21. Why "Bouncing Back" After Baby Hurts Christian Moms + What to Do Instead (with Laura Lindahl)

In this episode I'm sitting down with Laura Lindahl—certified pre and postnatal coach, exercise physiologist, and Christian body image coach—to talk about something so many moms wrestle with: the pressure to "bounce back" after baby and how to approach postpartum health from a place of grace, not guilt.

Laura's story will resonate with so many of us. She went from being trapped in superficial fitness obsessed with how she looked and what others thought, to experiencing a complete transformation when God called her back to her first love. Now she helps moms rebuild strength physically, emotionally, and spiritually after birth through her ministry True Strength Collective and the Strong After Birth Podcast.

This conversation challenges the harmful "bounce back" culture that puts unrealistic timelines and expectations on postpartum moms. Instead, Laura shares how we can build strength from a place of acceptance rather than striving for acceptance—honoring our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit while giving ourselves the grace and time our bodies actually need to heal.

Whether you're currently pregnant, in your postpartum season, or just tired of feeling like your worth is tied to how quickly you "bounce back"—this episode offers biblical truth and practical wisdom for approaching health as an act of worship, not performance.

In this episode, we discuss:

🌸 How Laura's fitness obsession led to burnout and distance from God—and the moment everything changed 

⚖️ Why "bounce back" culture is hormonally harmful and biblically unsound for postpartum moms 

💪 The difference between building strength from acceptance vs. for acceptance 

🎯 Practical first steps for moms who feel stuck or disconnected from their bodies 

✝️ How our identity in Christ frees us from the comparison trap and cultural pressure 

🏃‍♀️ Why focusing on building muscle (not losing weight) transforms how we feel as moms

Scripture Shared: 

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." – Romans 8:1 (ESV)

"Do not despise small beginnings." – Zechariah 4:10

Mentioned in this episode: 

💪 Laura's 3-Day Core Restore Plan: Free postpartum recovery guide with exercise demos and diastasis recti assessment 

🩷 True Strength Collective: Laura's online coaching for moms 

🎧 Strong After Birth Podcast: Postpartum strength training and body image encouragement

✨ Christian Mama Birth Prep Library: Free birth prep tools, worship playlists & more 

💛 Work with Me 1:1 - Personalized pregnancy and birth support that integrates faith and evidence-based care, including virtual coaching, doula support, and comprehensive childbirth education

If this episode encouraged you to see your body and health through God's eyes, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend who needs this message.

Let's reject the lies of bounce back culture and embrace the freedom found in Christ—one faithful step at a time. Go here for the full blog post, show notes, and all resources mentioned!

Transcript

Natalie Portman: 0:45

Hey friends, and welcome back to the podcast. I'm really looking forward to today's conversation because we're talking about something that so many moms wrestle with our bodies after birth, the pressure to bounce back and how to approach health in a way that's rooted in grace, not guilt. I'm joined today by Laura Lindahl. She's a Christian mom, certified pre and postnatal coach, exercise physiologist, and Christian body image coach. She's also the host of the Strong After Birth podcast and the founder of True Strength Collective. Laura helps women rebuild strength physically, emotionally, and spiritually after birth. And her heart is all about helping moms reject shame, move joyfully, and find true confidence in Christ. Laura, thank you so much for being here today.

Laura Lindahl: 1:35

Yeah, of course. I mean, Natalie, can follow me around wherever I go and just proclaim that, that would be great.

Natalie Portman: 1:42

Introducing Laura Lin.

Laura Lindahl: 1:43

Oh, it sounds you so

Natalie Portman: 1:46

Love it.

Laura Lindahl: 1:47

on the show, Natalie. I'm, I'm be here.

Natalie Portman: 1:51

I'm so excited that you're here and I know just so many women are gonna relate to this, and especially if this is their first pregnancy and they don't know what to expect, you know, going into that, postpartum season. So really excited that you're gonna just speak some truth and just love of Jesus into this season. So let's get started. I wanna hear a little bit more about your story. So can you take us back to what your relationship with health and fitness looked like before motherhood, and then how that began to shift once you invited the Lord into that.

