The baby is here! She turned out to be a girl :) She went exactly 1 week past her due date, that was one of the longest weeks of my life! But Cecilia Crimm Howard is here and Gianna, Steve and I are excited to have her here. It's still a learning process for me, learning to have two kiddos around, but it is a fun one. In the words of Gia "having a newborn around is hard..." and yes, it is. But we know that time will fly by and I'll soon be able to put her down and we can be more free.
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This is from 38 weeks, I went to 41!
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Now it's time for me to get this healthy body back. It's important to be healthy as a mom. You have to play with your kids, keep the baby happy, bouncing and clean and you have to make milk to feed your baby...it's very taxing on the body and if you aren't full of energy you won't make it! It's also important to be healthy and fit for YOU. I dealt with postpartum depression last time and I know it had to do with my first snowy winter ever, being a new mom, moving to a new state, not having local support in the beginning and all of the other changes. I had an active pregnancy last time, so that helped but with the winter I wasn't able to get right out and walk or be as active as I wanted....it was a very emotional and interesting time. Then what did we do? Had another winter baby!
This time...my goal is to avoid the depression... I had an equally fit pregnancy (I chronicled it on
Facebook and
Instagram). You'd think that would make for an easy delivery...nope. I did it natural again (I'm NO hero... I did it this way both times because i'm terrified of long needles in the back and pain meds make me out of sorts!) Last time it was 17 hours and this time...19 all ACTIVE labor hours...hard work! So here is the 1 week postpartum pics. NO body/belly binding/wrapping and no exercise. Just GENETICS at work here:
1 week postpartum
Now it's time to work... What's my fit plan??? I'm back to the studio and training clients both online and in person so I'm jumping in 6 weeks postpartum. I also got an awesome sponsorship for my next bikini competition...yep it's happening at the end of the year! I'm part of Team All or Nothing Fit!! My coach waited for my go-ahead and now we've begun the off-season fitness plan that will help me build back any muscle I lost, and hopefully put on even more... then we'll begin a competition prep towards mid summer. The one thing that is most important to me is my milk supply. I will not do anything to compromise my baby's health during this process. I will drink tons of water and eat oatmeal (though my supply is good for now, I will keep an eye on it) I'm not cutting calories since I'm not trying to cut fat, I'm building muscle. Once milk supply is established it will be cutting time. I will also be doing protein powder, fish oil and vitamins (and a cup of joe for preworkout) no other supps at this time.....
I'm stoked to focus on building muscle! I may not lean out and thin down like many want to do right after having a baby, and that is going to be a tough pill to swallow, but I may do just that when lifting heavy. This is why I love fitness and lifting, it's like a science experiment, trial and error every time. You get to see how your body responds to your hard work and dedication and change it up as needed. Here's some pics from home, just a few days past 1 month postpatum:
I'm pretty sure it's a slimming mirror since it's at an angle in my room and I am a bit more flabby than the pics show but this is my "progress mirror" for now. I don't have stretchmarks (thanks mom!) but I've heard they can come later so we'll keep fingers crossed. I have been on my macros (protein, fat and carbs) for a good few days now and I worked out a couple of days but beginning Monday I'm all in, on plan, ready to see how to change my body. I expect to see the scale go up...with MUSCLE...so we'll see. I will post daily pics on
Instagram and I'll update the blog as best as I can so stay tuned.
Physique bikini competition November 7th, 2015...there. It's in writing. Join me on the journey to change.
What is a Color Vibe? The color vibe run is a super fun race where people line up...or lay down...to get blasted with different color powders all in the name of fun. The powder was light and fluffy, and gets everywhere! But it washes out and is fun to wear as a badge of honor after the race is done. There is a DJ to pump you up while they blast color at you. And added this year is an AFTER PARTY that will keep you going even though you're doused in color. It's just a great day to get out, ring in the Spring season and get your body moving. 
