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Daily Plan for Losing the Baby Weight

Now that I’m two months postpartum and my milk supply is well established, I’m ready to tackle this extra baby weight I’ve been toting around.  Don’t get me wrong, I really do love my body.  I might hate the way it looks most days, but this body gave me two beautiful boys and will hopefully give me two more babies in the not-too-distant future.

For now though, I’m going to focus on dropping these 30 pounds that have been holding on since I gave birth to our Dumplin 11 weeks ago.

The trick to setting daily goals is to decide on things that are measurable.  I’m relying on old tips that helped me to lose weight 10 years ago.  Here’s to hoping they work again!  These are my daily goals, but yours might look completely different.

Commit to Simple Workouts

By far my FAVORITE workout is this one.  I get crazy headaches when I do any kind of jumping around or running – and no that isn’t just an excuse.  If I just commit to this workout most days in a week, even if I don’t FINISH the workout for that day, I still feel way better and notice a difference in how I look after just a couple of weeks.

If you don’t get ridiculous headaches every time you breathe like I do, look for fast workouts on YouTube.  The best part is they’re free and you can find some workouts that take you 10 minutes from start to finish.  Just do it.  Even if you have to hold your baby and REALLY modify the moves, you’re moving and that burns calories.

Drink Way More Water

My friend Carly wrote an awesome post about this and I decided to aim for the amount of water she suggests.  I chronically dehydrate myself, so this is an absolutely necessary change in my life – weight loss goal or not.

In addition to drinking a set amount of ounces every day, I’m also going to drink an equal amount of water to replace any caffeinated beverages.  I have an addiction to coke (or soda or pop, depending on where you’re located).  I absolutely have to have to have Coca Cola when I feel a headache coming on.  It’s completely counter-productive and unhealthy, I know.  It must just be mind over matter because sometimes that sugar and caffeine rush can really save me from being laid up with a migraine.

From what Carly tells me, all of this water intake could really help my migraines as well.  I’m willing to try anything from a trusted friend and fellow blogger that is more natural and doesn’t involve ingesting tons of medicines to keep myself functioning in the wake of a headache.  I have two little ones that rely on me, after all.

Get 10,000 Steps

I use a FitBit and love it!  I initially refused to spend the money on one because I didn’t think it would actually motivate me.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  I absolutely love the challenge of trying to reach my 10,000 steps every day.  I find myself pacing the room and then refreshing my app.  This is the one I use.  

The best part is that I can challenge my best friend and my husband to see who gets more steps.

25 Squats

I try to work these into some kind of housework.  If I’m gathering laundry, I’ll do 5 or 10 and then do 5 or 10 more when I put the laundry into the washer.  I even attempt to do squats when I’m trying to calm the baby.  If I have to be standing and bouncing anyway, I might as well get a workout out of it.

My plan was to aim for 25, in reality – I probably do closer to 200.

100 Crunches

When I had my nurse visits after the baby came, she showed me how to do these special crunches to help bring my abs back together.  Basically, you lay flat on your back, cross your arms across your belly and place your hand on either side of your abdomen, then crunch and pull your hands together as you crunch.  You’re pushing your abs back together and helping to close the space between them.

This is apparently especially important if you ever plan to have more kids – which I do.

Kegels

Okay, this one might not be anywhere you can see, but it’s still extremely important.  My goal is 10 reps, 6 times a day.  I have a little app on my phone that reminds me to do them.  If I hope to ever do a jumping jack again (or sneeze) without tinkling a little, I have to stick to these!

Measure Portion Sizes

For now, I’m not going to limit my food intake.  I’ve learned the hard way about a million times that if I try to put too many restrictions on myself, I rebel and I’ll be hiding in the kitchen with milk and cookies at midnight.

What has worked for me in the past (and what I’m really hoping will work this time around too) is to just measure out my food before I eat it.  If I want more, that’s fine, but I have to measure it out.  For example, a portion of my favorite cereal might only be 1 cup.  Once I put that in my bowl, I can always add more, but it’s a mental thing.  I know I’m overeating if I add another cup of cereal to my bowl, plus, the actual portion is already in there so I might as well just eat that.

Chances are, when that cereal is gone, I won’t be as tempted to eat more.  If it’s in my bowl, I’ll eat it.  A smaller portion will almost definitely be enough to quench my hunger.

Instead of using a measuring cup for most things, I use this food scale.  It’s exact and I can weigh my food right in the bowl I’m going to be eating out of.  Less dirty dishes = a happier mama.

This probably sounds kind of stupid and time consuming to you, but I encourage you to give it a shot.  Measuring your portions for a while really teaches you what correct portions are.  The back of that muffin wrapper might say 160 calories, but when you realize that’s only for 1/3 of the muffin, it’s easy to see how you end up losing control of your weight.  One store-bought muffin could easily rival a Big Mac in calories.

So that’s it!  I hope that by fighting the urge to restrict my diet and just giving myself some daily goals, I’ll be able to start shedding the baby weight safely without risking my milk supply.

 

Are you still trying to lose the baby weight after your pregnancy?  What changes have you made to your lifestyle that helped you accomplish your health goals?  Let me know in the comments!

How I'm Breaking My Sugar Addiction - Simple Living Mommy

Tuesday 13th of September 2016

[…] don’t drink water.  I recently made a commitment to drink way more of it because I’m trying to lose the baby weight I gained during my second pregnancy, but usually – I don’t drink water.  It just doesn’t […]

Pennie

Thursday 1st of September 2016

Dear Jamie, Those are some great pointers! My little girl is 5 months and I've lost about 15 kg (not sure what that is in stone/ounces/gallons??? :p) doing like you've suggested, just daily small stuff - and it really adds up! Unfortunatly my baby isn't breastfeeding anymore, so my weightloss has slowed a bit - guess it was really helping my metabolism more then I thought, so now there is no excuse to not go to the gym... (Aaaaargh!) Pennie www.pennnylane.dk

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