregnancy...and that would be just fine...is pushed to the fringes of society. 

As we transition into motherhood, a time when our whole life seems to be in upheaval, we are also expected to snap back physically. To look as if that baby never happened. 

This is not particularly resilient or empowering. 

As a trainer specializing in pre and postnatal fitness I have seen time and time again the physical effects of trying to do too much too soon after baby. Women are in a panic to look like themselves again (a concept that is in of itself so strange because our bodies change constantly throughout our lives, just on a smaller scale) and choose exercises and activities that are not well matched for their sleep deprived, healing bodies.  

Emotionally I see women heap a whole lot of shame on top of their postpartum experience. Maybe they feel guilty for making the time for themselves to exercise when there is this new, helpless creation that needs them. Maybe they feel defeated and “lazy” because they aren’t getting the results that they hoped for. Women worry that if they don’t hit certain benchmarks (the number on the scale, the size of jeans) by a certain point that they have “let themselves go.” To where exactly? Where have they gone? I’ve heard countless women worry that if exercise doesn’t feel good to them during pregnancy or after that they are “just making excuses.” These terms are rooted in patriarchy and misogyny. Why do we worry and sweat and punish ourselves to make sure pregnancy takes as small a toll on our bodies as possible? It’s because we live in a culture where women are never allowed to “give up”—to let their bodies get older, softer, and larger, to be changed by circumstances and the passage of time.

What would an empowered and resilient fourth trimester look like? 

Embrace the excuses. Maybe you DO have excuses...and they are good ones. You skipped a workout and chose kiddie cuddle time instead? Sounds like a good excuse. Breastfeeding is zapping the last vestiges of nutrients from your body and that cake looked delicious? Sounds like a solid excuse. A park workout replaced your weights workout so that you could be outside with your kids? Great idea! 

As new mothers sometimes we just can’t. We can’t push through and do all of the things we had hoped to do. And that’s ok. These aren’t excuses, this is life. And postpartum is just one small blip in time in the grand scheme of our fitness journey. 

Give yourself grace. You just had a baby for godssake! It’s ok to rest, to recover and to find your new normal. 

Ask for help/don’t be ashamed of having needs. Your baby did not come with an instruction manual. Each baby is different and no matter what books you’ve read or what Facebook moms’ group you are in, you are bound to find yourself in need of help at some point. Asking for help is not a weakness. It shows strength and resilience. 

Speaking of seeking out help, we hear from clients all of the time that they wish they had known about us during their first pregnancy. They wish that they had had better information about their bodies. Seek out better information. Search for professionals who are uniquely qualified to work with pregnant and postpartum women. It really matters...trust me. 

And also, don’t believe the hype. The science is conclusive. Health and thinness are not necessarily the same thing. In fact, thinness is often not actually the best marker for health at all. Make a list of all the amazing things that your body can do. Even if you have weight loss goals it can be extremely beneficial to focus on other health markers during a time when your body is changing so drastically. 

A resilient postpartum might not actually look the way we imagined. It might not look like sliding back into your skinny jeans 12 weeks after baby is born. It might look a lot more like rest and mess and patience. It might look like gathering your people around you for support and gathering the information you need to support your body now and in the long term. 

When Everything About Your Body Feels Different Post-Pregnancy

The day I came home from the hospital after having my first son a little over 4 years ago I remember being really excited that I could actually comfortably clip my toe nails without a huge baby belly in the way. But, that wasn’t the only thing that felt different.

As I started to ease into activities of daily living and eventually into my workouts I couldn’t believe how different everything felt. It was like I was living in a stranger’s body. My insides felt weak. My hips moved differently. Exercises that once came naturally to me felt completely foreign.

I remember attempting barbell deadlifts for the first time postpartum and actually taking a time out break to cry because of how crowded my hips felt in the bottom position when they didn’t feel that way before, not even during pregnancy.