Laura Lindahl: 2:25

I think, in a word I could summarize it as superficial, that everything, when it came to health was about how I looked. It was about how men saw me. It was about how I saw myself. It was even about how other women saw me and the acceptance that I got when I walked into a room, I really started getting into fitness. Even at a very young age, my mom every diet under the sun. Was an avid runner. My dad was an avid runner, did the main marathon, all sorts of things, but it was always centered around weight loss. It was always centered around burning calories. And so I. Naturally, uh, that was what I was watered with. So that's what I grew into. And God was never really talked about when it came to our health. It was just kind of like, we go to church and there, these are the things that we do on Sunday, but this is how we exercise Monday through Friday. And they're not at all correlated. So in a word, like I said, it was very surface level. It was me just taking care of my health. It didn't have anything to do with God or my emotional spiritual health. It was just just a thing you do to kind of look better. And so that's really the roots of where it started. I got my bachelor's in exercise science and that is where a lot of those roots just got watered with Miracle Grow and it turned into a lot of over exercising, undereating. I was going from diet to diet. I was. Exercising like probably seven to 10 times a week. And undereating, uh, drastically undereating at the same time I was starting to get engaged. And so it turned into sweating for the wedding and over training and, it really just continued to snowball and I got to a point where I felt extremely burnt out in college. got to a point where I just felt extremely distant from the Lord and my relationship with everything just felt heavy grades, felt heavy, doing work, felt heavy. Going to a church, felt heavy, relationships felt heavy, and it wasn't until I got to a load in a snowball that I could no longer carry, that landed me almost flat on my back. Literally after doing like a three. 30 deadlift at the gym. After I had graduated. Um, I started training at a big box gym, and I looked over at this platform and this girl was lifting heavier than me, and my little ego inside me was like, you can lift heavier than that. So I did. And the next day it just felt like God was saying, you've left me like you've left your first love and you're striving for lesser things, and deadlifts. I probably could have snapped my back, but God was gracious and he was merciful even in his rebuke. And it was at that point that I really just started to investigate and look at the clients who were coming to me came to me because they felt uncomfortable in their bodies. They came to me because they wanted to fit into a dress again, wanted to fit into their jeans again, wanted to feel like themself again. And we got there. I was a very successful trainer. I was one of the top rated trainers at the gym. I was running a nutrition business. But I got to a point where I realized no matter how, much weight they lost, no matter how many goals they reached, the goalposts kept moving and then they were never thin enough. They were never strong enough, they were never satisfied enough. And I started seeing this theme in my clients and then it became evident that, oh crap. see that theme in me that I had been chasing lesser things, that I had been trying to be satisfied in something else outside of Christ. about that time there was a message at our church on John 15, I. Where Jesus is speaking his to his disciples and he's encouraging them to abide in me as I abide in my father. And they use the analogy of a vine being intertwined into a stand. Like a grape vine is intertwined into a stand or into a net, and you can see how much better the vine grows when it's intertwined on that, because it has structure, it has dependency, and in the same way I had no abiding, I was abiding in myself. I was abiding in what culture said about my body to be true, and it really left me feeling so high and dry and so unsatisfied that I had to keep striving for something more. So I'm grateful that God kind of. Pulled the rug out from underneath me, as it were that day. And a couple months later, I stepped away from the gym started True Strength Collective, which is, my full-time online health and fitness business that I run for women and moms. At the time it was just primarily for women who struggle with body image. And then about three years later, we got pregnant with our first. And our only son now, Boaz, he's, two so, so sweet. Uh, And that was just a whole new awakening to the next step in the journey that God had for me in body image and health. And, it was through that, that he helped me realize. He was just calling me deeper. He was calling me deeper into a dependence with him on how my body looked. He was calling me deeper into a dependence on him for health and to know that health is abiding in him. And so that's where we are at now. Um, Now I primarily train moms who are postpartum and or going through pregnancy, and I help them to develop a better relationship with their body, a better relationship with health, so that they can joyfully live into an empowered motherhood and. Feel good in their God-given bodies and use fitness as a form of worship. So yeah, how we got here.

