Like most women, I will admit that I have had ‘one of those days’. You know, the one where you look in the mirror and pick yourself apart. I have always tried to stay in shape and when I became pregnant with my daughter I was determine to keep my weight gain in check so I could come out of the pregnancy with a body that was hopefully still recognizable. Baby was born and I will admit that in the first few weeks I really didn’t care how I looked. In fact, I remember looking in the mirror one day and thinking “wow I actually look pretty thin”, having been use to seeing myself with a huge pregnancy belly for the last few months. As the fog of the new baby cleared, I began to see exactly what my postpartum body looked like. Gone was my smooth skin and relatively toned midsection. I know had some tiger stripes and what I have heard been described as a ‘mommy tummy’.
I have always loved the outdoors. I love hiking and canoeing to remote places and spending nights under the starts listening to all the natural sounds around me. My outdoor pursuits were actually my main reason for always saying that I never wanted to have children. I didn’t want to slow down or be hindered in any way. Then, cue my biological clock and enter baby Tinsley on the scene. Shortly after her birth I was right back to hiking on the daily and it is during these hikes that I have began to realize some pretty amazing things about my postpartum body.
My new body was capable everything my old body was capable of. I got out on the trails around my house and started hiking. I hiked the same trails I had hiked before and during my pregnancy. My feet fit into my hiking shoes, my backpack slipped back on my back like it had never left, and off I went, just as I had before. Surprisingly enough, the stretch marks and my new little tummy didn’t slow me down at all!
In fact, my new body did things better than my old body. I can carry, push, and pull my baby through the trails. My old body couldn’t do this because….well, because I didn’t have a baby yet! I was just as strong as I was before and I felt stronger thanks to the fact that I had hiked with 20+ pounds of baby weight throughout my pregnancy. As I hiked with my newborn daughter snuggled in my wrap carrier concerns of what my body now looked liked didn’t seem to matter. The stretch marks and a ‘mommy tummy’ was not stopping me from doing what I loved with the one I loved. It was pregnancy that created the stretch marks and ‘mommy tummy’ the results of which meant that I had this precious little girl to share my adventures with.
If that wasn’t enough my new body could feed my daughter while we were out hiking. A feat my old body would never have been able to do. I could hike longer and farther because I could nourish my daughter as we explored. The more I hiked the more I started to love my new body and all that it was capable of. My body created my beautiful little girl, and sure, it does look different than before but those superficial changes do not prevent me from anything.
We all need to stop beating ourselves up about changes to our bodies postpartum. When you actually stop and think about the reality of what really changed, like me, you will realize that the body you have now far exceeds the one that you had before. For me, getting back to hiking put all of this into perspective and now I am just focusing on loving myself and my daughter and looking for our next adventure.
Melissa Baum is an avid outdoorswoman with her preferred mode of travel being hiking. Now, a new mother, she is finding room in her backpack for her daughter Tinnie. She is determined to keep putting miles on her shoes while raising her daughter on the trails. She created love.nature.baby, a blog detailing her attempts to raise a baby in nature. She shares tips and tricks on how to make this happen. Visit her at http://www.lovenaturebaby.com to join in on the adventure of motherhood in the outdoors!
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Danielle is the owner of Today's the Best Day. She strives to provide creative and uplifting content in order to enrich the parenting experience for women everywhere. Danielle hopes to help you and your family to make every day the best day! 
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