The MamasteFit Podcast Episode 100 – Breastfeeding and Fitness Tips: Maintaining Your Supply While Exercising

[00:00:00] Gina: Welcome to the MamasteFit Podcast. In this episode, we’re going to be talking about a highly requested topic, which is how do I maintain my milk supply and also exercise? And so we’re going to be discussing breastfeeding, returning to fitness, how to maintain your milk supply, which is a highly requested topic.

[00:01:16] Gina: So in this episode, we’re going to be talking all about breastfeeding, maintaining your milk supply, and then also returning to fitness, cause that’s obviously what we talk about here at MamasteFit is how to move through your pregnancy, move into the postpartum, the benefits of exercising through both phases.

[00:01:33] Gina: And so let’s first talk about milk supply. And so when it comes to milk supply, simply being postpartum and having a baby, does not mean that you’re going to have a ton of milk. It’s all about the supply and demand system. Like the baby needs to remove the milk so that your body knows, “I need to make more milk,” And then it becomes a supply and demand feedback loop that begins. And there’s a number of things that go into how well our milk supply is. And this could be how much food we’re eating, our hydration status, and then also how well is baby removing the milk from our body? And so if we are having issues with our milk supply, we may need to look at, well, how is baby’s latch? How well are they removing milk? In addition, if you’re primarily pumping or you’re also pumping, like how well does the pump actually remove milk? And so different flange sizes can be a big deal. Is it properly assembled? And so there’s a lot of different things that can go into maintaining or creating and establishing a milk supply in the postpartum period, that is more than just having a baby. It’s really about how well does the milk get removed and then your body replenishing it based on the nutrient status for yourself.

[00:02:38] Gina: Is there anything additional that you would include to know that you have like a good milk supply?

[00:02:43] Roxanne: So with milk supply, it’s also like all of the things that you said, supply and demand, but it can also be hormonal. So not all of us will have an adequate milk supply just hormonally, cause it is really dependent on oxytocin and prolactin which is like, prolactin is the lactation hormone. So if you, after we discussed this entire episode, look back and you’re like, “Well, I did everything that they said and I still didn’t have an adequate milk supply,” having your hormones drawn during that breastfeeding period, especially for prolactin could be beneficial.

[00:03:15] Roxanne: But other things that we can look for to ensure that baby is getting enough milk, cause this is usually the question that everybody has, cause you can’t, unless you are exclusively pumping, you don’t know how much baby is actually drinking, like quantifiable, unless you like weigh baby pre and post feeds, which like who has time to do all of that? So you have no idea how much is baby drinking, like is baby getting three ounces, one ounce, five ounces, 18 ounces, because some babies drink a lot of milk.

[00:03:42] Roxanne: But with breastfeeding, there are things that we’re looking for. One is how often is baby eating? So is baby eating like every two to three hours on like a pretty consistent schedule with like some variation of like maybe sometimes they go a little bit longer, maybe sometimes it’s a little bit less, but is generally baby napping in between feedings fairly easily and not waking up every five to 10 minutes to eat constantly.

[00:04:06] Roxanne: Cluster feeding is normal. It’s a way to increase our milk supply when they’re going to need increased demands of milk. But if they’re cluster feeding constantly, 24/7, that is a sign that they’re likely either having to work harder to remove the milk, or they’re just not able to effectively transfer that milk from the breast, so they again need to rest in between and then try to transfer a little bit. Because they’ll get most of that milk from that initial letdown, which most of us will have an oversupply at first, which is what engorgement is, like a little bit more, we have more milk than our baby needs initially. So it takes time for our body to stabilize, so they’re using that initial letdown to get all of their supply because it’s easier to get that letdown, and then they can’t transfer it anymore afterwards. So then they’ll go to sleep until the letdown can happen again, which is in like five to 10 minutes.

[00:04:58] Roxanne: The other thing is how looking at baby after the feed. So they could fall asleep and you’re thinking, “Well, my baby falls asleep to the breasts, they’re likely getting enough milk,” but what do they look like when they’re sleeping? Are they relaxed? Their hands, is probably my biggest thing, especially in those first few months is that is their hand relaxed. And sometimes, like, babies can naturally have like a relaxed fist, but can you easily open it? Or is it kind of like you’re like prying that hand open because they’re tense? Sometimes even like their neck rolls, like some babies have rolls, but like when you look at their rolls, does it look like there’s like a lot of tension? Like, really red within those rolls because they’re just holding tension in their shoulders and their neck and then their hands. Tension within their body is likely that they’re not relaxed enough because they didn’t get that full feed so they’re holding some tension within their body.

[00:05:49] Roxanne: And then peeing and pooping. If a baby is not getting enough food, they will likely not be able to meet like the recommendation of pees and poops in a day. So six to eight wet and dirty diapers a day. Some babies will do more, but like six is like that minimum. Like we want them to at least have six wet and dirty diapers. And then obviously weight. I don’t use each of these indicators separately. So if like baby’s meeting their weight, then they’re fine. But if baby is gaining weight consistently, they’re having those wet and dirty diapers, they’re relaxed between feeds, and they’re not cluster feeding 24/7, if you look at all of those things, likely that baby is getting enough milk, they’re transferring it well, and then that is how you can know that your baby is doing well.