What a lot of people have never been told is that this is completely normal. When you have a baby you essentially have three bodies in under a year - your pre-pregnant body, your pregnant body and your postpartum body. That is A LOT of change in just 9-10 months or less!

Especially toward the end of your 3rd trimester of pregnancy you have a lot of pressure in the middle of your abdomen that helps you feel strong and stable while doing certain exercises. But after that baby comes out, it’s just gone! Wrap your mind around that for a moment. Postpartum is a very crucial healing time that requires rebuilding and restoration in order to get our bodies to move the way that we want them to. To expect to jump right into the workouts you did before without any problems or issues is kind of unrealistic.

Not only is your core in need of some restoration but your pelvic floor is, too. There is a lot of downward pressure during pregnancy and birth. And sometimes this can create some issues postpartum that need to be addressed like incontinence, having a tight pelvic floor or needing to strength your pelvic floor.

With some expert guidance from fitness professionals who specialize in pre- & postnatal training and a pelvic floor physical therapist you CAN go from feeling like you are in a stranger’s body to starting to feel strong and confident again. As it so happens, that’s what we do. Let us help! Contact us at info@thepushfitness.com to get started.

Jill

www.thepushfitness.com

Connect with us on Facebook or Instagram!

4 Benefits of Hiring a Personal Trainer

Whether you’re a new exerciser or you’ve been around the workout block a time or two everyone could use a little help in the gym. As a personal trainer myself I’ve always said that even coaches should have coaches. Here are 4 benefits of hiring a personal trainer.

1. Accountability. It is really easy to bail on yourself. I can’t count the number of times that I have had the greatest intentions of working out and then shoved it to the bottom of my endless to-do list. Having an appointment with someone who’s counting on you to be there makes a huge difference!

2. It eliminates the gymtimidation factor. Not knowing what to do and the fear of being judged are two of the main things that keep people from going to the gym in the first place. Having a personal trainer show you exactly how to use the gym equipment and for what purpose helps take some of the intimidation out of it! That’s why when people sign up with us we take them through a 4-week fundamentals course where we go over everything from breath work, to posture, to form, to weight training and beyond so that when they hop into a class or an individual training session with us they feel strong and confident in their abilities.

3. No guesswork required. Even though I’ve been in the fitness industry for 8 years now I’ve always enjoyed other people programming for me. Why? Because I didn’t have to think about it. And, maybe more importantly, because I trusted that the trainers that I let program for me knew what they were doing. As pre- & postnatal training experts we hear from moms all of the time that they aren’t sure what they should or shouldn’t be doing during this transitional period. Well…that’s what we’re for! Hiring a trainer who understands all of the changes involved makes it easier for you to just show up and sweat without all of the wondering.

4. It’s fun! We’ve been called torturers, mistresses of pain, sadistic and some other things that I probably shouldn’t type here. But at the end of every session we always hear some variation of, “Thank you. I needed that.” Your workouts should make you feel good and enhance your life. Your workouts should maybe even be a little fun, even if you don’t want to admit it at the time. One of our core values as a company is for people to have a great experience and to bring humor to their hour with us. Not everyone enjoys working out, so why not make it a little bit more fun?

Hiring a personal trainer can take your workouts to the next level, helping you gain strength and confidence on the inside and out. If you’ve been considering it, we’d love to chat more with you about options. Email us at info@thepushfitness.com to get started!

Jill

www.thepushfitness.com

Connect with us on Facebook or Instagram!

Why We Don't Post Before and After Photos

Before and After photos. We see them all the time on social media. Many fitness accounts are chock full of them. The fitness and diet industry have built dynasties upon the millions of these comparisons. And they are fun. They can be a great way to really see the hard work someone has been putting in. They can be a great reminder of how far we have come. 

But you will never see us post a before and after. Here is why.

