It’s all I could think about during the last few weeks of pregnancy: finding my waist again. I knew it was there somewhere, and I was determined to do whatever it took to find it again after my baby arrived. But standing in the mirror the day after my daughter’s birth, I realized that the hill I had been willing to climb had turned into an Alp-sized mountain. Fast-forward to a year later, and everything’s roughly the same size it was before. The trick? Don’t worry about it for a while, and then when you have a spare second, put on your walking shoes and eat an occasional vegetable. There is a waist at the end of this particular tunnel, and you can find it!
The First Six Weeks
In between dealing with the most intense exhaustion you will ever experience and learning your way around this tiny new being, many new moms put pressure on themselves to get back into their jeans right away. This is a pressure-cooker situation that’s destined to make you miserable. Unless you’re Heidi Klum and have to be modeling underwear five weeks after your child’s birth, give yourself a break for a month or so.
When it comes to how much you’ll lose in the beginning, everything is individual, but you’re guaranteed to lose the weight of the baby, the placenta, and excess fluid and blood. You may be amazed at how your body sheds the pounds - even if you’re not eating very well and exercise is still a far-off dream. “A good friend of mine (who’d never had a baby) brought over three different cakes when my daughter was born,” says Dena, 30. “I was so exhausted that when I was hungry, I just reached for a piece of cake. Hey, it was there! Other people brought over mayo-laden chicken salad and buttery croissants. After a month of eating all of that tasty but heavy food, I was still down 20 pounds. I think it was a combination of nursing and just the normal body correction that happens after birth.”
It’s a good news/bad news situation at this stage: your body will probably look as awful as you’ve ever seen it, but you’re too tired to really care or do anything about it. And since most obstetricians advise you to avoid strenuous activity - anything beyond some walking and stretching - you shouldn’t lace up your running shoes anyway until you get the “okay” at your six-week post-partum appointment. It’s a ready-made excuse to chill out for a bit.
With exercise out of the question at this point, some new moms make the mistake of restricting their calories as a way to regain some control over their bodies. Again, this is not the way to go about it. Your body has just been put through the ringer, and it needs sufficient calories to heal and to fuel itself. And if you’re breastfeeding, talk to your doctor about how many calories you should be consuming to ensure a good milk supply. Usually, you’ll need at least an additional 500 calories.
Of course, the single best way to help your body snap back is to be fit before and during your pregnancy. If you’re eight months into your pregnancy and have been a couch potato all of your life, it’s a little late for that approach. But if you’re planning a pregnancy or are very early into it, begin a gentle workout routine that you can keep up throughout your pregnancy (with your doctor’s approval).
In addition to training your body, having an exercise program in place before and during pregnancy is also a good way to train your brain. Most new moms need to put in some workout time, and if you’re used to it, it’ll be easier to make it part of your routine post-baby. But if you haven’t purchased tennis shoes since junior high PE classes, it might be trickier to get yourself into an exercise groove. In this case, routine is good!
Get Real
It’s important to keep your expectations realistic. This means that you shouldn’t expect to lose all of your baby weight within a week of giving birth, nor should you jump to the conclusion that you’ll never lose the baby weight. Both attitudes will set you up for failure.
Barb, 32, had a reality check with the birth of her second baby. “My son was born when I was in college - I was practically a baby myself. Within three weeks, I had lost all of the weight I gained during my pregnancy. I remarried a few years ago and had my second child last year - at 31. I assumed the weight would just fall off again. Well, three weeks after this kid was born, I was still lugging around an extra 30 pounds. At my six-week check-up, I was sobbing in my doctor’s office because I didn’t understand why it was so different this time. My doctor - God bless her - gave it to me straight. She said, ‘Barb, 12 years have passed. You’re older, your metabolism has slowed down, so get over it and do the work like everyone else has to.’ I can’t believe I just assumed that at 31 my body would respond like it did when I was 19.”
For most women, age does indeed play a role. As does the number of babies you’ve given birth to previously, your natural body type, and your genes. “Both of my sisters and my mom gained a huge amount of weight during their pregnancies, and it took forever to slim down again afterwards,” says Kimberly, 29. “So when I put on 60 pounds during my pregnancy, I wasn’t surprised. Nor was I surprised that it took almost a year before I was at my previous weight.”
In terms of weight, breastfeeding is a double-edged sword. You burn tons of calories to make all of that milk for your baby, but don’t be surprised if you can’t shed the last five or 10 pounds. I tried everything to get those last inches off my thighs, but nothing worked. As soon as I weaned my baby, my thighs magically returned to normal within a couple of months. It’s not a reason to wean your baby early; rather, it’s a prize at the end for sticking it out as long as you did!
For most women, though, there’s no magic bullet. The formula is time + healthy eating + movement = pre-baby weight. If you don’t know how to put together - or can’t stick to - a sensible eating plan on your own, there are lots of diet books and support groups that can give you the tools you need. Pick a plan that takes into consideration your hectic new life. If a diet requires extensive time spent in the kitchen whipping up meals, it may not be realistic right now. But if you can incorporate healthy frozen meals, you may have found a winner!
Tips and Tricks You Can Use
Getting back into shape isn’t a one-size-fits-all plan. Your climate, the time of year in which you have your baby, and your geographic location are just a few factors that will determine how easy (and, hence, how realistic) it is that you’ll be able to exercise. Everyone says the best solution is to work out with your baby. But if you have a baby in the middle of winter in Minnesota, you probably won’t want to put your infant in a stroller and walk outside for an hour. Instead, you may have to bring your stroller to your local shopping mall and get a couple of miles knocked out before the stores open.
Now, if it’s winter in Minnesota and the nearest mall is an hour away, you’re options are pretty much limited to exercise videos. And that’s okay; there are some great choices out there. Before you buy, visit your library to see if they have a selection of videos geared toward new moms. If not, do some research online to see which videos get a thumb’s up from other moms.
You can also purchase some exercise equipment for your home such as a treadmill or elliptical machine. Just make sure that you’re really committed to using it, or it’ll end up as a very expensive clothes rack.
Other tips to help speed the process of fitting into your old wardrobe:
- Look into a gym membership - and put a priority on finding one with childcare. If gyms are too far away from your home or too expensive, sometimes high schools and colleges allow “outsiders” to use their facilities. You’ll likely pay less and stay closer to home with school-based options.
- Get a partner. Walk or jog with your husband, friend, mother, sister, another new mom - anyone who will help you stay committed to your workout dates. The added bonus is the built-in catch-up time. Like most new moms, you undoubtedly have little time to spare for a social life, so this is your chance to kill two birds with one stone.
- The easiest way to find time to exercise is to wake up a half-hour before your baby does and squeeze in a workout at home. This is also the most difficult way because, realistically, I’ve never known a new mom who’s enthusiastic about giving up 30 minutes of sleep if she doesn’t have to. Try to make it happen. But if you can’t, you’ll just annoy your husband when you hit the alarm’s snooze button four times every morning.
- Recruit your husband. If you want to work out in the morning, ask him to pitch in for morning baby duty. If you’d rather exercise at night, see if he’s willing to feed and bathe the baby while you head out for a walk or to an aerobics class. Chances are that when he sees how much energy it gives you - not to mention how happy you are with the results you see - he’ll be more than willing to pull his weight so you can care for yourself.
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