How to Love Your Post-baby Body

Unless you’ve resorted to avoiding the mirror and the scale, you may be dumbfounded by the reflection staring back at you. You are sure a few things are out of proportion and your breasts and stomach have most definitely been rearranged from how they used to complement your torso. Perhaps you are happy with your new set of up-size breasts, but most likely there are a few marks and extra bits of flab you’d rather have lipo’ed away as part of the hospital procedure before being discharged from the maternity ward.

Dear woman, do you realize what your body has just done? You have grown not only a new organ but cared for and housed the making of a small human-being inside your precious body. Each little cell in your body working day in and day out to shape a little being just for you. A heart, a brain and a little set of lungs to breathe. I should think it is time to praise your superhero body for what it has just accomplished, rather than slate it for changing proportions. After all, I can’t even keep my proportions the same after a 2 week holiday in Italy.

Here are 2 life-changing tips to loving your post-baby body, and looking after the superhero you are.

Don’t compare yourself to what you were before, and don’t compare yourself to others. You are you, uniquely you, and that is what makes you beautiful. Claim it. You are not the same woman you were before giving birth. You are now a mother. You have been on a journey that changed you, the way you look at things and maybe even what you value in life. Your priorities have changed along the way too. So don’t compare yourself to the person you no longer are, embrace your new chapter, your new journey, and work with your new body by encouraging it to be the best it can be, lovingly caring for it after everything it has been through.

Ritu Ghatourey said it beautifully: "Be confident. Too many days are wasted comparing ourselves to others and wishing to be someone we aren’t. Everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses, and it is only when you accept everything you are and everything you aren’t that you will truly succeed in life." No one is better at being you, than you. So stop comparing yourself to others and embrace your own strengths and shine your unique beauty.

Even though you might be feeling a little disheartened at the new shape your body has taken on, now is not the time to let it go. Your body has been through a lot, so take care of it. Give it healthy nutrition and keep it active. Take baby for a walk, or do some ‘mommy-and-me’ exercises with your newborn. Your body will naturally start to adjust, and when you are ready, start working a little harder on the things you want to change. This may include taking time for a higher intensity workout 3 times a week or making sure you stay away from the late-night cookie fest.

However, there will probably be some things which won’t change, or at least not at the pace you want them to. Mom365.com talks of a woman who ‘calls her pregnancy stretch marks "tiger stripes"—this not only sounds cool, but it rewires how you think about your body. Instead of lamenting, you can think, "I'm a bad mama jama!" Rowr!’

Be patient, embrace what you cannot change and give yourself a little credit for that beautiful little being you now have in your life.

Next time you look in the mirror, remember what you’ve created. Look beyond the stretch marks. Don't measure your worth by your waistline. See the beautiful, strong, unique, sexy, loving mother staring back at you. Now, what’s not to love about a body that amazing!