[00:06:33] Roxanne: If one of those things is off, like, so maybe baby isn’t gaining enough weight or they’re not meeting their diaper count, then you still need to investigate to make sure that maybe it’s just a one off thing, this baby’s unique, or something else is going on. I think the one, like, the weight, a lot of people kind of just hold on to the weight, like, your baby’s gaining weight, they’re fine. But some babies compensate really well. My daughter compensated really, really well, and she was super, super chunky until around three months, our milk supply, that’s when it’s like super stabilized where the supply demand has been established of how much milk they’re removing and how much milk your baby needs- that’s around the time where if a baby who was compensating really well, will start to decrease in their weight chart, because now you really don’t have the milk anymore. Whereas before, again, we had that little bit of oversupply, they can kind of compensate a little bit longer. Once that milk kind of stops being there because they’re not, they haven’t removed it, this is when, The, the weight will start to decrease.

[00:07:33] Gina: I usually find that’s when my let down stops being as strong, too, is like that three to four month mark as well.

[00:07:38] Roxanne: Because this is when, again, it’s not as much supply and demand because it has kind of been established.

[00:07:45] Gina: And so the nutritional needs that we have or the nutritional demands that we have when we’re breastfeeding, we need more calories to sustain breastfeeding. It’s like 450 to 500 calories, some folks will say like 800 calories additional, but it’s like a substantial amount of increase in caloric needs that we have when we are breastfeeding. And then if we add on exercising on top of that, we need to think about, “Okay, how much am I burning, like, just from my workouts? How much am I burning for my just daily living?” and then, add on breastfeeding on top of that. And so our caloric demands in the postpartum are going to be higher than outside of our breastfeeding timeframe, and if we’re working out, they’re going to be even higher than that.

[00:08:27] Gina: And so my biggest piece of advice is if you are trying to work out and then also breastfeed and you want to ensure that your milk supply is sustained is to eat enough food, not be super fixated on the weight loss aspect and the postpartum timeframe, don’t restrict your calories. Like, eat enough food and your milk supply will be sustained. And so if we have 20 percent or more of a caloric deficit, so we’re receiving 20 percent less what we need to sustain ourselves, your milk supply will begin to drop at that point because your body does not have enough fuel in order to make the milk that you need. And so even if baby has a great latch, the removal has been really great, if you are not eating enough food, you will see your milk supply begin to drop. And so my recommendation, try not to fixate on weight loss in the postpartum time frame.

Focus more on maintaining your milk supply, exercising to feel good in your body, to be pain free within your body. So focusing more on that function versus aesthetics in the postpartum time frame is going to be really beneficial when it comes to helping you maintain your milk supply.

[00:09:36] Gina: So, our caloric needs are higher when we’re breastfeeding, like 450 to 500 more calories a day is what we need. We also need to be thinking about ensuring that we don’t have more than a 20 percent caloric deficit So if we’re only meeting 80 percent of the calories that we need per day if we start to drop that even more, our milk supply is going to be impacted by that. So eating enough food is going to be crucial to maintaining your milk supply. And that’s kind of it. Like, make sure the milk gets removed and eat enough food.

[00:10:07] Roxanne: And drink water.

[00:10:08] Gina: And drink enough.

[00:10:09] Roxanne: Hydrate.

[00:10:10] Gina: Hydration is also really beneficial as well.

[00:10:12] Gina: So let’s break down some of the common myths associated with breastfeeding and exercise because some folks think that you can’t stop working out until after you finish breastfeeding, some folks think like you’re going to just hold on to a ton of weight if you’re breastfeeding, or your milk supply will completely drop if you’re breastfeeding and you start working out. So let’s break down some of the really common myths.

[00:10:33] Roxanne: The first myth with breastfeeding exercise is that exercising will, one, decrease our milk supply, but also change the composition of our milk, which is like the different components within the milk of fat, carbohydrates, and proteins, this can negatively affect both of those things. But studies show that this is not a thing. It doesn’t affect our milk supply and it doesn’t affect the composition, but it does improve our mental health, which is a huge thing in the postpartum. It’s, as we’ve discussed multiple times on our podcast, mental health in the postpartum period is really important.

[00:11:04] Roxanne: When we’re breastfeeding, what is one of the big things that we’re doing is we’re releasing oxytocin for that milk letdown reflex. But what is oxytocin also doing? It makes us feel happy. It makes us feel loved and supported. What do people who feel happy not have? Mental health issues. So it’s decreasing the likelihood that we could have postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety in that like postpartum baby blues, oxytocin release when we’re breastfeeding can kind of help with that. So ensuring we have the milk supply to have the milk let down reflex could potentially help with mental health issues in the postpartum.

[00:11:38] Gina: And exercising can also be really beneficial to mental health as well because if we are in pain or we are having dysfunction within our body, it can also negatively impact our mental health. And so exercise in the postpartum has been shown to be really beneficial for our mental health as well. And so combining both the breastfeeding with the movement can be really beneficial to our overall well being as well.

[00:12:01] Gina: And so a fun thing that I learned about oxytocin and prolactin was oxytocin is like our love hormone, so it makes us love our babies, while prolactin is like our caring and nurturing hormone, so it helps us take care of our babies. And so it’s like a very like, “I will feed you,” while oxytocin is like, “I will hug you.” So we need both of them to care for our babies effectively as well.

