redefining postpartum: body image, self-acceptance, and rejecting bounce-back culture

Emily Field 00:00:00  I’m so excited to introduce you to Ocean Trail, who’s a strength and conditioning coach, nutrition coach, and pregnancy and postpartum coach. Ocean brings a wealth of experience to the table as a former division one athlete and competitive bodybuilder, and now a mom of two young children, she has truly walked the walk when it comes to understanding the complexities of building muscle, getting strong, and fueling your body through every season of life, whether that’s maintaining, building, pregnancy, postpartum, or breastfeeding. Ocean is deeply passionate about helping her clients bridge the gap between where they are now and where they want to be with their nutrition, strength and fitness journeys. She’s all about teaching sustainable habits and empowering her clients with the knowledge they need to succeed. Today, we’re diving deep into Oceans personal journey with body image during and after pregnancy. Her thoughts on the pressures of bounce back culture, and how she balances self-acceptance with her fitness goals. We’ll also explore the importance of support systems and the impact of social media and postpartum body image, and how Ocean maintains a positive mindset about her body through it all.

Emily Field 00:01:00  If you’ve ever struggled with navigating your own fitness and body image journey, especially during those transitional phases of life, this conversation is filled with inspiration and guidance to help you along the way. This is episode 32 of the Macros Made Easy podcast. Welcome to Macros Made Easy, the podcast that takes the confusion out of tracking macros. I’m your host, Emily Field, a registered dietitian that specializes in a macros approach. In each episode, I help you learn how to eat in a way that supports your health, body composition, and athletic performance goals. We’ll cover the basics of macronutrients how to track for various goals, the role of macros in your health, and how to make sustainable changes to your habits. I’ve helped hundreds of people experience more food freedom and flexibility while navigating their nutrition. So whether you’ve tried macros and it just didn’t stick or you just heard the word macros yesterday, I can’t wait to help you too. One of the reasons why I really love following you Ocean is, you know, we were just talking offline quickly about how vulnerable you are online, sharing your journey between deficit and maintenance.

Emily Field 00:02:00  You even did a surplus phase you are so good about showing like your macros and then also your body and you do video and pictures. I mean, it’s really, really fun to get a peek behind the curtain. I think you’re an inspiration to me, and I’m thrilled to have you on the podcast to talk about this stuff. Hey, thanks, Emily. It’s stoked to be here.

Ocean Trail 00:02:19  It’s been quite the journey getting here today with health and fitness, and I just have really enjoyed sharing my process. It’s kind of how I process things. I’m a visual learner, and I think just sharing the behind the scenes is helpful for people to not only I think see, but actually get like a realistic timeline of like, hey, you know, these are the inputs and outputs that come from investing in a process. And yeah, it’s awesome to be here. I’m excited to dive into more specifics, you know, in regards to body image postpartum and just kind of the journey that got me here today.

Emily Field 00:02:53  so, I mean, it really would seem like to the outside eye that you absolutely know what you’re doing and you are very, very confident in any body you show up in. It really does resonate that way. But I oftentimes know that that’s not how it feels on the inside. So I’m curious about the way that you view your body or your body image prior to having babies. And now that you’ve had two, what has changed about that.

Ocean Trail 00:03:16  Really, really good question. I think that now that I’m a mom of two, much like anything, you know, my perception and feels have evolved and changed. I think just with my history and health and athletics. I’m so used to looking at how I do things in seasons. I swim Division one in college and there was a building season, and then there was a performance season. And I think very similarly, within this season of working in motherhood, it’s very much the same. There was the building season of growing a body and then being in motherhood.

Ocean Trail 00:03:46  And I think in terms of body image, well, I had done a lot of work and was very at peace with myself. I think there is an element of also feeling the anticipation Dissipation of it was probably the worst part of it all. So as someone again, who has very much values, health and performance, but I also dig on aesthetics. You know, I like looking like I left. I like seeing the fruits of my labor in my physique. I love looking jacked and understanding that body change, a voluntarily body change again and getting pregnant and just, I guess, not being in control of those changes because of every other phase that I have invested in, was I was in control, right? I was choosing to gain muscle. I was choosing to gain weight. I was choosing to invest in certain protocols, to compose my physique in a certain way. And I think with getting pregnant, it was very much involuntary in that, like I couldn’t control where I was gaining weight, how I was gaining weight, how I was going to feel.

