Hello fellow moms!
This blog is in response to a question we received from one of our bootcamp members. This was her question: “I’m currently doing bootcamp but I’m finding it hard to really push myself and lose the last bit of weight! Should I restrict my calorie intake? How do I get my body to get past this hump?”
If you’re currently breastfeeding, and also desperately trying to lose weight and get back into your pre-pregnancy clothes, listen up!
First off, don’t put so much pressure on yourself! Your amazing body was home to your baby for nine months, delivered it and is now nourishing your child by producing breastmilk! I think that earns you the right to carry a little extra weight around.
You may not feel quite like ‘yourself’, but it will come, just be patient and try to focus on the new found bliss of being a mama.
You should be concentrating on eating as nutritionally dense as possible (just as you hopefully did while you were pregnant), so that you can produce as high quality milk for your baby as possible. While breastfeeding helps you lose baby weight, it could also be making you hold on to an excess of 5-10 pounds. The body does this naturally to ensure that you continue to produce adequate milk to feed your baby. I held on to a stubborn 10 pounds until I stopped breastfeeding. If you are active and eating right, then you will shed the weight easily once you stop breast-feeding.
Working out is a great idea. It will release endorphins, and will definitely do a lot towards regaining body confidence and regaining strength, but you may have to modify expectations a bit.
I often see moms push themselves to extremes to regain their pre-pregnancy bodies, but they usually end up too exhausted to get through the day, especially if they are under eating. Calorie deprivation is never a good idea, especially if you’re nursing!
Pregnancy and childbirth are extremely stressful on the body and yes, even those that were active prior to childbirth may be shocked at how weak the body has become. Going slow will ensure that you get the benefits from exercise and that you don’t injure yourself. Remember that you have now introduced your body to a whole new line of movements; constant holding, rocking, picking up car seats, heavy diaper bags, carrying ridiculous amounts of stuff all at once….
Sleep is also a huge factor when it comes to weight gain. If you are sleep deprived and having continually interrupted sleep, then your body is much more prone to holding on to excess weight, due to the excess production of cortisol. When your eyes are exposed to light, the body immediately begins to produce cortisol and you may be having a hard time going back to sleep.
Cortisol is a necessary hormone, but it’s when our bodies produces it in excess that problem arises. Cortisol is part of the fight or flight response. Faced with a “life or death” situation, cortisol increases the flow of glucose (as well as protein and fat) out of your tissues and into the bloodstream in order to increase energy and physical readiness to handle the stressful situation or threat. Being constantly under “stress” can definitely have an effect on your weight loss goals.
Some tips to diminish this interruption is to sleep in a very dark room, eliminating any forms of light (computer, night light, alarm clocks), and sleep with your baby next to you or within arm’s reach so that your sleep is not so effected.
Your sleep wake cycles are hard wired into your system, so you must remember that between 10pm and 2am your body repairs itself physically, and between 2am and 6am your body repairs itself psychologically. Meaning that if you are constantly going to bed late then you are much more prone to injury, and if you are always waking before 6am then you are likely having a hard time concentrating, anxiety, etc…Try to allow as little interruption to these times so that you can lose weight and feel good during the day.
Going back to exercise, it’s important that we remember to take time to do the little exercises necessary to strengthen our inner unit, which is very weak postpartum. In a future blog post, I will give you some great exercises to help strengthen your inner unit so that you can properly stabilize and avoid injury!
Have a happy and healthy day!
Daniela
