Although we are constantly hearing about how things like the internet are a big culprit for our increasingly sedentary culture I do believe that used appropriately this technology can actually be a great aid in helping to improve our overall health, fitness and wellness.
One gem that I came across over 3 years ago is the website www.babyfit.com. Babyfit (brought to you by the creators of www.sparkpeople.com) is an online community and resource center created for women who are trying to conceive, pregnant, or post partum. This site boasts nutrition and fitness plans and trackers (all of which are customizable to your current situation and goals), great articles on a wide variety of health and wellness issues pertaining to women, pregnancy, babies/children, and parenting, a team of resident experts in a variety of areas (nutrition, fitness, etc) who are available to answer your questions or concerns, and a great online community featuring a variety of message boards and mommy teams. The best part is this very comprehensive website is it is 100% free!
With both my pregnancies and post partum I have been able to use the online tools to help me plan and track my nutritional needs and design a fitness plan to help me have a healthy pregnancy (I will admit I was far more successful with that the second time around, but life is about improvement right?).
The first time the site really helped me lose the 40lbs I gained during pregnancy plus 10 more, in a healthy way, to be in the best shape of my life! During my second pregnancy I really committed to the program from the beginning and this, combined with my active lifestyle, enabled me to keep my weight gain to 20 lbs and at two weeks post partum only have 5 more lbs to lose!
Babyfit has also helped me in terms of my own professional development as the articles and resources on post natal fitness, nutrition and even mental health and well-being have been great to pass along to clients. I am also currently working on getting my Pre and Post Natal Fitness certification through Comprehensive Fitness Consulting, LLC, the company of Babyfit’s Resident Maternal Fitness Expert.
But for me the most beneficial thing Babyfit provided was the connections and friendships I have made in their online community. I first joined in October of 2006 after finding out I was pregnant with Bria and found a message board for other moms due May 2006. As a first time mom with no friends who were currently pregnant or even starting to think about having a family, it was great to have a place to go and chat, cry, vent, and laugh with other women who were going through the same thing. Morning sickness, weight gain, doctors appointments, ultrasounds, cravings, labor symptoms, anything and everything you can think of was talked about on that board. After we had our babies many of us continued to use the board as a place to talk about our babies. I soon began to see many of these women as my close friends and still chat on a private message board with a small group of them to this day. Although we come from places all over the world our pregnancies and children have kept us together and now our conversations are much more personal and stray from the “baby talk” we started with. I also joined the November 2008 board this past pregnancy and am greatly enjoying the virtual friendships I have made the second time around.
Not only have I made virtual connections through Babyfit but I also found some great friends in my area. One friend in particular, I met during my pregnancy with Bria and we would meet to go on weekly walks to help with our fitness goals. We had our daughters weeks apart and since have become very close friends (and so have our girls). In fact we both ended up pregnant at the same time again, so it was great to share our pregnancies again both online and off. I am hoping our newest little bundles will be as good of friends as our daughters!
So take the time to check out this fabulous website (or their sister site www.sparkpeople.com if you are not pregnant or post partum). Pass it on to friends, family members, or colleagues. You never know what inspiring resources or friendships you might find!
Oh, and www.babyfit.com did not in any way pay for this great, long endorsement! LOL! Just wanted to pass along a great, free resource and pay it forward ;)