Skinny Fat.

Question of the day...Are you skinny fat?

One of my best girlfriends, Kelly, that you'll be hearing a lot about in this blog is 29 years old, married and just had her first baby. A beautiful girl named Chloe Marion. You see, Kelly is one of the many of us out there that have children or will eventually have children and battle this thing that she so elegantly refers to as being "skinny fat".

Before Kelly had her daughter she was in pretty good shape. She's 5'6" and weighed about 115 pounds (if you're rolling your eyes you should know I am too just writing this because I will never weigh anywhere near that). She hit the gym a few times a week, took yoga from time to time and indulged in her favorite weekend ritual with her husband, Dave... walks in Central Park. Not to mention she is a New Yorker if you haven't already figured that out so all things considered, I would label her as an active human being.

Kelly had very smooth pregnancy, still trying to cram the ocassional workout in from time to time as her belly grew and as she searched for the balance of becoming a mother and managing her demanding professional career in advertising sales. She was that girl that everyone raved about with her long strawberry blonde hair, fun but conservative fashion sense and her lovable personality.

After Chloe was born, Kelly did what anyone could have predicted. She poured her heart into her daughter and became super mommy still working full time and going home every evening to squeeze in as much time with her daughter before bedtime. Working out quickly became a thing of the past and for the first six months wasn't something she even thought much about.

Kelly chose to breast feed and as a result her baby weight fell off faster than the weight I try to loose after I go on a vacation where I indulge on margaritas, cheese dip, dessert and lattes every day. I'm not kidding, it was like someone snapped there fingers and did a magic trick on her belly --- weight be gone!

So as you can imagine Kelly looks good on the outside and receives compliment after compliment about how amazing she looks after having her first child. But what everyone doesn't know is that she's recently started complaining to me about her posture, her lack of energy and how she feels like she's in a constant slump.

We've decided together that she will take baby steps to change this. Priority number one is being a good mom and that doesn't have to change. Priority number two isn't curretly but should be her health. And priority number three is her career. Sometimes it's so easy to get these things mixed up. So she's going to start focusing on things that she can cut out or small changes she can make in her schedule to fit in a few workouts during the week. We've decided togehter this doesn't have to be dramatic, depressing or something she dreads. Some of the ideas we came up where early morning workouts. I even offered to get my lazy butt out of bed to meet her for walks in the park. Potentially working out at lunch is a good option or after Chloe is in bed at night.

It won't be easy but taking it one step at a time and not beating herself up if she doesn't fit in physical activity one day will lead to a better outlook on life. She'll find herself with more energy which in turn will affect everyone around her, including Chloe.

I'd love to hear your stories on how you managed to avoid becoming skinny fat. With or without baby. We can all learn from each other on this one!

Signing off Almost Skinny,
Renee Brennan