How to Lose Weight After Pregnancy: Weight loss, Exercise, and Diet – Rethinking and Reshaping

Home and Facing Reality: Weight loss goals and results, fast!

You are home from the hospital after delivering this precious new life and suddenly the bliss of motherhood leaves you after you look at your new self in the mirror. Your hormones are raging and you try not to throw the toothbrush holder at the mirror or start saying words only a sailor or a trucker would say. What happened to that gorgeous body? Can it be fixed? Can this body look beautiful again?

Yes! We have the technology, we can rebuild you!

A little 6 Million Dollar Man or Bionic Woman joke. Or am I showing my age?

If you have given birth to a child, these thoughts and others have probably crossed your mind. But what can you do about it? And how are you going to make time to do get back into the size you were before Little Johnny or Little Suzie came along?

In this article you will learn how to safely lose the extra weight through a simple menu plan and a 20-minute aerobic cardiovascular exercise plan that will get your body back in the clothes you want to be in. Eating healthy is also vital to your weight loss strategy, whether you are breastfeeding or not. Listed below is a simple menu that is delicious, easy, and healthy. You will find the recipes at the end of the article.

Healthy Breakfast Meal

One Hard Boiled Egg
One Piece Wheat Toast
With ½ teaspoon Margarine and ½ teaspoon honey (optional)
½ cup Winter Fruit Salad
½ cup skim milk

Healthy Morning Snack

½ cup Trail Mix
Bottle Water

Healthy Lunch

Chinese Five-Spice Chicken Salad
Herbal Iced Tea

Healthy Afternoon Snack

Almond Butter with Sliced Apples
Bottle Water

Healthy Dinner

Grilled Salmon
Steamed Broccoli, Squash, Carrot Medley
½ Baked Potato topped with Black Beans and shredded Low-Fat Cheddar Cheese
Herbal Iced Tea

Healthy Dinner Snack

½ cup Low Fat Vanilla Yogurt or one small piece of deli turkey
Exercising is something you need to make time to do as a new mom. First of all it gives you time away to do something for yourself. Second exercise will give you more energy to take care of your sweet little baby. Thirdly exercise will send happy endorphins to your brain so you will be more relaxed and have will calm you down in the evening so you can sleep better. Listed below is a simple 20 Minute Cardio program that you can keep up with whether you go to a gym or workout at home.

There! Now that you have a sense of how to begin to approach diet change, a shift in focus not an actual diet, per se, we will begin to integrate an aerobic program into your daily routine.

The 20-Minute Treadmill Cardiovascular – Aerobic Fitness Plan is just what the doctor order! This is an interval plan that has helped many women with getting back into shape. The person that came up with this particular plan is physical therapist, and it works. This plan is for all levels of fitness and for new moms, as well as moms looking to reclaim their figure after a period of time after the birth of their child or children. After 4 weeks, you will want to increase the incline and speed levels of the treadmill. This plan is a great cardiovascular workout because it not only works to increase your heart rate, but it also is a great work out for your legs and buttocks. Additionally, any aerobic program engaged in properly will increase basal metabolic rate (BMR) and keep your “calorie furnace” burning long after the exercise routine is done for the day.

Minute Incline Level Speed
1 3 2.0
2 3 2.0
3 4 2.5
4 5 3.0
5 3 2.0

6 4 2.0
7 5 2.5
8 6 3.0
9 7 3.5
10 4 2.0

11 5 2.5
12 6 3.0
13 7 3.5
14 8 4.0
15 5 2.5

16 6 3.0
17 7 3.5
18 8 4.0
19 9 4.5
20 6 3.0

Keep in mind that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will you be!

At any point in this routine, if you have had enough or cannot carry on a conversation, meaning you have gotten completely winded, stop. Aerobic means with oxygen and if you are winded, you are in an anaerobic state. While anaerobic exercise has its place, and we will introduce you to it in the near future, we are focused on aerobic exercise in stage one. Additionally, if you are unable to get access to a treadmill, a brisk walk, as mentioned in a previous article, will more than suffice, particularly in stage one!

