How To Lose The Baby Weight, How I lost 100lbs Doing This
Girl I know why you are here reading this right now, and it’s okay. It is totally okay for you to want to lose your baby weight as fast as possible after carrying and birthing that sweet little baby. I was you, twice over! I gained a whooping 50lbs with both of my boys…yes double the recommended amount of weight, which I still believe 25lbs as a recommended weight gain for pregnancy is totally unattainable, or at least I still like to believe that! Anyways, I know everyone will say “don’t get in a rush” “your body is amazing and beautiful” “you have more important things to worry about now” all very true statements, but I want you to know you are not a bad mom for wanting your body back! You are beautiful and you are amazing, but there is nothing wrong with wanting to look your best as well. After having my boys I felt like I was walking around in someone else’s body and I hated it. I didn’t struggle with post partum depression, but I did struggle with my identity and self worth because I just did not feel attractive anymore.
These feelings led me down the path of trying to figure out how I could lose my baby weight as quickly as possible, in a safe and natural way. Another concern of mine was being able to lose a lot of weight and not effect my breastfeeding because I wanted to breastfeed my boys as long as possible with having them during covid.
Now let’s get into the breakdown of the things I did to lose all that weight while taking care of these babes!
1. Drink Water
Drinking water was huge in me losing the baby weight without sacrificing the amount of breastmilk I was making. Honestly this was not hard for me because breastfeeding made me so incredibly thirsty it was crazy, but I made sure to carry a gallon jug with me everywhere I went. Water is what breastmilk is mostly made of so this is really important if you are breastfeeding. I also held on to a lot of fluid after having my babies and this helped my body just flush everything out.
2. Eat Small snacks instead of meals
Now I am going to warn you right now that everyone is going to tell you you have to eat so much more to be able to support breastfeeding. This is inaccurate. You only need an extra 300-400 calories compared to a normal recommended diet of 2000 calories a day. Now I am not a calorie counter so do not misunderstand me I did not count calories while losing my weight, but to put it into perspective this is just one more healthy snack of maybe a Greek yogurt and some nuts or blueberries, etc.
What I did was 6-8 small snack meals a day. I would have 1/4 a cup oatmeal in the morning with some peanut butter, chia seeds, and blueberries. Then 2 hours later have a handful of nuts and some cheese. Two hours after that I may have a bowl of fruit. Two hours later some celery and peanut butter or peppers and cream cheese…. you get the idea. Keep it nutrient rich and keep the meals small. And eating frequently helped keep my appetite down.
3. Add 2 smoothies to you daily routine
This was HUGE for me as far as breastfeeding. I used smoothies to get in the nutrients I needed to support my body to do what it needed to do without consuming a bunch of junk. I would make sure I put leafy greens into my smoothies and avocado to help get a healthy punch in those smoothies. Also if you are running low on milk supply add a little bit of oats to your smoothie as well. I also would use smoothies to help curb my sweet tooth. So if you are craving chocolate, add some coco to your smoothie and make it a chocolate peanut butter smoothie, but still sneak in those veggies. I really liked to put blueberries, oats, and a little vanilla extract in mine, it made a yummy blueberry dessert for when I needed a sweet pick me up!
*** Warning*** do not add too much to these smoothies or you defeat the small meals side of this weight loss journey. Keep the smoothies to small handfuls of ingredients, don’t throw a whole bunch of stuff in there. Do some greens, some berries, some oats, and some almond milk. Don’t put in more than what you would eat on your plate!
4. Move Your BOdy All DAy
After a baby we are really limited in what we can do, but we are not completely limited. Now restrictions can vary depending on the type of birth you had, but when you are cleared to walk you can move. Start out by walking as much as possible. Walk around your house with the baby, take walks outside to get out of the house and keep your sanity. Then start walking up and down your stairs if you have them to get a little resistance in there. Next, try to not sit in you chair so much. One thing I noticed with my first baby is that I was constantly sitting in a chair with him. Rocking him, feeding him, just exhausted sitting there trying to survive. As dumb and simple as it sounds move to the floor. I would sit in the floor and let my babies do their tummy time or I would use them to do workouts. I would hold them and do squats in the living room, bench press them, do lunges around the house, just anything I could think of holding a baby. But the most important part in the beginning of my post partum exercise journey was to do abdominal rehab exercises to help safely put my body back together. Here are a couple books you can get to help you do the same:
Diastasis Recti: The Whole-Body Solution to Abdominal Weakness and Separation
Postpartum Ab Rehab: A Simple 12 Step Program To Safely Restore Your Core
After you are healed up and cleared to workout again try to start a workout program you can follow and get in quickly to work around the baby and the chaos being a mom brings on. You can check out our fitness program that has 120 workouts, with half of them being short 20-30min workouts you can do in you living room while the baby is sleeping. If you want to try our program just cline this link for an introduction to our Innertia Movement Fitness Program
5. Girl do It, Get the Waist Trainer
If you have been reading post partum blogs or hospital bag must haves, you have been reading about the waist trainer. I am hear to tell you, girl get it!! It does not have to be some fancy one just a stretchy waist trainer to wear the fist few weeks of post partum like this one
I liked this specific one because it has a few different options that I found more comfortable in my different phases of post partum. I strapped this baby on as soon as I was done giving birth to my first! I swear by it helping bring your uterus back down to size and reshaping your belly. The other reason
I think it really helped me lose weight and get my body back during the post partum period was it reminded me to keep good posture. With a new baby I swear you are in a constant start of being hunched over. You back really takes a beating holding that sweet baby all day long and trying to figure out the whole breastfeeding thing. This waist trainer helped me as a subtle remind to correct my posture, which YES good posture does help lead to weight loss!!
6. Don’t Neglect Your Mental Health
Congratulations you are a new mom! Whether it is your first child or your fourth you are a new mom to that lifestyle. Everything about your life changes all of a sudden and it can be very overwhelming. You lose yourself as a person making sure these tiny humans are well cared for and loved. Sometimes this can lead to us feeling sad or depressed and depression leads to numerous health issues, especially weight gain. When you feel depressed nothing seems to matter and you look for any sort of happiness which may come from binge watching and losing yourself in your favorite Netflix series or eating your favorite dessert every day. As hard as it is to find time to take care of yourself mama, you need to. Ask your hubby to watch the baby for 30min-1hr a day so you have time to yourself to take a long bath, do a workout, read a book, go see some friends, whatever healthy activity that brings you joy. Sometimes for me it was just having the ability to go get groceries alone and listening to music in the car. Or getting a quick yoga session in in the bedroom away from the kids. I know we all do not have a partner to watch the baby for us, at least try to get a family member or friend to come over and watch the baby sometime in the week so you can get a rest. Please do not forget mama you are amazing, but you are still human. It is okay to admit you need a break!!