Ocean Trail 00:04:37  And so, yeah, I would say that the anticipation was hard and that I was knew my body was going to change. I was definitely scared of gaining weight, getting stretch marks, just, I think the unknown. Yeah. And then I think my initial pregnancy and postpartum, it was like a hard pill to swallow in that as much as I embraced change, I kind of had some unrealistic expectations of how fast I would bounce back or how quickly I, you know, I thought, okay, get pregnant, have the baby. And then, you know, a couple weeks I should be feeling back to my normal self. And I can kind of click back into my old routine and I should be feeling great. And that was not the case in my first go around postpartum and so.

Emily Field 00:05:21  Well, what I’m hearing you say, if I could interject, is that it’s because you had so much experience putting your body through different phases on your own, but it was very much under your own control.

Emily Field 00:05:32  So you knew the inputs that you were putting in. You had an expectation of the timeline. You had an expectation of what would come out of that process. But with pregnancy and delivery and postpartum, so much of it is just out of your hands. And that was really difficult to swallow. Absolutely.

Ocean Trail 00:05:47  That’s a great way to sum it up, is it is the acceptance of like knowing that your body is going to change and like anticipation of it. But actually going through the process and not really knowing. I think postpartum is this huge life change, not only physically but also mentally, emotionally, and you just don’t really I don’t think you can really, like, anticipate what it’s going to feel like until you’re going through it. And so being someone who was very proactive with like my health and fitness, I guess I really struggled postpartum with the idea that as active and as proactive I was with my health and fitness, nutrition and training during pregnancy that didn’t guarantee like a quick bounce back or I feel weird using the word bounce back because I certainly never expected myself to bounce back, but rather get back to a place where I was like, oh, this is where I recognize myself.

Ocean Trail 00:06:36  So postpartum, I truly did feel like an alien in my body. And I think that there was an element to of capacity to be addressed. Just because I think that when you become a new mom, there’s just so many things, like it’s not that your body and your health and fitness aren’t important, but they just really get knocked down on the totem pole after you.

Emily Field 00:06:57  Were used to putting them so high, you know, so.

Ocean Trail 00:07:00  So high. Yeah, it’s it was definitely a calling myself in like, checking my expectations, you know, because even though I had a great baseline going into pregnancy, there was an element of like, okay, I do not look the same. Like I had like muscle loss, strength, loss, new roles, extra skin stretch marks, a huge jump in cellulite. And so that was just really tough to navigate because it just was just new.

Emily Field 00:07:25  Yeah I mean thank you for sharing all that. I think it’s really important to hear that message that even though you did everything right it still was different when you got to that place.

Emily Field 00:07:36  But I really applaud you for leaning into that and checking in with yourself and kind of acting as your own coach. I’m not sure if you have your own coach, but it sounds like you’re doing a really good job. Hopefully. I mean, I’m assuming you have a great support system and your internal dialogue is strong because oftentimes we see women in the same position really, really spiral, having a huge identity shift, not only because their world is different, because they have a child and their priorities are so, so shifted, but because they don’t recognize themselves in their body too, that definitely plays into our identity and how we see ourselves.

Ocean Trail 00:08:10  Absolutely. I currently at this moment in time and do not have a coach, but I did for a very long time throughout my fitness journey, which I guess has been over 12 years. At this point. I had a coach for a good percentage of that, and I do feel like a very confident in my coaching abilities. I feel like I’m a great self coach at this time.

Emily Field 00:08:29  Definitely sounds like it. And that’s where we would love to see a lot of our clients get. But it does take time, and I think working with someone for years is a great way to learn how to talk to yourself, because we’re able to call it out as a third party, oftentimes better than you are able to say it to yourself.

Ocean Trail 00:08:44  Absolutely.

Emily Field 00:08:45  So you did use the word bounce back. And this is something I really do want to touch on Here is this idea that when we see images of women who, quote, bounce back extremely quickly and they’re not necessarily people we might expect. So from a celebrity standpoint, we see like the Kardashians, like two weeks after giving birth, they look nearly the same as what they looked like prior to pregnancy. But we see it also in like fitness culture on Instagram or YouTube. Women that are jacked, I would even say Tia clear to me is one of the examples, just working out at an elite level throughout an entire pregnancy. And then after she delivered, it looked incredible.