[00:12:23] Gina: And so a big focus in the postpartum tends to be: how can you better care for your baby? There’s so much emphasis on the baby, which is like a big thing with the milk supply, like that whole focus is, “How do I care for my baby?” But we also need to think about ourselves as well. Like it’s, you can’t pour from an empty cup. Like you can compensate enough to try to continue to pour, but you’re just going to exhaust yourselves. And so if doing something helps you feel good, both mentally and physically, like exercising, that is a great thing to incorporate into your daily routine, into your weekly routine, and know that it’s not going to negatively impact your milk supply. And so it is okay to choose to do things that benefit you, that are, that put you at the forefront, even maybe put yourself before your baby or your children, but know that doing that is not going to actually negatively impact the milk supply, which is, I think, sometimes something that is what folks are worrying about is like, “Well, I don’t want to put myself first and then negatively impact the other people that I really care about in my life,” know that you can do that. We can’t pour from an empty cup. It is important that we do things that make us feel good. And then, it’s not going to negatively impact milk supply.

[00:13:33] Gina: The next thing that is a little bit of a myth is that if you do moderate intensity exercise, or you do high intensity exercise, it’s gonna increase the lactic acid in your milk and make your milk taste like poop, or, not great. But, this has not been shown to be true. Babies don’t seem to really care, either way. If anything, if they seem a little fussy after you work out, and, like, they maybe, like, are not wanting to latch, it could just be, like, you’re sweaty. And so just like take a washcloth, just wipe off your nipple a little bit and then usually that’s, that really solves it. It’s usually it’s just cause you’re like a little sweaty and the baby doesn’t want the saltiness of it. So if we’re doing higher intensity exercise, it can increase the lactic acid in our milk, but that does not seem to impact your baby’s desire to drink it. Like they will still accept the lactic acid milk.

[00:14:22] Roxanne: They ain’t picky.

[00:14:23] Gina: Yeah. They are not that picky. But you can also like, you can either pump before if you are noticing that baby is like, kind of like not loving your lactic acid milk. You can pump before and/or nurse before. And so there’s different things that you can do, but generally, the baby doesn’t care, or you can just wait a little bit until your workout is done and then begin to nurse them. But typically, again, babies, it doesn’t seem to impact their ability to want to accept the milk. If you are noticing that they’re a little bit more fussy after the workout, it could just be that you’re sweaty and just kind of wiping off.

[00:14:57] Roxanne: Just personal history: none of my kids cared after I worked out. Even when I was like running, so I was like super sweaty afterwards, my son was like, “Please give me that milk.”

[00:15:08] Gina: Yeah. I have not actually had an issue at all, but that was like something that I saw recommended if your baby was more fussy, but I have not had that experience.

[00:15:16] Roxanne: Cause if you think like, exercise is not the only time you’re going to be sweaty. Like if you go outside when it’s 70 degrees or 80 degrees and you just walk down the street, you could get sweaty and the babies still take it.

[00:15:27] Gina: The third myth is that you should wait to begin exercising until after you get done breastfeeding, which for some of us can be over a year, can be two years, three years, that’s a long time to not be doing any sort of like activity within your life. And so some of the reasons for this is, if you are breastfeeding, your estrogen levels are going to be much lower, which could impact your recovery from your workouts. It could negatively impact muscle growth because of the decrease in this hormone. But, you know, we still want to exercise. Like we’re probably not going to be doing like super high intensity, like we’re not going to the CrossFit games- that’s always our example of like the pinnacle.

[00:16:05] Roxanne: We’re not going to the Olympics.

[00:16:05] Gina: The pinnacle of physical feats is the CrossFit games. We’re not going to the Olympics. And so just being mindful of how we feel during our workouts and like thinking about the intensity level is going to be really beneficial. And then knowing that we may need more time to recover from workouts while we are breastfeeding.

[00:16:22] Gina: And so maybe if we do a 90 percent effort workout, we might need a little bit more active recovery in between our workouts. So really thinking about the mobility, really think about the stretching and the active recovery modalities can be really beneficial while you are breastfeeding because your body may have a harder time recovering.

[00:16:39] Gina: But this doesn’t mean that you should not exercise at all because exercise is incredibly beneficial for us. And so one of the things that could be happening while we are breastfeeding, or could happen during pregnancy, is the calcium within our bones can become decreased. And so this can affect our bone density, which could increase your risk of developing things like osteoporosis like later on in life. And so when we’re exercising now, we need to be thinking about our old lady bodies as well. And so exercising in the postpartum timeframe also can help to increase bone density, which can reduce your risk of developing osteoporosis later on in life, especially weight training. So resistance training is going to increase the density of those bones.

[00:17:19] Gina: In addition, exercising in the postpartum period, even if you are breastfeeding, helps to increase the density of our tissues and our muscles as well, which is what is going to help us recover from common postpartum issues like diastasis, help to strengthen our pelvic floor, help to reduce lower back pain, and so overall, being more comfortable and functional within our bodies, because it’s also really hard to navigate motherhood being in pain. Like if you’re having a hard time getting down on the floor or getting off the floor, picking up your kid is painful. That’s going to make navigating motherhood very, very challenging. And also again, coming back to mental health, impacting our mental health.

