I had my six week postpartum check up and I have officially been given the green light to start working out. As soon as I can find the time I am going to start exercising close to what I was doing before. The only thing my doctor said I should hold off on were ab exercises. She said I should wait another 4 weeks. So I am not going to target my abs specifically until then. However any exercise that we do uses our abs. We need our core when we move correctly.
The weight loss has been slower the last couple weeks. The last bit of weight is the hardest to take off. I am really going to be patient and keep going. I’m sure this is the point where a lot of women give up and the extra weight never goes away. Or they get frustrated and just keep putting on more weight. I can tell that I have lost some muscle and that can be another reason some women never lose the weight. We need muscle to burn calories. The less muscle we have the less calories we are able to burn. Now is the time to build muscle to get that body back!
This is what I plan on doing:
1. Keep eating my normal diet. This means eating whole unprocessed foods in a balanced way. I will also stick with my 90/10 rule. (Eating healthy 90% of the time and letting myself indulge 10% of the time)
2. Cut out snacks or eat healthy ones such as fruits, veggies, or nuts (not too many). Staying away from refined carbs.
3. Get back into exercising. More body strengthening exercises. Start interval sprints again.
4. Keep smiling 🙂 Especially when both kids are crying and I am so tired I can barely stand. This is actually the hardest to do.
For a more detailed explanation of how to exercise after having a baby go to my Exercise Postpartum Page. (Coming Soon!)
Update:
So I finally got a break to go out and run. My in laws stayed with the kids and I was so excited! Never mind that it was the middle of winter in Minnesota and bitter cold outside. I usually do not recommend running in the cold, however I was desperate. I just needed to move and feel free! I remember that I had the same feeling after my first child. But it was summer then. The wind was fierce but I went down to our local park and ran sprints all bundled up. It felt amazing! I was so happy. Unfortunately that night after I fed my son at 2am something in my foot snapped and I couldn’t move my toes. After a few days it did get better. Then it happened again a week later. Right now I am very frustrated. I am finally ready to move again and my body is not willing. I am going to try and rest it again and then ease a little gentler into exercising. I haven’t had my foot looked at by a doctor so I am hoping everything is okay and it will heal by itself. This is another bump in the road but I am still going to stick to my eating plan and perform whatever exercises I still can.
I tried my push ups and squats etc. and foot seemed to be okay with that. I also started a program that my husband really likes. It’s called, Tacfit. It is a very hard workout but you can tailor it to your abilities. It is challenging and fun. I will probably try running again next week and see how that goes.