Emily Field 00:09:22  So our worlds are online and I would imagine that bounce back culture, that pressure to get back to the size that you were in a very rapid way, did infiltrate to your scene, like online or even in your personal life? I’m just curious what expectations you kind of touched on it before, but I’d love to know what your expectations were for yourself because you had such a strong health and fitness background. And then how did it differ to your Reality.

Ocean Trail 00:09:48  Yeah. So just kind of touching on the bounce back culture is, you know, what is it really. It’s just that stress of immediately after having a baby that mom has to, you know, lose the body fat and that you immediately go back into your old ways of dieting and exercising and going back to work. And that journey needs to be pretty quickly, which is just so wild to me, because when you think about like how long it takes to grow human life, it’s like almost a I mean, it’s just shy of a year, the notion that you’re supposed to go through that and then within what, 12 weeks, maybe? It seems to get back to your old routine.

Ocean Trail 00:10:26  And I feel like it just completely bypasses the fact that you grew life and then had a baby, and then it just bypasses, like the whole postpartum experience, which I mean, the breastfeeding and the birth trauma. There’s there’s so many things that I think that bounce back culture just completely glazes over that. And for most people, the reality is maybe they didn’t have the birth and delivery that they had wanted. Maybe they had. If they were choosing to breastfeed, there were latching problems. The sleep deprivation is like a massive oh wow, that really wrecked me my first postpartum. And so bounce back culture I think, just completely bypasses that. I guess my initial expectations, my first postpartum go around was very similar to that as like, oh yeah, like I’m not pregnant anymore. Like I feel so good. Like I can do all the things that I was doing. But it’s very humbling to recognize that, yes, it would be nice to get to where you were or doing the things that you were, but it’s just not realistic.

Ocean Trail 00:11:21  You have to give your body space and time to heal from this marathon of event that you physically did. And so I think in social media, when you do see celebrities or the elite tend to be clear, for example, like, yeah, man, that’s such a slippery slope to compare yourself to them, especially with the Kardashians. You know, I think social media is it’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. I think with like lighting angles. You really don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes And yeah, I mean, I think, for example, I love watching Selling Sunset in my first postpartum experience, and I forget what her name was. Christina, maybe the one of the house or the realtors, how quickly she had a baby. And then she was just like, all glammed up. I was like, she must be feeling like absolute trash. Like I was like, there’s absolutely no way that you know that. This is all just for the camera. There’s just no way that’s possible.

Ocean Trail 00:12:10  There’s just no way.

Emily Field 00:12:11  Yeah, it really does. Like you said, send the message that you didn’t do anything. It was not a big deal. It was not a big deal that you just spent a year of your life making life. And like you said, a lot of women don’t have the birth experience that they thought they would. There’s a lot of expectation changes. I mean, not only that, with your hormone changes, things like that, it can just be a really not validating of your reality. And yeah, that’s horrible. And then we just kind of continue on and kind of forget, especially now that appointments with doctors are now maybe more tailored to the baby after six weeks, you don’t really have a good check in for you in our traditional conventional system. So a lot of times we kind of just feel like, okay, we’ll just like move past that. It’s not a big deal. Just get over it when it very much is a very big deal. So taking time to get back to a new routine, not necessarily your old routine because life is different now.

Emily Field 00:13:04  That’s what our job as coaches is to help people like clear a path for that new reality.

Ocean Trail 00:13:09  There’s just so much going on then more than just your body, right? You personally are healing physically, but you also have so many other dynamics with, you know, navigating just a new reality. If you’re going from 0 to 1, it’s literally a 180 from your previous lifestyle, potentially navigating a new territory with your partner. And I think all of bounce back culture also just assumes that you have like a great support system, that you get time to yourself, that you are in a secure, potentially supportive relationship where you have help. It just assumes things that aren’t actually there.

Emily Field 00:13:40  So like you just said, bounce back. Culture makes the assumption that you have this perfect life and all the puzzle pieces fit together. You’ve got a great support person and a partner possibly help at home. Really great boundaries. I mean, it’s just assuming a lot like you said. That said, I mean, you are very great about showing online how your mom steps in and your partner steps in, and that you love time away from your babies, which you love time with your babies.

