Hello Beautiful Mama,

Congratulations on your new baby! This is an exciting time for you and your family. It is so important to take care of yourself so you can have a strong mind and body to take care of everyone else. We are so happy you are here!  

The number one reason that new moms take the RESTORE program is to learn how to “heal like a pro”. A professional athlete knows how to rest and recover and that’s exactly what sets this program apart from other postpartum programs. Because like a professional athlete, you have conquered a tremendous athletic achievement with pregnancy and childbirth. And essentially, your mombody has been injured while doing it. When you focus on healing your “injury”, you recover so much faster. The best part is, your mombody will naturally let go of the baby weight when you focus on your healing and recovery.

It’s amazing what your body can do when you start working in partnership with it, never against it.  

This program uses two tools to fix your postpartum body on the inside, so the outside can be beautiful.

First, we teach you the MBODY8 lifestyle. This is when moms learn to embody health and wellness practices that support your postpartum recovery (8 of them to be exact, but new moms only need the first three in this program: EAT. MOVE. REST). Think of these as your action items.

Second, we teach moms to CARVE your mombody - think of CARVE as the exercise technique that restores your core from the inside out. Both CARVE and MBODY8 are very powerful tools, and you will be so happy you found this path to wellness that actually makes sense for your mombody.

The RESTORE recovery process is gradual but extremely effective.  Be kind and be patient with yourself. 

 Our philosophy is simple: Help Moms look & feel BEAUTIFUL inside and out.

As mentioned, your inside-out transformation begins with MBODY8’s first three pillars of health:  EAT. MOVE. REST.

We use these tools to teach you the MBODY8 lifestyle. When you MBODY8 your mombody you are actually embodying all that is good for your mombody. We are doing the all the things that maximize your hormones coming back into balance and healing your mombody as efficiently as possible.

You are actually becoming health and wellness, and it is becoming you. Health and wellness are no longer an item on your to-do list, or something to stress about. Wellness is who you are and what you do. It’s automatic. It’s easy. It’s a partnership with your body. It’s you.

Remember: You really can’t have full body health and wellness without the combination of all three of these components.  Ok, let’s start with EAT.

EAT.

We focus on whole food nutrition that will both heal and strengthen your mombody from the inside out.  That’s right - what you put in your body will have a lot to do with how quickly it can recover. There is a heavy emphasis on replenishing the nutrients you lost while growing a human. Here’s what I mean:   

Your pregnancy, labor and delivery were stressful on your body and each one has compromised the stability of the soft tissues and muscles in your core and pelvic floor.  Most of us had at least one of the following: episiotomy, diastasis recti (abdominal separation), hernia, pelvic floor pain or dysfunction, hemorrhoids, connective tissue tearing, and even the intestinal lining (leaky gut) can be affected.  We focus on foods that restore the areas that were most affected by your pregnancy.

So, what should I eat, you ask?  

Our answer is: Eat whole foods and drink plenty of water.  That is all you need to do to help your mombody recover.  

But, if we are digging a little deeper, and we want to help accelerate our body’s natural healing processes, here are RESTORE’s food guidelines for your recovery: 

• Most moms are NOT eating enough food.  Calories in vs. calories out is an outdated way to lose weight. And we know this because not all calories are created equal.  When you eat whole foods you can eat so much more than if you are loading up on brownies and pasta. You do not need to track your calories when you eat the “right” foods.

• Eat Protein - This important building block will help build muscle and repair soft tissue - specifically, your core and pelvic floor.  Also, please keep in mind that you have lost a lot of blood during your delivery - and blood has iron. Great sources of protein with iron: red meat, dark green leafy vegetables, beans and legumes, seafood, poultry. Strive to eat a palm-sized portion of protein with each meal. Other foods rich in protein: eggs, nuts & seeds, tofu & dairy.  

• Eat Fat: Mommy brain is no joke. Eating enough fat will make you feel so much better. An extremely important fat for moms is Omega-3 DHA found primarily in fish such as salmon, anchovies, sardines, mullet and lake trout. DHA supplements are a great idea if you aren’t able to eat a lot of fish because three servings of fish a week is the ideal. Other good sources of fat are: ghee, butter, egg yolks, coconut oil, olive oil, nuts and seeds.   

• Eat Carbohydrates: As in the GOOD carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables (the starchy ones like bananas, apples, and sweet potatoes, are great for energy). You will need the fiber to keep your digestion running smoothly. You will also be flooding your postpartum body with important nutrients you lost while making and delivering a baby.  Get used to the idea of eating greens at every meal. 

• Vital Nutrients: Iron, Zinc, and Magnesium for breastfeeding moms are important for replenishing nutrients that were lost during your pregnancy and childbirth. New moms should focus on getting micronutrients like iron (a depletion can happen from the blood loss during delivery) from dark leafy greens, nuts, and red meat. Also focus on foods full of zinc like seafood, kelp, and nori. Zinc is important for the developing baby and most postpartum women are deficient. Magnesium is great for building and repairing your body (and your baby’s) tissues, and getting restful, restorative sleep since it helps to metabolize adrenaline (you will probably feel stress as a new mom, everyone does, but magnesium helps you feel calm). Magnesium is found in green leafy vegetables, beans, nuts, red meat, poultry, and fish like mackerel and halibut.

