Hi, I'm Kelly Dean
I am from the Tummy Team and I have a website that gives you a lot of information about what I do. It's www.
TummyTeam.com so I'm a licensed Tupler Technique instructor, and I'm a licensed physical therapist but more than that
I'm a mom and a wife, and I have three children, and I've been exactly where you are
I had that flabby weak worn-out body
I felt like I had a body that I didn't get me after I had kids and on top of it
I had back pain. I had stress incontinence I
Had terrible posture terrible energy my body image was a mess it affected everything in my life
including important things about being a mom and being a wife and I
Have to say that my life has totally been changed by doing the toeffler technique
it sounds dramatic to say that not only did the Tupler Technique heal my stomach, but it also changed my life
But it totally changed my life because everything was falling apart
and it was more than just about not looking pregnant anymore is about getting my life back I
with Julie Tupler Technique, I learned how to
Rehabilitate the core muscles and to change things that I had totally taken for granted
I totally thought that it was acceptable to have a bit of a belly after you had a baby
I totally thought that everybody
You know had stress incontinence everybody had low back pain and that I just had to deal with it
And it's totally not something that you have to live with it's totally something that can be fixed
So what's going on if this is what what's going on with you? It's not necessarily your
Post baby belly fat there may be some belly fat there
But what was happening with me is I had a diastasis and a diastasis is a very commonly almost completely
Undiagnosed condition where the connective tissue down the center of your abdominal wall?
Separates pulls thin and doesn't allow the abdominals to hold you together anymore so a lot of what was hanging out of me was not
My belly fat, but was my organs which is disgusting
But when your organs aren't supported all kinds of other stuff start happening in your body
And so it's super common why it's common is because things that we do every day
cause the problem I
Was a gymnast when I was a little girl, so I did tons of back bends which pull on that connective tissue
I was a competitive swimmer in high school and in college and I did backstroke and
Butterfly and both of those Flair the ribs and pull that connected tissue
Sideways and then on top of that I did what everybody does to strengthen their abs
I did crunches sit-ups V sets Pilates 100, and I did them every day throughout my teens
I did them every day in my 20s
And I even did them between my pregnancies and what I thought was strengthening my tummy was actually putting excessive pressure on that connective tissue
So I thought I would have this strong tummy, and then I get pregnant and my stomach would be
Compact and I would you know heal great after having babies, but really what happened was the opposite you know in my case
I've been pregnant eight times over the last 12 years
I have three wonderful kids a boy and two girls, and I have five babies in heaven
During that time my body was stretched back and forth lots way more than you know
I think it was prepared for and instead of being compact. I was enormous now
Pregnancy on anybody you can imagine that forward forceful pressure of a growing uterus on that connective tissue
Can cause stretching and then you throw into the mix relaxin hormone, which separates the abdominal wall even more makes things stretchy?
And then how we move when we're pregnant pushing herself up off the couch
Things like constipation and pushing for a long time during labor where we push out there down
More and more pushes on that connective tissue, so you can see how that's super common and any woman that's had a baby
Actually ninety-eight percent of women that have had any children have some form of diastasis
And they don't even know it and because we all know it we keep doing stuff that makes it worse and so I'm a physical
Therapist I have a lot of body awareness, and I had no idea that this was my problem
I was running I was doing Pilates. I was doing crunches. I was doing a lot of stuff to get my body back
And everything I was doing was damaging my abdominal
Wall more was making my tummy stick out more was making my back pain worse my stress incontinence worse
I really felt like I was falling apart
But I couldn't see it because I was in stuck in this cycle of frustration and obsession to get my body back
It was another friend of mine who is another physical therapist that thought to check my stomach for a diastasis
And it really kind of clicked at that moment because when I had my youngest
When I was pregnant with my youngest
I felt like my abdominals. We're separating I asked my OB about it, and he basically dismissed it and seriously
I dismissed it - I didn't even think about it again even though
I should have I just didn't and so when she checked my stomach it was
Horrible I had a severe diastasis the worst she had ever checked where
she could fit my abdominals had separated so far that she could fit both of her hands into the gully that was there and
So I quickly realized that it wasn't just belly fat that my organs were sticking out
And so then I wanted to get it better I wanted to fix it and I looked at all
different kinds of physical therapists because I really felt like you could I could heal this and
Nobody knew what they could do for something
That's bad
and I was pretty much sent to get surgery and surgery isn't covered by insurance and
Surgery my primary doctor wasn't all that encouraged that surgery was going to have a long-term effect on it because stitches eventually come out
undone if you keep pushing on it so anyway I
complained to my girlfriends and
Most of my girlfriends had the same condition most of my girlfriend's we're dealing with the same stuff
And I started to think wow this is happening to everybody there must be something going on and one of those girlfriends
Thank goodness for girlfriends searched on the internet and found Julie Tupler. Julie Tupler does the Tupler Technique
And it's a rehab program based on research that
rehabilitate the abdominal wall and
Heals the connective tissue, and I was totally skeptical totally didn't believe it totally thought that this was not gonna work
But I had nothing to lose. I got the DVD,
I got the splint, I got the the guidebook, and I did it at home because there was no Tupler Technique instructor around here
amazingly my stomach was better in a couple of days my back pain went away my
Stress incontinence improved and in the six weeks of the initial part of the program
I lost five inches off my waist I no longer looked pregnant. I felt better. I looked better and my energy was better
everything was better and so
you know I was really excited about I told everybody about it and one of my girlfriends said you should go and get trained and
show us all how to do it and me and my husband prayed about it and
I really was torn a little bit because I really didn't want to get sucked into the cycle of
Feeling like everybody has to have a skinny little body to be functional
I didn't want to get into that trap of the vanity
but my husband
You know really?
Reminded me of how much this improved so many parts of my life so much pass to the look of my belly and encouraged me
to go and I'm so glad I did because
The more training
I got the more. I was aware of how common it is how it affects not just women but men too
How it affects so many parts of our lives, and how it's totally treatable?
Which is what most people don't think it could be treated and so when I came back from the training I?
Super-passionate really trying to change the communities
Thoughts of the medical community the fitness community of how you treated. diastasis that it's totally not normal and it can be fixed
And so now I teach classes and I help people get their bodies back and what's really fun about the program
Is that it's doable from by anybody any activity level, and I am busy
I am I am a mom of three, and I totally if I can do it anybody can do it
And I I really am excited to working with people to help them get their body back
This is a place that was super painful for me. I never wanted anybody to look at my tummy
I never wanted to talk about my tummy
I would never think of myself being in the situation where I would be bringing attention to my stomach
But God has totally healed it
And he's using that healing in this broken place in my life
To help other people find healing so I really look forward to working with
All of you anybody that comes my way, so if you want to talk to me personally you can
Find me at Kelly at the tummy team comm and I'll get right back to you. Thanks so much