Losing it After Baby
At this point in my life a lot of my friends are starting families, and after pregnancy for some women may be the first time they have ever had to lose a significant amount of weight. I was definitely in this boat, I had lost a couple pounds here and there for vanity but never had to tackle anything more then 10 lbs. After my first pregnancy is when I became really interested in the science behind our health and there is so much information out there! So I thought Id share some of the thoughts on the subject.
Getting back into it
Definitely give your body at least a month before you begin a vigorous exercise regimen, until then walking is great but you need to give your body a chance to heal before you really get into it.
When you’re a new mom you know it’s not easy to have solo time without baby. Exercise videos are a great way to ease back in; you can break up your workout through out the day and are always on hand if your baby needs you. I still would suggest getting out to a class starting with once a week, this ensures you actually get at least one full workout plus it gives you a chance to decompress and be social at the same time.
With time you want to progressively make your workouts more difficult, continue to add weight while strength training, or hold your yoga poses longer. If you run or jog slowly add an incline, its better to jog up hill on an incline then run on flat ground. Also adding intervals to your training routine will ensure you continue to see results, i.e. Run up hill for a minute, walk uphill for a minute, (There’s endless variations) with each workout make it a bit harder. The important thing is that you continue to change it up, if your routine is the same you will plateau.
Be kind to yourself
Exercise is something you have to slowly get back into. I remember being so shocked the first time I went back to the gym, I had waited a few weeks to go and was 25 pounds heavier then my normal weight, I couldn’t believe how hard exercising felt compared to before getting pregnant. I was so hard on myself for not being able to hit certain targets and felt embarrassed by how tired I was. I really wish I had chilled out.
I spoke with my doctor about it at the time and he said that most women within a year after pregnancy return to their prior weight, and that’s without additional dieting and exercising, so if you do put a bit of effort in it will happen even faster.
Now that I think back its so irrelevant, women who get back into shape after a month are just annoying to everyone and you know they killed themselves to do it. So unless you’re an actress or model and need to look good to make a living just be kind to yourself and trust in the fact that the weight will come off.
Namaste
Natasha