Meet Alison and join her on her Body Beyond Baby journey

I would like to introduce you to Alison.  I have watched Alison progress whilst taking part in my Body Beyond Baby group exercise sessions over the last couple of months and asked her if she would like to share her journey with you on our blog, wonderfully she agreed and I'm very excited about the inspiration she will share with you.  Here is a little about Alison:

In many ways I feel like the happiest woman on the planet, I have an amazing partner Scott and a happy and healthy baby girl, Zara. Life is looking up with so much to look forward to with the three of us. However, a lot of this is clouded by the state I have let myself get into. Let me take it back a bit.

In my pre baby days I had finally gotten into a pattern of regular exercise. I was training twice a week with a group after work in the city. I had lost the most weight I had ever lost, and kept it off.

Then I fell pregnant which was the most amazing thing that ever happened to me. I stopped the group training and tried to keep up exercise on my own which wasn’t easy, but I tried. I had a dream pregnancy and just loved watching my stomach grow, but along with it my rigid exercise and diet regime slowly slipped away. At the time it was what I did and don’t like to beat myself up about it too much.

Towards the end of my pregnancy I had really ballooned out, and by 7 months colleagues were asking if I was due the following week. Once I gave birth to Zara I assumed the weight would just drop off, however I soon realised that this wasn’t the case. I went home from hospital and still felt like I had a balloon in my stomach.

I gave myself the first month or two to settle in to the shock of having a new baby, and I am glad I did. When I did begin some exercise it included post-natal pilates as well as walks, though all along though I knew it wasn’t enough. Two months after giving birth to Zara a lady in the street asked me when my baby was due, I burst into tears and new that the time had come to increase my exercise regime.

I was waiting for the moment that my determination would take over, that same determination I had pre-baby when I would run and enjoy it. Thank goodness I found that when began training with Jenny. Initially I attended one session a week and was thrilled to be able to get out and work up a sweat.

I then decided to take the plunge and train twice a week, which I really enjoy. It takes discipline and means I can’t socialise as much but I am so determined to get back into shape. I don’t like aiming to get my ‘pre baby body’ back as it has a connotation that my pregnancy was a bad thing. Instead I see this journey as an opportunity to become the fittest I have ever been.