Losing baby weight post pregnancy can seem like a neverending task. It’s easy to get into bad habits; you don’t have a lot of time to yourself, so you end up ordering takeaways, eating microwave meals, and stuffing your face full of chocolate and crisps for a fast fix – oh, and exercise is pretty much out of the question. The truth is, to lose your pregnancy weight you need to step out of your comfort zone, and the longer you stay out of it the better results you’ll get. You need to stop making excuses – plenty of mums manage to lose their baby weight, and get even fitter than before, all while taking care of a baby. You can do it too!
Exercise at least 3 Times Per Week, in Conjunction with a Clean Diet
After you’ve got the ok from your doctor you can start exercising, but you can start clean eating any time. In fact, if you haven’t had your baby yet and you’re simply reading this post for future reference, you can start right now! You can exercise while pregnant, you’ll just need to adjust your exercises the bigger you get. Many mums-to-be use the excuse ‘eating for two’ in order to validate eating rubbish and way more than they should, but the truth is you only need a couple hundred calories extra per day, and you should be eating healthy, natural food to nourish your unborn child.
If it’s already too late and the damage is done, no worries. You simply need to make the commitment to exercise and eat healthily as well you can. You don’t need to exercise every single day, and you don’t need to starve yourself. Simply exercise 3-5 times per week (build yourself up) for around 45 minutes at a time. Any longer than that, and you could be overtraining! Overtraining is counterproductive, as your body needs sufficient rest time in order to recover and give you the body of your dreams. You can’t out train a bad diet either, so you need to eat clean foods like lean meat, eggs, nuts, veg, fruit, sweet potato, and wholegrain bread/pasta/rice.
Exercising hard with a bad diet might change the number on the scale, but you won’t change your body composition. You will become something called ‘skinny fat’. By eating properly to nourish your body and fuel yourself for the day ahead, along with your exercise regime, you can get an amazing, lean, fit body. If you think you’ll struggle with the exercises or won’t know what to do, a personal trainer like Ellis Stockwell could help you.
Rules to Follow
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See this as a long term lifestyle change, not a short term ‘diet’.
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Realise there are no magical quick fixes, no pill or shake will solve your problems.
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Be consistent and you’ll see results.
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Drink 2-3 litres of water per day.
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Allow yourself a cheat meal once or twice a week to keep you going, but don’t go crazy. We suggest doing this on a Sunday after 6 days of hard work.
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Avoid alcohol, fast food, processed food and sugary/salty foods in the week. Also avoid ‘diet’ foods and ‘0% fat’ foods, as these may seem healthy at a glance, but in reality they contain many unnatural ingredients that can hinder your fat loss.
That’s it! Diet, exercise, and consistency is all it takes to see amazing results. Get going!