[00:17:57] Gina: So should you wait to exercise until you’re done breastfeeding? No, you can absolutely exercise while you are breastfeeding, but we may need to be more mindful of recovery. It may take a little bit longer for us to recover, not only because of the decrease in estrogen, but also we’re probably more sleep deprived.

[00:18:15] Roxanne: There’s other demands of motherhood.

[00:18:17] Gina: There’s other things going on that may just decrease our overall energy levels and just make it harder to recover from workouts. So we can incorporate more active modalities into our workout routine. So the mobility stretching, the yoga, we can also incorporate like foam rolling or like myofascial releases with like lacrosse balls, like yoga balls, or the Theraguns. So there’s different tools that we can incorporate to help us recover from our workouts and we may need to be more active about those while we are breastfeeding because our recovery is probably going to be a little bit more challenging.

[00:18:49] Roxanne: The last myth that we want to talk about is that you don’t even need to worry about exercising when you’re breastfeeding because you’re going to just lose all that weight just because breastfeeding is a great weight loss tool.

[00:19:00] Roxanne: And yes, for some people, it can be a really great way to lose weight because of the increased caloric demand that is involved with creating the breast milk. But this is not the case for everybody. So I hate when people are like, “Oh, don’t worry about weight, it will just fall off of you cause you’re choosing to breastfeed,” and then that gives people false expectations because not all of us will just lose all of our weight because we’re choosing to breastfeed. Some of us hold on to that weight because our body needs it to create this breast milk for our baby. And so knowing that it’s still safe for you to exercise and you don’t have to rely on breastfeeding is important and it kind of sets you up for expectation management that if weight loss is something that you’re thinking about, exercise is fine.

[00:19:42] Gina: It’s also important to know, and we emphasize this kind of over and over again on our podcast, on our social media platforms, is weight loss does not need to be the goal in the postpartum timeframe. You do not need to be smaller and take up less space to get your checkmark in the postpartum timeframe. Like, that is not a requirement by any means, and weight loss does not equal healthier either. So, like, Roxanne’s instance, for example, after her second postpartum or her second baby, she lost a ton of weight really quickly because she had postpartum depression, which is not ideal. Not a good strategy.

[00:20:18] Roxanne: Unhealthy weight loss.

[00:20:19] Gina: Yeah. And so it’s like, we can all applaud her for losing all of the weight.

[00:20:23] Roxanne: Many people did.

[00:20:25] Gina: They’re like, “Congratulations, Roxanne!”

[00:20:27] Roxanne: “I’m so jealous of you. You look so great!” Okay. Well, great. I’m not sleeping well. I haven’t eaten in two days because I’m so stressed.

[00:20:35] Gina: Yeah, so not, not healthy, essentially.

[00:20:38] Gina: So weight loss does not need to be the goal in the postpartum timeframe. It is okay to be cool with the way that you look. And so for me, for example, cause I still struggle with it as well, I am still 10 pounds heavier than I was pre pregnancy. I’m four months postpartum, and I still have 10 extra pounds on me. And I had a moment where I was like, “Why do I still have this extra weight? Like, I don’t understand.” And then I was like upset at myself for being upset that I weighed more because why am I letting misogyny work over me? Like I should be beyond this, of being upset. So then it became this whole spiral. But it was still something that bothered me because it’s so deeply ingrained in us as women to be smaller, to take up less space, that it’s a source of pride to look like pregnancy did not impact you in any way. But weight loss does not need to have that type of power over us. Like, we can focus more on how we feel within our bodies, how well our bodies function, and how well our bodies can take care of ourselves and the people around us instead of being smaller, by any means. So, I do want to acknowledge that a lot of us feel this pressure, but it does not need to be our focus. And sometimes losing a lot of weight really fast is also not healthy.

[00:22:02] Roxanne: Yeah, and it could affect our milk supply.

[00:22:03] Gina: And so if we are complimenting somebody on their sudden weight loss, we also need to be aware that there might be something negative happening in the background that is causing that as well.

[00:22:14] Gina: So, you know, congrats. Roxanne, you didn’t look like pregnancy affected you at all with your mental health struggles!

[00:22:21] Roxanne: I was just like severely underweight.

[00:22:23] Gina: Yeah. Like that’s not good. That’s not good.

[00:22:25] Gina: So now let’s go over some practical tips to breastfeed while also working out. Because again, an easy way to maintain your milk supply is to nurse your baby more frequently or to remove the milk. And if your baby is with you while you are working out, an easy way to do that is to nurse them during your workouts, which means you need to be wearing clothing that allows you to nurse during your workouts. Not all of us workout with our babies. And so if you are not working out with them, just wear whatever me, like my kids are usually with me and I’m usually stopping in the middle of my workout to feed my baby. And so I’m gonna wear like nursing friendly sports bras. But, now that I am like four months postpartum, I need to be wearing supportive nursing sports bras ’cause I’m doing a little bit more jumping and running. And so I’m not wearing like my little flimsy brawls anymore ’cause these girls are bigger than they normally are, and like, usually somebody will like be holding onto their chest as they run on the treadmill because they didn’t realize today’s workout had running in it. So supportive nursing sports bras can be really helpful.

