How to lose the baby weight...and how it’s all about how you THINK.

Let’s talk baby weight. And losing the baby weight. For some women, pregnancy is a glorious time where they throw off the shackles of society’s expectations of how women should look and how much they should eat. They embrace the “I’m eating for two” mentality because there’s such a small window of time in life where eating five cupcakes in a sitting is considered cute.  But you might have been like me -- I found the thought of gaining something like thirty pounds in nine months more scary than liberating. That’s because I struggled with my weight when I was younger. In my twenties things turned around and I began to focus more on having a healthy lifestyle. So when it was time to start our family, I was nervous that I would gain more weight than is healthy and find myself discouraged about my body afterwards.

I was pretty careful about what I ate during pregnancy, but I did make a few mistakes. For one, I know I drank too many empty calories by drinking fruit and vegetable juices. I drank these beverages in hopes of getting all my servings of fruits and veggies, but I would’ve been better off eating the actual foods instead of consuming all the extra calories in the juice! But this was the real kicker -- sometime around my second trimester, a Tim Horton’s – Canada’s favourite doughnut shop – opened up in my neighbourhood, right by the exit to the highway that takes me to work. Multiple times each week I succumbed to own lack of self-control and picked up a bagel on the way to work.  Considering that Gemma was born in the 3^rd percentile at only 5lbs 9oz, I’d say that a lot of my baby weight was actually bagel weight!

Fortunately, I can say that when Gemma was 9 months old I stood on the scale and was back to my pre-baby (ahem, bagel) weight, and my old jeans were actually loose. But I wasn’t one of those moms who we all kinda hate because they look like they’ve never even had a kid weeks after delivery – for myself it really was the 9 months on, 9 months off scenario.

So, I’ve decided to devote a couple posts to how to lose the baby weight in a healthy way and maintain a positive self-image.  Keep in mind that I am so not a doctor or fitness trainer -- make sure you seek out some expert advice if you don’t know much about personal fitness.

Ok, so here goes.

#1 - It’s all in your head.

In any goal you intend to reach, the biggest hurdle to succeeding will be a mental one. Once you retrain your brain, the actions needed to meet your goal will follow.

For example, when I was losing the baby weight I heard this saying that you can’t expect to see any changes if you don’t do anything different. I know it sounds obvious, but be honest with yourself -- how many times have you told yourself that you are going to change something, don’t do anything different, and then get frustrated that nothing has changed! (New Years much?!?)

Once I came to terms in my MIND that I had to do something different than I had before, I started to take the steps necessary to lose the weight. For me that meant I had to do something active each day. During my pregnancy, although I was conscious of my diet, I quit working out about four months in – something I sorely regret. For me the change I needed to make was getting back into the habit of working out consistently.

In order to lose the weight you will have to make some changes. You will have to sacrifice. You will have to do something different to get a different result. I think this is where a lot of moms find themselves -- stuck in a mental battle where they want to see change, but haven’t made up in their mind that they're willing to do what it takes to see change occur.

#2 -- Be realistic.

It’s so important that you have realistic expectations about weight loss and what your body will look like.  Six weeks post partum you will not look like Kate Middleton or some other super rich/famous mom whose super tight body is plastered over the magazines in the grocery store. New moms do not have rock hard abs – nope, they have smushy tummies that resemble bread dough.  New moms don’t look like supermodels, and that is a good thing. The amount of time and special diets needed to look like that are truly only afforded by the celebrities. OK - I do know some non-celeb moms who are in incredible shape, but they’ll tell you about the level of dedication necessary to look like that, and if you’re like me, it won’t excite you.

Instead, focus more on how you want to feel and less on how you want to look.

You want to have the energy to keep up with your kids. You want to be able to run a certain distance. You want to get back into that activity or sport you used to play.

 When you start to work out and eat healthier, you will begin to feel better quicker than you’ll see physical results. When you start to feel better and have minor victories here and there, you’ll be more motivated to keep doing what you’re doing. And then the physical results come.

But if you begin with an unrealistic picture in your mind of what a busy mom’s physique should look like, you’ll likely get so discouraged when you don’t look that way, that you give up.

Stay realistic moms. Its ok to be a little smushy. Focus on being healthy and you’ll start to see results.

#3 – Let yourself off the hook.

You will have setbacks in your weight loss journey. I lost the first 12 pounds almost immediately after having Gemma, but the last 15 or so took longer than I expected it would. For me my setback was a health one. I had a c-section with Gemma (if you haven’t read my blog about the c-section club, you can read it here – it's a favourite of many of my readers) which meant absolutely no working out for the first six weeks and then a very slow integration into working out afterwards. You don’t go from having your abdomen sliced in two to doing high intensity interval training right away. I began with simply walking the track at the gym (Gemma was born in the dead of winter in Alberta...like -30 degrees Celsius). I walked and walked and walked, and smiled at my adorable little munchkin in the stroller all the way along. I ran into a nurse/acquaintance one day at the gym and she admired that I was six or seven weeks postpartum and walking the track. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I guess it was a big deal for a new, exhausted mom who has just recovered from major surgery to go so hard. I was determined.

Feeding Gemma (6 months old) in the hospital three days after surgery.

The c-section led to a whole host of other setbacks. For instance, I wanted to desperately breast feed, and despite all my efforts, it just wasn’t happening for Gemma and I (I’ll be sure to blog on that one day). Consequently I missed out on the weight loss benefits of nursing. And when Gemma was six months old I went in for another surgery to remove a cyst off my ovary that was found during the c-section. To make a long story short, what was meant to be a routine day surgery had me ambulanced back to the hospital that evening where I was readmitted for four days with peritonitis (inflammation of the peritoneum). The pain was beyond excruciating and although I was sent home four days later, I lived with chronic pain for a number of months afterwards. Breathing was painful for many weeks following the surgery which meant all exercise was a no-go. Gemma was probably 8  months old before I could really exercise the way I needed to get rid of those last pounds.

I hope your setbacks aren’t that dramatic. But I can guarantee you’ll have them. Just don’t give up in the face of them.

I know these points aren’t necessarily practical steps for losing the baby weight, but before you can implement any weight loss plan, you have to prepare your mind for the challenge. Be encouraged and know that you can truly do anything you set your mind to.

To losing the bagel weight,  
♥ Dion