Natalie Portman: 8:11

Oh, Laura, I, I just cannot handle how beautiful that is because it, like you're saying, is totally counter-cultural to have that mindset of I am not. Working out. I am not eating certain things just for sake of image. Like it's only about the way I look for my approval, like for myself or approval of what others think about me. But it's truly what I eat and how I move my body. And all of these things are a form of worship to the Lord that we get to steward the body he's given us. So that we can accomplish the mission that is so much greater than just looking at ourselves in the mirror and being happy with the way we look. The other thing that's really insane about it and what you were touching on with, you know, seeing that theme of clients who. It was never good enough. You know, they would reach their goal, but it still wasn't satisfying. And it reminds me so much of how we take certain things and we take a good thing like health and fitness and eating right, and all those things, and we turn a good thing into a God thing and we wonder why. It's letting us down and we wonder why it's so disappointing in the end. And there really is true freedom in seeing the beauty of, just like our bodies are meant to be a living sacrifice and it's a joy to be able to grow a baby even though it's difficult to give birth to a baby, to serve that baby to go on adventures and live this beautiful life and to live out the great commission. Like those are beautiful things. But fitness and all those things are just a means to that end. And I think it's so easy to lose sight of that because our culture is. Hyper-focused on just the image. And you know, the other crazy thing too is Paul talks about how he doesn't care what you guys, he's like, I don't care what you guys think about me. I don't even care what I think about me. And I think that's so powerful. He goes, I only think about what the Lord thinks about me. And that's a hard place. You know, I'm Enneagram one. I am perfectionist. I am like very driven. And when I don't meet my own goals, even if no one else cares what I'm doing, if I don't meet my own goals, oh man, I am so hard on myself And so for me that was a relief to hear Paul say, I don't care what you guys think about me. I don't even care what I think about me. I really only care about what the Lord thinks about me. And what does the Lord say about us as his daughters? He is, enthralled with our beauty. He went to the cross and died for us. He loves us deeply and endlessly, not by anything we have done, and there's nothing we could do to earn his love more, or for him to take away his love from us. Like, that's the reality. And I get so hung up in that myself where, you know, I just, I even want to just focus on what I think about me. And like, you're saying that's not abiding, that's. That's just self dependency self worship. But like John 15 says, like, we need to abide in the vine. We need structure. We need something to rest our life onto, we cannot do that on our own. So I love all of those things that you were drawing out. It's just so beautiful and so needed that we hear that, and that we remind ourselves over and over and over again of that beautiful truth. So thank you so much for sharing that.

Laura Lindahl: 11:45

It's no surprise to me that the enemy wants to attack our image, especially as women. I. Because our image, obviously as women carries a lot of beauty, and beauty is a characteristic of God. And as image bearers, we carry that image wherever we go. And so it's no wonder to me that he would just want to throw shade on the image of God in women, whether that is through the fitness industry saying, your body isn't fit enough. Or maybe it's other people saying, oh wow, she bounced back. What happened to you? Or even through ourselves where we can throw that shade and somehow. As if we could diminish the image and beauty of our glorious God through our bodies. And so if your audience is finding themselves in that place, I also want you to know you're in a battle that's greater than yourself. And that part of that battle is yes, your flesh. But I think that there's greater things at stake here, like God's glory and the aspect that the enemy wants to diminish that as much as he can. So when we take a step back and say, this isn't just me versus the enemy, or me versus my. Flesh, it's you with God. And when we are with God in that battle, which I wasn't with God, I was by myself. When it's us with God, we stand with the God of angel armies. And we're so much more powerful in that position than when we are trying to strive for our health on our own or strive for a size on our own, or acceptance or love, or any other thing that we can strive for.

Natalie Portman: 13:08

Amen. Yeah, I love that. And then you kind of touched on that bounce back culture. So you know, from your experience, especially in the work that you do, why do you think that this message is so harmful? And what truth do you wish every mom knew instead, I.