Emily Field 00:14:05  I really applaud you for showing that because it clearly shows if people are looking at you and saying, wow, she looks amazing. I was never in the gym. Like doing the stuff that she’s doing after two babies. It probably gives them more of a reality check. So I really appreciate you showing that. Can you share more about what your support system looks like? Now that you have two kids and a business that you’re trying to navigate, while also getting back your health and fitness to a place that feels good.

Ocean Trail 00:14:28  So, so many moving parts. I honestly think about this often and chat about it with several of my mom friends, but I don’t know how someone could do this. It really like baffles me to think that someone could do this alone. So I personally do have a great support system. I do wish that more people actually were very transparent about the help that they’re getting, especially people who do work in the online space. So we’ve chosen not to put our children in daycare. We’re very fortunate in that I work from home and my husband’s job, he can work remotely some days a week.

Ocean Trail 00:14:58  And so I guess the help that I’m currently getting is that my husband leaves for work a little bit later, so I get some help in the morning, and then I get help in the evening when he gets home. So that’s not the norm. I would say for a lot of people, the fact that I work from home and get to be with my babies, and then the fact that we do have help. Within an hour away, my mom was an hour away and she actually runs a private exclusive daycare. So my whole life growing up, she ran a private daycare at home. And so when my first son was about a year old, he would go there for like a day here or there. And most recently he’s actually been going for a day and a night. So my mom’s been keeping him overnight for one night. So all he gets to spend the night with his grandparents. But I do get a lot of help and it’s still insanely hard. Yeah. I’m in the season right now with navigating to because I want to have my cake and eat it too, like I want to run my business and show it for my clients.

Ocean Trail 00:15:50  And I also want to be a full time mom that I oftentimes like, just have to, you know, I’m just in the season of accepting that I work at night or during nap times if they ever line up at the same time. So usually I just work at night. It’s usually if the boys go down at 8 or 830, then I work until like midnight. But that’s just the season we’re in. It’s not going to be forever, but even with all the help that I’m getting, you know, I’m kind of burning the candle on both ends and it’s not easy. But I guess I would choose this hard over a different hard. I, we could choose to put them in daycare. We could choose those things. But that’s just not something our family has to do. And I’m really grateful for that.

Emily Field 00:16:26  And I would imagine, you know, based on your experience with 12 years, you know, in the health and fitness space and coaching other people, you absolutely understand the importance of, you can have everything you want, but not necessarily all at the same time.

Emily Field 00:16:38  I find myself telling clients that a lot to pick one lane and stay in it. So I would imagine you’re constantly reevaluating where you’re at, how you’re feeling. You said you’re burning the candle at both ends, but I feel confident between you and your support system and your internal dialogue with yourself, that you would be able to change things up if it was necessary.

Ocean Trail 00:16:58  Absolutely. I think the acknowledgement of that, you know, you can have everything that you want. You can it just may not be at the same time. And so in a way like prioritizing or strategically planning out things, that element of getting help and having that support system is just crucial. I think for me to be able to do it all, but recognizing that, yeah, there’s certainly things that it’s almost like a practicing of essentialism, right? Like understanding that there’s a lot of yeses in my life, but what are the hell yeses that need to get done and what needs to fall by the wayside? So understanding, like, yeah, maybe right now, you know, for example, on my the business side of things like I’m not currently taking on any one on one clients, I’ve kind of closed my roster where I’m not advertising that I’m taking on clients.

Ocean Trail 00:17:41  It’s usually people that I’m working with or people that I’ve maybe worked with in the past. And so building that rapport is already established. And so it’s just kind of an easy transition. And then also maybe, hey, you know, my newsletter has to take a backseat because that’s just not a priority. And I’m okay with that.

Emily Field 00:17:56  Yeah. Awesome. I’m glad to hear that. I’m curious, what are your goals right now when it comes to your fitness? Do you have any, you know, is there anything specific that you’re chasing? Where are you on that?

