Hey hey, barrebabes!
I hope this finds you well and enjoying the first days of "spring." All is well on our end - Mr. Baby is now 9 months old, weighs 18 pounds, and enjoys bouncing, putting household objects in his mouth, and can't wait for warmer weather so he can go back on the swings. I wanted to share with you some personal progress and playlists.
mindful movement for the win!
To be honest, I was always a bit nervous (and more than a little vain) about what would happen to my body when I had a baby. I think there's a lot of fear and insecurity about postpartum bodies, and with good reason - recovering from childbirth is no joke, and some women bear deep scars and deal with lasting problems from birth and early motherhood. It is a profoundly transformative experience, and one that teaches the body invaluable lessons that can't be learned any other way. Since I found out about our little miracle, I've tried just to take it one day at a time and trust my movement practice, my knowledge, and my curiosity to help me along. Once I cleared away my expectations of how I was supposed to look or feel at any given moment, I felt the work more, and have just generally felt better. Moreover, I opened up the possibility for myself that my body could turn out just fine and even improve from the whole shebang, and I am pleased to report that, 9 months postpartum, humpty dumpty has definitely been put back together again, and in even better shape than I started - I can do everything I did before, only better - pushups (my nemesis) included
Pre pregnancy:
9 months pregnant:
New bod photo:
I'm not bragging (exactly) but instead sharing this rather special experience with you for a couple reasons. One, I want everyone to know that having a baby doesn't mean the end of everything wondrous about your physical body, both in terms of strength and capability and, not totally insignificantly, how it appears in a bikini (how you perceive both about yourself matters for body confidence, in my opinion). Two, while I acknowledge that I am a fitness professional and it's infinitely easier to work out when you are paid to do so, I think it's worth noting that I've done absolutely nothing extreme to "get my body back." I've done the same feel-good barre, Pilates and dance fitness workouts with (less) frequency than before, and while I've tidied up my diet from the months of ice cream and pizza, I've not counted calories, gone low carb, or juice fasted, not even a little bit. Finally, I'm proud that the movement I love to do can support us through changes in our lives, and I'm proud to be a walking, planking, dancing example of everything I love to teach.
And... here's some playlists from Thursday night BarreRhythms, my newly revamped 90 minute barre & dance extravaganza :)
barrerhythms1
barrerhythms2
follow me @annieforeal on spotify or click here for my latest & greatest collections of tunes to sweat, pulse, plank and shake to :)
Keep pulsing!
With love,