1. These photos celebrate thinness without question. In our society we often equate thinness with health and beauty. However, research tells us that a wide range of body shapes and sizes can be healthy. Also, as a trainer for almost 20 years, I can’t tell you how many times I have seen someone lose weight in unhealthy ways. Before and after photos tell us very little about what is going on on the inside. Perhaps the woman throws up half her meals. Maybe she restricts her food so much she stops enjoying life. Maybe she has pushed past pain and has developed an injury or damaged her pelvic floor and has painful sex. These things can be very damaging. 

2. It teaches our children that we are more worthy of love when we are thinner. Most of us moms would never dream of telling our children that we are only willing to love them if they are well behaved. Yet we treat ourselves like that everyday and our children pick up on that. 

3. We double down on lies we have been told by the diet and fitness industry. Behind many weight loss stories is the belief that fat people are lazy and if they would just try hard enough that they could, too, be thin. One Canadian research study found that only 15% of managers reported that they would hire an overweight woman. Research tells us that 70% of our size is genetically determined. That means that for many of us, losing weight, and especially keeping it off, is an uphill battle that we are probably not going to win. Research has also shown that 95% of diets fail. So, as we celebrate before and after photos, we are quite possibly inadvertently setting someone up to feel shame and guilt later on if they gain the weight back. Which leads me to my last point…

4. The support we get from our weight loss journeys can actually cause a lot of underlying feelings of anxiety around food, exercise and contribute to disordered eating. Because it reinforces that we are more worthy of love and attention when we are thin. But, chances are we might not be able to sustain a weight loss. So, we learn to fear weight gain, certain foods and are more likely to behave in ways that are destructive to our mental health and sense of wellbeing. 

I don’t believe that any of us are out to knowingly hurt ourselves or each other. But, I do believe that women, in general, deserve more. We are more than our bodies. Our worth should not be measured by the number on the scale. Think of all the things that we could accomplish if we spent all the energy we currently do worrying about the size of our thighs and put that towards the things we are passionate about. 

Blind Leading the Blind

I recently came across a study that showed that 70 percent of women working in the fitness industry had eating disorders. And this wasn’t just a study with a few people participating. This was a large sample! In my own experience in the fitness industry this seems very true to what I have seen and experienced. Many trainers that I knew, including myself, obsessed with their weight and bodies. We often took extreme measures to achieve fat percentages and certain weights on the scale. We’d spend hours exercising. We’d count calories. We’d measure all our portions. Certain foods were off limits. And in some cases we’d purge the things we ate. 

And as beacons as health and fitness many of us were not healthy at all. In fact, we were really NOT healthy. And we were selling a lie. 

Many times fitness professionals aren’t honest about what it really takes to achieve six pack abs and a body free of dimples. Instead we hide the true effort it can take to get that lean. As we encourage our clients to strive for thinness themselves, we can often unwittingly also encourage eating disorders. 

And most of us didn’t get into the fitness indunstry to shame women into getting thin. We wanted to help people live bigger lives. But we live in a society where thinness and health are often conflated. We mistake thinness for health constantly, mostly because that is the popular message in the diet and fitness industries. 

But health comes in all sizes. The fact is, we do know that obesity is connected with some health problems, but we really don’t HOW much extra weight is too much. Is it 20 extra pounds? 50? 100? There is no conclusive data on that. But there is, however, clear data on how bad gaining and losing weight is. Gaining and losing just 20 pounds over an over in our life can drastically shorten our life. And this sounds familiar doesn’t it? Most of us women have been gaining and losing weight our whole lives! 

Isn’t it time for fitness that promotes actually health? Fitness that isn’t selling a lie? When you choose a gym, a trainer, or a fitness plan, we hope you choose one that is really honest about how to truly acheive health and doesn’t use shame tactics in place of encouragement. 

How to Support a New Mom Who is Struggling at Being a New Mom

Being a mom doesn’t come easy to all of us. There have certainly been times when I have literally wondered if I have made a horrendous mistake becoming a mother. As a mom I found that I had much less time to do things, I rarely felt like I was doing them well and I didn’t function all that well on less than 8 hours of sleep. With motherhood came a love I have never known before as well an uncertainty like I’ve never known before. 