Ocean Trail 00:18:08  Yeah. So I’m currently 13 weeks postpartum. So still just I guess out of that fourth trimester. And honestly, my goals are really just momentum trying to almost like progressively overload my life and doing a little bit more and recognizing that, you know, each week is while there are intentions, it’s not always going to be making progress per se. Like doing the same as I guess. Okay. So again, I think this postpartum around to for me has been Challenging in its own way that I actually have prolapse symptoms or I do.

Ocean Trail 00:18:41  Was diagnosed with, some prolapse and have been working with closely with a pelvic floor PT on just getting I don’t want to say back, but just getting things into a place that feels comfortable. Yeah.

Emily Field 00:18:55  Safe to to lift.

Ocean Trail 00:18:56  Exactly. So new challenges this go around and just figuring out like how to move my body in a way that feels great. So current goals for myself are honestly just getting back to a place and finding a way to move my body that’s not in pain or discomfort. and just slowly adding more. I will say that my second is a great sleeper, a great night’s sleep, or shockingly. And so being able to, you know, even if I am working till 11 or midnight, getting waking up at six the next morning, if I am able to get 5 to 6 hours of consecutive sleep, is just amazing. And so I feel like because of that, I do have that capacity to show up every day. And just I think my, my goals for myself right now are just like, hey, let’s try to catch, you know, I have daily kind of range goals for myself.

Ocean Trail 00:19:42  Like, I’d love to, you know, make sure that I’m bookending my day with walks and being active. But I think more so just like, hey, let’s try to move our body resistance train like 2 or 3 times a week. We actually built out an amazing little garage gym situation. So it’s wonderful to just honestly pop out there for 30 minutes. It’s really honestly, you know, not really ever more than 30 minutes where I’m able to just do a little bit of dynamic movement and then focusing on 1 or 2 exercises, training close to failure with a lot of stability just because I’m still working on my pelvic floor. And yeah, this last week was the first week that I actually got the green light from my pelvic floor PT to introduce running or some sort of impact cardio, which is exciting. Yeah, I definitely in my first postpartum experience, I leaned on running and I say running very lightly because it was more so like a one mile jog in the morning. But it was a great way for me to not only catch movement, but also just be alone and get outside and yeah, just create some small pockets of time for myself before my husband left for work.

Emily Field 00:20:43  Yeah. That’s amazing. The barrier to entry is so low for you, yet challenging because of, you know, navigating your new schedule and and sleep and all that. It’s a really good testament for people listening that, you know, what you’re hearing her say is you can accomplish goals even with just half an hour a day, you know, doing a little bit more. I oftentimes say like 1% better than you did yesterday, or 1% better than you did last week. That can be considered progressive overload and challenging yourself and making forward movement. It absolutely is valid to do something like as little as that stimulus can get you farther than if you were waiting for the perfect circumstances to start doing something at your full capacity, because that would be impossible. You’d be waiting forever. I was just going to ask, you know, we talked about people who are probably bad influences for bounce back culture and kind of showing us an image of what we shouldn’t be looking to do. And obviously we get sucked up into that when we’re not careful, and navigating those images and thoughts and shows and all that stuff.

Emily Field 00:21:39  But are there any role models or public figures that you have that have kind of inspired you in the way that you treat your postpartum period, you know, and kind of fight back against this bounce back culture?

Ocean Trail 00:21:49  Absolutely. So I will admit that I don’t feel like a huge rush or pull or influence to get my body back in a certain way. And I think I attribute that to surround myself with on social media. Like, sure, if I maybe click the explore feed, you know, there’ll be people, I guess that will be available to me if I wanted to access it. But I think I’m very, like choosy with who I follow. And so inspiring. I don’t even say role models, but just people that keep it real. I really love Alexandra, Scott, Nick, Joel, Samantha, Alex Light, Meg Squats, Annie Miller and Emily Ricketts have all been really wonderful in sharing their postpartum experience. Like the real real I would say. And I think overall, just in general, following like body positivity, food neutral, positive accounts that show seasons of a changing body and don’t allude to it taking a long time I suppose.

Emily Field 00:22:45  Yeah that’s good and I agree like I think the work that you’ve done in the past, in your career and on yourself has set you up really nicely to not be victim to that kind of culture and that’s what we want for our clients as well. I’m curious if that has your experience with having two babies and coming from where you were fitness wise to where you are now? How has that changed your coaching of maybe women approaching, you know, motherhood or in the motherhood period?

