Getting Real about Pre and Post Partum with Michelle de Jong

Chad finally sits down with Michelle de Jong to discuss what life has been like since the introduction of Maddi! 

Chad and Michelle dive into some important topics around fitness, nutrition, mental health and body image around pregnancy. This topic isn't shared often, and Michelle provides real-life experiences for any new or expecting Mothers. This is not just for Moms, Dads can learn a thing or two from Michelle's story! 

Having a baby is a life-changing event, and being a mother is a huge responsibility. Michelle talks about her journey to get back to competing and being the best athlete and Mom that she can be.

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Transcript

Chad [0:06 - 0:20]
community of members, coaches and professionals working as a team of like minded individuals in constant pursuit, connecting this exclusive group with the tools and resources they require to live a high performance lifestyle, conquering what life has thrown at them. We are living the fit life,

Chad [0:24 - 0:42]
Welcome to living and fit life podcast, episode 62 I am your host chad miller and today I'm catching up with Michelle Dijon about how life has sort of changed with her in the past 12 to 15 months with baby Maddy. Hey Michelle, how are you? Hi

Michelle [0:42 - 0:56]
chad, good, thanks for having me and I'm glad we could finally, we've been talking about this podcast for a while, so glad we could finally nail it down and yes,

Chad [0:56 - 1:21]
yes, we've talked with us for a while, I know that you wanted to share your story, I know you've shared your story a little bit in different avenues, but we wanted to sit down and kind of dive into a little bit more and he also wanted to kind of raise more awareness of of post and sorry, pre and post baby and how life is like for someone like yourself um and for anyone that does know Michelle is pretty elite athlete, I would

Michelle [1:21 - 1:22]
say

Chad [1:22 - 1:43]
high level athletes. Okay, high level athlete, so I mean I know you and I have talked about this just when we're hanging out about like female elite athletes, sharing more of their story around their new arrivals and so we thought it would be good for you to share your story.

Michelle [1:44 - 1:48]
Exactly, that's the goal, the more sharing the better.

Chad [1:48 - 2:02]
I agree, I agree. And so today, Yeah, so um in very Michelle fashion, we're going to structure this podcast, sort of timetable, it sort of pre baby and then sort of, you know, the first three months, the next next three months.

Michelle [2:04 - 2:04]
No,

Chad [2:04 - 2:07]
I like it. I think, I think

Michelle [2:07 - 2:07]
it's,

Chad [2:10 - 2:34]
yeah, I think it's good. I think it's, I think it's a good way of doing it gives everyone a kind of context of how things are rolling. So, so yeah, so we can uh yeah, we'll just, we'll just chat, not sure exactly how long this one will be, but let's just go through it. I'm excited to hear your story. I know obviously, I know some of your story, but I'm excited to hear how, you know, how things were around the fitness and the nutrition and that sort of stuff.

Michelle [2:35 - 2:36]
Cool.

Chad [2:36 - 2:43]
So give us a little bit of context before the delivery day.

Michelle [2:45 - 2:59]
Yeah, so actually pregnancy was pretty great. Um like, I mean, uh I wouldn't probably say that as I was going through the last month or so,

Chad [2:59 - 3:01]
but

Michelle [3:01 - 3:25]
looking back overall, I had a pretty good pregnancy, my first trimester, there was nothing crazy. Um and then just the usual sort of pregnancy pains and that, that sort of stuff, but um in terms of, in terms of workouts, uh should I dive right in chat or?

Chad [3:25 - 3:34]
I think so, so like, I guess how, so, um maybe when, when was the due date? When was he born?

Michelle [3:35 - 3:46]
She was born January eight, but her to date was December 30, so we weren't sure if she was gonna be a december or january

Chad [3:46 - 3:56]
baby. And so like how active were you leading up to? Like how active were you and like say october november december as you're getting closer?

Michelle [3:58 - 6:15]
Yeah, so closer um I wasn't, well you you set me up the stage of this elite athlete, so I feel like I have to live up to that, but no, I was not not even close to any anything sort of elite elite at this point. Uh And and really like this start as soon as I was pregnant, there was a lot of things that um I had a lot of uh pelvic pressure, I was relatively pretty big for a small frame, so there were a lot of things that kind of uh went relatively quickly quickly. It was also during covid, so we didn't quite have access to the normal fitness routine that we that we did, so definitely uh running and deep squatting or deep bending sort of, I lost that ability, sort of early on. Um And then by the last three months I would say, um I wasn't, I I was actually coaching virtual um workouts at sort of earlier on, so that was a good way to do some modifications, um not feel too too much pressure to to do anything else. Um And then we had our outdoor workouts, which we started, that was earlier on in my pregnancy. Uh So that was good, we weren't doing anything to um crazy in terms of squatting and heavy weights, so that was kind of a nice segue, but I felt like, because I was doing the virtual workouts and then the outdoor workouts, even before pregnancy, I kind of lost a little bit of that strength, so jumping into heavy squatting again, or heavy barbell movements wasn't sort of something that was on the table. So um

Chad [6:15 - 6:16]
they

Michelle [6:16 - 6:43]
say they say that you can continue with any sort of exercise that um that you're currently doing. Uh So unfortunately there were some things with the covid time that I didn't keep up um at the beginning of my pregnancy, so I couldn't continue them later on in my pregnancy. So it was a bit of a mishmash of, let's say things

Chad [6:44 - 7:22]
I was gonna ask, like, how did you approach it? Like, so you have obviously, like, you do, you're pretty active, sorry, before you were pregnant, You're pretty active Crossfit. Pretty active in the endurance community. You're pretty much doing any sort of fitness that could be thrown at you, you could be doing high school gymnastics, you were lifting pretty heavy weights. How did you change your mindset from doing a lot of those things too then, okay, like now I'm pregnant, Like, were you like looking at things and saying, okay, no more high school gymnastics, I'm gonna cut down my strength, 250% weights. Like were you ever like looking at things like that or were you just kind of like going to the flow and as things felt good, you kind of just dropped them off as you went further.

Michelle [7:23 - 8:31]
Uh That's a good question. Um I would say I just sort of listened to my my body and and drop things off as as we as we went, so if something didn't feel good then I would just um I modify um But right away one thing that I did just drop off was my heart rate and my exertion levels. So any sort of high intensity workout, the effort perceived exertion was um let's say a 67 out of 10, when usually that would be um like eight or 10 out of 10 effort. So that was one of the big things in terms of scaling back, was that heart rate and intensity for sure. Um And then any sort of strength based movement was based on my body and then any sort of um abdominal separation or koning or anything that I saw I would modify or scale those accordingly.