Am I doing it right? 

Am I going to damage my son? 

Is he getting what he needs? 

Am I getting what I need? 

I read the books. I joined the mom social media groups. But, honestly, those usually made me feel worse. There was so much guilt, shame and conflicting opinions in the books and groups that it was hard to know what was right and it was easy to stop trusting my intuition as a mom. 

So, when soon to be moms ask for book recommendations I usually direct them towards some amazing evidence based books that lay out all the facts and are written by a woman and mother. And I tell them to practice listening to their voice. 

Motherhood shifts everything. Our body, our schedule, our relationships, our priorities. It can be hard to maintain a sense of self during this big shift. 

If you know someone who is struggling with being a new mom, here is a guide that can help you build them up, not contribute to them feeling more shaky.

1. Let them know that it’s ok to ask for help. We all need help sometimes. Just because you had a baby doesn’t mean that you know everything, or that you can do everything. Accept help when it is given.

2. Let them know it’s ok to set boundaries. If they don’t want their in-laws to stay at their house for ten days after the baby is born ...say so! It’s ok. If they don’t want people to visit, or they want people to take shoes off in the house, or if they only want visitors who vaccinate. All that is their call and they don’t need to feel bad about it. 

3. Let them know it’s ok to not be perfect. We all mess up. When hormones are coursing through our bodies, we are getting no sleep and we are trying to communicated with a non-verbal being we might just lose our cool. If you have moments where you resent your baby, you are not alone. If you pack the diaper bag and go to the mall only to realize that you didn’t put any diapers in it...you’re not alone. We don’t need to be perfect to love our children the way they need to be loved. Which brings me to my last point…

4. Let them know it’s ok to listen to their voice. They are the parent of that child. They know best what that child needs. Some answers just can’t be found in books or online. They

Moms of Newborns: Stop Apologizing for Not Being Okay

We train a lot of moms during their pregnancy and after. When those mamas return to training, these are things that we hear often:

"I'm sorry, I was up all night with the baby and am just getting out the door now."

"I think I need to stop for a little bit and feed the baby. I feel frustrated. I'm sorry."

"I'm all over the place, sorry."

"Sorry, I just feel like a hot mess."

I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

Mama, we see you. We get you. We're here for you. You don’t have to be okay. And you don’t have to be sorry for not being okay.

Wether it's your first child or your fifth, adding a baby to your family is a big adjustment. That little one is completely dependent upon you and, at least for now, that baby rules the roost.

There are lots of ups and downs during this transitional time. There are heart melting moments. There are moments of complete breakdown (both you and baby!). There are moments where your heart is filled with so much love that you think it might burst. There are moments where you just don't know how you can keep going. Oh, and don't forget the lack of sleep.

As welcome as that new bundle of joy can be it doesn't change the fact that having a baby can just be flat out hard sometimes. And sometimes, no, you’re not okay. When you come into train with us, you don't have to apologize for that!

We have no expectations of your energy, your mood or your commitment to exercising. We want to be your soft place to land. If you want to come in a sweat a little, great! But you are also welcome to come in and just bask in the accomplishment of leaving your house that day.

You are welcome here as you are, hot mess and all. And don't even think about apologizing for it.

Jill

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How Fitness Supports All Types of Birth Outcomes

I think we can all agree that working out during and after pregnancy is good for you. But something that I've seen pop up a lot when it comes to the benefits of working out during and after pregnancy is that it can help you have a shorter, easier labor and help facilitate a vaginal delivery. Now, I'm not saying that that's for sure 100% not true, but what I am saying is that sometimes you can do "all the right things" and your birth outcome may still end up being different that what you expected. 

Sometimes we don't get to decide how our babies enter this world. And like my good friend Annie Willems of Pacific Northwest Doulas says, "The natural progression of pregnancy is that a baby grows and exits your body. That exit looks different for every human on the face of the planet." No matter what way your baby exits your body, that birth is natural.