Laura Lindahl: 13:26

Well, If I could start with defining what bounce back culture is, at least how I define it. Bounce back culture is the pressure that is put on moms overtly or covertly. Whether it's someone literally saying, Hey, you don't look like you used to. Or maybe it's just your own internal pressure of seeing what somebody else did in their postpartum journey versus what your body is doing in its postpartum journey, and it's a feeling of insufficiency and or pressure. That moms experience, I'd say like. around 3 6 9. With the pressure increasing, the longer you are postpartum, and so that's what bounce back pressure is. I think that it comes from a lot of fitness industry marketing. I actually put together a whole podcast episode on this, like debunking lies of fitness industry, and how they determine, what words to use, how to target our psychology and our weak points and our desires. But they really use a lot of marketing that's based on that desire. We want to feel like ourselves in a season where we are serving everyone else outside of ourselves, right? So it makes sense that the enemy would kind of take that avenue. But here's where a bounce back goes. Bad. Bounce back goes bad. When we determine that faster is better that our body has to look like somebody else's. where bounce fat goes bad. I'm not saying that it's bad to wanna feel like yourself again. I'm also not saying that it's bad to want to lose fat. We can look from a health perspective, yeah, it's probably more advantageous for you to have more muscle and less body fat on your body. But that does not mean that faster equals better. That does not mean that you have to do it and it's gonna look like somebody else. And so we can start to parse through why bounce back can be so deceptive and so devious Hormonally for us, when we are, especially in those first like six to nine to 12 months postpartum. are literally going through a hormone rollercoaster when we try to lose fat or lose weight quickly postpartum, and we try to quote unquote bounce back hormonally, you are taking a rollercoaster ride and you're taking your seatbelt off. Because the seat belt of trying to get more sleep, the seat belt of trying to eat enough calories, especially if you're breastfeeding, those things can help our hormones it's still gonna be a rollercoaster. Your body's doing a lot of change that happened in nine months and you can't expect a nine months of change to be undone in six weeks. It's just such a big myth, and it's such a devious pressure. To put on ourselves. And so we have to approach it safely and we have to approach it in a way that allows our bodies natural healing timeline to happen. And I think bounce back culture tries to condense. I. That and it tries to put an extra pressure and a timeline like a should be on top of that. And I think biblically we can see that Romans eight one tells us there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That means that you can give your body the timeline that it needs. Doesn't mean that you don't do anything for your health. And those, even the first six weeks, there's many things we can talk about those today. What are some things we can do in the first six weeks to help? our health, but we refuse to agree with the world that says, if you don't bounce back in a certain way, that doesn't mean you're unhealthy. That doesn't mean that you're a bad mom. It doesn't mean that so and so is doing it better than you are. just means your body has a different healing timeline.

Natalie Portman: 17:06

Yeah, I love that you defined what it is and kind of drew out some of the, the roots of that and, and I have seen that in my life, but kind of in the opposite. So by the grace of God, like I really do feel like it was just like genetics or whatever. I mean, I'm five 10, so I'm tall too, but. Like for me, baby weight, all that came off immediately without trying. And I ended up being skinnier after I had kids than before I had kids, which I feel like for most women, that is like, obviously not at all their story. And I remember I posted a picture of me by the pool with my two month old. This is when I had Ellie. And all the comments on there were like, oh my gosh, talk about bounce back. Like all this feedback. And I remember I like contemplated kind of taking it down because it made me so uncomfortable because I knew that that kind of mentality I. How pervasive it is in our culture. And, and then whenever I was like in a bad place mentally, I would go back, this, this is so bad like this, this just shows how like sinful I am. I would go back and I would be like, I need some encouragement. So I'm gonna read all the comments of people that were talking about. Like, oh wow, Natalie, you look so good after just having a baby. And I'm like. Ugh. Like, that's so icky. Like that's so icky that, that was how my heart, like I could tell that it was wrong. Like I could tell that there was a problem with this bounce back culture. But at the same time, because I happened to be on like the, having the better side of that coin, I was like, oh cool. So I'm gonna kinda like build myself up in this regard. And so, sorry, real talk here. You know, like that just kind of. Is one of those things where the more I am in this space, and I'm sure you as well, the more you're in this space and you just see how deep that lie goes. Just from, you know, from the start of like sin and all the things, but also just our culture that again, is just so hyper focused on, on just the way we look. How easy it is to just naturally fall into that mindset. And as believers, we have to be very, very intentional to bring that to the Lord, to take that thought captive, to take that value system and toss it away. Because we're, we're so prone to it. Even if that, that's not your story of having a struggle to bounce back, but say you do bounce back quickly and it being a, a form of pride or like a just like, ugh, look at all these people struggling and look at me over here. Like, I'm doing so much better than these people for these reasons. And where, you know. I very much feel like, you know, obviously I, I do exercise, I eat really clean, but at the same time, the Lord has had to work in me to be like, and Natalie, none of that is because of you. Like, it is things out of your control that things are the way they are. But I, I really this side of it, I really do feel like that's the Lord's grace that I haven't had that struggle and that the Lord has been working on me to steward. Eating and exercise as a way of worshiping the Lord instead of it being a form of self worship, which I know I can be very prone to, and I know a lot of women can be very prone to. So I wanna change gears a little bit here. So you talk about building strength from a place of acceptance instead of for acceptance. I love that powerful shift there. So what does that actually look like for you in the day to day of motherhood, especially when we're tired and we're just completely stretched thin, or we're just feeling completely disconnected from our bodies?

