I had my little one 8 months ago. At a training seminar a fellow personal trainer commented saying “you’ve fair popped back!”. This caught me off guard because I thought, well no I haven’t. ‘Popped back’ makes it sound like I had zero input into my return to optimal health and fitness. I’ll tell you what, it was not all plain sailing!! It took effort to get back in shape and I don’t mind telling you!

 I had a rough time of it during and following the birth. Let’s just say things did not go to plan! Whether it is a traumatic birth or something else causing you grief. A traumatic experience is just that, traumatic! I always considered myself very strong mentally and physically and somewhat naively I guess never thought I could be brought down. Well, I was, and this is important to admit. Mental health plays a big part in the choices we make in our day to day lives.

 During my pregnancy, no matter how tough life got I rarely faltered. I assume my knowledge and profession greatly helped at this point. However, following what was quite an unexpected traumatic experience I 100% faltered. My mental health took a nosedive and I’m really not sure that I was aware at the time. Or I for sure didn’t want to admit it!

 I think we’ve all been there when life really feels like it’s pulling you down, but we really don’t want to say to anyone as we are almost admitting defeat. So how did I react? Well, I ate bagels with lurpack, philly and salmon! – my all-time favourite! This is fine of course. Although, I went to town on those delicious bagels! Chocolate? – yes please! A wee (maybe grande!) costa full of full fat milk and syrup? Oh yessssss that’ll do nicely! Again, not a problem if it’s in moderation, but moderation went out the window! I had well and truly fell off the wagon!

 Is it a big deal? Well yes at the time. I felt awful. I put on a fair bit of weight and it certainly didn’t help me mentally in the long run. Is it an issue now? Absolutely not! Why not? Because I’m back on track and I forgive myself. It was an incredibly trying time mentally and physically.

We all have those times where we have/will ‘fall off the wagon’. Now when I say that I don’t mean the occasional nice meal, pastry, or tuck in. You can eat whatever you want as long as you are aware of your ‘energy balance’* see the L-fit Glasgow personal training energy balance guide.

Now here is the caveat. Would I allow this to happen again? No way. It was a tough slog to get back from. I worked my tail off to get back to my healthy self. Am I completely back? Nope. I still have work to do but that’s ok. I’m back on track. Yep, I’ll have the occasional blip as we all do, though I have learned not to let it go on as long as I did then.

 So, no. It isn’t a big deal if you stop losing/maintaining weight for a short period of time. The main thing is to get back on track and not allow yourself to get into that slump that is difficult to pull back from. There are ways to prevent those occurrences too.

L-fit Glasgow personal training tips to on track:

• Don’t think of it as falling off the wagon! If you do you will throw in the towel
• Your mindset is important. Don’t let one cheeky snack or day derail your progress! If you fell down a little bit of a mountain would you throw yourself to the bottom because ‘ah well, you’re heading that way now!’. No, you’d get back up and keep on climbing until you reach that peak!
• Food prep! Make life easy. We often snack because we can’t be bothered cooking. Batch cook those healthy meals when you have the time and stick them in the fridge or freezer for easy eating when busy.
• Keep healthy food tasty! Let’s face it, if you try to live on plain rice and plain chicken and plain cabbage are you going to stick it out? BIG NO to that one. Healthy doesn’t mean tasteless! Get creative, check out some L-fit Glasgow personal training recipes on our Instagram page and keep it colourful!
• Surround yourself with like-minded people! Come to L-fit Glasgow personal training and meet our motivated clients. Come to L-fit bootcamps and join the mad team who will motivate you to keep on course!
• Most importantly. If you are having a tough time mentally. Talk to someone. You can talk to family, friends and your L-fit Glasgow personal training team! If you aren’t in a good place mentally this will impact you physically. We are always happy to listen.
• Activity! let’s get moving. Activity releases those feel-good hormones!! The more the merrier!

If you would like some coaching to help get you started, get in touch with L-Fit Glasgow Personal Training.