Recently, while talk­ing with some moms in our post­par­tum exer­cise class, DTP’s Mom-Baby Fit­ness™ pro­gram, I real­ized it has been a while since I have addressed the notion of what we call “the 3rd body.” This stems from the idea that before you are preg­nant, you live in your 1st body; then, while preg­nant, you live in your 2nd body. After giv­ing birth, many women feel their options are to try to get their first body back or live in what they are left with after birth. We sug­gest another way:  cre­ate your 3rd body.

We dis­cov­ered this 3rd body in work­ing with women to gain the fit­ness nec­es­sary to have a healthy recov­ery and enjoy moth­er­hood. What we found was that women were often becom­ing more fit than they had been before preg­nancy, with less body fat and more mus­cle, yet their clothes did not fit the same.  Some­times the flar­ing of the ribs and/or hip bones made for a larger waist – despite less fat!

Many clients also feel a new, deeper sense of their core devel­oped. In fact, over time they real­ized they actu­ally liked this body bet­ter in some ways! After all, they came into the world with the pre-pregnancy body, but this body they actu­ally cre­ated out of the pro­found expe­ri­ence of the phys­i­cal self that preg­nancy and birth pro­vide. It extended the empow­er­ment of birth into motherhood.

Extend­ing this metaphor even fur­ther, of course, leads to the 4th and 5th bod­ies, if you have another child. Even­tu­ally, there are more bod­ies as women go through per­i­menopause, menopause, post menopause, and what I like to call the phe­nom­e­nal wis­dom stage. Each body rep­re­sents a new oppor­tu­nity to become some­one strong and profound.

I fig­ure I am to body #8 now, and in each stage I have found some­thing incred­i­ble that I could not have at other stages. Long ago I gave up look­ing for my past bod­ies. Each one has been bril­liant in some way, but in the end it had to be left behind if I was to enjoy life’s path to the fullest.

Liv­ing in the moment does require know­ing where you are in time, space and energy. So, dis­card your past bod­ies with delight and move on. Use your energy to cre­ate your­self in the present.

It’s a process and you won’t fully live in your next body until you own the toll of the last one. A post­par­tum mom may expe­ri­ence hair loss, big­ger feet, a mal-aligned spine, con­stant thirst if she is breast­feed­ing, exhaus­tion and a jelly belly. But, all these things will pass with time, if you eat right and exer­cise reg­u­larly. Oh, and you can bring the baby, who will have a blast meet­ing other babies!!