Ocean Trail 00:23:10  Super great question. You know, I think that I don’t know if it’s necessarily changed my coaching because I’ve always kind of operated from the lens of letting my clients drive. You know, I’m sort of like the GPS system. I’m letting them take it at their own pace and helping it make sense for the season that they’re in. So if anything, my coaching has changed and that I’m way more understanding. And because I’m in the trenches, so to speak, with navigating to and understanding that, you know, with so many things vying for your time, it does make it more challenging, but kind of, if anything, helping them figure out ways to make it make sense for them.

Ocean Trail 00:23:43  And like you were saying earlier, like 30 minutes is good enough and injecting like small positive things into their day of like, hey, you know, I think reframing their definition of consistency, right. Like consistency doesn’t have to mean being consecutive. It can actually look like this. And so just that reframe of looking at things from a different lens that actually makes sense for them.

Emily Field 00:24:03  Yeah, I love that when you talk about consistency in that way, because this is oftentimes a word people hear on repeat for many, many angles. And they just think that that means doing the same thing over and over again. And if it’s not that same, then it’s not worth your time. We have a conversation with clients a lot about being relentless or seeking the best choice in your circumstances, not necessarily rinse and repeating the exact same circumstances, because that’s not what life is. We need to adapt and change and align our choices around the environment that we’re presented with or in alignment with their values and our identities, things like that.

Ocean Trail 00:24:37  Absolutely.

Emily Field 00:24:37  So we recently just had the Olympics and this was an awesome opportunity for people to see fitness come in all different shapes and sizes. I love the Olympics. Unfortunately I was abroad and I didn’t get to watch as much as I wanted. So I’m catching up on Peacock on some of the highlights. But what I love talking about during Olympic seasons is that idea that health and fitness doesn’t have a look and you are really, really good about sharing this on your own social media. But I wonder how that relates to women. Had a hell of a year in the Olympics. I think I read somewhere that if women in America were, or was it women in general, the medal count would have been like the third ranked country or something like that, if it was its own country. So that’s pretty amazing. Women are having an amazing year in the Olympics. But I’m curious, what really came to your mind when you’re watching these athletes? I’m sure when you’re home with your babes, you were watching the Olympics, but what thoughts and feelings kind of came up for you around that stuff.

Ocean Trail 00:25:31  Yeah, I mean, I again, I really love I agree that bounce back culture is a thing that it is in our society, but I feel like we’re like trending in a really great way. And maybe it’s just the accounts that I’m following, but just the acknowledgement and the acceptance of, hey, you know, health and fitness doesn’t have a look, right? That looking at the 2024 Summer Olympics, like there’s so many body shapes and sizes, races and abilities and it’s rather than, you know, when we look at the Kardashians, maybe when we look at Tia, to me it’s like a narrow type, very like less than 0.001%. That is just unattainable for most. And I think that the Olympics and just in general postpartum, I feel like the trend is like really looking at redefining what fit means and what it looks like. And I think being more than just your body, you know, in a way, just like more than what your body looks like. So I think the Olympics did a really great job of again and the accounts that I follow, they kind of showed, hey, you know, health and fitness doesn’t have a look.

Ocean Trail 00:26:33  And, you know, you can have cellulite and win a gold medal. You can I mean, you can be pregnant and perform in the Olympics, right? You can have kids and still win a gold medal. So I think that was pretty cool.

Emily Field 00:26:45  Yeah. And I think with the way the world is with social media, we’re seeing such a behind the scenes, you know, image that we never saw before, which is helpful in this stance because we’re getting a look at their personalities, their personal lives. You know, they’re talking about their bodies in ways that are important for helping the women that watch them with their own self narrative. So in a way, like you said, you can curate your social media experience to be more positive, and that can be a way that you use social media in a great way to build body positivity.

Ocean Trail 00:27:13  Absolutely.

Emily Field 00:27:14  I tend to use the word body neutrality when I talk to my clients. There’s like a world where body positivity kind of assumes that you need to be happy about your body all the time, and body neutrality is really where I think we’re trying to go You know, we just think about our body less.