Laura Lindahl: 21:00

Uh. There's a quote by Tim Keller that I absolutely love, and he says There are two types of people in the world, which is such a general statement. Uh, But he says there are people who are either wound up too tight or people who are wound down too loose. And for those of us who are wound up too tight. We need to learn grace, and for those of us who are wound down to loose, we need to learn discipline. I start with that because I think that it's a helpful perspective that this answer is going to vary based on where you land. There are personalities like. An Enneagram one or an Enneagram three, that we are highly driven people and we need to learn grace for ourselves and for our bodies and for our health. And then if somebody lands on the other side of that, say maybe an Enneagram four, Enneagram nine, right? Like different personalities are going to need different things. So I can't speak to this on like every avenue for every person, but I'm gonna trust the Holy Spirit's in the room and he can speak for you. But when it comes to training for a place of acceptance, it can look very different based on the individual. So let's say you are the mom who works out or had worked out before, kids like 5, 6, 7 times a week. Very disciplined, very regimented, and then kids come along and you're like, I can only work out twice a week. I'm failing. For that person, it's knowing that twice a week is good enough and that you are fully accepted by Christ in that. on the flip side of that, for the mom who maybe struggle to exercise or struggle to build strength or struggles to get up off the couch. Before kids and then kids came along and you say, I wanna be a good example for my kids. I want to show them how they can exercise. But I have such a hard time doing it. I feel really guilty. They are also fully accepted by Christ and fully forgiven. Right? And they need to learn. give me discipline to love my body well, and to see it as the home of the Holy Spirit, as you see it, and give me the discipline to move forward from that. So both sides of the spectrum need acceptance, but it's going to look very, very different. Now how it plays forward for me personally is, is knowing if I lift strength train three times a week, that's great. And I don't need to give myself, strain or stress for not doing that. and I think that that's the biggest shift that we can make is to be fully satisfied in Christ, to remind ourselves in him we lack nothing. Uh, hallelujah, all I have is Christ. Applies whether we are struggling to get up off the couch or struggling to let ourselves rest after a long day. So that's, that's kind of where I would approach it, just with some like practical examples. Does that make sense?

Natalie Portman: 23:52

Yeah, because it's, it is funny just how your personality can kind of, why are you. To kind of fall one way or the other on the pendulum of that kind of striving. And again, like not just striving, but the reasons why you're striving can be really different. That's why I really have loved the Enneagram. I was listening to your podcast earlier and you talk a lot about the Enneagram and I was like, oh, I need to speak more about the Enneagram on the podcast because it is so helpful. I'll put some I'll put some books that I recommend. Do you listen to, or do you know about Suzanne Stabile?

Laura Lindahl: 24:27

name of her Instagram account? She's on Instagram, right?

