Katie Piper reveals struggle to balance Strictly training with being a mum – and refuses to rule out having more kids
She was partnered up with Gorka Marquez, and lost out to Charles Venn, 45 in the 4th week of the series.
Katie exclusively told The Sun Online that trying to balance everything including her job, training and looking after her children, Belle Elizabeth, 4 and Penelope Dianne, 1, whilst on Strictly was "really hard".
"It was really hard actually, because my children are quite young.
"I'd be training, then come home and they're in bed and you've missed them, and then obviously the weekends you're still there at Strictly gone midnight…
"So Sundays ideally you want to lay in bed, but you can't because that's the only day with the kids, you've got to get up and get involved."
The former Strictly contestant is mum to 4 year old Belle Elizabeth and Penelope Dianne, who has recently just turned 1.
The mum of two, who previously told The Sun Online that she didn’t want to have children as she feared she “couldn’t protect them”, says she’s not pregnant at the moment but refuses to rule out having more kids.
“I don’t think you can be so final with that and put out there how many you’d like because of what’s going to happen in life…
“At the moment we’re really content as we are”, she said.
Katie says she’s struggled to lose weight after having her second daughter Penelope Dianne in 2017.
“I think second is harder, because your body has stretched twice, and you’ve got less down time to do things with the second because of the first…
"Because when they’re asleep you’ve got to go and cook, maybe exercise, but when the second one is asleep you’ve got the first one awake, so yeah its hard!”
She believes that keeping fit is essential now she is a mum because if she doesn’t exercise, she has low energy and becomes lethargic, and "that’s not an option with two kids who wake up at 5am”.
Katie has just launched The Happy Healthy Mum Plan, which is a manual made especially for mums, with pal TerriAnn, who she met through a friend.
“I heard about her online through Instagram just because she’d had one of those massive weight losses where I think she’s been like 20 stone and got down to 10 stone.
“Although I’ve never experienced such a dramatic weight loss like that, what I was interested in is the mental side of what kind of willpower and motivation did that take, and how low that person must have got to make such a big change.”
She decided to make the manual because it’s the time of year when lots of people are talking about diets and are looking to lose weight.
“This is kind of different in that it’s a life style, it’s something I do all the time, and whether I’m going to parties, whether it’s Christmas, it’s the same as always.
“I eat, exercise, looking good, feeling good isn’t just about food and exercise, it’s about mindfulness, mediation, mental health – so we created this online hub, that’s got a forum and it’s got free content, videos all about the physical side, because if you’ve not got your brain into it, you’re not going to have the discipline or motivation to achieve the exercise bit.”
The manual helps mums lose weight through exercise, a 16:8 rule, where you eat within an 8 hour window, 1500 calories a day, with no restrictions and recipes to make at home.
Katie explains the 16:8 rule is “based on a principle of intermittent rule of fasting, and you eat in an 8 hour window. So, because this is specifically designed for people with kids, you delay your breakfast.”
“You might start eating breakfast at 10am and one of the really good things about that as well, is that it will help you practice mindful eating.”
She exclusively told The Sun Online that one factor that inspired her to make the manual was Instagram.
“It’s not necessarily famous people that inspire you, but it’s the bloggers and the Insta people.
“I follow a lot of fit mums and people that are quite open and honest and talk about their own lives and personal experiences.”
The author believes that social media is all about personal responsibility and she fills her feed with people that will fill her thought process with positive thoughts, such as Giovanna Fletcher, “who are really honest and really open.”
Katie’s always been open with her followers online, posting no-make up photos and showing off her weight loss journey with very honest pictures.
She believes that she has been on a journey, and that everybody else has their own journey to embrace, whether that involves baby weight or not.
She thinks that the process of having a baby is “phenomenal”, and something to be proud of – “So take perspective on that first of all, and just don’t make comparisons, that goes for anybody, whether you’ve had children or not, comparisons don’t motivate us, they’re unhealthy, they always make us feel like a failure, whether it’s a professional comparison. ”
“Make your own journey, that’s why I made my own journal, the confidence journal, so I can document my own journey, my own successes and failures, and learn them.
“Don’t start comparing yourself to somebody else because it’s kind of irrelevant what somebody else’s journey is.”
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