Reclaiming Your Metabolism After Pregnancy: A Holistic Approach

[Explore the holistic approach to reshaping your metabolism post-pregnancy. Discover practical tips and insights on how to kickstart and maintain a healthy metabolism after pregnancy.]

Do you struggle with feeling confident in your body? As women, our bodies go through so many changes during pregnancy and postpartum. And weight loss after pregnancy can often be challenging when you have a new baby.

Today on the Soul Care Mom Podcast I chat with Michele Riechman. She’s an expert health coach & personal trainer.

She’s passionate about helping moms fit back into their clothes, & optimize their metabolism after pregnancy without dieting or calorie counting, so they can increase their energy.

She shares with us quick workouts for moms and other amazing tips to help you feel confident in your body.

You can also listen to this conversation on iTunes, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

[Disclaimer: The information shared is from personal experiences and/or research. We’re not medical professionals. We share in hopes that it will help you tap into new insights and inspire you. Everything shared is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Always seek the guidance of a trusted health professional for your unique journey.]

Please Note: This post may contain affiliate links. This means that Soul Care Mom may receive a small commission if you click through and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. Some episodes may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. And guests may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to herein. We only recommend products and services that we believe in, trust, and would recommend even if we didn’t receive a commission. Please see disclaimers for more information.

Hi There, Soulful Mama.

Welcome to the Soulcare Mom podcast. I’m Catherine Wilde of soulcaremom.com.

Im a mom of three amazing kids, a soul care mom coach, and a yoga and meditation teacher.

I’ve helped hundreds of women, and I’m here to help you feel calm and find your unshakeable confidence as a mom. If you’re ready to stop living in survival mode and you’re ready to drop the mom guilt and overwhelm, this podcast is for you.

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Let’s get started.

Catherine Wilde

Hi, Michelle. Thank you so much for joining me.

Michelle Riechman

Thank you for having me here today.

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Navigating Metabolism After Pregnancy

Catherine Wilde

I’m so excited to hear all that you have to say. You’re going to share with us things about weight loss after pregnancy. And I love that you are passionate about helping moms feel really good in their bodies, back into their clothes after pregnancy.

And I can’t wait to hear all of your amazing tips. But I’d love to start by hearing about how you came to do this work, how you came to help moms prioritize their health. Could you share a bit of your journey with this?

Michelle Riechman

Yeah. So I am a mom of four, and I also have my doctorate in physical therapy. So that’s how I have gotten started in this whole health world. And it’s led me more into the wellness world. So the prevention and just really working on that health and fitness and nutrition.

So I’m also a yoga teacher, a personal trainer, and a health coach. So I use all those different pieces to just help put all of it together for moms in a way that’s really simple and sustainable, where we get back to the basics and we don’t worry about the fad diets going on, just getting really back to the basics of health.

Catherine Wilde

I love that. I love that you keep it simple because we don’t need it to be more complicated for moms for sure. And I love that you come at it from all the different, like a very holistic approach, all the angles. And as we go through pregnancy and things, our bodies change so much during and after, and weight loss after pregnancy can take time.

But from the moment that we become moms, one thing that we all need more of is energy. So I love that you helped moms optimize our metabolism after pregnancy. Can we talk about what metabolism is, why it’s important, how can we optimize it?

Michelle Riechman

Yeah. So a lot of people will think my metabolism is slowing down or it’s getting wrecked. So that is just what’s inside of our body that regulates our calorie burn, our calories in, calories out. So a lot of people think metabolism as a simple calories in versus calories out.

But there’s really so many pieces that affect that. So the food you eat, so thinking of processed food versus whole foods like an apple or a piece of chicken, your body is going to absorb more of those calories from the processed food than from the whole food.

So it’s not just a simple calories in, calories out. And those whole foods will make your hormones and body function better, and that will help to keep your metabolism up.

So it definitely gets really hard as a mom and especially after having a baby because your stress is high, which can also lower your metabolism. So getting back to some basic self care and having way to cope with stress and manage it because we’re not going to get rid of it.

Things are probably going to keep stressing us out, but how can we manage it? How can we rethink about things?

Michelle Riechman

And even though we’re busy, how can we take time to just make a little bit of time for ourselves? Because when we refill our bucket, then we have more energy. And then when we have time to take care of ourselves or exercise, even if that’s just 10 minutes, that gives us more energy and that helps us to feel better. And most of us probably know when we eat something a little healthier, we tend to feel better than when we go for that bag of chips and ice cream.

So all these little pieces together can really play into how your body and your metabolism works and to get it working for the better.

Quick Workouts for Moms

Catherine Wilde

I love that. And yes, I love that you’re speaking my language. I love that you talk about self care because it really makes all the difference in all of this, whether it’s what you put into your body, your mindset, all of these things are a part of self care.

And those choices that we make of what we put into this vessel that we have is so important. And yeah, I love that. And yeah, that was really enlightening. Thank you for sharing all that. And you mentioned even just taking 10 minutes to work out.

I love that you helped to keep things simple. And mom life can be really busy, and it can be hard to find time for movement for us. But as humans, we’re meant to move, right? And it’s an important part of taking care of ourselves. So can you share with us? Do you have quick tips or quick workouts for moms that can help us to more easily find movement in our days?