Natalie Portman: 24:30

Enneagram journey? Yeah, I think so. Her podcast is Enneagram journey. I think her podcast is something similar or Instagram is something similar. But yeah, her stuff is amazing and she's a believer as well, which is also why I like her, her kind of perspective on things. But she has a couple books and like there's like. I think like a three parter book series that helps you kind of understand the Enneagram. So I'll put those books in the show notes because I think they're just really helpful to kind of tap into.'Cause it is good to understand kind of like your wiring because I think the Lord has given us certain traits and desires and drives and motives. And if we can tap into that, we can better honor. The way the Lord has designed us instead of just always feeling like a failure if we don't measure up to other people that we see that are seemingly effortlessly succeeding in certain things. So I love that you mentioned that. So if there is a mom that's listening and she kind of feels stuck in her situation, she's exhausted or discouraged by her postpartum body and she doesn't really know where to start, what is one step that she could take to today to move forward in her health journey and just let it be a way to steward her body and honor the Lord?

Laura Lindahl: 25:46

I think the the first thing that comes to mind is trust, that's trusting the Lord. I. His design for your body that it is designed to grow. It is hardwired to build, whether you're building a baby or building strength. Our are hardwired to build and so I I think there's an aspect of trusting the Lord's design for your body, and I want to instill in that trust that. The first step needs to be the easiest step. So whether that first step for you is starting to go for a walk or that first step for you is buying a five pound dumbbell and starting to do some squats or whatever that first step is, it has to be the easiest because we often set the bar so high for ourselves, and we see people lifting a barbell, or we see people running marathons and we think to ourselves. If I'm not there, I'm like at zero miles an hour and they're a hundred miles an hour, and there's a huge gap and it's really intimidating. If we stay at, like, if we keep our goal of a hundred miles an hour, we're gonna feel like we could never reach it. So we never take the first step. that our bodies are meant to build meant to build strength, meant to build endurance, and they are adaptive, then we can move forward and say, great. So it's only up from here. I can get started with the most simple, easy step, and then move forward from there. Another thing I would recommend as a mindset shift is to stop weighing yourself. If you've found yourself in a cycle of weighing yourself every day, getting frustrated that all of these things aren't working, stop weighing yourself and start focusing on just building muscle. I think one of the. Best things that women can do for their health postpartum is to focus on building muscle.'cause when we have more muscle on our bodies as women,, not only do we have more energy because our body tends to store more glucose as glycogen in our muscles. So you literally carry around more energy with you, which. What mom doesn't need that, right? We carry more energy, but also life feels lighter, so we can reduce stress on our system. We can show up more presently for our spouse. We can be more patient with our kids when we're strong. I think it's it's a beautiful thing that when we have this dependency on the Lord to say, God, give me full trust that my body will grow if I show up once a week, 25 minutes, strength training. Or if it's just once a week going for a walk or starting maybe a five minute daily walk. I don't know what that first step is for you, but having the trust to know that. We can move forward and then obey, like God does command us to care for our bodies like they're a temple of the Holy Spirit because they are. But when we partner with God and we say, God, I I trust that you have designed this body to build, I can then obey what you have to say for me and for my body.

Natalie Portman: 28:41

And that first step is, is also in some ways the hardest because you're changing trajectory and, and like you're saying, I love that you said set the bar. Are low so that it's achievable, and then be so thankful that you were able to take that first step instead of being like, oh, but I wish I was all the way over there. No, like, just start with that first little baby step. When I interviewed Crystal Doiron, she's a therapist, and she was talking about how, you know, even babies, like when they're learning to walk, they stumble and they fall, but guess what? They get right back up and they keep going. And my son is definitely in that stage. He's 15 months. He's been walking for like a couple of months now. And I, I watch him and I think. I'm so proud of him for, you know, when he falls down or he gets a little you know, wobbly and he falls on his little bottom and then he just finds a wall or something to kind of crawl up on. You know, I'm like, I can take a, lesson out of Daniel's little book there and apply that to myself and apply that grace to myself that. Even if you start something and it didn't go as smooth as you wanted it to, or you kind of, you stumbled and you fell and you kind of got off the bandwagon so to speak, that there's grace in that, that the Lord is still proud of your obedience in that and to just continue on, even if it does not look like a perfect, you stand up, you take some steps, then you start walking, then you start running. You know it. We don't have to all be in that stage immediately.

