After getting through the first 6 months of being a new mom (aka some crazy form of boot camp/hazing/Survivor episode), I knew the time was here to really get serious about getting back to a good place with my health and fitness.
I was actually shocked by how much I enjoyed pregnancy and how beautiful I felt. I’ve generally always liked how I look, but never really loved it or felt extremely confident with my body. But I found a confidence I never before experienced while carrying and growing my little babe! It was just amazing to see what our bodies are built to do!
I gained around 30 pounds, so right in the normal range. I had a really “easy” pregnancy – no complications, no extreme sickness, just the normal exhaustion in the beginning but from around 15 weeks up until the last month I honestly felt better than I ever have in my life.
I continued to eat pretty healthy, basically the same as I always had, but allowed myself a little grace, which usually came in the form of ice cream or Chick-fil-a. I also continued to workout throughout my pregnancy. I was going to 9round (kickboxing circuit training) about 3-4 times a week and hot yoga once a week prior to pregnancy. I continued with 9round at the same frequency. I had big plans to continue yoga (just no longer hot), but I only did it sporadically. Honestly, I just don’t enjoy non-hot yoga as much. So I continued with 9round and walked at least 30 minutes most days up until the last 3-4 weeks, and then it was just walking because I just got too uncomfortable to do anything else.
All that newfound confidence vanished about a month or so after Hudson arrived. I continued to be completely amazed by my body through the delivery and that lasted for a few weeks postpartum. But then I was ready to be myself again, and I just wasn’t one of those people that just popped back to pre-baby normal. I lost a good bit of weight right away, but my body hung on to the last 10-15 lbs while breastfeeding. About a month after I stopped breastfeeding and all of those hormones got out of my system, I got back to around my immediate pre-baby weight. I definitely wasn’t at my pre-baby shape, however. Also, my immediate pre-baby weight and size was a little higher than my usual norm, due to some hormone craziness while trying to get pregnant. So I was happy to be back at my pre-baby weight, but definitely still not comfortable with my body.
I’d been hearing great things about Nancy Anderson’s nutrition programs. She is a trainer out in CA that specializes in pregnancy and postpartum health and fitness. I started following her on Instagram (@nancyandersonfit) right after I had Hudson, and bought her 30 Day Slim Down program when it was on sale during Cyber Week and joined the January Challenge. Now that I’ve completed the 30 days I wanted to share my wonderful experience!
The quick review (if you don’t want to read through all the details below) is that I saw results from this more than anything I’ve tried in the past! I lost 3 inches from my waist, 2 from my hips and 1 from each thigh. My immediate pre-baby clothes fit very comfortably again. I don’t know exactly how much weight I lost because I don’t actually own a scale, and I honestly don’t care. I care so much more about how I look and how my clothes fit. But I started around my pre-baby weight and would guess I lost at least a few pounds. I went down 2 sizes in pants. Feel free to read on below for more details about the program and my experience over those 30 days!
Overall the program is very similar to Whole30 as far as the things you have to eliminate (dairy, soy, gluten, alcohol), but it does have some minor differences from Whole30. I honestly didn’t have super high expectations because I did Whole30 before being pregnant and didn’t feel or look any different. But these minor differences apparently make a huge difference! One is the reverse carb cycle (not eating any carbs/starchy veggies/sugar (from fruit) until mid day). I always thought the opposite was better and that’s what I’ve always done – not eat any carbs at night. Also, this program tells you what portions to eat of different macros, whereas with Whole30 you just eat as much of any approved foods that you want.
The great thing about Nancy’s program is it spells it all out for you and makes it super easy. The program comes with every meal for the entire 30 days spelled out for you (including recipes and shopping lists). So you can choose to follow that exactly, or you can do the Cherry Picker menu if you prefer. This is some standard (generally quicker/easier) meals that you can use over and over again instead of following the weekly menus. I sort of did a combo and did the Cherry Picker menu for breakfast and lunch (pretty much having the same thing each day to make it easier with work), and then followed the plan for dinners.
An added perk that I didn’t anticipate was how easy this made meal planning. The quick background is that this is something that has been an annoyance (to say the least) for Luke and I for a long time. There was always quite a bit of back and forth every day starting about mid afternoon about “what should we have for dinner?” with neither of us wanting to make a decision or deal with it. (Well, Luke would have made a decision…but that would have been Chipotle every night.) This eliminated all of that. I spent about 15 or so minutes on Sundays planning out our meals for the week and making the grocery list, and then about an hour round trip going to the grocery store. It even made my time at the grocery store shorter because I had a short list of exactly what I needed – no more browsing every aisle. This also resorted in spending less on groceries and having less waste. This has truly helped me simplify my life from a meal planning/prepping perspective, which we are continuing now after the 30 days!
So what was it like? During the week, it really wasn’t too difficult. As I said above, it actually made life easier in a lot of ways. The only issue was if I slipped up and didn’t prep and have something to take for lunch at work, because there basically isn’t anything you can just buy from a store that is going to work.
The weekends were a different story. We’re pretty social. Of course, that looks different now with a baby, but we have a great group of friends that also mostly have kids so we tend to get together at someone’s house or a brewery, etc. at least once or twice a weekend. Those times were REALLY tough. Of course everyone is having a drink or two, which I had to resist, but even more difficult was that there often times wasn’t anything I could safely eat. I would do my best to eat before leaving the house, but sometimes that wasn’t possible. You are allowed one “cheat meal” per weekend, but that is still supposed to be dairy free and gluten free (yea…not my idea of a cheat meal either). We also had a few things already planned in January that I just knew wouldn’t be possible to do while sticking to the plan, so I wasn’t 100% compliant. We had a 5 days vacation to FL to see friends and family, and I knew it would be nearly impossible to keep this up, and also wanted to be able to just enjoy our vacation. Then we had a close friend that we hadn’t seen in over a year visiting Charlotte, so I had an alcoholic drink at a social event or two during that time. Other than that I stuck to the plan, so about 75%-80% compliant.
I’m sure I would have had slightly better results if I was 100% compliant, but this is what I could do during this time. Another thing that could have lead to better results was working out more. I really didn’t get to do much working out during the month at all because January was just so crazy for our family with a lot of missed daycare (and therefore work) and sickness, etc. You can only do what you can do!
Since January, I have been basically still following the plan (using a lot of the recipes from it) during the week and allowing myself a little more flexibility on the weekends, plus adding in working out at least 4 times per week (alternating Peloton and weightlifting at home). I highly recommend having some type of quick and easy workout set-up at home. I can’t imagine any other way that I would be able to fit it in. It doesn’t have to be a Peloton bike (they’re expensive – it was a really nice surprise from my husband), but whatever works for you – at home videos, a running stroller so you can go for a jog, some free weights, etc. You can see my little at home set-up below. One thing I have noticed is that I learned how much I don’t need to just eat and drink everything bad that’s in front of me at social gatherings. I think about it a lot more now. I’ll have just 1 drink instead of 2 or 3. I don’t add the cheese onto my salad – I save it for when there’s a really delicious cheese plate because that’s when I’ll really taste and enjoy it. I’m hoping that continuing this slightly more sustainable version of the plan will allow me to continue getting closer to the body that I want and am more comfortable in. And I think I might do another full 30 days prior to our trip to the Virgin Islands in May, just to make sure I feel great in a bikini again 😉
So if you’ve stuck with me this far, kudos to you because this was a long one! But I wanted to make sure to share my full experience for those that are interested, because it was a great one!
If you have any questions about the program, or any tips you’d like to share about your postpartum journey, I’d love to hear them below!
xo,
Shannon
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