And no matter how you plan to birth your babies or how they end up being born fitness can support it! Here are some benefits that have nothing to do with labor and delivery:

• It helps with depression and anxiety.

• It helps combat the aches and pains that come with pregnancy.

• It helps increase energy.

• It helps with sleep.

• It helps you have a more successful postpartum recovery.

• It helps you build confidence in your body.

• It helps you build confidence on the inside, too!

And no matter what kind of delivery you have, all of these benefits are worth working for. We love helping moms and moms-t0-be have healthy pregnancies, successful postpartum recoveries and helping people in all stages of life building strength and confidence on the inside and out.

It can be hard to know what to do and not do during these transitional times. Let us know how we can help! Email us at info@thepushfitness.com or call us (503) 383-1043 to get started.

Jill

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What to Expect at a Training Consultation with Us

You've taken the plunge and have decided to starting hitting the gym....awesome! But, you may be thinking, "Now what?"

While we don't consider pregnant and postpartum women to be a "special population" (over half of the population is female and around 80% of those women will become pregnant at some point in their lives, so....) pregnant and postpartum women do have unique needs that should be addressed before creating a training program. This is one of the reasons that wether someone is seeking out group training or individual sessions we ask that all new clients do at least one 60 minute 1-on-1 consultation with us before moving on to the next steps.

Here is what you can expect when you schedule a training consultation with us:

1. A caring, fun and open environment. One of our company's core values is to provide a welcoming, judgement-free and fun environment with excellent customer service. We do this by seeking ways to bring fun through humor, building community and making everyone who walks through our doors feel like they belong. So, yes, there will probably be lots of laughter!

2. Preliminary questions. When you contact us we will send you a "Getting started" email that will include some more information about what we do and what we offer, but we will also ask for more information about you! In this questionnaire you'll find what we would consider to be typical questions about your health history including injuries, surgeries, preexisting medical conditions, etc. but we also include questions about other women's health considerations such as questions about incontinence, constipation, diastasis recti and pelvic floor health. These types of questions can be embarrassing or difficult to talk about in person with someone that you're just meeting for the first time so we like to give people the opportunity to tell us about it in writing first.

3. A review of your training intake questionnaire. When you come in for your consultation we'll review what you've shared with us on your questionnaire and may ask for more clarification on certain things. We'll also review what you've shared about your goals for training in terms of how you want to look, feel and what you'd like to be able to do.

4. A movement screen. After we've talked and gotten to know each other better we'll have you perform something called a Functional Movement Screen. A functional movement screen is a series of 7 basic movement patterns (like shoulder mobility, core stability, squatting, lunging, etc.) where we look for ways that you move really well and ways that maybe you aren't moving so well right now. And don't worry, if you can't perform certain things, shouldn't be performing certain things or if there is pain during certain exercises we will not make you do it! Along with your movement screen we'll take a look at your breathing patterns, posture and other ways that you move in everyday life. Because you'll be doing some movement during your consultation it's a good idea to wear clothes that you are comfortable moving around in. You are also free to bring a water bottle if you'd like.

5. A review of your movement screen. After your movement screen we'll go over what we saw. We'll tell you if we saw anything that we might need to address specifically with different breathing and movement strategies and will give you an overview on how we'd address that in future training sessions.

6. Make a plan! Toward the end of your one hour consultation we'll discuss how you'd like to move forward based on what we've discovered during your consultation and set a plan in motion!

We know that new experiences can be a little intimidating if you don't know what to expect. We hope that this answers some of the questions you may have had about what happens when you come in for a consultation with us! If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask. To set up a training consultation please email us at info@thepushfitness.com to get started!

Jill

www.thepushfitness.com

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Going Back To Work

Our culture has a nasty habit of setting impossible aesthetic standards for women.