Laura Lindahl: 30:07

Reminds me there's a verse, I think in Zacharia of four, maybe four 10, uh, it says, do not despise small beginnings. And it's where the children of Israel trying to rebuild the temple and they're saying, how can we do this? It's so much work to do. It's like. no, don't despise small beginnings. When you judge yourself for that small step, you're diminishing the growth and the future projection of where you want to be. And I think in the same way, we can just take that same position and remember those small beginnings can have great impacts in the long run.

Natalie Portman: 30:40

I love that you said that, that it is truly a transformative experience. I mean, anyone who's had a baby knows you are not the same. You are not the same after you've had that baby in your mind, in your body, in your spirit, socially, emotionally, everything changes. So to honor that, I actually remember my sister, she, my younger sister had a baby before me and she told me after she had her son, she goes, I. I have learned to appreciate my body in a different way because of all that. It just did. The fact that it grew a baby, it gave birth to a baby, and now I'm nursing this baby, and that really struck a chord with me and that stuck with me. So after I had my baby girl, even though you know, you still look like six months pregnant after you have a baby. And you've had that baby, you kind of, you know, still have a belly. But I remember looking at myself and being like, I am so proud of what my body did. The fact that my body grew this baby, I gave birth to this baby and now I'm nursing this baby, like my body was able to do all that. Like that is insane to me. And I had this appreciation for my body that I had never had before that point. So it is really like, it's very imperative to honor that transformation that's happened. Even if the way you physically look on the outside is different, that it is still a transformation and it is still something that the Lord absolutely designed for whenever he created this whole process of childbearing and what that postpartum season looks like.

Laura Lindahl: 32:17

good.

Natalie Portman: 32:17

So final question here. How has becoming a mom changed the way you see fitness, faith, and your identity in Christ? And what has the Lord been teaching you lately in this season of toddler life and potty training, all the things.

Laura Lindahl: 32:34

is that like parenting is never over, Parenting for us is just beginning. Right. But I think parenting as God parents, us is never over. And gosh, I've just been, so many times of just the beauty, beautiful pictures of the gospel with our son that he'll, you know, he'll run up to me just his goofy little wide legged run with his arms up in the air, big eyes, his curls bouncing and just says, mama, come see me. And it's just such a beautiful picture of us just wanting the father to see us. They, he just wants us to be seen and I'm just. Reminded as I read through the Psalms.'cause the Psalms have been a great, if there's a mom listening who's just been struggling in the word. I just wanna encourage you to just like, read a psalm a day. It's so life-giving. It's so simple. It can be done in less than five minutes, with the exception of Psalm one 19 I'm reading the I just read about like the Psalms of Ascent where it says, you know, I look to the Lord and the Lord saw me. And so I think just knowing that God sees us has just been a beautiful lesson. And I think also learning how to, learning how to work out in new rhythms, learning how to shift from our workouts to 25 minute workouts and to have more grace for other moms that before I, I, I couldn't understand, I could try to empathize with, but now when a mom says, Hey, you know, my kid woke up. Early and I couldn't get my workout in this morning to have empathy and compassion. And then it gets me really excited because now I'm like, oh yeah, I've been there. It sucks. Here's some things that might help. And so I think that it has really helped me as a coach to become more empathetic, uh, to become more creative, and to really just kind of keep fitness in the box that it was meant to be in that it's a tool to empower our bodies to have energy to serve the kingdom. That's it like, doesn't have to be this huge thing. You don't have to be the quote unquote fit mom. Like you can look average and still be incredibly healthy. so I think in in a lot of ways it has softened me. It's slowed me down. it's helped me walk with the Lord in a rhythm of, of daily dependence to just looking to him, to parent me as I parent my son, and just ask me, okay, God, what is stewarding my health look like today? based on where my hormones are at, based on where my, my energy is at, how can I build strength? Today is is today a walking day. And just seeking seeking the Lord in that way I think has been such a good place to be in. and it's it's just been good. It's been sweet.

