Walking To Lose Baby Weight

Did you know that walking is one of the best ways to lose baby weight and can have massive benefits for your health?

As well as being a great way to see the countryside and get out in the fresh air, walking can help to: Increase your fitness, stamina, confidence and well being, reduce the risk of heart disease, lose baby weight, strengthen bones, reduce high blood pressure and reduce stress and anxiety.

Any walking is better than none but, to make sure you are getting maximum health benefits, a brisk walk is better than a stroll and you should work towards walking for 30 minutes on most days of the week at a pace that makes you warm and your breathing slightly more heavy than normal.

So, stride out and improve your health but make sure you don’t over do it – you should still be able to talk when walking!

The potential benefits of walking far outweigh the risks but if you haven’t participated in much exercise recently and are worried about your health, but want to lose baby weight, please make sure you check with your doctor before increasing your activity lev

els.

Pregnancy and weight loss

Just read a great quote about pregnancy and weight loss by Jonny Bowden, M.A writing for iVillage.co.uk and wanted to share it with you -
Pregnancy and weight loss: iVillage

Here's the question

"I'm nearly three stone overweight and have just found out I’m pregnant. My doctor says I can walk on the treadmill three times a week for twenty minutes and then build up from there. Can I lose weight while I’m pregnant?

Here's Jonny's answer

"I get nervous when people talk about weight loss and pregnancy in the same breath. Pregnancy is not the time to worry about weight loss. You should concentrate on being as fit as you can, increasing or maintaining your aerobic capacity, keeping up your strength and endurance and eating well. There's plenty of time for more serious exercise and weight loss after you give birth. On the flip side, you shouldn't use pregnancy as an excuse to eat every kind of food in sight."

C section recovery

It is important to understand exactly how to take care of yourself and promote as quick and painless as possible c section recovery. Here are some useful tips: -

• Take things easy, keep moving around but do so slowly

• Use pillows and cushions to protect your scar when sitting or sleeping.

• If you are suffering from painful gas in the stomach try gentle rocking on a fit ball or rocking chair as this will help to disperse it.

• Whenever you need to get up in to a standing position, stretch your arms overhead to stave off any cramping in the stomach muscles.

• Monitor your incision daily, if you notice any changes such as more pain or a redness that seems to be spreading, you should speak to your midwife or doctor immediately.

• Try to steer clear of drinking fizzy or very cold drinks.

• Wearing loose clothing helps to reduce the irritation and pain caused by material pressing against the scar.

• Don't be afraid to ask friends and family to stay away for a few days if that is how you feel.

• Continue taking the pain killers prescribed by your health care professional.

• Try to drink plenty of water in order to keep your digestive system cleansed and lubricated.

Following these simple suggestions could help to speed up your c section recovery and make life as comfortable for yourself as possible.

The Importance of a Post Pregnancy Exercise Diary

The key to effective post pregnancy exercise is to work within your limits, listen to your body and keep a track of your progress towards your goals.

It is this last point that I want to focus on today's post. Firstly by setting goals and secondly monitoring the progress that you make towards these goals.

Goal Setting

This is about as important to anyone wanting to lose weight as is petrol to your car. I have worked with hundreds if not thousands of clients and the ones that consistently get results are the ones that a) set themselves realistic goals and b) go out and achieve those goals. By taking constant positive action every day and moving slightly closer to their ultimate goal, be that to lose 1 stone, to drop 2 dress sizes, to run a marathon or to simply be able to walk to the shops.

Your goals are your own motivating factors that take you to where you want to be.

What you musn't do is see every partial set back, every event that stops you doing things exactly the way you want to as being a failure. It isn't, remember failure isn't falling down it is staying down.

Monitoring Your Progress

The second point is monitoring what you are doing, is it taking you towards the goals you have set yourself? I recommend that you start a post pregnancy weight loss or a fitness training diary.

Every thing that we write down takes on a greater importance than something that we simply keep inside our heads. Often we need that extra pressure to force us to take action especially when things aren't going so well.

You should write down each days activities and food consumption and also use your log to plan in advance the things what you will be doing both in terms of exercise and also diet.

When you have to write down the things that you have been eating or the fact that you didn't go for a walk today because you didn't feel like it, they become more real, in a way you then become more answerable and accouintable to yourself.

Your post pregnancy exercise log can also be used to record your feelings. Have you had a good day, do you feel tired, do you want to pack it all in? Let your emotions and thoughts spill out on to the paper.

You can use any book or notepad with blank pages to write these things down or alternatively if you want a system that is already to go then 'The Baby Belly Fat Loss Plan' contains everything you need to start getting in to shape and planning out exactly how you are going to achieve this.

Losing Pregnancy Weight

Losing Pregnancy Weight - How To Find The Time

For most new mothers the battle of losing pregnancy weight must be fought at the same time as caring for a new baby. This means that some compromises may need to be reached. Perhaps the biggest challenge is fitting it all in.

You can easily save time by combining tasks such as walking to the shops to buy groceries or doing your pelvic floor exercises at the same time as feeding. Try to find as many ways of saving time each day to make your life easier.

To receive a free report about saving time as well as many other useful downloads visit www.greatshapeafterbaby.com and enter your details in to the opt in form.

Exercise After Pregnancy

How Soon Should I Start to Exercise After Pregnancy?

This is a very common question I get asked by new mums all the time and there is a very simple answer. That is this - as soon as you possibly can after giving birth.

But let me be clear on this, I am not referring to what most people would class as exercise, such as jogging, exercise classes or going to the gym. These activities would be far too intense and place your body which is already in a delicate state in to a much more unstable condition in which you could potentially cause yourself serious long term injury.

So ideally you do need to take part in some form of post pregnancy exercise, but this should be gentle and structured. It needs to be something that fits in to your new lifestyle and allows you to carry out the many tasks associated with motherhood and caring for a new baby.

With this type of gently progressive exercise after pregnancy you can begin within a couple of days of the birth and with the pelvic floor and tummy tightening exercises these can be started immediately. In fact the sooner you can start exercising, the faster your recovery will be and the quicker you will start to lose weight and return to your pre pregnancy shape.

Post Pregnancy Exercise

Post Pregnancy Exercise

Immediately after having a baby is when most new mums want to take things easy and conserve as much energy as possible. Unfortunately this action goes against what you should actually be doing. Difficult as it most definitely is when considering lack of sleep, recovering from the effects of the birth and a general tiredness and lethargy, the real solution is to become a little more active.

Here are the reasons why: -

• When you move around your heart has to work harder to pump the blood to the working muscles. This extra work also means that the supply of much needed nutrients are circulated quicker, helping to improve the recovery process faster.

• If you go out for a walk, you take yourself and your baby out of the house and in to the fresh air then your lungs and body are being provided with the freshest oxygen which again can be useful in speeding up your recovery.

• When you take part in post pregnancy exercise, the body produces seratonin which is a feel good hormone. Moving around and getting slightly out of breathe actually makes us feel good.

• Your baby will likely sleep much better if she gets plenty of fresh air, or if unsettled the sounds of her crying won't seem too loud outside.

• Because you are starting to move around more, you will be burning off extra calories, which will help with your weight loss after pregnancy, again giving you more energy and helping to improve your own self image.

So whilst doing anything other than caring for your new baby will be a huge challenge at first, if you can start becoming more active the results will far outweigh the effort that it takes. Ultimately everyone will benefit from you being stronger, fitter, healthier and happier.