[00:23:30] Gina: Love and Fit is my personal favorite nursing sports bra. They have a strappy back one that is super cute because I also don’t like to wear nursing sports bras that look like….

[00:23:40] Roxanne: A nursing sports bra.

[00:23:42] Gina: They look like a nursing sports bra. I don’t love it. Like I, I want to look like cute in my workout clothes.

[00:23:47] Roxanne: Yeah.

[00:23:48] Gina: Not that your appearance means anything, but it does. So I really like their…

[00:23:52] Roxanne: You want to feel good in the clothes that you’re wearing!

[00:23:53] Gina: Yes, I do.

[00:23:54] Roxanne: Yeah.

[00:23:54] Gina: I wear the strappy back, it’s like “2.0”, or something like that.

[00:23:58] Roxanne: I know. We’ll put it in the show notes.

[00:23:59] Gina: We’ll put it in the show notes. But that’s the one that I like a lot. It’s a nursing one, it has like a clasp, and it’s super supportive so I can like run and jump at it.

[00:24:07] Roxanne: But not TOO compressive. So that is the one thing with nursing sports bras is we want them supportive but not compressive. So some you can grab and they’re really supportive but almost too supportive and this could lead to clogged ducts just from the compression.

[00:24:23] Roxanne: So if you’re not wearing nursing sports bras, you also still need to be like, considering the boobs, because we don’t want too much compression. Cause then you are going to go to a workout wearing your normal sports bra, maybe that you wore previously, and they’re very compressive, and then you come home and you have a clogged duct and then it like is very uncomfortable. And then you’re like, “Well, now I don’t want to work out because every time I work out, I get a clogged duct.”

[00:24:47] Gina: And you also don’t want to wear a supportive nursing sports bra all the time. Like it’s really just for your workouts. And then outside of that, wearing something that is a little bit looser fitting, still supportive. So like I normally outside of my workouts where like the LoveSteady bralette, but I’ve also been really loving the Bodily like breastfeeding bra line. Though those ones are designed by an IBCLC and so like, there’s like no compression at all, but it’s still supportive and really nice. So wearing something outside of your workouts that is not a sports bra can also be really helpful to support like your milk supply and your breast comfort. But during the workouts, if you do need more of that support and compression, it’s okay, but again, don’t wear that outside of the timeframe.

[00:25:34] Roxanne: The compression can lead to clogged ducts.

[00:25:36] Gina: With the compression, one of the myths that I’ve heard, I know we already passed the myths, is: you have to avoid chest exercises while you’re breastfeeding because it can cause clogged ducts, or impact your boobs and your milk supply, and that’s not true. You can totally do chest exercises during the postpartum when you’re breastfeeding. But that was something that I had heard somebody ask me once, and I was like, that’s not a thing. Like, you can totally exercise that… your chesticles.

[00:26:04] Roxanne: Your chesticles.

[00:26:06] Gina: So other things that we want to be thinking about when we are breastfeeding and then also working out is hydration, so milk supply depends on your hydration status, in addition to like eating. So again, like we talked about earlier, making sure you’re eating enough food. You don’t have to like stuff your face before your workouts.

[00:26:22] Roxanne: And it’s like nutrient dense food. So it’s not like going to McDonald’s to reach your caloric demand, but it’s eating nutrient dense food that is fueling your body.

[00:26:31] Gina: My pediatrician, every time he sees me for one of Zoe’s appointments is like, “All right, now, make sure you put that extra chocolate on your Sunday!” And I’m like, “I understand what you’re trying to do. I appreciate the sentiment, but I can eat, like, if I want to eat ice cream, I’ll eat ice cream. Don’t worry, dude. Like, I like these black and white cookies. I just, I demolish boxes of them. Roxanne’s daughter stole one of my cookies and I was like, visibly upset.

[00:26:59] Roxanne: I bought Gina three black and white cookies the other day at a pizza shop.

[00:27:02] Gina: Visibly upset. These ones are way better than those ones.

[00:27:03] Roxanne: My kid can take one cookie.

[00:27:05] Gina: Visibly upset. But I, she ate it, and I was like, “Do not touch these cookies.” They’re really hard to find sometimes. Anyways, so he’s always like….

[00:27:13] Roxanne: So send Gina black and white cookies. Thank you.

[00:27:14] Gina: He’s always saying, “Make sure you eat your hot fudge sundae,” and I’m like, I’m totally fine with eating snacks and like eating, junk, like and cookies and cakes and stuff. You don’t need to tell me that every appointment. I’m eating!

[00:27:28] Roxanne: It’s probably his, like, joke though.

[00:27:30] Gina: I know.

[00:27:30] Roxanne: He tells it to everybody that’s breastfeeding.

[00:27:32] Gina: He’s like, “Ha ha ha!” Like, I got it dude.

[00:27:34] Roxanne: You’re so clever.

[00:27:34] Gina: But we can eat nutrient dense food. And that’s something that we talked about with like our kids as well is like it’s not healthy versus not healthy, or unhealthy. It’s, what nourishment is this food bringing me.

[00:27:45] Roxanne: All food has nutrients, just some have more than others.

[00:27:50] Roxanne: Some

[00:27:50] Gina: of them just bring me joy.

