Friends of FitYaf - Lyci gets back in shape after becoming a mom

One of the things my husband first noticed about me was the way I pronounced "Florida" and "orange" just like his sister Lyci [Flah-ri-da & ah-range).  It wasn't until about a year later that I finally got to meet her, and we've been friends ever since!  She always used to talk about triathlons and races, which at the time were a foreign concept to me, but after all this time (and a baby), she's still going strong.  Lyci is a mother to the most adorable little girl (no, I'm not biased, okay maybe I am), but she hasn't let motherhood get in the way of taking care of herself and keeping up with her racing.  Her first postpartum race was a half marathon just 5 months after giving birth!  Below Lyci talks about how her fitness changed while pregnant and what she did to get back into racing shape.

What motivated you to start running and racing in triathlons?

I grew up dancing and playing team sports, and continued doing so through college. When I graduated and team sports weren't as accessible anymore, I needed something with more structure to it than simply "going to the gym."  I tried playing adult league lacrosse, but the schedule and location were just too complicated, so I only lasted one season.  My husband had starting doing triathlons with a group at his gym, and he seemed to enjoy it, so I gave it a shot on my own.   For me, my sport preference actually mimics the order of the triathlon, so it works out well for me.  I love swimming and I tolerate running.  Nine years later, creating a seasonal "race schedule" still keeps me (relatively) honest with my work out regime.  

How did getting pregnant change your relationship with working out and fitness?

I definitely learned (relearned, I suppose, since we all "learn" this over and over again in our lives) about needing to be kind to yourself and listen to your body more.  In the first trimester, I was exhausted all the time.  It was pretty much all I could do to get through the workday without throwing up or falling asleep at my desk. Other than walking to and from the train on my commute and climbing stairs on job sites, there was no working out at all from about 7 weeks until I was through the first trimester.  Then once I started working out again, I really had to figure out what was going to work for me, versus just going back to doing what I'd always done. 

Also, for the first trimester, in addition to allowing yourself a 7pm bedtime instead of a 7pm gym time - eating something "healthy" like broccoli salad does no one any good if you can't keep it down.  Now, I'm not advocating eating snickers bars all day long, but again - you're going to have to find what works for you.  "Bad" calories are still better than no calories.  If you end up eating a BLT for lunch four times a week (guilty) just to get through that first trimester, so be it.  

Describe your workouts while you were pregnant, and how did they compare to your workouts before you got pregnant?

My definition of what I considered a workout definitely changed.  One thing I did, that I would definitely recommend to anyone newly pregnant, was that I started doing squats when I brushed my teeth.  After a few days of making a point of remembering to do it, it became an automatic part of my daily routine.  Then, at the end of the day, even if I'd not managed to do anything else "active," I would have at least gotten 40-50 squats in.  The nice part about it, too, was I think it really helped my body stay strong while adjusting to its growing size.  I would NEVER have attempted just trying to do sets of 25 air squats at 8 months, if I hadn't been doing them all along.  But, since I had, my legs and back had grown stronger as I grew larger. 

Also, you'll probably have to be more open minded about fitness than you might anticipate.  I love swimming, when I'm not pregnant.  Everyone seems to rave about swimming and pregnancy; I hated it.  And, as a "swimmer," that surprised me quite a bit.  I just felt like I was trying to do laps with a little kid's swim bubble strapped on backwards.  Not amazing. 

The other not amazing thing during pregnancy, that I normally loved, was public transit.  As I grew, so did my impatience and frustration with pretty much every single person I encountered on the crowded rush hour trains.  My solution many times, weather permitting?  Walking the 3 miles home instead.  My mental state improved, and I counted that as my workout for the day.    

How long did you wait to start exercising after giving birth?  What did you do to ease back into the training?

 I delivered in December, which can limit your fitness options, obviously.  However, that December and January were luckily quite mild, and I discovered that I could put my daughter into the baby carrier and button my maternity winter coat up over the whole thing, baby and all.  So, starting at only a few weeks post partum, we wrapped ourselves up nice and snug and took (usually) daily walks along the lakefront.  I started with only a mile or two, but worked up to 5 or 6 miles pretty quickly.  I wasn't walking for speed, so six miles usually took about two hours, but it got us both some fresh air (and helped my post-partum sanity quite a bit).  As another bonus, she usually conked out quickly in the carrier and ended up with a 90+ minute nap.  Since her little body was literally touching mine, I was never concerned about wondering if she was too cold. 

