You've given birth to a new baby boy or girl; congratulations! There's no feelings of happiness and joy greater than that . However, there's a feeling of sadness and frustration which follows, seeing your body in the mirror after returning home from the hospital.
On average, a woman gains between 25 and 35 pounds during her pregnancy. During labor and immediately after delivery a new mother might shed 10 to 15 pounds of that. This leaves from 10 to 25 additional pounds of weight left on the new mother's "new" body. It can be an origin of great shock, unsatisfaction, frustration, and lack of hope to a woman to discover that after giving birth she can no longer fit into the clothes she wore before the pregnancy.
Losing weight after pregnancy is not an easy task, but it requires patience, an achieve-able attitude, a positive point of view, and when it comes down to it - persistence and devotion. A realistic outlook by any means is to expect to lose no more than 1 or 2 pounds per week. For an extra 10 to 25 pounds, then, that can take anywhere from 2 months to atleast one year.
There's no magic to losing weight after pregnancy - not a sustainable and lasting one, at least. So the best way to succeed is to start out with realistic expectations for the time frame in which to achieve your results and with the commitment to seeing the process through, however long it may take.
Now that you have the right psychology, let's go over a few suggestions for ways to get rid of that unwanted weight postpartum ( relating or occurring in the period immediately after childbirth):
Don't start right away: Contrary to the "do it now" mentality you're normally advised to adhere, when you've just given birth, your body needs time to adjust to the metamorphosis it went through over the preceding 9 months. Remember, you are not "returning" to the state you were in before your pregnancy; you're in a new state you've never been in before. You are in the body of a new mother, and this body needs time to get used to this new way of being. Avoid weight-loss dieting of any sort for a good three months after delivering. Don't worry about exercise so much as just being sure you remain active and moving around. You can use your menstrual cycle as a pointer of when your body is ready to take on a more intentional program of diet and exercise; when it normalizes, you're ready to go.
Start slow: Your body is still healing from the pregnancy, and moving into a heavy-duty exercise program may be too much of a shock to your newly-adjusting system to do you any good at all. Walking around the block or the park with your baby is an excellent way to begin, and it primes your body exquisitely for taking on more extensive and intensive exercise at a later date.
Set yourself up for success: That means keep your kitchen stocked with fresh and healthy foods, particularly snacks, so when you feel the urge to eat something, you have only suitable options around. Several smaller meals throughout the day will serve your ends far better than just 2 or 3 large meals. And don't try and starve yourself. You'll do no good to your new baby that way, and you'll invariably find yourself binging sometime later on to compensate.
Have patience with yourself. The period of time following pregnancy is already exhausting and exasperating enough, on so many levels. Don't burden yourself further with guilt, shame, and unrealistic expectations.
On average, a woman gains between 25 and 35 pounds during her pregnancy. During labor and immediately after delivery a new mother might shed 10 to 15 pounds of that. This leaves from 10 to 25 additional pounds of weight left on the new mother's "new" body. It can be an origin of great shock, unsatisfaction, frustration, and lack of hope to a woman to discover that after giving birth she can no longer fit into the clothes she wore before the pregnancy.
Losing weight after pregnancy is not an easy task, but it requires patience, an achieve-able attitude, a positive point of view, and when it comes down to it - persistence and devotion. A realistic outlook by any means is to expect to lose no more than 1 or 2 pounds per week. For an extra 10 to 25 pounds, then, that can take anywhere from 2 months to atleast one year.
There's no magic to losing weight after pregnancy - not a sustainable and lasting one, at least. So the best way to succeed is to start out with realistic expectations for the time frame in which to achieve your results and with the commitment to seeing the process through, however long it may take.
Now that you have the right psychology, let's go over a few suggestions for ways to get rid of that unwanted weight postpartum ( relating or occurring in the period immediately after childbirth):
Don't start right away: Contrary to the "do it now" mentality you're normally advised to adhere, when you've just given birth, your body needs time to adjust to the metamorphosis it went through over the preceding 9 months. Remember, you are not "returning" to the state you were in before your pregnancy; you're in a new state you've never been in before. You are in the body of a new mother, and this body needs time to get used to this new way of being. Avoid weight-loss dieting of any sort for a good three months after delivering. Don't worry about exercise so much as just being sure you remain active and moving around. You can use your menstrual cycle as a pointer of when your body is ready to take on a more intentional program of diet and exercise; when it normalizes, you're ready to go.
Start slow: Your body is still healing from the pregnancy, and moving into a heavy-duty exercise program may be too much of a shock to your newly-adjusting system to do you any good at all. Walking around the block or the park with your baby is an excellent way to begin, and it primes your body exquisitely for taking on more extensive and intensive exercise at a later date.
Set yourself up for success: That means keep your kitchen stocked with fresh and healthy foods, particularly snacks, so when you feel the urge to eat something, you have only suitable options around. Several smaller meals throughout the day will serve your ends far better than just 2 or 3 large meals. And don't try and starve yourself. You'll do no good to your new baby that way, and you'll invariably find yourself binging sometime later on to compensate.
Have patience with yourself. The period of time following pregnancy is already exhausting and exasperating enough, on so many levels. Don't burden yourself further with guilt, shame, and unrealistic expectations.
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