After getting clearance from her doctor to jump back into the gym six weeks after welcoming daughter True Thompson, Khloé Kardashian was ready to get going.
The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star 34, filmed her workouts for fans to follow on social media, but according to Kardashian, getting back in the groove wasn’t as easy as it may have looked.
“The first day I was mentally so prepared. I was so excited because working out for me it is more about mental health. It is not necessarily [about] how I look. Yeah, that is a byproduct. You look good. But for me it is [for] my sanity and I was so stoked,” Kardashian says during a panel at N.Y.C.’s SIX:02 store in Time’s Square for the launch of Good American’s activewear collection.
But like other new moms can understand, Kardashian didn’t immediately feel like her old self when she got started with her trainer Joel Bouraima (a.k.a. “Coach Joe”).
“The first day, I could not do the most simple things. I was out of breath. It was just different. And I kind of felt really defeated. Like, ‘Oh man. I don’t know if I can do this,’” she explains. “After the first week I was like, ‘Okay. I am feeling a little better.’ I am not breathing so hard. I don’t need as many breaks. But I would say really after three weeks was when I felt good.”
She adds, “I was like, ‘Okay I can be a beast again. I got this!’ But it took a good three weeks.”
Since becoming a mom, Kardashian admits she finds it a challenge to squeeze in her workouts, which is why she built an at-home gym inside her garage for quick sessions with her trainer.
“You’re f—ing tired!” she says about motherhood. “I just said to my sisters [Kourtney Kardashian and Kim Kardashian West], ‘How do you have more than one kid?’ I am exhausted. I am taking the [baby[ monitor to the garage, I am trying to get [workouts] in. And it is hard. It is really hard. And you’re just tired. Your hormones are different. It is just a mindf—!”
To get herself motivated to get into the gym, Kardashian says she likes to set small, attainable goals for herself.
“I am so sick and tired of people saying, ‘Oh I want to lose 50 pounds by, you know, September.’ And if it doesn’t happen you get really down on yourself. So I say, ‘I want to lose five pounds in three weeks or something,’” she says.
“And then when you get there you feel so accomplished like, ‘Oh my god I did it.’ Then you set another small goal. Nothing too overwhelming. And once you see a little bit of muscle, like my arms I saw a little bit of my triceps coming back and I was like, ‘Yes! I am into it.’”