Chad [8:31 - 8:32]
Okay.

Michelle [8:33 - 9:06]
But I but with that said I still kept my structure of my workouts throughout the week, so with L. P. We do strength workouts and then we do conditioning workouts and um even if my conditioning workouts ended up being um a long intense walk, that was sort of my conditioning workout and I kept that structure going so that I made sure I got in my few strength days a week and then some conditioning if we can call it, but at that

Chad [9:06 - 9:07]
time

Michelle [9:07 - 9:12]
in the in the last little bit that the walking did become a workout,

Chad [9:14 - 9:47]
that's cool. And how did like how did your body feel? Obviously that's a that's a great question. How did you notice your body feeling different in in context of the workouts or or was it just blended in with obviously your body changes? And then my my second question was like how are you helping your body recover? Obviously your intensity was low, so you may be the workout strain wasn't as significant.

Michelle [9:48 - 10:27]
Yes, correct. So I didn't quite have to, the demand on my body was it was almost like a relief because I wasn't doing as much intensity. I didn't need uh in some ways my body felt felt better for a little bit of the time during that pregnancy, that sort of second trimester um where that volume and intensity was lower and I wasn't getting sore as much and joints were feeling pretty good. Um Yeah, I think I didn't answer your first question, you said,

Chad [10:29 - 10:40]
I think you did answer my first question because I I think I assume that your body was changing and your body was sore because of the body changes you are making not because of fitness because of the volume is fairly low.

Michelle [10:41 - 10:43]
Exactly, yes,

Chad [10:43 - 10:43]
I

Michelle [10:43 - 10:46]
definitely wasn't getting sore from workouts.

Chad [10:47 - 10:56]
I know you're a big proponent of recovery recovery mechanisms, were you adding anything in because of like just from the pregnancy perspective,

Michelle [10:57 - 11:45]
I was trying to keep up with my yoga, which was only once a week. Um but that did, I did lose that a little bit as my tummy got so big that I couldn't even bend over into certain positions. So I would say potentially that's an area of improvement, maybe a little bit for next time uh trying to find something that um that worked well, but I did I did enjoy sort of my nature walks and that was my way of um bringing things down, relaxing and enjoying sort of the outdoors, That's where I did most of my recovery, I would say

Chad [11:45 - 12:01]
cool um and I'm not trying to get through this whole thing quickly, but one of the fun questions obviously nutrition leading up to delivery um what was your what was your nutrition like? How can you sum it up? Like obviously

Michelle [12:01 - 12:02]
uh

Chad [12:02 - 12:12]
I mean you are a pretty clean eater, you're pretty strict, pretty structured with food, but obviously during that time it's very common not to be,

Michelle [12:13 - 12:21]
I was a first time pregnant person, so I was uh I think I had sarah on tech speed dial with every

Chad [12:21 - 12:22]
like

Michelle [12:22 - 13:01]
everything can I have this can I have that? I was pretty um cautious when it came to certain foods. Um And then Eating clean was definitely a priority for me. I did obviously still have my treats, I would say in general, the same sort of 80 20 principle that I that I have now was what I took into into that um obviously no alcohol and then I also cut out caffeine as well, so just for some added fun. Mhm. Okay,

Chad [13:02 - 13:03]
so

Michelle [13:03 - 13:06]
in general, I didn't have to do,

Chad [13:07 - 13:07]
you

Michelle [13:08 - 13:11]
didn't have to make too much, too many changes. Yeah,

Chad [13:11 - 13:12]
good for you.

Michelle [13:12 - 13:13]
Yeah,

Chad [13:14 - 13:20]
no, like no common craving patterns that you were only

Michelle [13:20 - 14:26]
in the first trimester, luckily that was short lived, but I couldn't eat, I couldn't stomach greens. So like eating vegetables, I couldn't eat vegetables. And I was freaking out because I like, if I have to go this whole pregnancy, like, how am I gonna get nutrients to this baby? Like I need to eat my vegetables. And I just I couldn't, I wanted like I remember stopping in the first little bit to get bagels, like a bag of bagels, and I wanted uh just fruit, all the fruit, like my mouth was so dry, I just needed to like get in like watermelon, watermelon, watermelon, and then all of a sudden trimester too, and it was like gone, gone, I could eat anything, luckily the vegetables are back, thank goodness. Um and I was able to just uh eat normally. So besides the first trimester, no serious cravings beyond my normal, you know, ice cream and cake cravings that I always have.

Chad [14:27 - 14:47]
Um And then I also heard that you had like a full out like labor fueling plan for the day of the delivery. Like we're talking like endurance structured fueling plan for the day. Did coach A. D. J. I

Michelle [14:47 - 16:00]
was looking into it and looking at you know what's what we beneficial like this could be a long day, like how do I stay? But because we're so used to it, especially with him doing like his his endurance stuff now like those are long uh long time domains and it's like okay well I could be in a long time domain to like how do I stay fueled? So we've got this whole, we had this whole um Plan with like a 200 cal per hour of what I needed to take. Uh We had some bars in there, we had power balls, we had granola, we had our f two seat. We had we had our like, oh so we had our carb drink, we had uh we had everything in there. Um And then I get to the hospital and after all of the fun stuff leading up to it, I'm in the hospital. And Because there's some sort of 1% chance I'm going to have a C section, I can't have any of this food. So it's like we bring all

Chad [16:00 - 16:01]
this stuff.

Michelle [16:01 - 16:41]
The plans out the window. They won't let you adam is freaking on the he's telling Sarah like get her this food yelling at her and we're like we can't we're not allowed. So I ended up having ah I had beef broth. They let me have beef broth. So I had that in in the cooler um ice cubes and apple juice. The apple juice. What I was trying to get was my my carbs in there. But yes we had this whole plan laid out, we called it the labor fueling plan 200 cows per hour and

Chad [16:41 - 16:42]
we

Michelle [16:42 - 16:45]
didn't get to use idea but unfortunately we were well prepared.

Chad [16:45 - 16:54]
So prepared. Were you actually feeling at the time that you wanted to inhale all this? Because at the time like I've also heard where people just don't want to see food during that time.

Michelle [16:55 - 16:57]
I could have definitely

Chad [16:57 - 16:58]
had

Michelle [16:58 - 17:27]
some. Even if it was the carb drink like I needed, it was a long day. Um It was a lot of exertion like I needed I needed some. Yeah. Yes I I I could have, especially early on like I was in there at starting at nine a.m. And I couldn't, she wasn't born until nine p.m. Like I could have had some food so

Chad [17:28 - 17:31]
I don't want to talk about all the details with the delivery

Michelle [17:31 - 17:33]
itself. But how

Chad [17:33 - 17:39]
would you how would you summarize that day or you know that event

Michelle [17:40 - 18:21]
actually I just did a post recently on instagram. Talking about how it was like the hardest, I would say physically and mentally hardest thing uh sort of athletic event that I've ever had to do um laboring naturally with a induction, the pain was pretty intense and the breathing and the mindset to get through. That was something like I've never had to experience before. So it was hard. Sorry?