Natalie Portman: 35:02

That's beautiful. The verse came to mind about, for everything there is a season and, and how that really does pertain to. Specifically like a female body and how the Lord designed us to literally have a cycle. Like we, the fact that we have a cycle also speaks to the fact that every day, you know, if we were to kind of have it be like a farming analogy, every day is not harvest day. There's the resting and the waiting, there's the watering, and then there's the growth. And I feel like we, when we get into the mentality that like. Every single day I need to be setting personal records. Every single day I need to be stronger than I was yesterday. That kind of mentality is, not realistic and it's not even healthy. I've been really into, and I've mentioned this book a couple times on the podcast, but in the flow, and she talks about how when your hormones are even out of whack, she recommends doing. Exercise is no more than 30 minutes a session. Because past that 30 minute mark you're probably taxing your body a little bit too much. And that has given me some freedom to be like, okay, so I don't need to do a, an intense hour workout every time I workout I can do a 30 minute workout and be like, and I'm so glad I did that. And even just that little shift is so helpful to me.'cause I also am very competitive. So I go to like my body pump class and I see all these ladies around me. Many of whom are much older than me and they're lifting much heavier than me and all the things. And my competitive side is like, Hmm, you need to be lifting heavier too, Natalie. And then the other side of me is like, you know what? That's good for them. But I am not here to compete against anybody else. I am here to just steward my body to just move my body in a way that is just honoring the Lord that is getting me stronger, but it's not a competition against me, against anybody else. And, and, you know, not even me against myself in, in a way, you know what I mean? Going back to the just, you know. I don't even care what I think. I, I really do want to just care what the Lord thinks about me. Which obviously is easier said than done, but. This was just such a pleasure having you here, imparting your wisdom. And just helping mamas realize just the truth of, why we strive in this way, that, you know, there really is a deep root there that we do wanna be beautiful. We want others to re regard us as beautiful. We want to see ourselves as beautiful. But the, the beautiful thing is we are. Already beautiful in the Lord's sight. And when we get to come alongside that truth, that's where we get to abide. That's where we get to grow. And that's something that is not only just growing us, but we're, we're going up the ladder, up the right ladder. You know? I think that's the other kind of trick of, of the fitness, bounce back, all that kind of cultural stuff is, yeah, you're striving, you're doing all the things, but you, you get to the top and you realize. Oh my goodness. I was climbing up the wrong ladder All of this was for nothing. And when we get to, to look at the way the Lord has designed stewarding our body and just everything he's given us, it's climbing up the correct ladder and we get to the top and it is fulfilling because it's Jesus that we gain. It's no nothing else. It's just the Lord and His glory that we gain. Climbing up the correct ladder. So thank you so much for coming on today, sharing your wisdom, sharing your heart, and your story. If someone wants to connect with you, if they feel like they would love to, you know, begin postpartum coaching with you how they can get in contact with you.

Laura Lindahl: 38:37

You can find me on Instagram at True Strength Collective. You can also follow along the podcast where I give a ton of postpartum advice, strength training, tips for women in that postpartum period and through pregnancy. That podcast is called The Strong After Birth Podcast, and then as a freebie. For your listeners for listening to the episode, I also have a three day core restore plan that can help women, especially in that early postpartum period, reconnect to their core and just taking that first step in a really guided, simple way with exercise demonstrations. We have a diastasis recti assessment, all sorts of things that are just really valuable in that first phase where we're just looking to something, we're looking to Google or, or um, YouTube to try to find something. So I just give you some really simple practical tips in that guide. So make sure you guys download that'cause it's an awesome resource to check out to the three day Core Restore. And then I think we can put that in the show notes.

Natalie Portman: 39:35

Absolutely. Yeah, I'll definitely put that in there. Wonderful. Thank you Laura, so much for your time and I'm just so excited for all the Lord is doing in your life and through your ministry, through true Strength Collective. Thank you so much.