Michelle Riechman

Yeah. And definitely, I think a lot of people get stuck in that all or nothing mindset. They think they need to do a full 30 minute or hour workout or just not do anything. But really, you can start with five or 10 minutes. And I typically recommend for someone who hasn’t exercised or a brand new mom, actually, that’s the best thing you could do.

Just do five or 10 minutes. So you’re waking up those muscles. You’re not going to injure yourself. And you’re also not going to get super sore because if you hit it hard, you’re going to get super sore and you’re not going to want to work out again.

And that’s just going to sabotage it right from the beginning. So start slow. Start with five or 10 minutes. You don’t have to do it hard. And you can slowly work your way up. So for me personally, I never do more than 30 minutes. And I go on phases where I’m just doing 10 or 20 minutes and you can maintain your fitness if you’re consistent with it.

And you can also play with your kids. So for all the moms out there, I just made a post recently about doing a nerf gun fight with my son.

Michelle Riechman

And it’s fun. You run around, you round, and you just have a good experience with your child. So it’s not necessarily exercise, but it’s really good movement.

And if that’s all you can do, then that’s great. And also the same thing goes when you’re talking about nutrition is to keep it simple. Really going back to the basics. So not getting up and following a super strict diet where you’re restricting stuff, but just thinking about what habits can I change here?

So maybe I know I need to eat more vegetables, so maybe I’ll make a habit of three vegetables a day. Maybe I’ll work up to five. Instead of following a diet, just using those habits to make changes and stay consistent with that.

And whenever you’re making a habit, you have to make it something that you can do. So when I work with clients, I’m always asking them, after we pick out a habit, are you 90 % confident you’re going to do this? Because you don’t want to pick out a habit and not be successful with it, most of the time. Things are always going to come up because that’s just going to crush your confidence.

Michelle Riechman

So maybe if you’re not 90 % confident, you would just bring that goal down a little bit. Maybe you need to do something else. Maybe you need to work out some struggles.

But really, keeping it simple, going back to the basics, because as moms, we just don’t have a lot of time and it’s really easy to put ourselves on the back burner, especially when it comes to our health because we don’t notice the good and the bad from our health right away.

It usually takes time for those to fold out. So if we can just keep it simple and do simple self care stuff and simple things with our nutrition, simple things with our exercise to get started, it can be really helpful.

Catherine Wilde

So I love this so much. And you talked about how sometimes you feel like we have to do all or nothing, go hard at things, whether it’s a workout or diet. How can we change our mindset around that to embrace this simpler way of approaching it?

Weight Loss After Pregnancy

Michelle Riechman

Yeah. Well, number one, so I’m all about sustainable health and sustainable weight loss. So when you actually go slower, it’s going to be something you can sustain versus doing a diet where it’s a little extreme and you might lose a lot of weight at once.

But if it’s not something you’re going to stick with, you’re going to be right back where you are. And you might actually gain more weight back because sometimes your metabolism rebounds because it’s trying to protect yourself.

So keep in mind that the slower you go and the more sustainable you go, it’s going to work for you long term. So I think that’s really important to keep in mind when it comes to your health, when you’re thinking of this all or nothing. There’s so much in between and you’re going to be so much more successful with everything in between that.

Catherine Wilde

I love that. Yeah. Because it’s really a journey, right? We want to continue doing this, not a diet for six weeks or something, but we want to maintain this healthy way of living and caring for ourselves for a lifetime. I love that.

Michelle Riechman

Yeah. And I think especially as moms as you start to get older, I’m 40 now, but you really start to look a little bit more at your health and maybe you just really want to play around with your kids and not be out of breath. And you just see your kids growing up.

Maybe you envision being a grandparent and how can you still be healthy and functional and play with people? So thinking of that more bigger why and long term goal.

Catherine Wilde

Yes. Oh, yeah. That’s a good practice just for all of us to look at that vision of what we want for our lives and work. That’s awesome.

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Catherine Wilde

So if you do have 10 minutes for a workout and you’re feeling you’ve got the energy, what movement do you recommend? Do you recommend walking or strength training? Do you recommend like, hit workouts? What’s the best to use for our time?

Michelle Riechman

Yeah. So first I alluded to earlier. So there’s going to be movement and then exercise. So movement is also really great for metabolism. Just like you were saying, our bodies are meant to move. So a lot of us might have sedentary jobs or maybe we’re sitting a lot, and that’s not what our bodies were designed to do. So we are meant to move.

So getting in more movement throughout the day can just be a great way. So maybe that’s going for walks, that’s playing with your kids, that’s cleaning around your house, grocery shopping.

So all of that is really good. And for most people, 10 to 20,000 steps is a good range where it doesn’t affect your metabolism.

So for example, if you do cardio, that might actually slow your metabolism down because you’re going to burn a lot of calories at once and your body is going to want to refeed that and make sure that you’re still have enough calories. So sometimes cardio can not quite work for people. So it’s something to look at for you and how it affects your body. So movement is good. So getting the movement and then going on to exercise.