Chad [18:21 - 18:22]
Okay,

Michelle [18:23 - 18:25]
we'll have to get sarah to give you the full scoop

Chad [18:25 - 18:30]
on the

Michelle [18:30 - 18:30]
and

Chad [18:30 - 18:36]
then I was gonna ask you because we've had um we've talked about pelvic floor therapy on the podcast before

Michelle [18:36 - 18:36]
actually,

Chad [18:36 - 18:46]
I should remember the episode um but go back and find it. Um were you doing pelvic floor therapy ahead of?

Michelle [18:47 - 19:44]
Yes, good question. Uh carry a body in motion. Um that's who I saw for public floor, we had a full plan from 12 weeks on um where she gets you uh already make sure your floor is good. Um and then at the end uh they, what she does is try and try and make room for the baby and hopefully help you not to tear in the delivery. So I did a lot of work for that. Unfortunately all that work was thrown up the drain in terms of that part of it because I ended up having an episiotomy. So I got cut anyways um but all part of the fun, you never know preparation the preparation was there and uh I did all of the other um pelvic pelvic floor stuff that I needed to do and court work with her as well.

Chad [19:45 - 19:48]
So basically

Michelle [19:48 - 20:11]
she guided me through the whole pregnancy in terms of um helping me with some of the exercises I should I shouldn't be do and then building in um building and trying to keep that core strength up. Um when you can't do the the usual the usual exercises

Chad [20:12 - 20:25]
and since we're on the topic like how how you've since reintroduced some of that sort of work, have you gone back to see them? Is that is that as important after as it is before?

Michelle [20:27 - 20:31]
Yes, if not more, if not more.

Chad [20:31 - 20:34]
It's been a while since the podcast. So

Michelle [20:34 - 20:35]
yeah, my

Chad [20:35 - 21:19]
public floor therapy notes. Okay, so so you you made it through the labor maddie is here. Um how and I knowing you, a person that loves to be active and loves do um practice fitness from uh were you mentally kind of um struggling with not being able to do fitness or how long did it take you to get back into doing something that you can classify as fitness, whether it's walking or something that like obviously she's there things are new things are busy priority is her. Were you mentally struggling with not being able to kind of do the fitness stuff?

Michelle [21:21 - 22:12]
Um I don't think I was mentally struggling in terms of what you might think like uh it was, I didn't realize until this time period how much of how much fitness and being able to exercise affects your, the mental side of your mental clarity. Um I didn't, I didn't realize it was an outlet for me for stress relief or anxiety or anything like that. Um and during this time period, having that sort of taken away completely uh gave me a little bit more understanding as to how important my fitness is for for that side of things, for

Chad [22:12 - 22:17]
sure. So you did, you didn't notice it was gone?

Michelle [22:20 - 22:44]
Yes. Yes. Yes. I had a lot of uh well there were, there were a lot of different factors um that kind of led me to having some anxiety. Um and fitness was just a way that I wasn't able to use in order to decrease that anxiety.

Chad [22:45 - 23:06]
And did you feel like after or even maybe before, like, like we said, you're very tune with your body. Like, did you ever feel like, did your body feel foreign to you in a way? Like whether it's just before or just after, like as your body was changing, did it ever feel sort of like this isn't me? Or like what is happening like

Michelle [23:07 - 26:02]
everyday, everyday postpartum um leading leading up to the labor delivery, I was 100% fine in terms of what everything was going on with my body. Um Obviously I had the, the scares every now and then of what's what's this, what's that um But all in all, I I was okay with it, um postpartum I had some elevated blood pressure, blood pressure issues which kind of in turn created a lot of anxiety about my overall health. Um There were, and there, so that first bit of postpartum uh so much is happening, your uh so much is going on with your breasts and the breast milk and and all of that stuff coming in and and happening and then your your uterus is trying to go back to its normal size and there's issues that are going on down there and then your uh bleeding in all of these things are um happening all at once and because I had this uh blood pressure issue, I did feel like at some points, I didn't know what the heck was going on in my with my my body, I felt like every um every little thing that came up, if I had a little pain in my chest, I thought I was gonna have a heart attack and like, there were little things that went on, I I lied in bed at night and my body felt like it was just shaking um and I couldn't even get to sleep because I thought something something bad was going to happen, so it was, I honestly, to this day, I don't know if it was the Anxiety that caused the sort of blood pressure issue or the blood pressure issue caused the anxiety. Um I'm not 100% sure um but it definitely sort of have it on my havoc on my mental ability of feeling all of the fields in my in my body and I didn't know what was what and it caused a lot of a lot of anxious moments definitely for throughout the first three months and and not really didn't fix itself until I would say at least six months in,

Chad [26:02 - 26:22]
wow. So I was gonna ask like how long that was, how long it was happening. So like um obviously the the what is like the recovery time for the basic stuff at recovering like do they give you like a six week or like an eight week thing? Like what's the basic recovery before you can start? You know

Michelle [26:22 - 26:50]
six weeks? They say like I even got that six weeks, okay you're good to go like you can get a full all clear at the six week mark for every I mean if you have certain issues you you do need to follow up with like I had to follow up with my doctor with my blood pressure stuff. But in terms of fitness if if you aren't going to a pelvic floor physio you can go nuts.

Chad [26:51 - 26:57]
That's crazy. You know. Did you at six weeks? What did you did you feel like

Michelle [26:58 - 28:06]
I couldn't even I could barely walk like I yeah no at the six week mark um I still had so much pelvic, so much pressure down there, like running wasn't even a consider consideration. Uh My episiotomy, the scar was still healing. Um And I was still actually getting some uh bleeding at this time and then tack on hemorrhoids for that and uh than a weak pelvic floor. Like there's so much stuff that needs to be sort of monitored and at the six week mark and every, don't get me wrong, everybody is different. Every labor, labor and delivery is different. Um But I truly believe that at the six week mark there needs to be a lot more um done for women um to make sure they're ready to return to activity.

