How To Love Your Mom Bod – with Natasha Kisten from Fit Like Mummy

What a pleasure it was to go live with Natasha Kisten from Fit Like Mummy and talk about how to love your mom bod. I came across Natasha on Instagram and immediately fell in love with her profile. She is not the typical “instagrammable” blogger – she is so real and authentic. There is nothing photoshopped or staged, it is all Natasha. She puts herself right out there and when I look at her profile all I can think is that I wish I had the same level of confidence and happiness that she has. It was a privilege to have her share her thoughts about self-confidence and fitness with me, I know that this will help me to reach my goals.

About Natasha Kisten

Natasha is mom of two teenage boys, living in Johannesburg. She is a South African mommy blogger that has found her confidence and comfortable space in her 40’s and that is what she shares about on her blog Fit Like Mummy. She is an aviator by day and a blogger by night.

In 2016 when Natasha had high blood pressure and her doctor told her she needs to make a change if she wants her children to grow up with a mother around. This started her on a journey to fitness and better health.

Tips For Loving Your Mom Bod

One of the things that I have been focusing on the last few years is firstly to lose weight and be healthier but also to love my mom bod and be confident. I could not think of anyone more fitting to join me for this discussion than Natasha.

Here are the main points that I took away from the video that she shared with us:

Accept Yourself and Your Imperfections

Becoming a mother has an impact on your body. Before you can love your mom bod you will need to accept the fact that your body will never be the same after having children. You need to accept yourself along with all of your imperfections that came about from becoming a mother. Life happens and there is a season for everything. Becoming a mother is a rite of passage which makes your mom bod awesome.

Be Unapologetic Of Who You Are

This is one tip that I really loved and will take to heart moving forward. This is something that shines through big time when I look at Natasha. Know who you are, accept who you are and don’t be afraid to be yourself all the way.

Judgement will always be there, you just need to filter out the noise.

Work Slowly But Consistently On Yourself

This is a journey and you won’t get there in five minutes. Make sure to start working on yourself and keep at it. The fact is that what you put in is what you will get out.

The Importance Of Journaling and Gratitude

Journaling is a fantastic way to boost your mental health. Make a daily gratitude list of 5 things that you are grateful for. Look at the things that you already have in your life that you are grateful for.

Therapy Rocks

I love how Natasha comes out and says with passion “I LOVE therapy”. Therapy can really help you to grow in amazing ways, don’t be afraid to go for some therapy. You won’t regret it.

We are our own worst critics and our childhood will impact how we see ourselves. Therapy is a great tool to help us see ourselves as we are and to change the narrative.

Throw Out The Idea Of A Perfect Mom

There is no such thing as the perfect mom. Social media and society can cause us to strive for things that are unattainable such as the perfect balance. Natasha says in the video “Balance is a fallacy, it is about finding sanity in the chaos”. I love this, it is so true.

We are human, we are allowed to make mistakes. We are allowed to be sad, to have a bad day and to struggle. We do not have to be positive all the time.

We need to stop comparing ourselves to others and stop striving for perfection.

Once we move past this idea of a perfect mom we can stop being so hard on ourselves, be kind to ourselves and start accepting ourselves.

The Importance Of Self-care

Natasha is a huge fan of self-care and cannot emphasize it enough. Nobody is going to fill your cup so you must do it for yourself and make it a top priority.

She takes every Saturday for herself, the whole day, to take herself out and spoil herself. She buys trashy magazines, takes herself out for lunch and drinks bubbly!

Remove Negativity From Your Life

Don’t be afraid to say no and don’t offer justification for saying no. Find the balance between cutting negativity out of your life while not burning any bridges. If you are true to yourself and unapologetic you will find that you lose some people in your life but those won’t be people that you should have in your life anyway.

Rather have a small circle of true and real friends than a large circle of people that bring negativity into your life. If someone does not add value let them go.

There are always going to be three types of people when you walk into a room – those that love you, those that hate you and those that don’t know you exist. Accept this and be yourself.

Don’t Rob Yourself

This is something that really resonated with me and I am sure it resonates with a lot of other moms. There have been too many times that I was on the beach with my kids with them begging me to swim with them but I did not because I was too insecure to get into my swimsuit. These are moments that I will not get back. The fact is that my kids won’t remember my wobbly bits, they will only remember me being with them and having fun with them.

Last year I bought myself a lovely Tankini from Amazon and it is really cute, plus it covers most of my wobbly bits helping me feel more confident. I’m not quite at Natasha’s level of confidence running around in a bikini but I feel confident and happy in this swimsuit. I have been swimming with my kids and it has made them so happy.

Natasha says that the best time to get started and try out being your best self. So the next time there is a school holiday go away with your kids, find that lovely swimsuit and get out with your kids!

Tips For Fitness Motivation

One of the things that I personally struggle with is the motivation to exercise and keep fit so I asked Natasha for her best tips to conquer this problem.

No Quick Fixes

There is no quick fix when it comes to your health, so forget about those fad diets and weight loss pills. You need to eat healthily, exercise and practice self-care. There is no way around this.

Eat well, exercise regularly, drink water and eat your greens.

Move More Than You Eat

I love that Natasha says she loves her food, I can so relate to this. You just need to move more than you eat and then you can afford to have some treats every now and then.

Find Something That You Enjoy Doing

Exercising like crazy and pushing yourself is not going to work, the trick is to find something active that you really enjoy doing and focus on that. When you are enjoying yourself it is sustainable and will make a big difference.

Get Enough Sleep

This is a biggie. Sleep is when your body releases stress and recovers. If you are not getting enough sleep it is not going to do you any favours.

Prioritize Your Fitness and Health

Until your make fitness and health a priority you are not going to reach your goals. We do have the time, we just need to make it a priority. So cut down your Netflix bingeing (or anything else that is not serving you) and get in that time for your health and fitness.

Family Time

Make time for fitness as a family, it is important to teach our kids that health and fitness is an essential part of their lifestyle. The only way to do this is to do active things as a family.