Emily Field 00:27:29  It is one of the lesser important things about ourselves. It’s the least interesting thing. Your weight, something like that would be the least interesting thing to you. So body neutrality kind of getting away from positivity at all costs. We don’t want that. That’s not we’re not realistic. And it’s also not realistic to be negative at all costs. You know that’s really the only thing that you’re thinking about. So I mean, where do you fall in that spectrum now that you are postpartum and you’re getting to a place where you’re building back your capacity and working on your pelvic floor, all of that. Where do you find yourself feeling negative, mediocre or neutral or positive?

Ocean Trail 00:28:03  It probably depends on the day and the amount of sleep that I’ve got. To be fair, I think that even if I was in you quote, my goal body or the place that I really like my physique, I’m still going to have bad body image days. None of us are immune to having them. It’s just kind of recognizing, like that body images, like a constant fluctuating thing.

Ocean Trail 00:28:21  And if anything, I think that I really like focusing on the power of and write like two things can be true at once. Like I can not love the way that my postpartum body looks and feels. And I think validating that it’s okay to feel that way, but then also recognizing that it’s not forever and I have the capacity to change, you know, and even if I didn’t have a baby and even if I, you know, chose that, that was a journey that I chose for myself, that my body was still going to change. Because it is it’s always changing. We’re aging, you know, we’re not none of us are getting any younger. And so I think just always being open to, you know, that my body is always open to change. I think that’s how I tend to kind of I don’t want to say maintain a positive image, but just that this isn’t forever. You know what I mean? This is where I am now. And that’s okay.

Emily Field 00:29:11  That’s radical self-acceptance.

Emily Field 00:29:12  That’s really knowing yourself. That’s great. I think that’s, you know, so healthy to have that. You’ve been telling yourself that for a really long time. It’s true. Like it seems true. Like you’ve had that throughout your 12 years of health and fitness in your career and your business, and it’s paying off here too. So that’s amazing.

Ocean Trail 00:29:30  Thank you. Yeah, I think the acceptance and the knowledge for sure has that I’ve built throughout my health and fitness journey, like the pounds for a purpose was true when I was wanting to build muscle and change my physique. You know, going from I just didn’t want to be skinny anymore. I actually wanted to look like I lift and, you know, gaining what, 30, £40 was quite. I didn’t think that I had, I guess, that weight to gain. And so when I started like really challenging my thoughts around like what I thought I had to weigh or what I thought I had to look like or what sizes I had to wear.

Ocean Trail 00:29:59  I think all of that pre work really has helped in this postpartum phase, because I truly do feel like this is just a pitstop on this long journey. And that’s the next stop. May be different. And I think being open to and accepting of change and acknowledging that yeah, like I said, pounds for a purpose, like pounds for a purpose in gaining weight to build muscle, pounds for a purpose and Growing, you know, nurturing human life. Pounds for purpose. Now I’m in postpartum because I’m currently breastfeeding, so just acknowledging and holding space for all of those things.

Emily Field 00:30:32  I would find that the more unsuccessful people in their journey, their health and fitness journey are the ones that are really trying to hold themselves to a very narrow, ideal self. They’re chasing something they used to have at one point way back when, or something they’ve never had ever. It’s just because I think it’s right and ideal. So remaining flexible and accepting change and knowing that your body is going to change and evolve over time, it’s just a healthy mindset.

Emily Field 00:30:56  I love hearing you say that.

Ocean Trail 00:30:57  I think that a lot of times to the notion with bounce back culture that people feel like, you know, I just have to get back to where I was. But I think people probably, you know, look back on where they used to be with like, rose colored glasses and assume that they didn’t have any challenges at that point in time. I’m sure that they, before, whatever they’re imagining in their mind, also had a lot of challenges. You know, like maybe they were having bad body images then days then, but they didn’t you know, look at it. Or maybe they were, quote, in an unhealthy body and doing like super restrictive things to look that way. And so, you know, I like to challenge bounce back culture and like reframing it as like, what about why is the old US considered better? Like why can’t we change the narrative and like focus on like moving forward? You know, I think with all the changes that we’re going through and anything and, you know, post-partum pregnancy, even just if you didn’t choose that journey for yourself.