Chad [28:07 - 28:18]
Gotcha. So would you say up until the six week mark, you were pretty much just, you know, basic stuff like walking was your sort of level of exercise for a little bit here and there. And then after

Michelle [28:18 - 28:20]
that,

Chad [28:20 - 28:21]
yeah,

Michelle [28:21 - 28:59]
walking. I started uh basically I remember the first time going down the driveway and just around our court and that was it. That's where I started out. I couldn't even that was that was it then the next, the next day or every every other day. Um I went to ST farther and then a street farther. One day I went to ST farther, it was too much and I had and I had to back off. So I kind of tried to increase a little bit, a little bit at a time, but that definitely started uh very, very, very short walk for my first one was

Chad [28:59 - 29:00]
that frustrating for you.

Michelle [29:02 - 29:33]
Uh Yes, I remember I had a panic call to my uh carry my pelvic floor physio and I'm like, I need to do something like, like I did a virtual call because I was like, I need to get in to see her carrie, please help me like, what can I do at this point? At this point I needed help with my anxiety. It was and I said, and she basically told me no, straight

Chad [29:33 - 29:34]
up, straight up,

Michelle [29:34 - 29:44]
no, if you are feeling all of these things, we went through the checklist, No, sorry, so I'm very thankful for her in hindsight at the time, I probably wasn't

Chad [29:44 - 29:45]
sure so

Michelle [29:45 - 29:47]
happy,

Chad [29:48 - 29:56]
but like isn't like um usually swimming is a good re rehab for this, like was swimming when it was swimming added

Michelle [29:57 - 30:25]
yes, so I can't remember, it was probably, I think it was from that call that Kerry said, okay, you can potentially try and add in swimming. So uh that was, I was, I actually, I don't know if it was that soon, but anyways, I started swimming and that was fun in itself,

Chad [30:26 - 30:28]
was it successful for you?

Michelle [30:30 - 31:44]
It became successful. Um the first, the first time I got in that pool one, my my anxiety was through the roof, if you have anxiety and then put the anxiety underwater, you're trying to breathe underwater. Um The anxiety got worse and I just was you can feel everything more in your body and uh I just had a lot of negative thoughts in terms of um once again like the heart attack and those sorts of things in the pool and then um I could barely push off the wall. I felt like I had absolutely no core. Um So basically the first time I think I was in the pool like 15 or 20 minutes and I had to get out and but I did every week, that was sort of my weekly fitness goal was to get in the pool and we kind of built up from built up from there. Um But it was a rough go for the first first, I would say month, month getting getting in that water every time

Chad [31:46 - 31:53]
you have such a heightened awareness of like you and yourself and like just like how like, do you think that uh

Michelle [31:53 - 31:54]
he was

Chad [31:54 - 31:56]
working against you at that time?

Michelle [31:59 - 32:29]
I don't know, I want to say no, I think, I don't know, it, I I really don't think it was like the feelings of my body, I think it was all what was happening um in my mind um Yeah, and that's something that I I didn't have the ability to manager. Yeah.

Chad [32:32 - 32:54]
And and so yeah, so like how long would you say, like, I guess my obvious question is how did you overcome this anxiety? Because it sounds like it was a significant part of the initial sort of first few months, Like how long did you move through this? And then how what were the things that you did to overcome it or maybe you didn't overcome it yet?

Michelle [32:55 - 34:33]
Mhm. Um I would say yes, six months was kind of the, it did go hand in hand with um my blood pressure and taking the blood pressure medication that was causing me um a lot of anxiety. Um But six months was, and I was expecting it was I'm like, gosh, I'm doing the right things, like I'm taking all of the steps for this to get better and then it was just being the same and then I was getting more anxious because things weren't getting better and um luckily I had some uh carry my physio plus um I chatted a little bit with gen uh dr jen about it and they kinda helped me through it a little bit um basically saying that it's going to take a lot longer than us than I anticipated. Um and then jen reassured me that I wasn't going to die when I saw what I thought I was um So 6, 6 months is kind of how long it took to sort of get past the initial high, very high anxiety and then I would say the next few months to sort of pull it pull it all sort of back together until I felt somewhat back to normal in terms of mindset.

Chad [34:35 - 34:47]
And would you say with like, did you feel like this was like like the anxiety, did you feel like it was like, was it scary because it felt like it wasn't you or you couldn't control it?

Michelle [34:48 - 35:00]
Yeah, it was very scary. Yeah, it was, it was like, yeah, I was a different person pretty much, that's what it felt like half the time.

Chad [35:01 - 35:02]
Yes sir.

Michelle [35:03 - 35:03]
Yes

Chad [35:03 - 35:11]
sir, I mean I'm no I'm no doctor, so like trying to come up with like there's

Michelle [35:11 - 35:13]
so much the postpartum hormones

Chad [35:13 - 35:15]
and

Michelle [35:16 - 35:20]
yeah there are so many factors, so many factors going on.

Chad [35:22 - 35:22]
So

Michelle [35:22 - 35:27]
yeah, the anxiety was the tough part of that six month process

Chad [35:28 - 35:41]
and so then I guess returning back to things that you can control, knowing you nutrition recovery in the first three months was probably a massive, well a massive plan priority.

Michelle [35:43 - 36:58]
Yeah. Yeah, this one was, I'm not gonna say fun, but we prepped a lot of dinners beforehand so that we we had them ready and available. Uh thank goodness because life was an absolute gong show as You know with two kids uh and we had some help from my mom and Adam's mom sort of helping with some of our meals, we definitely in terms of for the first three months um eating clean or like our typical dinners were sort of thrown out and we just, we ate a lot more I would say hardy um lot of carbohydrate potato based meals and especially for for lunch lunch as well, it was just whatever we can we made sure that we ate that was that was a key factor but we didn't worry about sort of the types of food or anything, it was just making sure we were getting in um getting in some nutrition

Chad [36:58 - 37:00]
basically.

Michelle [37:00 - 37:01]
And

Chad [37:01 - 37:02]
for me it

Michelle [37:02 - 38:11]
was survival mode and for me it was just getting in as many calories as I could um Including some snack plates overnight which kind of miss to this day. So the had you know all of the things it had nuts, it had grapes that had uh like I had little um ah what else did have granola on there? Um had a bunch of bunch of different things. Whenever I fed maddie I would eat a bunch of things from my snack snack plate. So not only was it was I eating throughout the day, I was just hammering back snacks throughout the night. Exactly, I was so hungry and uh it was my goal just to make sure I have enough breast milk for her. So I was eating as much as I could

Chad [38:11 - 38:15]
and you felt and you were just saying you're you're so hungry like you're pretty hungry. Yeah.

Michelle [38:15 - 38:27]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I wasn't forcing myself to eat the food that's for sure so that was kind of fun.