[00:27:51] Roxanne: Yeah.

[00:27:52] Gina: So eating like nutrient dense food is beneficial. I don’t think you need to eat during your workout.

[00:27:59] Roxanne: No. I think, like, a snack, though.

[00:28:01] Gina: Eating immediate before isn’t needed, but eating after your workouts, within like 30 minutes to an hour, can be really beneficial, especially for us as women with this lower estrogen level.

[00:28:11] Roxanne: Protein.

[00:28:11] Gina: Eating like a protein snack, a protein shake, something immediately after your workout can be really, really helpful with helping with your recovery after your workouts. Again, we want to be really active with our recovery modalities, which includes nourishing our body after our workout.

[00:28:28] Gina: So, so one of the things that I like to incorporate into my post workout routine is Needed’s collagen protein. They ethically source their protein, it’s clean, they’re third party tested, so I know it’s a good quality product that I’m taking. And this helps to one, boost my protein needs throughout the day. So I’m meeting the increased demands of the postpartum timeframe. In addition, it’s helping me to recover from my workouts as well. So I throw the collagen in like my morning coffee, I throw it in my morning protein. I’m like, I have a hyper fixation meal that I just eat every day to make it easy on myself. So that helps boost my protein intake early in the morning. And then after my workouts, I’ll drink some collagen afterwards to help with that recovery immediately after as well. And so if you want to check out needed, you can check them out at thisisneeded.com and use our code MAMASTEPOD to get 20 percent off your first order or the first month of your subscription.

[00:29:19] Gina: In addition to taking some protein immediately after your workout, we also want to be thinking about hydration throughout our workout as well. And hydration is more than just water, we want to be thinking about like electrolytes and incorporating a little bit more to our water as well. Yes, drink water throughout your day, our hydration demands are going to be a little bit higher while we’re breastfeeding, you may just feel thirsty all the time.

[00:29:40] Roxanne: You will feel thirsty, honestly, a lot.

[00:29:42] Gina: And so I have just like this giant water bottle that I just carry around with me everywhere I go and I just drink from that like throughout the day. And I can definitely tell when I don’t drink enough water, cause I am like physically in pain by the end of the day. And the hydration needs are definitely much higher. But I also like to put like LMNT into my water, so some hydration salts. There’s so many different brands out there. LMNT is just my personal favorite. But I’ll throw that in there. One, it tastes good, so it encourages me to drink more water throughout the day, and it could really help with breastfeeding as well, cause we need that sodium and that potassium and all the different stuff to support our breastfeeding journey also. So hydrating, eating enough food, eating immediately after, or very shortly after your workouts can be super helpful as well.

[00:30:28] Roxanne: And it’s important to know our milk supply, like what our milk is, is it’s being created from our blood. So all of these blood vessels within our breast are getting pulled into creating the milk. So our blood supply is really dependent on our hydration, so if we are well hydrated, the viscosity of our blood will be better to be able to create that milk a little bit easier. So if we are hydrated, we can create more milk because of the blood supply.

[00:30:55] Gina: So some other things for your comfort when it comes to your workouts is if your breasts are very full they can be heavier, and if you’re doing more impact type movements, they can be uncomfortable. So sometimes feeding before your workouts can be really helpful, or pumping before your workouts. Like throughout your workout it’s totally fine to nurse or feed your baby as well and sometimes it just helps with your overall comfort

[00:31:18] Roxanne: I would always pump or feed baby right before I would go for a run, especially. Because, yeah, that was the worst when they were full. Yeah. Just rocks.

[00:31:28] Gina: Yeah. It’s not fun running with rocks in your sports bra. So that can also just be a helpful tip for your own comfort.

[00:31:34] Gina: Something else that’s really important to know is in addition to the hormones like oxytocin and prolactin helping with your milk supply, we also have relaxin still from pregnancy that is kind of lingering within our body as we are kind of continuing our breastfeeding journey. This does kind of regulate within like the first few months, but with relaxin we have more joint laxity still.

[00:31:55] Gina: And so we have increased movement that’s happening within our joints still into the postpartum timeframe. We also are kind of recovering from pregnancy, which is like 9 to 10 months of an altered movement pattern. Muscle tension has kind of adjusted, so we are recovering from that in the postpartum as well. So we have that increased laxity, we have some different movement patterns, our stability is a little bit different after we give birth, and so we want to focus first on more of like the lower impact type exercises. Really integrating our deep core system, improving our stability, before we start jumping into like running and jumping and all of those things. Because again, there’s more movement happening. We need to think about our movement patterns and we need to kind of strengthen the foundation first. And we do that with our fitness programs, the MamasteFit postpartum fitness program, where we kind of guide you, step by step, on how to rebuild your deep core, how to rebuild the foundation, and then bringing you back to jumping and running and doing all those dynamic exercises that we want to be able to do in the postpartum timeframe. So you can check out our fitness programs on our website, mamastefit.com.

