2018 NPAA Magazine 2018 NPAA Magazine - This is Our Sport | Page 53

down for his nap I immediately went to work training
myself.  It wasn’t always perfect, but eventually I stepped
on stage in a body I could barely recognize!  Shortly after
that show we decided it was time to expand our family
again.  This time I knew I’d return to the stage afterwards.
The second pregnancy was so different and more difficult
than my first, and it even carried over into his early life.  I
didn’t step on stage again until my second oldest was 21
months, but I did it, still doing the majority of my workouts
from home.  We had moved from our apartment so I had
a little more space this time.  After competing in 4 shows
that year I took a well needed break but still kept my
routines the same.
Eventually, as my second son stopped napping, I had to
readjust my workout times again and finally returned to a
gym, where I settled in with the 5:30 AM crew.  I had to
carve out the time from my sleep and go to bed earlier, so
it would get done every day.  My clothes would be laid out
in the bathroom, my snack would be planned and I would
go to sleep actually dreaming of what my workout would
be the next morning.  I was in SUCH a good mind set and
routine! My hormones were balanced and my relationship
with food was in check. 
I did two more shows leading to 3 pro cards in Alberta’s
finest natural/tested organizations.  Which brought me to
my toughest decision yet.  I still longed for a daughter,
but I also wanted to compete on a pro stage before going
through another pregnancy. 
I was not naive.  I knew the extreme amount of effort it
took the first and second time to regain my body after
pregnancy.  I was so close to a WNBF or IFPA pro stage. 
This possibly was the height of my fitness career.  Plus I
wasn’t getting any younger.  But that thought also applied
to having more kids.  I couldn’t do both at the same time.
There’s not a pregnancy category on a pro stage.  So I
had to make a choice.  I tossed around the idea of doing
one pro show, and then trying for a third.   But in my mind
I knew I would always want more and then where would
it end?  I didn’t want that one goal to swallow me whole,
and stand in the way of completing my family.  I had to
believe I had the ability and work ethic to again return to
the stage. So I chose family.
In a few months I became pregnant with my third baby. 
Now pregnancy is no joke.  It’s like competition prep X
10, except your body changes are exactly opposite what
you want for the stage, and it’s 3x as long! Because I
was fully immersed in training every morning at 5:30, I
decided I wasn’t going to stop until I was too sick to go or
my body told me otherwise.  The sickness never came,
and my body never gave up on me.  I did have to tweak
most of my exercises as my pregnancy continued and
as my belly grew.  Plyometrics and heavy hip thrusts got
canned shortly after 10 weeks. At 18 weeks the rise in
the relaxin hormone in my system made doing any single
leg workout extremely painful for my pelvis so those were
out.  At 21 weeks I started to have pain at the bottom of
my squats, so those also had to be adjusted.  And the list
goes on.  But the beautiful thing was that I was able to lift
RIGHT up to the day I delivered my baby.  I was in SUCH
a good place mentally and physically that I almost never
missed a morning session.  There were many morning’s I
would hear the alarm go off at 5 and I didn’t want to leave
my warm bed, but I knew I would regret it if I didn’t get up. 
I told myself “you can always come home early if you’re
still tired.”  There were days I would just go for a half hour
but most times I would lose myself in my workout and the
time passed too quickly. 
Preparing for shows and tracking my own macros gave
me a base in knowing what macronutrients my foods
contained. I was most concerned with consciously getting
enough protein daily.  I was trying to push the body to
do two things.  1. Build a human being and 2.  Maintain
some sort of muscle mass.  I didn’t want to give my body
any excuses to eat away at my muscle tissue, so I made
sure to fuel my body properly.  Instead of being obsessed
with tracking my macros though, I ate intuitively and this
seemed to work for me.
With any pregnancy there were always off days, and so
I needed to be flexible in my approach to staying active
and healthy.  I had to really LISTEN to my body. Change
exercises as needed, head my body’s natural food
aversions and rest when needed.
The body is so amazing, and capable of going through
tremendous transformations.  After each baby is born, in
fact, during each pregnancy as my belly grows and skin
stretches and my feet disappear, I often tell myself, “there
is no way this is going back to normal.”  And even though
I’ve done it twice it’s still hard to fathom being stage ready
ever again.  But I put the effort in before the pregnancy,
then during the pregnancy, and now after it’s done, I still
want to return to the stage once more.  When to return is
the question.  Postpartum may be harder than pregnancy,
because now your little cuddle bug is on the outside,
needing attention 24/7.  And your abdomen is left looking
like a soft squishy waterbed.  Right now my goal is to get
away for 20-30 minutes and get a small lifting session
in.  I also like to nurse my babies for at least a year, and
dieting and milk production are not best of friends.  But in
time, through constant persistence, little by little I believe
my body is capable of being even greater than before.
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