Chad [38:27 - 38:29]
Yeah Sounds like fun

Michelle [38:29 - 38:38]
place. I know it's not play that night. Um

Chad [38:38 - 38:51]
And like in regards to like so it sounds like you're getting enough salt with your snacks and other things. Like were you like ever like dehydrated or like were you like was there anything you were thinking

Michelle [38:51 - 38:52]
about

Chad [38:52 - 38:54]
like prioritizing other than just like getting food in

Michelle [38:55 - 39:23]
water? Water, water, water. Especially because I had the hem hemorrhoids. I was trying to as much as I could keep my stool as soft as possible. Plus with breastfeeding, water is important as well. So that was at night it was the plate of snacks plus my had to finish a water bottle sort of throughout the night and then I had my count of water bottles throughout the day.

Chad [39:24 - 39:26]
Gotcha. So

Michelle [39:26 - 39:34]
yeah, water was the other another big one and yeah, no caffeine. So

Chad [39:34 - 39:41]
yeah. Um did did you have any time for any recovery protocols that you did

Michelle [39:41 - 41:30]
before? I wouldn't say um did before. But this I this part of the process I did find overwhelming and I totally understand why moms neglect this part because you're forever doing something. So it was hard to fit it all in. But there were a bunch of things I started doing my pelvic floor exercises. Uh once I had um once, once I knew sort of what to do what to do when so that was part of what I had to do for my recovery um Kind of right away and then I tried to get as many sits back soon as I could um I don't know how much in depth you want but we needed I needed to do ice pads uh kind of keeping that cream on uh certain areas and uh definitely also my supplements I would say uh I was on as well so I met with my natural path postpartum and then working with the blood pressure and all of that stuff we made sure that we were on the right path in terms of supplements. So there are a lot of things on the agenda. I wouldn't say I got to them all but I definitely tried to prioritize my recovery um as much as I could. But yeah

Chad [41:31 - 41:31]
it

Michelle [41:31 - 41:32]
was hard.

Chad [41:32 - 41:49]
Yeah I mean I think any first time parent would say like the first three months are usually just like it's survival mode, it's a blur. There's really nothing that you're doing other than trying to make sure that this new human is arriving safely

Michelle [41:49 - 41:57]
living. Yes like I should have prepared so much more like you prepared

Chad [41:57 - 41:57]
for the

Michelle [41:57 - 42:18]
labor, you prepare for the labor for like that's only 11 day and then here I have this newborn and like thank goodness Sarah came home with me because like that it was just adam and me together I would we would Greg I wouldn't know what the heck to do.

Chad [42:18 - 42:25]
So luckily I had her for the first little bit. Yeah she's a pro that definitely was helpful.

Michelle [42:26 - 42:53]
Yes. Yes. Yeah so the first uh minimum first six weeks is a bit of a blur. But I sort of had a routine of uh when I was trying to get those um recovery recovery things in and whether it happened or not that was

Chad [42:54 - 42:55]
yeah

Michelle [42:55 - 42:56]
but I did try it as much as I could

Chad [42:57 - 43:27]
so then moving from like the first three months which is pretty much chaos into like the next few months. Like how are you, how are you feeling mentally, like you're still dealing with some of the anxiety, it's still kind of, would you say those next few months you were starting to think like okay I'm gonna get my fitness back, I'm gonna start like actively doing this or were you still sort of patiently later?

Michelle [43:28 - 43:36]
It was like okay I'm I'm in the 3 to 6 months, I should be like you know just flying here crushing life and I wasn't,

Chad [43:36 - 43:40]
some women jumped pretty quickly back into like normal life

Michelle [43:40 - 44:42]
right? I've seen and yeah and I and I've seen it and I just I wasn't I wasn't there mentally or physically um and that was that I would say maybe almost a 3 to 6 months could have been almost harder than the 0 to 3 because the zero, like the first three months is like it's supposed to be a gong show like you said it's survival mode, but then you get into a routine. Like Maddie was a pretty good sleeper, so she was sleeping well, like I'm getting some good sleep and yes things were improving, but I guess I just wanted, I wanted to be 100% and I was like I was putting in a lot of effort and I just wasn't there and that was very frustrating. That's why I felt like maybe I'm never going to feel normal again or or the way I used to. So this was a tough, yeah, a tough time period.

Chad [44:43 - 45:06]
Well you're a competitive person and you have high expectations for yourself, I mean you both do so I mean I'm not surprised. That's I mean not surprising, that's how you felt, but like you said before, like everyone's experience is unique to them. So it's like some people are gifted with, you know, a quick bounce back and then some are gifted with a little bit or not gifted with a little bit longer journey.

Michelle [45:07 - 45:17]
Yeah, just like our, our note we had of the labor fueling, we also had uh Michelle postpartum return to

Chad [45:17 - 45:18]
work out plan,

Michelle [45:18 - 45:48]
It was like this is what you're doing in the first month, this is what you're doing in the next and at six months and out the window, like it was gone er like it didn't even line up at all, so it's like you can plan and obviously I still use the concepts, I did the work, it was just uh not in the order or the timeline that I anticipated.

Chad [45:48 - 45:57]
I mean looking back on it, I mean you're a grinder in life and in sports, so I mean you just have to have the same sort of approach, you just grind it through it,

Michelle [45:58 - 46:02]
you know, you know, chad, sometimes I just want, you know, something to

Chad [46:02 - 46:02]
be,

Michelle [46:02 - 46:04]
not a grind,

Chad [46:04 - 46:06]
I get it, get it,

Michelle [46:06 - 46:23]
get it. But at uh at 18 weeks I did get the all clear from physio to um resume normal activities. So that was that was a good day, was and

Chad [46:23 - 46:33]
did you feel like you needed that sort of, did you feel like with your anxiety, did you feel like you needed that sort of official approval? More or less quote unquote.

Michelle [46:34 - 47:44]
Yes, not even so much from anxiety shirt when it came to uh my fitness and what I felt in the gym, I did have, I did have like mental control over that stuff like the movement. Um So I was able to like, no and make good judgment on what I shouldn't, shouldn't be doing. Um but it was more that I was able to get back to the things, some of the things that I love doing the, like it had been a long time since I had um done a group workout because I was pregnant and it was during Covid, So at the end of a long time, I haven't done a group workout. So um just being able to add those little things back back in on top of the exercise. Um was a game changer. The social was a nice, nice boost. Mm

Chad [47:44 - 47:45]
hmm. I can imagine.

