Advice to Give New Mom Starting Weight Loss Journey?

TaintedVampyre

I'm not the new mom, but thanks lol
Alright, I'm sorry ahead if this winds up being lengthy.
Since I lost so much weight since high school an old classmate, who just gave birth a few weeks ago, is asking for some tips and tricks to help her start losing more than just the baby weight. Now, it took me a lot of twists and turns before I even managed to drop a size, I want to promote the healthiest things possible.
Anybody have any good questions, tips and tricks to help me get things started? I'm hoping at the same time I might actually start getting a local accountability partner.
How do I ensure she becomes and stays interested in becoming healthy?
Everybody's advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you ahead of time :-)

TaintedVampyre

Hello, nobody has any tidbits to share?

SorchaRavenlock

I would tell her to join MFP, set herself up to lose no more then 1 pound a week (1/2 pound if she's only having to lose little), to drink her water and to mildly exercise.
If she's breast feeding there is a special group for that here I believe.

For exercises I would recommend going for walks, perhaps taking the baby in the pram, or in the evenings by herself to get some alone time. When the weather is bad there are plenty of exercise videos out there that are short and easy to do while the baby is napping, look for Leslie Sansone, Jillian Michaels and for Tiffany Rothe on youtube to see what she feels she could handle (depending on her fitness level, Leslie is very low impact while the other two push you more)

I would recommend eating her exercise calories back, to take rest days in between exercise, and not be too hard on herself if it falls by the wayside occasionally since newborn babies can be a lot of hard work.

Show her the recipe section here for lots of tasty healthy recipes, explain the importance of drinking your water. tell her weight fluctuates on a daily basis so she's best off to weigh herself once a week at the same time on the same scales wearing either nothing or similar clothes to get the best results.

Point her to the stickies here.

I think that's where I would start anyway, hope it helps :bigsmile:

pandorakick

I would advise her to take it easy for the first couple of months. Eat as healthy as possible and take a walk now and then. Anything else I would just let be until the family settles in the new life with a baby. The first half year is already challenging and exhausting enough without having to worry about weightloss and fitness goals.

Just my opinion of course as a mom of a 4 year old and an 1 year old

TaintedVampyre

Thank you very much for your comments. I'm just waiting for a reply from her to find out what exactly she wants to get from me out of all this..