This is still a major work-in-progress for me and it probably always will be. Bottom line, you MUST change your internal dialogue towards yourself and your body. Once you’ve witnessed the power your body has to create a life and give your baby everything it needs to grow into a healthy little cutie – you must constantly remind yourself of the appreciation, admiration and gratitude you feel for how magical and powerful you are. You made a human – your body is incredible, PERIOD (no pun intended ;) - Mic drop!

Truly this one is so-so important! Because you have to learn how to love yourself before you can expect to have a healthy relationship with the world around you, your baby included. 

Maybe it’s because of what I do for a living. Being a model, my body is literally part of my job description and is probably what made this topic so stressful for me. During pregnancy, I literally had anxiety worrying if my body would ever go back to “normal” and if I’d ever be able to work again post-baby. Turns out (as it always does), all that worrying was such a waste of emotional energy!

For the record, I honestly wasn’t one of those mamas who immediately bounced back to my post-baby body. It wasn’t until I stopped breastfeeding (5 months postpartum) that I could finally shed my lingering 10-pound. In fact, I was so frustrated with my lingering lbs that I even hired an amazing nutrition and fitness coach to give me a tailored plan for how to get back to my pre-baby body. Crosby Tailor was my guru. Living a centered, holistic life, along with eating desserts that burn fat, is his claim to fame – sweet!

The day he drove to my house for our consultation is a day I’ll never forget. My babe was napping upstairs and I was so excited to get the keys to my new body! He asked me a series of questions to start, and then asked me what my goals were and what I was hoping to achieve with his help. I swear I talked for over 15-minutes straight naming everything I hated about my body and couldn’t wait to fix. How I was holding onto weight in the weirdest places – for me it was my booty and thighs. After my rant, he told me to take a big deep breath and he said, “The first and most important part of this plan is… you MUST start every day with a positive affirmation about yourself and your body. You must, must, must do this every day until it becomes a habit.”

I remember being super embarrassed realizing I had just given him the full scope of my self-loathing and all of a sudden being made aware how much I was beating myself up. He was so right though. It’s so easy as a new mom to get down on yourself, lose perspective, and just be frustrated with lack of progress. Especially when you’re overtired and still hormonally out-of-whack.

He went on to explain this concept of: how can you expect your body to respond or be energized if you’re beating it up all the time? The truth is, what we tell ourselves on-repeat (even in our subconscious thoughts) ultimately determines the outcome. The beauty of this realization is YOU have the power to change the outcome… you just need to be deliberate in your thoughts. If you bring awareness to your internal dialogue and self-talk, you can correct these bad habits and for me, this was Step #1 in shedding my last 10-pounds. I had to learn to enjoy the journey and – ultimately – learn to love myself, my body and everything it went through to become a Mama. Truthfully, that transformation from Model to Mama was HARD, but also the most magical journey of my life and totally worth-it. I’d do-it 100 times over (well, maybe 3-4 times over ;).

Another key component with any goal, in my opinion, is you need to have a game-plan in order to take yourself to the finish line. For me, it was empowering to have a new roadmap that told me exactly what to do in order to achieve my body goals. Believe it or not, the majority of Crosby’s play was all about diet and less about strenuous exercise – that came later (I will post soon about how I whipped myself back into shape at the gym). Instead, during this recovery time he really stressed doing any exercise that made me feel good. This was all part of his approach to helping me learn to love my body again.

After our consultation, Crosby created a comprehensive plan for me that outlined what to eat, what not eat, how-to and when-to exercise, along with some powerful all-natural supplements to take in order to help regulate my all-over-the-place hormone levels (thank the Lord). I would highly recommend connecting with him for your very own Tailored Life Plan. He’s incredible! 

But ultimately, my biggest takeaway was the part about learning to love yourself and your post-baby body. Your body is amazing… it just created another human!Once I bought into this principle, everything changed. Here are some tips for how to L-O-V-E yourself as a new mama:

1.     Start every day with one positive affirmation about yourself and your body. This is even more effective if you take the time to write this in a journal.

2.     Know the power of a Pep Talk. This is my favorite one: You made a human. Your body is incredible and oh-so powerful. Be deliberate in what you tell yourself.  And always remember this: we can’t always control the first thought that comes into our head, but we CAN control the second one, and the third one, etc. Be aware and intentional with those thoughts and make sure they’re oozing self-love and admiration. Girl, you’re a badass. You made a human. You can create miracles. You can do anything you set your mind too. Period.

3.     Surround yourself with people that believe in you and support you in your goals and dreams.

4.     Start the day with a LARGE glass of water and drink as much H2O throughout the day as possible (a lot of people confuse hunger for thirst). Also your body operates at its highest efficiency when hydrated.

5.     Find ways to exercise that make you feel good from the inside out. Yoga is my go-to.

6.     Sleep often and allow yourself ample time to rest and recover. This prevents injury, fatigue, and burnout from your goals.

7.     End your day with gratitude. Take a couple minutes to reflect on what you did well that day and what you’re thankful for. This is the best “reset button” and way to ensure you have a fresh, energized start the next day.