Michelle [47:46 - 48:38]
Yeah. But yes, I needed, I wanted a third party to because you can, you can feel somewhat okay. I'm not an athlete who uh, feels good every day. Like I, I'm one of those people who there's always something that is nagging me and I never feel 100%. So for me, going into a workout, feeling 80% is like is normal day today. And I didn't want that to happen with my postpartum recovery. So sort of having that third party not only check externally, but also internally. So I knew exactly where I was at and I wanted to kind of do it the right way this time and not, and not rush back on anything.

Chad [48:39 - 48:57]
So how did, how did things start for you? So like your first workout back in the group, It's sort of just new and then from there you progress like how did you approach again going, knowing you had this plan? How did you approach it? Like what were the things that you were going to do to kind of get yourself back into sort of a full

Michelle [48:57 - 50:20]
group class. My plan was to fully come to the group workouts for me. Um Having the structure and the routine and the group environment motivates me a lot, so I know that so I didn't want to have to do my core work at home uh mixing it in at a certain time, I was I needed a a plan and a schedule, so I definitely um planned in my LP workouts uh so that I made sure I didn't little external accountability. Uh and then um any sort of any sort of core work that we had, I had my own core work that we did, um any exercise that didn't feel right or I was getting still any sort of um issues with abdominal separation I didn't do and I started with body weight and the first workout, I remember even just doing the warm up was a workout, just the warm up was a workout, so that was um that was fun. First day,

Chad [50:20 - 50:28]
were you were you coaching before you started coming? It's a pretty active jobs, like we already started coaching as well.

Michelle [50:28 - 50:39]
I was yes. Yes, yes, I I was I just wasn't able to demonstrate some of the exercises?

Chad [50:41 - 50:49]
Yeah, I mean, but still, I mean walking around on your feet coaching classes, imagine that would have prepped you a little bit as well,

Michelle [50:52 - 50:55]
yep, would

Chad [50:55 - 51:26]
you say it like this, you said you were sorry you were saying core exercises, you were kind of like modifying that sort of stuff, it feels like that's the right approach, but I also feel like just fitness society doesn't necessarily make that um like I feel like at six months women are working out sort of full throttle, like, is that something that is six months too early for most women?

Michelle [51:27 - 52:19]
Oh, I can't say that in terms of general, I can't make any sort of generalizations. Um like I mentioned before, every person, every labor, every delivery, every vaginal versus C such uh birth, there are so many factors that everyone is so unique, so I can't really make that blanket statement. Um But I did say it before in terms of there there does need to be more support and guidance in terms of that return to exercise, whether someone is ready to go at three months or six months, um They should know 100% that they're ready to go

Chad [52:19 - 52:20]
versus

Michelle [52:20 - 52:22]
kind of leaving it up to chance.

Chad [52:23 - 52:24]
Gotcha.

Chad [52:27 - 52:52]
Mhm. So yeah, so like you, you basically started, did you feel like this was like uh like you're brand new to this because it seems like you're out of it for quite a while because of covid because of being obviously there's, you know, a lot of months stacked up. Did you feel like this was really foreign to you? And it was like, I haven't worked out just like the first time I'm working out ever.

Michelle [52:54 - 54:09]
Um I wouldn't say it was foreign to me. Um but I would definitely say I was a beginner. Um and I as much as I didn't enjoy this process, I do believe that uh being a beginner and things um you know, it was, it was good for me, like I uh you get to understand what it's like to to come back again and and what is it, what is the struggle like for um some of our new members and how do they feel? And um there's just a lot more, there was a lot of empathy that came from my situation of being a beginner and starting from scratch and I realized how challenging it can be to to build that strength up and to learn the the movements and um it was, it was interesting that way and um I don't and won't take my fitness for granted

Chad [54:10 - 54:47]
that I mean, yeah, I mean that's amazing that that's something that you like lashed onto, because it's like, yeah, like how often do people get that sort of experience to kind of restart and really kind of, especially when you've been doing this for so long again, you're a high level athlete, you run a gym, you operate a gym, people are coming in and out of the door every day and yeah, like you're obviously you're over here, but you're getting people that are just starting so like that's pretty cool that you're able to kind of have that experience and then now sort of, I guess teach and coach and empathize with people that are going to

Michelle [54:47 - 55:21]
Yeah, like toast of art is a great example of an exercise. That was one of my best exercises, pre pregnancy and coming back, it's been a struggle with core strength and now I, I, I relate and I understand how it feels, I never had that experience before, so it's, it has been kind of neat to, to feel um, to feel these things in and truly understand that progression of exercise

Chad [55:22 - 55:40]
cool. And um, I was gonna ask you, did you they, how long did it take you to start feeling confident in the progress that you're making? Do you feel confident right away? Like, man, I'm gonna hit this, I'm riding a bike, I'm getting at it or like how did it feel for you to kind of build up that confidence

Michelle [55:41 - 57:19]
Scary at 1st, like I was nervous, I've never been here before, I was nervous, like if I push it, am I going to all of a sudden, like ruined my course. So I was very, um cautious at first and then and still being super cautious and maybe a bit too cautious and I had my last pelvic physio and Kerry said to me something, something, something like, okay, it's time to push it and see what your body can do. And I was like, and it was like just a switch that I needed that push to be like, okay, I'm ready, You know, like she has given me that just confidence that I could sort of test the waters, okay, we've done all we need to do, the body is ready. Okay, let's let's try it. So that was, that was sort of right before I did the, I did an online competition in um sort of a scale division just to get my feet wet and just to start, actually not just because at that particular time that was where I was at in terms of my fitness with with the skills, so it was perfect. Um but it was a way to push the intensity a little bit and uh kind of gave me that kick start back into hm progressing, I would say

Chad [57:19 - 57:21]
being on the podium adds a little confidence to

Michelle [57:22 - 57:28]
yes, okay, it's not, yes, yes,

Chad [57:28 - 57:29]
yeah, so then

Michelle [57:29 - 57:31]
yes, that gave me

Chad [57:31 - 57:32]
um

Michelle [57:32 - 57:39]
and I'm a competitive person, so it was a good push to yeah, see what I had,

Chad [57:40 - 57:43]
that's great. Um

Michelle [57:44 - 57:45]
I

Chad [57:45 - 57:49]
was gonna ask, how long were the snacks snack plates happening,

Michelle [57:49 - 57:50]
were

Chad [57:50 - 57:50]
they still happening at this

Michelle [57:50 - 58:14]
point? Well, no, I don't think so, I think they're still happening. No, uh snack plates, I think as soon as Maddy was sleeping through the night and I wasn't breast feeding in the middle of the night, snack plates unfortunately were gone. Um

Chad [58:14 - 58:15]
but

Michelle [58:15 - 58:52]
gone, they were gone at that 3-6 months, probably just at the starter midpoint start with that. Um but the hearty meals, like still, we were still, yes, we were a little bit more structure, We had a little bit more, it wasn't so much of a just try and survive phase. Um So we were eating a little bit better, but I was eating um fueling sort of as much as I could in terms of the day um Keeping myself satisfied for sure. I guess I jumped into the 6-9,

Chad [58:53 - 58:53]
6 to 9

Michelle [58:54 - 58:54]
fitness.