[00:32:58] Gina: And with the postpartum fitness program, we also incorporate follow along videos now for the first six weeks or the first 24 workouts, which we have received tons of positive feedback from that, where it really helps folks just be able to do their workout so much easier because they can just see me do it. But there’s also still that self paced option, so if you just want to do the workout on your own that option is still available. So we have both follow along videos and self paced options, and we also give you tips on how to shorten workouts, because that’s something else with working out with your baby, is they have a big say. So like yesterday, my workout was like cut in half because Zoe was like, “No ma’am, we are not working out today,” but I got some movement in so I felt good that I did that. Nursed her a ton, but my workout got cut short, but I knew kind of where to pause it based on the structure of our program as well.

[00:33:45] Gina: So to recap some tips to help you maintain your milk supply while you’re exercising and to just make exercise more comfortable during your breastfeeding journey are to first focus on making sure that we’re still hydrating before, during, and after our workouts, incorporating electrolytes can be really beneficial- I’m a big fan of LMNT, but there’s so many different brands out there that have different flavor profiles and ratios of electrolytes as well. So it’s just finding one that makes you enjoy drinking water can be really helpful. When we’re eating, you don’t need to necessarily eat like during your workout, but definitely post workout emphasizing some protein can be really beneficial to helping with your recovery because our recovery capabilities are kind of decreased in that post program timeframe. So we need to be very active with how we approach recovery in this post pandemic timeframe, especially after our workouts. Wearing a nursing friendly sports bra that’s very supportive but also allows you to feed your baby during your workouts or pump through your workouts can be really beneficial but we want to make sure that it’s not super compressive and that we’re not wearing it all the time because sometimes that additional compression from sports bras can lead to things like clogged ducts or discomfort with the breastfeeding as well.

[00:34:54] Roxanne: And so with this entire episode of breastfeeding exercise, things that we are concerned about is milk supply. So what are things that we can look for that maybe something is going on with our milk supply? That’s again, baby is feeding all the time, so they’re displaying hunger cues often. And again, cluster feeding is normal. A lot of babies will do this like during growth spurts and the beginning part of breastfeeding. And this is helping to increase milk demands, but it should only be for like a shorter periods. Like they’ll do it for a couple hours in the day, but the other times they’re getting some space between those feedings. If they’re doing this all the time, this is a sign that maybe something is going on with our milk supply.

[00:35:33] Gina: Something that I found to be really helpful to know kind of when these little bursts of growth spurts and like cluster feeding are probably going to happen is I use this app called Wonder Weeks, which tells you your baby’s like leaps. And so what a leap is, this is like a really cool concept that I learned about during my first, is there’s like this big mental jump that our babies make with their understanding of the world. And so the way that we perceive the world right now as adults is not the way that our baby is perceiving the world. So like when they’re first born, they don’t recognize that they’re their own little person. And so when they first recognize that they’re like, “Oh my God. The world is huge!” And then there’s like a leap where they recognize distance, they can perceive distance, and so when you walk away they get more upset, and this helps to encourage them to crawl. And then there’s one where they perceive like depth, and like patterns, and so there’s all of these different like mental jumps that they make, which is like a really sudden change, and so you may notice with your baby that one day they’re like a little potato and then like the next day, it’s like overnight, they’re like reaching for stuff and you’re like, “What how did this just happen?”

[00:36:39] Gina: So these are mental leaps, they’ve been like deeply researched, there’s like a whole book on it, and there’s an app and so you can input your baby’s due date because it’s based on their gestational age, not their like age actual age. And it’ll give you like a little time frame of like, “In this like week long period your baby may be more fussy,” and during those week long periods they also tend to have like a little bit of a growth spurt like their head size like increases, and so that may be associated with more cluster feeding as well. So if you have the app, I think it’s like $5.00, you can kind of like have a better idea of when these periods are going to be. And I have found that it has aligned pretty well with all of my kids. Like it might be like a few days off, but it’s like, okay, this like little timeframe, Zoe is learning something new. She’s a little bit more fussy. We’re not getting quite as much sleep. And then all of a sudden it’s like that, and she’s like…

[00:37:32] Roxanne: Doing a new skill.

[00:37:33] Gina: Yeah. And it’s pretty incredible. So that app can also be super beneficial. I have been a big fan of it to know, is this cluster feeding or Is something else going on?

[00:37:43] Roxanne: So cluster feeding, again, it’s completely normal, but it’s not, when it’s 24/7 or constantly, that is not normal and that could be something that’s going on with our milk supply. Other things are: how is baby looking? Is baby super tense? Their hands, are their hands like in a fist? At the end of the feed, if you lift their hand up, does it just drop or do they kind of fight it as it goes down? Those are like easy things that I usually like, at the end of the feed, just like lift their arm up, and if it just drops, I’m like, they’re good. This is those babies that are milk drunk. We want those milk drunk babies that are like, (snoring) at the end of those feeds. If your baby is still tense at the end of the feed, they’re likely still hungry, but they’re tired because they worked really hard, because there’s not that milk that is easily able to come out. And then also they’re dirty diapers. So are they peeing six to eight times during the day? Are you changing six to eight diapers in a day? If not, we want to look into it because that means if they’re not getting food in, they’re not going to pee it out. Or, they’re just like using up everything that they’re drinking, and then they’re not paying it out. So that is another big indicator. And then obviously their weight. If they’re not eating enough, they’re not going to gain weight. But if one of those things is off, we’re going to inspect and figure out what’s going on. If like all of them are off, obviously then something is for sure going on.