Beauty in America is a constant cat and mouse game highlighted by airbrushing and shame. Be thin, be curvy, be muscular, be perfect. It is a constant changing game of chase and anytime we, women, choose to play, we lose. We lose our time. We lose our focus. We lose our passion. We lose countless hours perusing impossible goals. We lose years of our lives loathing our bodies. We trash our health and metabolisms dieting and overexercising. We spend our energy worrying more about the size of our thighs instead of putting our energy towards making this world a better place.

But, the most impossible and infuriating standard in my mind is the glorification of the pre-baby body.

Women have the PRIVILEGE of pregnancy. Despite all the heartburn, swelling ankles, waddling and having to pee constantly I'm so glad that it was ME who got to be pregnant. I got to hold my son constantly as he grew inside me. It was my voice that he heard first. I was the one who got to feel his first movements. Before he was even born, I "knew" my son.

This all felt like a freaking miracle to me! It was amazing and awesome! It made me feel light and proud and beautiful.

[caption id="attachment_2017" align="alignright" width="169"] My pregnancy in all it's glory the day I had Oliver[/caption]

And it was MY body that did that.

But our society does not honor mothers’ bodies. After pregnancy women are encouraged to get their body back. Make it look like it never happened. Stretch marks are evil. Wraps and creams and diet shakes are all marketed to women post-baby to “help” them return to “normal.”

This attitude is so damaging. Not just to us as women, but to the fathers of our children and our relationships. I deserve a relationship where I show up raw and honest and whole. And I have a responsibility to my sons to show them what a strong, empowered woman looks like.

Many women return to exercise far too early and push themselves too hard, risking injury. Many women diet at the risk of trashing their metabolism and reducing their milk supply. Women are taught to intrinsically feel bad and ashamed of their stretch marks, the saggy skin around their middle, the new curves of their hips that widened to allow for birth.

When I had my first son Dedrick I put a lot of pressure on myself to erase any evidence of the pregnancy from my body. Not just for me, but for my ex-husband. He just couldn't stand to look at my post-baby body. I was too big. Too wrinkled. I looked like a mom and moms just aren't sexy in our culture.

My boobs, while full and luscious just reminded him of how I fed our son. Yuck!

My belly, while curvy and sensitive also had stretch marks and sags. Disgusting.

Even my vagina, which hadn't endured the trauma of a natural birth had a scar just above it like a big sign reading "do not enter, mom zone." Ugh!

The worst part of my postpartum experience with Dedrick is not just that my ex found me repulsive, it was that I believed it, too. I believed that my sexy days were lost. I believed that unless I could erase the physical markers, I was doomed to the unsexy life of a frumpy mom. I believed “motherhood” and “sexy” were mutually exclusive.

I believed that I had been ruined.

Wrecked.

What I failed to see is how in reality this is just the opposite...if I would only change my own mind. My sexiness does not belong to anyone but me.

I can CHOOSE not to give my power away.

A mommy body is super sexy! This body has signs of doing a miraculous thing. That's pretty sexy. Why should other people decide what is attractive and acceptable for our bodies?

I do not look good DESPITE having two children. I look sexy BECAUSE I had two children.

I glow as a mother.

When my husband sees me coo at our son he falls in love with me deeper and deeper. My boobs don’t belong to him...or my son. They belong to me! When my husband sees me feed our son he is in awe of how I can support a life.

When I brush my teeth at night my husband often finds a reason to brush past me in the bathroom, grabbing and nuzzling my hips. These hips definitely have an extra layer of cushion right now. And that’s ok. In fact, that cushion deserves love because my body is doing exactly what it needs to right now.

There might be a time when my body doesn’t look like I just had a baby. My boobs might shrink. My body might firm up. My skin might tighten. I choose to honor my body, it’s beauty and it’s ability throughout all of it’s processes. I spent a lot of years hating my body even when it was young and nubile. I took it for granted. And now as it changes with childbirth, with age, I refuse to waste another moment not being radically vain about my body.

Cara

The Glorification of the Pre-Pregnant Body

Our culture has a nasty habit of setting impossible aesthetic standards for women.