Chad [58:54 - 58:57]
No, that's cool. That's totally cool.

Michelle [58:58 - 58:58]
But

Chad [58:58 - 59:10]
yeah, like would you say Sort of nine months after would you say you're now nine months after? Like where you at?

Michelle [59:11 - 59:23]
It was like, honestly, I don't know what it is, but it was like nine months hit and it was just like something changed in my brain and I felt tremendously better,

Chad [59:24 - 59:25]
my

Michelle [59:25 - 59:39]
anxiety had decreased. Um I felt confident in my body again and uh it was just like myself was sort of coming back.

Chad [59:40 - 59:46]
So would you say it took, it took you like nine months to get, like that was really the length of time it took you,

Michelle [59:48 - 59:51]
It took me nine months to fully sort of recover

Chad [59:52 - 59:52]
then

Michelle [59:52 - 59:58]
obviously there's still things that I'm Recovering from. But yes, nine months,

Chad [59:58 - 59:59]
I mean, yeah,

Michelle [59:59 - 60:01]
like myself again,

Chad [60:01 - 60:33]
you'll always be a different person now, but cool and so like the anxiety is gone fitness is, is getting back to what you're used to is like the nutrition I guess at this point, like, have you ever, like, it's one of the common questions probably people are thinking like, did you ever think about like I need to get my you know quote unquote body back? Like did that ever that ever that thought process for women? Like did I ever come into play? Is it at all in your head now

Michelle [60:33 - 61:15]
or I did not. Um The maybe the anxiety played a positive um aspect to this one because all I was concerned about during the time was making sure that Madison had enough food and that I was making enough milk for her. So that that feeling that I had maybe just want to eat um eat for her. And it wasn't I never really thought about um compromising that

Chad [61:15 - 61:29]
I mean the anxiety could have flipped on that to the right because it could be like so much, but then it's like also like, oh I can't because my body is not where it was, but there was but you didn't set any expectations for yourself.

Michelle [61:30 - 61:32]
Ah In terms of

Chad [61:32 - 61:33]
like when I

Michelle [61:33 - 62:34]
tell you, I have like the document of my comeback plan uh body image is not something that is that was on there. Um until just recently um sort of that 9, 10 10 month mark. I have placed a little bit more emphasis on uh nutrition and eating a little bit more um macro based um and performance based. Uh I was waiting until Madison was eating solids um just in case it had any effect on my uh milk supply? Um So I've just recently started over the last six weeks um Kind of that nine month, nine month mark, thinking about nutrition and being a little bit more strict.

Chad [62:36 - 62:39]
Okay. Yeah,

Michelle [62:39 - 62:47]
so nine months kind of of eating intuitively.

Chad [62:48 - 63:05]
Okay, so it sounds like at this point like you're back to like what most people listening that no, you would say this is like Michelle, that Michelle is ready to, she's jumping in the gym, she's conquering the day, she's looking to crush life. She's joining competition. She's got nutrition like this is where you're at right now.

Michelle [63:07 - 63:45]
Yes. Yes. It's still like there's still a lot of improvements or uh I still a lot of growth to happen in terms of getting back to where, where I was with fitness um Because I am still seeing which is kind of fun uh seeing like progress almost week by week, still a little bit on certain things. Um So that's always fun to see um which you don't you don't always get

Chad [63:46 - 64:03]
what what's what's hard, what have you found harder Strength, like getting your strength back up or more about like your endurance, your heart rate, the ability to kind of do a 40 minute, 20 minute workout, like what's been harder for you?

Michelle [64:04 - 64:05]
Um surprisingly the

Chad [64:05 - 64:07]
strength,

Michelle [64:07 - 64:23]
even even though usually um aerobic conditioning stuff is usually harder for me? Uh the strength is taking, it's taking its time, would

Chad [64:23 - 64:43]
you say with the strength, like, are you, do you feel like you've lost a lot of strength or it's just like, it's, it's slowly progressing, like, are you looking at percentages and like how are you trying to get, like you're just saying, progressing? Like, are you looking at percentages of what you're hitting to kind of get back to your, you know, your your previous

Michelle [64:44 - 65:59]
um in terms of strength, what I've been doing is I did, I do I did do in that competition, we did do a little bit of sort of one rep maxes. Um So I did have an understanding of where I was at, so all of my current strength work is based off of, is based off of that. Um and I'm staying at that percentage probably for a while. Um and then in terms of skills and all of that stuff, it's, my, my goal was to add in a little bit more each week um and sort of have a steady, steady incline of growth on all of the skills, but I did have one minor setback with my shoulder where uh it was a Tuesday one day, all of a sudden there was Chester bars and I did all of them and the next day I couldn't even move my arm, it was so bad, I've never actually felt like that before. I literally couldn't lift my arm dot Kyle to the rescue, so it was a

Chad [65:59 - 66:00]
slap in the face.

Michelle [66:00 - 66:31]
Great. Great reminder. Hey, you're not ready for high volume yet. Like you need to, yes, you're feeling better, but there still needs to be a week over week increase in volume. You can't just go from, yes, I'm feeling good to all of a sudden bam. Here we are. Right. So, um, yes, it was a setback, but it was also a good reminder of, okay, you know, you just, you still need to build up week by week. You're not, you're not at LP volume yet.

Chad [66:31 - 66:57]
I mean, that's, that's the common culprit, right? It's a high volume. Anything really like, it's like anybody that's joining a gym should really question. I mean, I think most, most coaches and I would say LP does a good job to like most crossfit coaches or most coaches in general know this like you can't just walk into the gym and do 30 or 40 pull ups or 30 or 40 presses, like the volume is just like, that's where you get into trouble. For

Michelle [66:57 - 67:15]
sure, for sure. Yeah, the volume and the scale. So if I did, if I did the same amount of pull ups, I might have been fine. It was just the scale and so it's hard to, it's hard to say. But

Chad [67:15 - 67:25]
Even 40 bodyweight, inverted rows, like off the street. That seems like a lot too. But yeah, you're right. You don't know, I mean chest tomorrow. Yes, for sure.

Michelle [67:26 - 67:29]
Yeah, It's a little bit more pull.

Chad [67:29 - 67:31]
You were baited by somebody.

