It's easy to focus on the negative ways that pregnancy and childbirth affect your appearance. Your belly gets poochy and laced with silver stretch marks. Changing hormones wreak havoc on your complexion. And you're now wider in places than you were before. In my case, however, I'm trying to focus on the good things that having children has done for my body.
I found that when I was suddenly responsible for another person, I had to take more responsibility for my own health as well. Before having kids I could go all day without remembering to eat. I could 'diet' till I was sick and sit around on my bottom all day and the only person I was hurting was myself. But when I became pregnant I had to treat myself well in order to treat my baby well. My doctor made me gain 10 lbs immediately and my childbirth class put us on a strict eating plan that made sure I not only ate 3-5 times a day, but ate nutritiously as well. I had to take vitamins, complete a daily exercize regimen, and get plenty of sleep. These were all things I should have been doing to start with, but without accountability I can be pretty lax about taking care of myself.
Now that my babies are on the outside they still keep me accountable for my health. I eat much more regularly now since I'm making meals for the kids anyway. I eat more nutritiously so I can set a good example for my kids. And it's impossible not to get at least some exercize when you're (literally) chasing a couple of toddlers around the house all day. I still have plenty of room for improvement of course, but instead of bemoaning all the ways that my body isn't youthful anymore, I just view all those stretchmarks as my roadmap to a healthier, happier self.
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