As you should be able to tell from my last post about Edinburgh Parkrun, I enjoy running! I can’t pretend that I have ever been particularly fast or have won many prizes, but I found it a great way to keep fit and meet up with friends.
I’m very lucky that aside from the renowned marathon festival, there are events throughout the year in Edinburgh of a variety of length which helped to keep me motivated.
However, after having Thomas I’ve been very unsure exactly where to start in terms of getting back into fitness. With Katie, I began by just walking everywhere and then joined a group fitness class before building up to longer distance running. That may be something I do again in the future, but for now, Thomas screams when I put him in the pram and in reality I’m not walking everywhere because I have Katie in tow.
Walking with Katie cannot really be described as walking. It’s more like a slow, meandering guided tour of wherever we are. Often she sings about our surrounding or makes acute observations, which whilst cute has the potential for great embarrassment:
‘Hello, man with beard.’ Katie sings. ‘That man has a big bottom!’ In more of a shout than whisper.
I usually try to smile apologetically and distract her by jumping in a puddle or something, but I cannot pretend to be exercising anything other than my patience.
I also thought about trying to find online videos or advice on fitness websites but have really found a huge mixture of conflicting advice, including a lot about wearing corsets: there is no chuffing way!
There is also a lot about dieting to achieve a ‘flat belly’, for example advice about avoiding all carbohydrates at breakfast or just having juice. But this directly contradicts everything I’ve read about a healthy diet for breast feeding so I’m certainly not going down that street either.
On a more serious note, I’m also aware that my stomach muscles separated during pregnancy, a very common condition called diastasis recti, and I’m keen not to exacerbate the problem. This is only meant to be an issue if the gap remains more than 2cm and it can often lessen in the months after pregnancy, however some degree of gap can often remain up to a year and beyond. I’ve read that ‘certain’ exercises can help with the healing process but the I’m not really sure what those exercises are or what advice to trust!
I don’t have any illusions that I’m going to have anything approaching a toned middrift in the next few months (I’m not sure I ever had) but I am keen to get back to a fair level of fitness in order to beat my PB at parkrun. That means having core strength.
It’s for all these reasons, I was keen to get some extra help. So when I saw Susan’s post on Edinburgh Gossip girls (a very useful Facebook group) advertising her personal training business – Streamline PT – I decided to investigate a bit further.
After looking at her website, and checking out her qualifications, I got in touch and arranged to meet up to chat a bit more about what I was looking for and to learn a bit more about how she works:
I was impressed that she seems to have a very sensible approach to health and fitness, amongst other things she was keen to check that I have been eating right and was in a place to start working out again (I am and have been given the go ahead by my doctor). Susan told me that her approach wasn’t to shout at me or push me to the point of hurting myself as that wouldn’t do me any good in the long run and would be useless given that I have kids to look after! She was also more than willing to share proof of her qualifications and her insurance – which I feel is a good indication of an honest and open approach and importantly, proof that she knows what she is talking about!
Additionally she also had testimonials as evidence she had worked with clients with similar concerns to mine.
We also talked about the importance of fitness for the whole family and setting an expectation for the children to follow. With that in mind, Susan was more than happy to come to my house for sessions and for the kids to be there too. This is doubly helpful because it is easier to schedule and at present I don’t like to leave Thomas for any stretch of time.
I’m super excited about our first session this week and about sharing my future progress in blog posts to come.
This is not a sponsored post – I simply responded to Susan’s Facebook advert. But if anyone reading is interested her ‘Christmas offer’ is still on!
Streamline Personal Training is offering 6 x 45 minute sessions for £172. To book a free consultation session or to discuss further details contact Susan on 07954163994 or email: susan@streamlinept.co.uk