I didn't start actually running again until about 10 weeks post partum, and I started with run/walk splits which were very heavy on the walk. 

Side note: if you're a nursing mom, especially one who didn't previously have cups that runneth over, get a new sports bra! And, before you go for a run - pump.  There was a car in my town growing up whose license plate spelled: PB4UGO.  Great advice.  In this case, the P stands for pump.  (You should probably still pee too, though).  Trust me on this one.  You do not want cups that leaketh over, nor do you want to spend your whole run mentally curbing your urge to clutch at your aching chest.  No one wants that kind of attention.  The new sports bra will be well worth it.  

How did training after having a baby compare to training before having a baby?

I signed up for a half marathon scheduled for the day after my daughter turned 5 months.  It seemed doable, and like I mentioned earlier, having a race schedule keeps me relatively honest with my workouts.  Having a baby made me even more so.  Since my husband and I had to schedule around each other to make time for me to work out, I couldn't just "eh, I'll go tomorrow" my way through the week.  If I had a run on the calendar, I was damn well going for a run.  Not just sometime that day, either, but during the very specific time slot allotted between our schedules.  Obviously, with a young infant at home, things still came up and by the end of training, if I was intending to get out four times a week, it was usually only two or three, but it was never none. 

I will say that we were blessed beyond belief by having a pretty darn good sleeper that allowed both of us to ease into the life/parenthood balance much easier than most.  If you're not blessed in the baby-sleep department (and I now have a new-found empathy for that; thanks a lot 8-month sleep regression that never ended), well, Godspeed.  And drink all the coffee.  

What do you think is a realistic goal as far as a timeline for getting back in shape postpartum?

I've always liked the saying "nine months to gain, nine months to lose."  I think people definitely have unrealistic expectations of weight loss in general, let alone postpartum.  It's easy to get frustrated when you're not losing as quickly as you'd like, or if you're stuck on a plateau.  But, if you remind yourself that you certainly didn't get all the baby weight overnight, so you're not likely to lose (it all) overnight either. 

And, again, this is one of those cheesy "remember to be kind to yourself" moments, because the number on the scale may also not be as compatible with how you think your body looks as you're accustomed to, either.  Your body will certainly have changed, whether it's your hips, your boobs, or your belly (or all of the above) so you might need to adapt.  You will probably have some rocking biceps in a couple months, though, so you've got that going for you!

How do you juggle fitting in you workouts with spending time with your baby, family and work?

We don't have extended family in the area, so fitting in workouts is definitely a team effort for my husband and me.  He needs to be flexible with his schedule to give me the time to fit in a workout (I've never been a fitness DVD "person," so doing a pilates/yoga/bootcamp DVD while the baby naps just doesn't work for me), and I have to be committed enough to my workouts to respect the time that he's carved out for me and actually get myself out of the house.  I am quite lucky to be working for a small architecture firm that has allowed me to come back part time (3 days, ~27-30 hours/week) after having had my daughter, and I am incredibly grateful for that situation. It does make "finding time" much easier.  I'm less likely to feel guilty about going to the gym for an hour on the weekend because I'll have spent all day Tuesday and Thursday with her.  

That said, we've discussed what we might consider doing if I went back to work fulltime to ensure that I still get to workout at least a few times a week, without feeling like I'm sacrificing time with the family.  The ideas we've had are: swimming laps for 30 min while my husband is with my daughter for her swimboree class and going for a family jog on Saturday mornings.

What advice do you have for a fit/active woman who is pregnant or just had a baby as far as keeping up with her fitness?

• Do air squats while brushing your teeth.   
  
• If you've never heard people say that women after childbirth are stronger at endurance sports than they were prior to childbirth, let me be the first to tell you.  By the end of my half marathon training, I was only running twice a week.  Once during the week, (never more than 5 miles), and once on the weekend, which increased by about a mile each week.  Somehow, this worked.  I actually took a few minutes off of my previous course time on that half.  Having been running and doing triathlons for many years prior, this result from that training was shocking.  
  
• Your body is amazing: amazingly strong, amazingly resilient and amazingly capable.  Just remember that.  
  

Are you a mother?  What are some of the ways you stayed in shape while pregnant or got back into shape after having your baby?