Today I speak with Maria Alcoke, a Mom, a creative, a business owner, and  former CrossFit L1 trainer and pre and postnatal coach. Inspired by the pregnant and postpartum athletes she coached and inspired by her own experience as a pregnant and postpartum athlete, Maria ran her own postpartum return-to-fitness program out of CrossFit Cove in Columbia, Maryland.Fitness has always been a passion of hers, she loves people and learned through coaching and business how much she love working with women specifically. She was motivated to become a resource and support for women navigating pregnancy and the postpartum period once she became a Mom herself. She found motherhood to be overwhelming in so many ways and craved connection with other women with similar experiences. She realized the lack of resources in the women's health space - not only for athletes or women who wanted to return to fitness, but also in the mental health space. She knew I wanted to advocate, inspire and be a part of the shift in the space.We talk about:-returning to fitness after the first kid-finding a passion for coaching-fears of laboring with a second birth-fear mongering in return to exercise-caring for yourself after c-section-not being able to control everything -the importance of seeing a pelvic floor physical therapist-trusting your intuition  Time Stamps1:00 introduction4:10 postpartum expectations versus reality11:00 fear mongering and harmful language18:45 benefits of telehealth20:50 biggest surprises as a mom and coach25:20 advice for moms returning to workouts30:00 vetting online advice and programsCONNECT WITH CARRIEIG: https://www.instagram.com/carriepagliano/Website: https://carriepagliano.comCONNECT WITH MARIAIG: https://www.instagram.com/maria.alcoke/Website: https://www.MariaVida.comThe Active Mom Postpartum Podcast is A Real Moms' Guide to Postpartum for active moms & the postpartum professionals who help them in their journey.  This show has been a long time in the making!   You can expect conversation with moms and postpartum professionals from all aspects of the industry.   If you're like me, you don't have a lot of free time (heck, you're probably listening at 1.5x speed), so theses interviews will be quick hits to get your the pertinent information FAST!  If you love what you hear, share the podcast with a friend and leave us a 5 start rating and review. It helps us become more visible in the search algorithm! (Helps us get seen by more moms that need to hear these stories!!!!)The Active Mom Postpartum Podcast is A Real Moms' Guide to Postpartum for active moms & the postpartum professionals who help them in their journey. This show has been a long time in the making! You can expect conversation with moms and postpartum professionals from all aspects of the industry. If you're like me, you don't have a lot of free time (heck, you're probably listening at 1.5x speed), so theses interviews will be quick hits to get your the pertinent information FAST! If you love what you hear, share the podcast with a friend and leave us a 5 start rating and review. It helps us become more visible in the search algorithm! (Helps us get seen by more moms that need to hear these stories!!!!)