Michelle [67:32 - 68:05]
I just myself, you know, and I love the group, but once in a while, you know, that's what's hard about coming back from injury or anything like this is like it can suck you in and it sucked me in that day just because I not because like Amy and I were side by side, but I was, we were not, She's far from someone who wants to, yeah. Who wants to crush me and my work my workout, right? We're just doing it together And yeah,

Chad [68:05 - 68:06]
I wanted to

Michelle [68:06 - 68:11]
finish the problem was I wanted to try and finish it in the time capsule. So that's the issue. I

Chad [68:11 - 68:17]
think overall. Yeah. I mean you set challenges for yourself. You got to kind of the total you.

Michelle [68:17 - 68:22]
Exactly. And and I, I learned it was a great reminder.

Chad [68:24 - 68:25]
So I wanted to,

Michelle [68:26 - 68:26]
I

Chad [68:26 - 68:45]
want to ask so strength. Like what would you say the difference is, let's just take like, uh, like a, like a clean, like your max clean before to what you're doing now? Like would you say like for your squat and your bench and you're dead. Like would you say it's a significant difference of weight or would you say your,

Michelle [68:46 - 68:55]
I would know well let's say to a month ago, maybe two a month and a half ago. I was at about 85

Chad [68:55 - 68:57]
percent

Michelle [68:57 - 69:05]
of my strength. So let's say today I would probably be go ahead. You're getting pretty close.

Michelle [69:08 - 69:10]
Yeah, 85%, 90

Chad [69:11 - 69:12]
percent.

Michelle [69:12 - 69:22]
I would say That 10-15% still feels like a lot of course right now. Um but it doesn't sound like a lot.

Chad [69:22 - 69:27]
I'm just trying to the time when I can come and see the moment, you know, when you come back stronger than

Michelle [69:27 - 69:28]
I

Chad [69:28 - 69:29]
just waiting for that.

Michelle [69:29 - 69:31]
I don't know, I don't,

Chad [69:32 - 69:33]
you know,

Michelle [69:33 - 69:38]
and I know what it's like what is the goal?

Chad [69:39 - 69:39]
I

Michelle [69:39 - 69:42]
don't know. That's what Yeah,

Chad [69:44 - 70:10]
and I mean, yeah, like I mean I mean I'm biased but like you the you were the chosen does competition this past week. Like you crushed it. Like it didn't. I know some of the fans were saying, you know, you're you're nursing maddie and then you're on the competition floor. It's pretty cool. I mean that's such a cool, it must be, I don't know if you if you realize that now, maybe you look back on it when you're a little older, but like it's pretty cool to have that experience that you can do those two things. Like

Michelle [70:10 - 71:13]
it's funny that you say that because previous like I had to nurse when I did the bike of that half Iron man dis at barrel man. I had a nurse sir before and then right after and at the time it was like a grind and you know, I was I was exhausted. And and what was cool about saturday was that I could actually like, take it in. I remember going to the bathroom, so it's funny you bring this up. I was going to the bathroom, I was just sitting there and I was like, you know what they're this might be, Yeah, I don't know how many, you know how, how many more times I get to do this with her and just enjoy it. Like, take it in this, you might not be able to experience this ever again. So, that was kind of a cool moment. Um, to think about that and to actually be present, present for it because I wasn't really present or I didn't allow myself to enjoy it before.

Chad [71:13 - 71:35]
Right, right now, it's amazing. I mean, and I completely forgot about your sort of, your team relay. Like, I think you skipped over. I mean, you've you've done the half Ironman team relay, you've done a scaled crossfit competition, You did another scale online, intermediate competition and in person crossfit competition been pretty busy. That's a lot.

Michelle [71:38 - 71:39]
Yeah, I mean, for

Chad [71:39 - 71:41]
us, was that part of the plan?

Michelle [71:42 - 71:42]
Those

Chad [71:42 - 71:43]
four things?

Michelle [71:44 - 71:54]
I would say the uh, the intermediate one that I just did online, that wasn't, but I got free entry, so that was kind of

Chad [71:54 - 71:56]
um, I

Michelle [71:56 - 72:05]
might sign me up, might as well do it. Um, So, yeah, I would say, yeah, they were all part of the plan.

Chad [72:06 - 72:19]
Like, did you did, I mean, I think I know the answer to this, but everybody else like you use those things to hold you accountable so that you could progress Yes. Were those things built in for you so that you can get outside the

Michelle [72:19 - 72:49]
gym? Yeah. Also some tests in terms to see exactly where where I am and what I need to sort of focus on. Yeah, that's what I like about the crossfit Thompson. Um I was able to do the scale and then the intermediate and then the in person with a partner. Like it's a nice way to sort of build up that fitness while having fun.

Chad [72:52 - 73:06]
I was gonna ask you a question tough question to answer overall. Do you feel this was more of a physical test versus a mental test. Can you pick one

Michelle [73:06 - 73:08]
the whole nine months,

Chad [73:08 - 73:13]
this whole thing I guess. I don't know. I don't know if you can summarize that or maybe it's different, maybe absent flows for you don't

Michelle [73:13 - 73:47]
know physical, it's hard to say because For for six months of the last 18 months was very, very, very mental from the physical. Um like I said, my pregnancy, I felt really good um in terms of like my mindset and everything. So I'm gonna go with physical challenge.

Chad [73:47 - 73:55]
No, this has been great Michelle, thank you so much for sharing your story. I think many people will find it quite inspiring. It is

Michelle [73:55 - 73:56]
inspiring. Thank

Chad [73:56 - 73:58]
you.

Michelle [73:59 - 74:08]
Women's postpartum experience as long as your character. Yeah, no, seriously like to actually want to have a podcast.

Chad [74:09 - 74:26]
I think it is interesting. I think I do find these stories interesting. I do think we have, we need to we need to share this stuff more. We, like you said before, like there needs to be more support, maybe this is a very little support we can provide,

Michelle [74:26 - 75:10]
it is getting better when we first started, started the gym and when um our members were having babies at that time, pelvic floor wasn't even a thought. So over the last Last little bit here last 10 years there has been a lot of progress with pelvic floor and post part of support and health and I'm hoping that things are only gonna get better moving forward. I think we just need to uh we have that sort of public for help now, we need to combine the public for

Chad [75:10 - 75:11]
personal training,

Michelle [75:11 - 75:17]
fitness sort of aspect. I had to have a full well rounded

Chad [75:17 - 75:24]
solution, maybe that's where you come in maybe, but

Michelle [75:24 - 75:27]
that's what I think the next step

Chad [75:27 - 75:36]
needs to be okay and it was a great idea. Thank you very much. Thanks everyone for listening.