Australia, meet Monica Benecomo: an American lifestyle and fitness coach who is taking new-mum multitasking to a whole new level.
The self-dubbed “mompreneur” is showing new mums across the globe that if you want to work out but feel like your short on time (read: all of us, all of the time), it is physically possible to breastfeed, squat and lift weights, all at the same time.
“After suffering a debilitating depression and gaining 45 pounds after high school, I decided ‘enough was enough’ by relocating to across the country and starting over,” she writes on her website, Moms Wear Heels.
“Getting healthy and fit was on the top of the list as I instinctively knew that the traits necessary to transform my body would spill over to all areas of my life.”
According to Cosmopolitan, it was this fit-spiration that spurred Monica, 30, on to keep fit after the birth of her first child, now-four-year-old Elial.
However, with her daughter, Ariel, who is now 18 months old, Monica found herself feeding her baby around the clock, prompting her to try working out and breastfeeding simultaneously.
First she started with squatting against a wall while nursing, and then over time progressed to squats and weight training.
“I know I could [have dropped] my kids off at the daycare and [gotten] a good, uninterrupted workout in, but my kids [were] happier this way, and it [worked] for us,” she says.
While some mothers have congratulated Monica on her multitasking abilities, she has also been hit with criticism from opposing online users, who deem her breastfeeding-while-working-out routine as unsafe for her little girl.
This is something Monica adamantly refutes.
“I can squat [113kg], but would never do that around my kids. I just use common sense with our workouts.”
What do you make of Monica’s multitasking method? Tell us by commenting on our Facebook page.