Beauty in America is a constant cat and mouse game highlighted by airbrushing and shame. Be thin, be curvy, be muscular, be perfect. It is a constant changing game of chase and anytime we, women, choose to play, we lose. We lose our time. We lose our focus. We lose our passion. We lose countless hours perusing impossible goals. We lose years of our lives loathing our bodies. We trash our health and metabolisms dieting and overexercising. We spend our energy worrying more about the size of our thighs instead of putting our energy towards making this world a better place.

But, the most impossible and infuriating standard in my mind is the glorification of the pre-baby body.

Women have the PRIVILEGE of pregnancy. Despite all the heartburn, swelling ankles, waddling and having to pee constantly I'm so glad that it was ME who got to be pregnant. I got to hold my son constantly as he grew inside me. It was my voice that he heard first. I was the one who got to feel his first movements. Before he was even born, I "knew" my son.

This all felt like a freaking miracle to me! It was amazing and awesome! It made me feel light and proud and beautiful.

[caption id="attachment_2017" align="alignright" width="169"] My pregnancy in all it's glory the day I had Oliver[/caption]

And it was MY body that did that.

But our society does not honor mothers’ bodies. After pregnancy women are encouraged to get their body back. Make it look like it never happened. Stretch marks are evil. Wraps and creams and diet shakes are all marketed to women post-baby to “help” them return to “normal.”

This attitude is so damaging. Not just to us as women, but to the fathers of our children and our relationships. I deserve a relationship where I show up raw and honest and whole. And I have a responsibility to my sons to show them what a strong, empowered woman looks like.

Many women return to exercise far too early and push themselves too hard, risking injury. Many women diet at the risk of trashing their metabolism and reducing their milk supply. Women are taught to intrinsically feel bad and ashamed of their stretch marks, the saggy skin around their middle, the new curves of their hips that widened to allow for birth.

When I had my first son Dedrick I put a lot of pressure on myself to erase any evidence of the pregnancy from my body. Not just for me, but for my ex-husband. He just couldn't stand to look at my post-baby body. I was too big. Too wrinkled. I looked like a mom and moms just aren't sexy in our culture.

My boobs, while full and luscious just reminded him of how I fed our son. Yuck!

My belly, while curvy and sensitive also had stretch marks and sags. Disgusting.

Even my vagina, which hadn't endured the trauma of a natural birth had a scar just above it like a big sign reading "do not enter, mom zone." Ugh!

The worst part of my postpartum experience with Dedrick is not just that my ex found me repulsive, it was that I believed it, too. I believed that my sexy days were lost. I believed that unless I could erase the physical markers, I was doomed to the unsexy life of a frumpy mom. I believed “motherhood” and “sexy” were mutually exclusive.

I believed that I had been ruined.

Wrecked.

What I failed to see is how in reality this is just the opposite...if I would only change my own mind. My sexiness does not belong to anyone but me.

I can CHOOSE not to give my power away.

A mommy body is super sexy! This body has signs of doing a miraculous thing. That's pretty sexy. Why should other people decide what is attractive and acceptable for our bodies?

I do not look good DESPITE having two children. I look sexy BECAUSE I had two children.

I glow as a mother.

When my husband sees me coo at our son he falls in love with me deeper and deeper. My boobs don’t belong to him...or my son. They belong to me! When my husband sees me feed our son he is in awe of how I can support a life.

When I brush my teeth at night my husband often finds a reason to brush past me in the bathroom, grabbing and nuzzling my hips. These hips definitely have an extra layer of cushion right now. And that’s ok. In fact, that cushion deserves love because my body is doing exactly what it needs to right now.

There might be a time when my body doesn’t look like I just had a baby. My boobs might shrink. My body might firm up. My skin might tighten. I choose to honor my body, it’s beauty and it’s ability throughout all of it’s processes. I spent a lot of years hating my body even when it was young and nubile. I took it for granted. And now as it changes with childbirth, with age, I refuse to waste another moment not being radically vain about my body.

Cara