Are You a New Mom Who Wants Her Body Back? While I haven’t had kids, I have worked with many clients trying to get pregnant, pregnant and post partum. This is what I have learned over the years of experience and studying to help you get your body back through healthy workout routines and a clean eating meal plan.
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Here are six tips to getting your body back after babies:
1. Be patient. You have to realize how much stress your body just went through growing another human, giving birth, the lack of rest after, etc. It can take about 18 months to even get your hormones back to normal, but there are aspects of your body that may be forever changed. Just be patient and kind to yourself. You cannot bully yourself into a better physique.
2. Sleep comes first. Lack of sleep is going to disrupt grehlin and leptin,your hunger hormones which will cause you to feel unsatisfied and unsatieated and make you have bad cravings. Lack of sleep causes can cause chronically elevated cortisol which can lead to fat storage. Without sleep your brain cannot restore its serotonin levels, your body cannot produce human growth hormone required to build/ maintain muscle. There’s SO much to sleep so don’t miss sleep to workout. If you want to learn more details about sleep and fat loss, read this. Focus first on getting 7 – 8 hours of deep sleep each night before you worry about your workouts.
3. Keep in mind that your hormones could very well be out of whack. Not only do your estrogen and progesterone levels rapidly drop after giving birth, but many women can become significantly estrogen dominant post partum, and some times breastfeeding leaves women with low levels of estrogen. Whatever the case my be for you, when it comes to fat loss, we want these hormones balanced and you can read about that here. But keep this in mind – don’t get frustrated at your lack of fat loss if you know your hormones are out of whack. Ge the blood work done, work with your doctor and begin with those first.
4. Complete three to four strength training workout routines each week. Focus on building muscle and as your cortisol levels lower, your hormones stabilize and even out, you will have built a strong foundation to begin the journey into getting lean again. You very well may need to rebuild your core with movements like kegels or anti-rotation exercises like palloff presses if you lost core strength, but that is part of the process. Focus on building muscle and strength because that will help you lose fat, and as time progresses and you can go back to fat burning, you will have the muscle there to be visible as your body fat decreases.
5. Make low intensity cardio part of your daily workout plan. Walking outside is great as being in nature and getting vitamin D will increase serotonin levels and lower cortisol. Pilates, Barre and gentle yoga classes will also help rebuild your core strength while decreases stress on your body and mind.
6. Find out how many calories you burn in a day now – you can do that here. You may be more or less active. Your weight is likely different than it was before you were pregnant. You are perhaps breastfeeding. These things make a difference so you need to know how many calories you burn in a day. Don’t try to go too far into a deficit, as that will only stress your body out even further. I suggest sticking with a clean eating meal plan to allow for easy digestion and healthy gut function, getting plenty of protein (at least 1g/ pound you weigh) as that will help your body recover and only being in a slight caloric deficit, if at all.
Do you need help figuring out the right clean eating meal plan and daily workout plan for you?
Go to Commit2FitCoaching.com/freeassessment and let me help you.
Your Coach,
Kyra