One Buff Mother Runner!

Meet Stephanie and baby Finn. Steph is a powerhouse momma who’s determination to remain active far outweighed the normal B.S. of ‘relax during your pregnancy’ mindset a lot of women are taught or told.

“Colleen is amazing! I went to her after a bout with rhabdo from doing Crossfit and I’ve never looked back! Her workouts are challenging, but appropriate. I used to only run, but Colleen has turned me into a functional fitness queen! She is so understanding and caring too which is an awesome added benefit. Even though she’s moved away from Rochester, NY, she continues to do an excellent job training me with her remote programming. I couldn’t have made it through my rhabdo recovery, pregnancy, and postpartum period without her. I highly recommend her!”

Steph started training with me (non-pregnant) once she was cleared to resume exercise after suffering a severe case of rhabdo in her bicep/triceps of one arm. She chose me because her and her husband were discussing starting a family soon so if it was to happen, she’d already be training with me in the right place! Perfect!

There are many, many things I cherish about training Stephanie. What I love most was that Steph has an athlete’s mindset, much like me, and it was awesome to lovingly push her through workouts and talk about the mental/emotional challenges that come along with physical pregnancy changes.

As a runner, she was very much used to her body looking and feeling a certain way. Aren’t we all? As athletic humans, we’ve kept our body looking a certain way for a period of time. Well, what happens when hormones kick into over-drive and your movement wains? Changes start to happen at a more rapid pace! What the hell!!!?

Unfortunately, women can not fight and win over pregnancy hormones. Your body’s internal animal brain has now taken over and it doing what it needs to do to grow a tiny human. All you can do is listen to it, continue moving in ways that support your longevity and joy, and fuel it with the best damn food you can get your hands on!

As a first time mom though, pregnancy emotions and thoughts can come as a surprise and make anyone feel like shit. I’ve heard these numerous times from my clients: “Will I ever stop gaining weight?”, “What is all this cellulite!?”, “I am so heavy!”, “Am I going to lose this weight postpartum?”, “Will my boobs go back to normal?”, “Will I have abs again?”, “When can I run?”, “I’ve never had this much fat in my arms!”, “I’ll never fit into any of my pre-pregnancy clothes!”, “How much time will it take to lose my pregnancy weight?”

I am an expert but only time will tell with body size and feelings about it. Every woman is soooo different due to genetics. All I do is reassure that things WILL come back together with proper movement and rest. She will feel better with TIME. Women don’t give themselves enough time. The body has been under CONSTANT tension for 9ish months. It takes more than 3 months for that shit to resemble ‘normal’! Like pregnancy in reverse, it’ll be a shrinking experience taken day by day.

As much as Stephanie didn’t believe me, or was simply in denial about the weight gain, she has now returned to fitting into her pre-pregnancy jeans at 15-ish weeks postpartum. THIS HAPPENED because she was smart about her return to movement by doing simple exercises I prescribed at home starting week 4, returning to classes with me weeks 7-13, and sis currently doing appropriate-for-her postpartum remote programming which I created.

This didn’t happen because of crash dieting, working out 4 hours a day, or being gifted genetically. She’s at a healthy weight because she continued exercising through pregnancy, started moving slowly and effectively soon after birth, and kept on moving postpartum. Stephanie put in the work to feel great as a woman, new mom, wife. Her hard work is motivation for us all that pregnancy and motherhood can throw us fucking curve balls but sticking to what makes us happy will lead us to feeling more like ourselves, ground us, give us the power we need to conquer the day (and early hours of the night!). Rock on Stephanie!!