Pregnancy and childbirth is an incredible time in a woman’s life. The female body goes through amazing changes not only during the nine months that it’s carrying the child, but also in the months following childbirth. Your body will naturally hold onto some of that fat you’ve stored up, to help you with milk production. It’s recommended that you don’t begin exercising again until 6 weeks postpartum, or longer, depending on what your doctor tells you.
Some women have a hard time losing the extra baby weight, though, after they’re cleared to begin working out again. It’s important to not lose weight too quickly, because it will affect your milk supply and make it hard to continue breastfeeding, if that’s what you’ve chosen to do.
Easy Cardio
One of the best ways to help your body make this transition is by doing some very gentle cardio, like going on walks. Put your baby in a stroller(or a baby carrier) and go on a stroll around the neighborhood. This is an exercise you can generally begin doing even before you’re 6 weeks postpartum(make sure you talk to your doctor before starting any sort of exercise, to make sure your body is ready). Be careful to not push your body too hard before it’s ready, and remember cardio alone won’t eliminate all stubborn fat.
Keep a healthy diet
They say that abs are made in the kitchen, right? Most of weight loss is directly tied to diet. Another perk to eating healthy is that everything you eat, the baby eats, right? If you’re eating healthy, so is the baby. Make sure your diet is full of fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and lean proteins. Try to avoid refined grains and excess dairy, as these things immediately get turned into sugar, which gets turned into fat, once you’ve consumed them.
Making sure your diet is clean is one of those things that you can do before you’ve hit 6 weeks postpartum, and will help you feel great about yourself because eating well has a positive impact on your mental state.
Core Exercises
Chances are that you carry most of your leftover baby weight in your abdomen. You want to avoid exercises like crunches shortly after birth, because they can separate the abdomen muscles, and create unnecessary pressure on the tissue there. Because you’ll still want to workout this area of your body, you just have to make sure you do gentle exercises that won’t make any damage. A few really great exercises to try are:
-Planks
-Reverse crunches
-Hip lifts(also known as Pelvic Tilt)
-Cat/Cow
-Mountain Climbers
