NEW MOM trying to loose baby weight and then some

annabellamkidney

So let me start off by saying I have a 6mth old baby girl and I'm am a sleep deprived new mom that had a csection. I've just now been cleared to start "exercising". I guess carrying a 15lbs baby all day doesn't count lol. I try to eat healthy when I actually get a chance to eat but I'm struggling to motivate when I barely have any time to myself let alone trying to get some sleep time in when the baby sleeps, which most of the time she doesn't. Any suggestions?? The one thing in my favor is my laundry room is 4 flights of stairs away in my garage, I live in an apartment complex and between the baby's laundry and my husbands laundry (blue collar worker) that's keeps me active for the majority of the day, almost every day.
Any new moms out there that can provide some feedback would be great!! Or really anyone in general. I need some motivational friends and tips

panda8294

New mom here! My son is 2 months old so I definitely get where you're coming from having no time to yourself. My hubs has a manual labor job as well so I get the brunt of the housework and take care of the baby full time! So much fun right? Haha. I keep myself eating right by eating really simple things. Eggs with spinach in the morning.. Salad for lunch. Chicken or hamburger patty and some kind of easy veggie for dinner. Super easy to stay on track when you can cook and scarf something down during little ones naps or when they're distracted(even if its only 20 minutes). I also eat a can of tuna as a snack if I need one because I can do that pretty easily while my baby is in my lap. Almonds or a serving of cut up fruit is always easy too. I literally just started this diet less than a week ago so I haven't really figured out the logistics of exercising yet but I have been doing a couple sets of squats/lunges while I cook breakfast and dinner. Also invest in something to set her down in if you don't have one! I have a MamaRoo that I stick my son in when I absolutely have to put him down and he'll eventually fall asleep. I'm not sure whats available for 6 month olds though. Those floor mats with dangly things?

I hope I helped a little bit! Feel free to add me if you want. I need some mommy friends who understand the struggle!

kristinhull1

I wouldnt say im a brand new Mom. But I have a 2 year old toddler running around the house. And that for me is alot harder then when he was a infant. My tip for you is to log all your foods and start exercise slow. You still just gave birth even if it was 6 months ago. Drink lots of water. Dont deprive yourself of your favorite foods because then like me you will quit. This is my 3rd time trying to lose weight. The first 2 times I ate salads eggs and chicken. Thats it. After a week the first time and a 2 weeks the 2nd time I gave up. Losing nothing both times. This time I know its not the food I eat but how much I eat. I eat egg whites, whole wheat bread and cheese for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch and whatever processed yummy goodness I want for dinner. But I dont use a normal sized plate. I use a small saucer and whatever fits on the plate is what I eat. My family eats out atleast once a week. So I stay under calories all week. I make a notepad document on my computer and the calories I have left for the day I add to that document. So lets say I eat 1000 calories a day and burn 400. Thats 600 calories I have saved. So I add that to my notepad document. Now lets say I have 600 calories saved for 7 days. Thats 4200 calories for the whole week. That means I can have dessert or a extra piece of pizza one day without damaging my diet. Ive been at this for 3 weeks with 10 almost 11lbs lost. Its calories in calories out.

Speckle38

Exercising doesn't have to be hard work. My first was a non-sleeper, so when he woke up for the day at 5.30am, I would feed him, put him in the stroller and go for a walk for an hour. I found that much more enjoyable than battling to get him back to sleep, and I was in pre-pregnancy clothes at my 6-week check-up. When he was about 8 months old, we moved to a different city and I found a moms and babies exercise group run by a personal trainer. It was only twice a week but she pushed us hard and monitored weight and fitness. I was also walking each evening with some neighbours, sometimes with the stroller, sometimes without. I was slimmer and fitter when I got pregnant with my second than I am now. It gets much harder when you've got 2 (and then 3) toddlers to deal with! I'm trying to get back to what I weighed before I got pregnant with my second, and my youngest just turned 6!

Getting into good eating habits is harder, but is definitely worth it when it comes to introducing solids and teaching your children about healthy eating. I used to pre-cut fruit, carrot sticks, etc, and make up a big salad every 2-3 days, so I could just serve it (for the children and me) rather than having to spend time cutting it for each meal. We make most meals from scratch using lean meats and fresh veges. We only have dessert once a week. Packed lunches for school and work. My children do get treats, but they understand that they are not for every day.

I've actually fallen into some bad habits since I went back to work and my youngest started school. I work 3 days a week and lunches are catered (although there aren't always enough for staff), the other girls in the office have drawers full of snacks and since we moved offices a year ago, I am driving to work where I used to take public transport and walk 4-5km/day. I've just got a Fitbit, and on the days I don't work, I can easily get to 5,500 steps by the time I get the children to school, but on work days, I don't get much over that all day.

KateTii

I'm definitely not a mom, let alone a new one, but changing your diet is your friend. Technically, you don't need to exercise to lose weight. All you need to do is burn more calories than you eat. Once you start finding more time in your day, then start adding in more exercise.

Do some meal preparation and make up portions of food and freeze. For example, for breakfast I'll have 55g of nutrigrain cereal and 1/2 cup of lite milk. For lunch i'll have a portion of frozen vegetables, frozen mash sweet potato and some frozen cooked chicken/beef/etc. Defrost and reheat in microwave. For dinner, it's the same, but maybe instead of frozen mash, it will be brown rice.

It's super easy (apart from the one day where you do a lot of cooking to prepare everything) as you just pull it from the freezer and then eat.

annabellamkidney

Thanks for everyone's advise, much appreciated. It's hard to motivate, my husband and I moved about a year ago because of work and there's really nothing much around, let alone moms or mommy support groups. We have no family and no friends around, everyone is at least 1 1/2hr away which makes it tedious to have to pack Myself and the baby for a short visit. I'm taking everyone's advise and starting off slow and steady. I just thank god it's still summer God help me when winter kicks in lol