[00:39:01] Roxanne: And I do want to talk about like milk supply. There are times that like with cluster feeding, there’s not as much milk readily available, but there’s never a time period where we have no milk in our breast. It’s just, they have to work harder to get the milk when you’re like more empty. But there’s always milk there. Just like if at the end of your feed, you went in hand expressed, some comes out, but you do have to express a little bit harder than you would at the beginning of a feed where it just like squirts out from the lightest touch. So you’ll still always have milk there, it’s just, they have to work harder to get it, which is why they get tired.

[00:39:38] Roxanne: So who can you, if there is a supply issue that you’re suspecting, who can you reach out to? Obviously your pediatrician is going to be able to tell you about the weight because they’re going to do a weight at your pediatric visits, but an IBCLC or a lactation consultant can be a really great resource to be able to investigate what’s going on with babies. So like, why is baby not latching well, or why do you not have the milk supply that you’re needing? And then after you rule out, potentially baby’s latch because sometimes they have that good latch, but maybe hormonally something’s going on. After they rule it out, then maybe speaking with your primary care for yourself to see if maybe like there’s hormonal issues that are leading to the supply. Cause not all of us will have the ability to have a milk supply, so ruling out obviously baby, and then going to you is usually the steps that I recommend.

[00:40:30] Gina: So if you are breastfeeding and you want to resume or start a workout routine, but you’re concerned about your milk supply, know that exercise does not negatively impact what your milk is made up of, the volume of it, the supply, it’s not going to affect your baby wanting to drink milk. But we do need to be mindful of how much we are eating like we need to eat enough food to both sustain just our daily functional demands to support our milk supply, and also to support the additional exercising that we’re doing.

[00:40:58] Gina: And so if you’re noticing a decrease in your milk supply I would say the first thing to look at is: are you eating enough food? Like that would be like a key thing that I would be looking at. Are you eating enough and drinking enough food? If you are doing both of those things, then maybe it’s baby’s latch, maybe there’s something else underlying going on.

[00:41:17] Gina: So for me personally, I have had a very positive breastfeeding experience other than like the first week or two with my first baby, but other than that, it’s been a very positive experience for me. And then having my babies with me during my workouts, there are moments where I am more frustrated because I just really want to get my workout done but my baby has other ideas of what we’re going to be doing. And so giving myself a lot of grace in this postpartum timeframe as I am navigating this journey with my baby, it has been very beneficial and like very positive for me, overall. Do I get to do all of my workouts? No, I don’t. And it’s okay. Like I, it’s, this is a season of life. I have accepted that it is not going to be the same as pre kids. And that’s okay. I’m not training for the same things that I did pre kids. Like right now I am specifically focusing on training to feel good in my body, to function well as a mother, to like, if there’s any sort of fitness goals that I have achieved those fitness goals, and then training for my old lady body. I know that the things I do now are going to be really beneficial for Old Lady Gina.

[00:42:23] Gina: In addition to having my kids with me as I have been working out has been really positive for them as well. And so like my baby right now, she just kind of lays there and she’s does tummy time and like, hangs out and stuff, but my toddler will like try to copy me. She will do similar movements that I am doing. She wants to hold the baby weights cause we have like kid gym equipment for them. And so I’m modeling this behavior for her and she wants to copy it and she wants to be involved with it. Like my oldest, she wants to lift weights cause she wants to be strong like Mommy. She understands like how important it is to incorporate a fitness routine, and so she wants to be involved in it as well, and my son is the same way. And so, all of my kids are very involved in my daily fitness. They see both me and my husband exercising, they get to be a part of it. We have equipment for them. And so it’s just modeling this love for fitness for them as well, which I think is kind of a side benefit of incorporating your baby into your workout. It’s hard sometimes, like, working out with a baby and a toddler is challenging and frustrating. But knowing that it does result in a kid that really likes working out and fitness. And I mean, my kids are not like doing three rounds, 10 reps, like da, da, da, like they, they’re just, they play and they, they do a few reps of squats and then they run over there and they build an obstacle course. Like we’re not like, we’re not like training our kids to go to the Olympics in 2030 or anything like that. But they enjoy moving their bodies and exercising because we have been able to model this love of fitness for them, which comes into exercising while you’re breastfeeding, starting at a really young age when their babies can be super beneficial.

[00:44:10] Gina: So if you are worried about exercising and your milk supply, hopefully this episode was helpful for you in understanding that there is a lot that you can do to support your milk supply, to support a return to fitness, and then also to just kind of support the relationship between you and your baby as you kind of navigate this journey together. So if you want more support throughout your postpartum timeframe, check out our online postpartum fitness program, where we guide you step by step on how to rebuild, to reconnect, to heal from pregnancy and navigate and meet the demands of motherhood.

[00:44:43] Gina: You could check out our postpartum fitness programs on our website at mamastefit.com and use code STORY10 to get 10 percent off any of our online offerings.

[00:44:50] Roxanne: And this podcast is sponsored by Needed, a nutrition company focused on the perinatal timeframe that both Gina and I have utilized. We love their collagen in the postpartum and pregnancy. And if you want to try them out, head to thisisneeded.com and use code MAMASTEPOD to get 20 percent off your first order or the first month of your subscription.