The Recipes suggested as a starting point for stage one are as follows:

Recipes for Simple Menu Plan

Four Fuji Apples, chopped
Four Boss Pears, chopped
4 Clementines, peeled and seeded
1 cup dried Cranberries
1 cup Currants or Raisins
1 cup chopped Pecans
1teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup orange juice

In a medium sized bowl, add apples, pears, clementines, dried cranberries, currants or raisins, chopped pecans and vanilla extract; toss until blended. Add juice until all fruit is covered.

Serve in small dishes.

Yield: Four-Six (4-ounce) servings

Chinese Five-Spice Chicken Salad

1package Tyson Chicken Tender strips
½ teaspoon Five Spice blend
½ teaspoon Garlic
½ teaspoon Sea Salt
½ teaspoon Onion Powder
½ teaspoon Black Pepper
Smart Balance Oil or margarine
2 cans Mandarin Oranges pieces, drained
½ cup sliced almonds
Salad Mix
¼ cup Cherry Tomatoes, cut in half
¼ cup shredded carrots
Store bought Low Fat Oriental Dressing

In a medium bowl, add chicken and spices; toss. In a medium sized skillet, add oil or margarine. When the pan is hot, add chicken and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes or until done; cool chicken and cut in small pieces for the salad.

In a separate bowl, add salad mix, cherry tomatoes, carrots, and mandarin oranges; toss and add to dinner plate. Add chicken pieces, and almonds on top of salad mixture. Drizzle with your favorite low fat oriental dressing.

Diet is more about eating healthy than eating less, as noted in “How to Lose Weight After Pregnancy – 3 Easy Steps to Post-Pregnancy Weight Loss:

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Lose-Weight-After-Pregnancy—3-Easy-Steps-to-Post-Pregnancy-Weight-Loss&id=2176798

Combined with the dietary suggestions and exercise program mentioned above, the article mentioned above will provide an excellent jumping off point and it will be no time at all and the sailor’s vocabulary will be replaced my the gorgeous, new you looking back at your from the other side of the mirror. In the coming weeks we will take you into stage 2, and the totally new you!

For further information and an intelligent program of diet reshaping and rethinking, educating you on how to eat and exercise after pregnancy, one guaranteed to yield results fast:

http://www.SkinniestYou.com

Next, we will cover Stage 2 and 3 more completely.

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimateweightlossplan.com

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

How to Lose Weight After pregnancy is Often One of the Biggest Challenges a New Mother Faces, Aside from Caring for the Little Bambino, that is!

Shedding excess weight put on during pregnancy may seem like an impossible undertaking but it is in fact quite a simple process. While some women continue to have weight problems and trouble losing weight, particularly while breast feeding, this simply does not have to be the case.

We will discuss a simple, easy to implement program guaranteed to have you back in shape, literally and figuratively, in a matter of a few short weeks. Remember one thing, dieting alone is for the birds! And that’s only because birds, as you may have already heard, may eat several times their weight in food every day. Not a bad deal if you can get it. Unfortunately, we humans are built a bit differently.

Step 1:

The first step is probably the easiest and takes the least amount of effort. As a new mother, you may feel like there simply aren’t enough hours in the day and, what little time you do have, falls during the baby’s nap-time which, as you may already know, is totally unpredictable. As a result, you may already feel completely overwhelmed as you attempt to get everything you need to get accomplished completed and still have a moment’s rest while the baby is asleep. The great thing about step one of our post-pregnancy weight loss plan is that it doesn’t matter whether the baby is wake or not. In fact, it is usually better if the little bundle of joy is awake.
Step one? Take the baby for a walk in the stroller twice a day.

I often see new moms on a sort of Bataan Force March, this is the last thing you should be doing. All that is necessary is a nice leisurely stroll that both baby and mom can enjoy. Take time to take in the scenery, and yes there is scenery even in a total urban jungle like Manhattan! The walk should be at a decent pace but the actual rate isn’t as important as to just do it…as the Nike commercials put it. Make sure that the walks are 20-30 minutes in duration, twice a day, and taken at the same time every day. Getting into a routine will help new mom and baby alike, with many hidden benefits.

One benefit will be immediately apparent!

