Losing the Baby Fat - How to Get Your Body Back
Aug 28th, 2008 | By Teresa Brown | Category: WellnessWe live in an image conscious world where the content of your character is mainly judged by how you look. Women know that beauty is more than skin deep, but this makes no difference to the many women who struggle with their weight and image of beauty. Beauty, ladies, starts within you. You can lose the pregnancy weight but it will require some changes in you and how you life your life.
Okay, so you can’t look like the movie stars, but why should you? Your focus should be on you because that’s what matters. It’s not about how fast you can lose weight after giving birth. It’s about getting a healthy, fit and lean body for the long term. It’s about changing your lifestyle to maintain your health and that of your family. It’s about achieving wellness. It’s about celebrating you.
The desire for new Moms to lose weight after giving birth kicks in quickly when the daily activities of caring for the baby and maintaining a household just doesn’t seem to be doing the trick. And the thought of working out at the gym to face the public scrutiny is enough to keep you “hunkered” down at home. What a lot of Moms out there need to know is that there are lifestyle programs available that are designed for the busy Mom. The trick is how to distinguish the good apples from the bad apples.
1. The Big Picture
A busy Mom is always pressed for time and finding time to complete 50 minutes on the treadmill at the gym can be a difficult to squeeze into the weekly schedule. Thus, a good lifestyle program should have an exercise program that can require little space and therefore can be done any place. The workouts should be designed to maximize losing the baby fat within a short time frame. There should be easy access to contact the fitness professional or staff for assistance, extra support and advice. Useful resources should be available to supplement the program and keep your momentum of change moving forward.
2. Fat Burning Exercises
Any form of exercise is a good thing. But if you are a busy Mom with no time for the gym to complete a 45 minute run on the treadmill to trim your tummy, then you need a lifestyle program that has an exercise program that is best suited for your needs. This means that the workouts must be user-friendly, designed to lose your tummy, and can be done at home. The exercise program should include resistance training.
The type of weight training that is best suited for toning your muscles is called resistance interval training. A typical resistance-training workout can last about 15 - 20 minutes with each exercise done in short intervals. To burn the most fat, each exercise has to be done at maximum effort. Resistance training only requires any of the following equipment: free weights, your own body weight, an exercise ball, or cable weights. Thus a workout can be done at minimum cost and time in the comfort of your home.
3. Useful Resources
A good lifestyle program should have additional tools to help you in losing pregnancy weight and staying healthy. Extra tools such as nutritional guides complete with recipes, daily or weekly menus, follow-up and support e-mails, newsletters, blogs and fitness journals should be available. These tools will further assist and educate you to make and maintain the transition to a healthier lifestyle. Having a forum or support group where you can connect with other women to share ideas, struggles and successes is another example of an excellent bonus to look for in a lifestyle program.
Life after pregnancy has its ups and downs and your pregnancy weight shouldn’t be one of downs. It can be a means to propel you and your family on towards a healthier lifestyle. Not only will you be a few dress sizes smaller, but also you will be the better off for it in the long run. A healthier lifestyle will make for a healthy family. After all, the heart and soul of any family is you, Mom. Here’s to your health.