Healthy - Oct 2021 (Sampler)

“The day before I had Roman, I had a surge of energy and wanted to do a weights class. I guess it gave me that little nudge!” ‘R ight now, tness is my happy place. It’s evolved over the years – at school I was quite sporty, and then I had a big break from tness after college. I didn’t realise it at the time, but I really missed it. My body missed it, and so did my mental health. When I got back into tness, it was all about really intense exercise – going to the gym and HIIT workouts. I would train because I wanted to look good over the summer or I had an event coming up. Now I see the bigger picture. ‘Working out, wellbeing, eating well and looking after my mental health all come under the same umbrella now. It’s a recent change for me. Since becoming a mum [to Roman, inMarch 2020] I prefer low impact – on my app, RWL, we’ve got a new LIIT plan; much more gentle things like Pilates, barre, and stretches. My attitude to tness has changed, and I think that’s down to respecting my body more as I’ve got older. ‘A lot of the time we exercise and diet to punish our bodies, because we want to be “better” than we are. Now I have the opposite view. I think, “Wow, I’ve grown a baby. I’ve nursed a baby – I’ve fed him. My body is unbelievable!” The human body is crazy and now I nd myself thinking, “I want to look after you. I want to eat well. I want to nourish you. I want to exercise to keep you healthy and well.” ‘Having a baby has put things in perspective. It’s amazing how your body repairs and recovers afterwards – all while you’re looking after a newborn and sleeping about two hours a night! Women are incredible. I really admire my body and my whole outlook has changed. I don’t put so much pressure on myself to look a certain way. Listening to my body ‘Pre- and post-natal tness completely depends on the individual. Up until 13 weeks you can pretty much do what you did before, but my journey didn’t go like that. I was sick as a dog until 13 weeks and I did not move. My whole pregnancy – tness, eating and everything else – wasn’t how I thought it would be. I lived o bread and chips and pasta for near enough most of my pregnancy. ‘Before I fell pregnant, a lot of the pre- and post-natal videos on RWL were structured programmes, but women don’t need that pressure. You’re really tired, you might be experiencing sickness, and you don’t want to feel like you failed because you didn’t nish that week’s workouts. So now everything’s grouped in trimesters, and you can pick what you like doing, if you’ve got energy that week. In the postnatal section, we have stretches for women who’ve had C-sections, advice on back pain, help with feeding, sleep, everything! It’s all-round wellness for mums andmums-to-be. ‘In my second and third trimester, I was extremely tired, so I did things like walking, gentle stretches and prenatal Pilates. Then the day before I had Roman I had this surge of energy, which was probably nature getting me ready for labour, but for some reason I wanted to do a weights class. Cecilia [Harris, PT and RWL co-founder] said it was ne, and I guess it gave me that little nudge! Taking the pressure off ‘My advice to mums is do what you feel is right. Don’t put too much stress on yourself and if you’ve got an hour free from working, or if you’ve got other kids and it’s been busy, just take it as a nap. Have that nap and look after yourself. Now I’m active again, I love it for me-time, to retain my sense of identity and to make myself feel good – but I didn’t get back into tness as quickly as I thought I would. I was exhausted, Roman didn’t sleep for a very long time and at rst I was trying to ght it and work out. I soon realised I needed to give myself more time to rest, recover, take naps, eat toast and biscuits and not worry. ‘What I’ve taken from the experience is not to put pressure on yourself. Babies are only small for a certain amount of time and you want to enjoy that time. Remember we’re not all the same – just because the doctor said we can train, that doesn’t mean we have to. So just take your time.’ Lucy and Cecilia’s App, RWL, is the rst UK health and wellness app to be awarded the ORCHA veri cation and CE mark. Get a free 14-day trial by visiting ResultsWellnessLifestyle.com online or by downloading it from the app store Pregnancy and bi r th shi f ted TV personal i t y Lucy Meck lenburgh’s at t i tude to f i tness , and helped her discover a newfound appreciat ion for her body F I TNES S healthy-magazine.co.uk 63 For more tips on keeping fit at all stages of life, visit healthy-magazine.co.uk As told to Hattie Parish. Photographs Results Wellness Lifestyle