Michelle Riechman

My favorite is probably doing strength training because it’s going to build your muscles. And when you put on muscle, that’s going to have a longer calorie burn. So you’re going to be burning calories for 12 to 48 hours after you strength train because your muscles are going to be rebuilding and repairing, and that uses energy.

And then also, putting on muscle just gives you that leaner look. And just feeling strong just makes you feel good. If you can pick something up, or you can pick your kid up and walk across the room and not be tired, you just feel good.

So there’s that confidence and that empowerment goes when you’re strength training. When I’m talking strength training, I’m not talking about cross fit, heavy lifting. I’m talking about you can use your body weight, you can use five or 10 pound weights.

It doesn’t have to be some super buff practice. And as a yoga teacher, I’m also a big fan of yoga. So yoga, you have your more relaxing yoga that’s more meant for de stressing, stretching, working on that breath. And then you also have yoga that does some of that, but also adds in the strength training component.

Michelle Riechman

So that can be a really great way to get a workout, but also to do that deep breathing to calm your nervous system. So those are my two favorite. And hit is also good. But when you’re doing hit, you want to make sure that you’re not doing it for a long time.

So there’s a lot of different hit programs out there. But when it’s almost turning into more of a cardio exercise than an interval, so hit is supposed to be interval, then some people that may go back to causing them to be hungry and have cravings after exercising.

So when you do hit, you want to keep it short. You want to actually have that interval where you work out hard and you rest.

Catherine Wilde

Awesome. I love those tips. That’s really helpful. Okay. So if there’s a mom who’s listening right now, she’s taking all of this in, she’s been struggling to lose those last few pounds after pregnancy, and she’s just feeling really stuck, what would you suggest to her? Where should she start?

Michelle Riechman

Yeah. And it’s going to be different for everybody. And a lot of people, when they can talk it out, they know that answer. So obviously you could talk to a coach or a trainer or me, but you could also just journal. So thinking about what do you need to do? Do you think it’s more movement?

Do you think it’s more exercise, like getting strength training in? Or do you think it’s your nutrition? And what simple habit could you do around your nutrition? Do you eat a piece of cheesecake every night?

And if you take that out, can that move the needle for you? So really looking at what you need to do and using that own wisdom, whether you talk it out with somebody or you journal.

Catherine Wilde

I love that. Yes, because there’s so much wisdom within us, right? When we can get quiet and connect with it, yeah, so much can change.

Michelle Riechman

Yeah, definitely.

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Nutrition And Self Care

Catherine Wilde

So I love all of these ways of taking care of our bodies. And I’d love to know, do you have any other favorite ways to practice self care in your own life?

Michelle Riechman

Yeah. In my own life… So actually, a while ago, I wrote down a little list for myself. So this is a great activity for anybody to do. So really thinking like, what actually refills you? Because that is going to be different for everybody. And on that list, having stuff that can take a couple of minutes and maybe stuff that takes longer. So then you can grab from it.

So for me doing deep breathing, I can just do that really quick. Also sometimes doing a quick one or two minute yoga. Then I might also do yoga longer. Going outside is huge for me. Going on a walk.

And when I’m talking about a walk here, I mean, sometimes I do walk for exercise, but a lot of the time I just go out and walk for movement to enjoy being outside, feeling the breeze, the sunshine. All that’s very calming. And I also go on phases, but journaling is also helpful to me.

Catherine Wilde

I love all of those. Yes. And having that list can be really helpful because when we have that couple of minutes, sometimes we’re at a loss for what to do, and that helps to create that habit.

Michelle Riechman

Yeah, definitely. And definitely having those things that are quick because a lot of people get caught up in like, maybe I have to get my nails done or something that takes a long time and you may not have it. So having that variety of time.

Catherine Wilde

Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing all of these tips and your journey with us. I’d love to know if you could go back in time to when you first became a mom, what wisdom would you share with yourself?

Michelle Riechman

Oh, wow. I don’t know if I thought about that before. So when I first became a mom… So my husband’s in the military, so we were in Arkansas by ourself, 12 hours away from family. So I was pretty isolated because we hadn’t been there that long and it was our first kid. So I think really having more community of moms. Later, I got involved in Mops and some other moms group. But I think that was very helpful because I think as a mom, we need to learn and grow. And that was 15 years ago. So there weren’t quite podcasts or I don’t know, I didn’t listen to them. But even having podcast or YouTube videos, other things where you can really connect and just learn and grow from each other.

Catherine Wilde

That’s so true. Sometimes we’re so alone, we’re away from family, things like that. And to have that community and use the Internet or different ways to connect with groups of people is so empowering and important. We don’t have to do it alone.

I love that. Thank you for this conversation. Will you let us know where we can find you online?

Michelle Riechman

Yeah. So I am on Instagram just searching my name, Michelle Reichman, and I also have a Facebook group called the Healthy Mom Club. Anybody can join. And yeah, you can check out my website for my freebies. And I have that metabolism webinar up there and some other free challenges and other stuff.

Catherine Wilde

How exciting. Thank you, I’ll include those in the show notes.

Michelle Riechman

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

Catherine Wilde

Thank you, Michelle.

Thanks for joining me, Mama.

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