After walks, the little one may sleep longer and much deeper, allowing for more time of your own. You will discover you have more energy and begin to look forward to your daily strolls. Don’t think you have time? Just stop and think about how much time you spend with a fussy baby, keeping them occupied, happy, and trying to get the little one to nap. Now imagine all of those bundles of time evaporating because you are spending time together, out in the fresh air, and losing weight all at the same time. Weight loss step number one: 2 walks per day, 20-30 minutes per walk. Try to space them out at least 8 hours apart. Some of the benefits will include an increased metabolism, decreased stress levels, and quick and easy weight loss. Not to mention the fact that you will have a happier, healthier baby!

Step 2:

Many new moms breast feed and, even if they don’t, they snack more frequently as they are used to a pattern of eating during pregnancy that is counterproductive and counterintuitive for weight loss. New moms who are breast feeding often believe that it is necessary to eat more in order to feed the baby, to build up and have available and adequate supply of breast milk. This is simply not the case! Breast milk quantity and quality has nothing to do with quantity the new mom’s food intake but rather the quality.

So, step two is basically in two parts.

One of two: You need to write down everything you put in you mouth. That’s it! Just write is down. Everything! And no, you don’t have to count calories! With journaling comes an awareness of what and how much you are eating. The benefit is profound and immediate. Once you begin to take stock of what you are eating and how often, you will find that the awareness drives an adjustment, not only in quantity of food but quality as well. Why? Because now you are accountable to yourself and to your child. if you are eating better, you will feel better, and ultimately look better.

Two of two: You need to remove the junk food from the home. That’s right! Just don’t bring it in, any of it. The immediate benefit is obvious, you will take in fewer empty calories. The long term benefit is a shift in focus and eating habits that carry over to your child, as well. If you are used to eating healthy snacks, such as grapes, apples, oranges, and melons, to name a few, your child will thrive on those foods, never missing what isn’t in the house. Finally, the shift in eating habits, combined with the quality of the food you are now taking in, will enhance breast milk quantity and quality, while hastening your post-pregnancy weight loss.

Step two, parts one and two in concert, has nothing to do with how much food you put in your mouth. The step simply makes you accountable, to yourself, for everything that goes in to your system. And thus, changes the quality of the food items taken in as a result. We have not discussed diet, because diets on their own never work. That’s right, they never work. In fact, if you diet, without changing the underlying behavior? You may as well continue to shovel it in! The only way to lose those pounds gained during pregnancy is by changing, or reestablishing, good eating habits and kicking the metabolism back up to pre-pregnancy levels.

Step 3:

Step three involves partnering with another new mom. Pregnancy is an amazing time for everyone connected to the new mom to-be; and, it is also an amazing period of discovery for the new mom, as well. During pregnancy, or immediately afterwards, link up with a support network in your area. There are hundreds online, all you need to do is type in “new mom support” or “new mothers support” and the area you live in. I just typed in the former and got 36,100, 100 results! You will find an amazing number of resources in your area. If you have trouble meeting people or cannot find a group in your immediate area, go online and join a forum for new mothers. The reasons? Support and accountability! You will be amazed at how good you feel when you can share anecdotes about your baby, your life, your day, your problems, and your successes, to include your post-pregnancy weight loss progress.

Ultimately, post-pregnancy weight loss is not about diet, it’s about lifestyle. If you notice, there is not one diet tip in this entire article, other than to propose a shift in the kinds of food, the quality of food, and not the quantity. Why? Because diets will ultimately make one thing a reality…weight gain! So, if you are interested in losing weight: walk with your baby, twice a day for 20-30 minutes; journal, keeping an account of everything that goes into your mouth; get the junk food out of the house, now, today, at once; and, partner with another mom or groups of moms, as soon as possible in the pregnancy. On the last point, step three, try to partner up with one other new mom. Yes, you can still join a group, and you should. But there is something about being accountable to one other human being that makes this strategy work. We may get into group dynamics and weight loss in a later article but for now, know that two is better than three, and three is better than a group. By integrating the three steps above, you will see results in days. In weeks? You will be a totally new you by applying the three simple steps of this post-pregnancy weight loss plan.

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimateweightlossplan.com
Husband, father of four, and grandpa of one, another on the way! May 16, 2009

Be Sociable, Share!

•