Ocean Trail 00:31:48  Yeah. Why why is the old you considered better. Like why can’t moving forward be the focus? Like, hey, maybe I’m going to be better moving forward. Maybe the strongest, best version of myself hasn’t even happened yet.

Emily Field 00:32:00  Yeah, I love that there’s so many nuggets in this episode that I hope new moms or anticipating new moms can find, but I’m curious if you have any parting words or words of advice for, you know, parents in their new mom journey?

Ocean Trail 00:32:14  Totally. I have a couple different nuggets here, and they’re not in any particular order, but I think they kind of tie a bow on everything that we chatted about. So I guess some advice that I would give to new moms and honestly, just anyone in general would be, hey, you know, Marie Kondo, the content you consume, you know, stop following, watching, reading, or taking in content from people that make you feel like there’s something wrong with you that you need to be x, y, z that you should lose weight.

Ocean Trail 00:32:39  And yeah, just audit the shit out of what you’re consuming. I think the biggest thing too, is stop stressing about how much you weigh, right? Your postpartum body may be different than your pre-pregnancy weight, or even near at the same way. I think for some people, like we have a really hard time grasping this concept, right? But I think that your body physically changes when you’re pregnant and your body is different now. That’s just a fact and your body composition will be different. And that’s okay. I think another big point would be celebrating your body for what it is and does, instead of punishing it or thinking it needs to be something that’s not a celebrating, you know, all the ones that you have, how your body feels, you know, getting great nights sleep, getting outside for walks, giving yourself permission to rest, fueling and nourishing yourself. Something that has been incredibly helpful for me. And maybe awesome perk from working from home is, you know, wearing clothes that fit and feel good on your body.

Ocean Trail 00:33:32  It’s really, honestly so hard not to think about your body when your clothes are too tight. So that would be a tip that I have for someone in a muscle building phase. And just in always phase. I think it’s okay to look like that. You had kids and it’s okay to not love your postpartum body. I think those are two things that bounce back culture like completely glazes over and there’s no going back to the old you. Sorry to, you know, maybe a hard pill to swallow, but you’re physically, hormonally, physiologically different than before. And instead of, you know, focusing on bouncing back to where you were, maybe we can focus on moving forward. You can be better than before. You can look, feel, perform better than before. And definitely what you focus on expands. And so I think that’s important to acknowledge just because, you know, your body endured like a huge marathon of events from pregnancy to childbirth to postpartum recovery, breastfeeding, all of those things like the list goes on and on and wherever you are doesn’t have to be starting over.

Ocean Trail 00:34:26  It can be starting again. And I think just going slow and having patience for yourself, giving yourself a lot of grace is, I think, something more people should do.

Emily Field 00:34:36  This is.

Emily Field 00:34:37  Amazing. I want to like list them all out and put them on a quote card and post on social media. That was that was really good. I hope that everyone listening got something from this. Even if you’re not in that postpartum period or you. It’s been a long time since you’ve had kids. There’s a lot of truth to what Ocean is talking about, about accepting change and giving yourself grace and looking forward instead of looking back, because we oftentimes see that as coaches, you know, people really, really focus on who you were and where you came from, when we could be looking forward and actually you could choose a completely new and better path for yourself. So thank you so much for highlighting all of that Ocean. 

Ocean Trail 00:35:14  Absolutely. It’s a blast talking. Thank you so much for having me. And I’m glad we got to have this awesome chat.

Emily Field 00:35:19  So where can people find and follow you?

Ocean Trail 00:35:21  Hey, so yeah, you can find me on Instagram. My handle is Ocean Dot trail and yes, that’s my real name. I get that question all the time and.

Emily Field 00:35:29  I know that you do coaching. The doors are closed for right now, but if you follow on Instagram, I’m sure she’s going to offer that up when it’s available. I know there’s some really fun things in the works for you, so I’m excited to follow along as well. Absolutely perfect. Well, thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for listening to the Macros Made Easy podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the one you’re listening to right now to share it on your Instagram Stories, and tag me at Emily Field so that more people can find this podcast and learn how to use a macros approach in a stress free way. If you love the podcast, head over to iTunes and leave me a rating and a review. Remember, you can always find more free health and nutrition content on Instagram and on my website at emilyfieldRD.com.

Emily Field 00:36:12  Thanks for listening and I’ll catch you on the next episode.