• Limit Sugar: Limit sweet forms of sugar like cakes, brownies, ice cream, etc. & also don’t forget about the savory form of sugar like white-flour pasta, pizza, bread, croissants, etc. (which also turn into glucose for fast fuel in your body). Think of sugar as the gasoline you pour on a fire. Sugar is inflammatory and actually interferes with the healing process.  Plus, it causes wrinkles, and we are trying to plump up loose pregnancy skin with nutrition. When you crave something sweet, dark chocolate is a great option. Or coconut milk yogurt with berries.

• While breastfeeding you should focus on eating warm foods like soups and stews, and hot beverages. Your mombody is special because you have a menstrual cycle with four distinct phases each month: follicular, ovulation, luteal, and menstruation. But when you are breastfeeding a child, your mombody does not experience these four phases until you start menstruating again. Instead, your mombody is in a perpetual state of luteal, and this won’t change until you stop breastfeeding and start having a monthly period again. Don’t worry about understanding all these nuances right now, this is a huge part of the next program called REBUILD if you wish to continue to support your mombody is all four of these phases. Just know that you are healing your mombody by letting your mombody do its thing, and you are best supporting it by eating protein, complex carbs, and good fats, while limiting sugar, and enjoying warm foods.

In addition, RESTORE strongly encourages the use of two secret weapons in your recovery. Moms should also find ways to consume the following:

• Bone Broth - It’s no secret the skin on your tummy and thighs has stretched out and become looser. Drinking bone broth is the fastest way to restore the elasticity in your skin because it has plenty of collagen (among other important nutrients). Drinking broth helps pull the skin back to the muscle and also lightens the color of stretch marks - you can think of it as nature’s botox.  Please note: Beef broth is best for skin health. Chicken and turkey broth are great for joint health. Vegetarian broth does not contain collagen, but that doesn’t mean it’s not amazing for other reasons. I recommend brands like Ancient Nutrition, Bonafide, and Dr. Kellyanne’s bone broth (hers taste the best but it is pricey).

• Collagen Powder: When you can’t drink bone broth, try adding collagen powder to your smoothies, coffee or tea. Collagen helps with two vital components of your healing:  1). Connective tissue repair (you want this for your abdominal separation and pelvic floor repair) and 2). It helps restore the lining in your gut (bone broth does this as well).  This means your body will be able to absorb more of the goodness you are feeding it.  Nothing worse than eating good food that isn’t being absorbed by your gorgeous mombody. Most brands combine different types of collagens which makes the healing much faster. I recommend Ancient Nutrition and Primal Kitchen for collagen.

Move.

The RESTORE workouts include the CARVE technique that is designed to heal and strengthen your postpartum body from the inside out. We do this by activating your deep inner core and it all starts with the BAB breath. (FYI, we used to be called Bodies After Baby (BAB) - now MBODY8). More on breathing later.

When you CARVE your mombody, you are doing two things: 1) training your core to be functional for the rest of your life (leak-free, pain-free, and injury-free) because long term health is what’s most important. And 2) training your core to look and feel amazing right now. Get ready for your confidence to soar.

Many of the standard weight loss programs out there fall short when it comes to a mother’s body.  With RESTORE, we emphasize core-centric workouts that focus on repairing an abdominal separation and a weakened pelvic floor.  Our exercise videos will show you exactly how to do this. In addition, our core-centric workouts morph into full-body workouts but every movement begins with your core breath and radiates out to the rest of your body from there. Our videos will walk you through this process.  

Rest.

Nutrition and exercise are major players in our postpartum recovery, but they are NOT as powerful without rest. Getting rest is imperative for your body’s ability to repair and restore. 

Please note, rest can mean many different things in our program, such as: sleep, meditation (listening to your inner voice), getting outside, walking with friends, self-care, staying positive, focusing on the bigger picture, etc. These are powerful ways to reduce stress levels in your body. The lower your stress levels - the more thorough and efficient your postpartum recovery will be.

I can’t emphasize enough that as a new mom, you need REM sleep to repair tissues and stabilize hormones so your body can heal from the inside out. This is easier said than done with a newborn!  

Just be aware that sleep and/or resting will always be more beneficial than a workout.  

Our culture promotes that “moms can do it all” and “more is more” and we should power through a workout no matter how we are feeling. This is absolutely not true! 

When life gets overwhelming, remember to breathe. The Bodies After Baby Breath (now MBODY8) is not only powerful for exercising and repairing your inner core, but it also reminds your body that “everything is OK” when those stress hormones kick on. Train your body to use the BAB breath to calm down your “fight or flight” response. One breath every ten seconds is ideal. Inhale life energy for 4 seconds, exhale stress for 6 seconds. Simple.

Another powerful tool is to repeat the words “I am OK in this moment”. Wellness experts agree that these words also work magic on your brain and body when it’s time to calm down.

We look forward to covering other ways to nourish your beautiful soul (inside & out) and restore your postpartum body over the next 6 weeks together.

Lastly, it is so important that you maintain a proper mindset.  Remember that your positive mental attitude is going to be your greatest asset throughout this program.  Your success is easier to achieve when you believe you can do it.  Here’s to keeping your inner voice positive.   

Let the inside-out transformation begin!

Much love,
Amy