Getting Your Shape Back After A Baby

It's a pretty tough challenge being a new mom. It's about the biggest lifestyle change that a person can undergo!
One of your new challenges (among many) is how are you ever going to get fitness back into you life. The "newest addition" has doubled household chores and the number of sleepless nights,(boo's from the crowd). Getting to the gym now includes finding adequate child care and religious timing (usually the baby's not yours!).

If you have never been the type to make plans and keep a schedule, now would be the time! In order for you to be able to make your fitness plan work, it's going to have to not only be scheduled in but be enjoyable enough that you will want to get out and do it.

Lastly, you should be patient. Your body has undergone magnificent change and as you get back into shape, remember how many months it took to out of shape. If you know right from the outset that its going to be a process of months and not weeks, your progress will be enjoyable instead of frustrating. I like the idea of a race with no finish line. You'll be running for a while, so you might as well enjoy yourself!

Here are a few tips on how to get things going.

Get a baby jogger
The first good thing is that you can now leave the house! Just take the bambino and your jogger and walk, run or inline skate some of that "baby fat" away. The bonus? Not paying for a sitter! In the early part of your post-natal exercise walking is great because of the virtually zero impact. This is great because your body is still "loose" and trying to recover from the stresses of having had a baby

Work out at home
Get some home exercise videos. The good thing here is that if the baby naps, great. If the baby is busy learning how to use its new lungs then that's o.k. too. You can put the tape in and get in a few minutes of exercise during nap time or jump around the room making faces while you "entertain" your captive audience! Invest in a personal trainer. Money can be tight after a new baby but if its possible, find a trainer (me) who will travel to your home to put you through your paces. This will eliminate any worries you have about exercise safety and save you the trouble and expense of a sitter or travel.

Remember what you've just been through.
Don't be hard on yourself about your post baby shape. Your looking exactly how you should be! Research has shown that if you except and understand that this is how a normal woman should look after pregnancy that your results will be much better and quicker as you get back in shape.

Don't think of your exercise program as something you have to do.
You really don't! It's a choice. Its something you want to do. WE all know that anything forced always gets an equal push back (look at me telling you about pushing!)So it's not about the total effectiveness of your routine at this point. It's about finding an activity that you enjoy and that you will do on a continual basis because you want to.

Reward yourself for sticking with it.
Treat yourself to some workout clothes. This is fun because its a victory every time you go shopping as you watch the sizes get smaller and smaller and... Go get a food that you really enjoy! Yup, that means anything. I mean really, if you need to bribe yourself with a treat at the end of the week then that's what it takes. Just keep going.

A few simple tips to get you started. That's all you need, just to start. Time is a weird thing. Standing here now you may think that 4-9 months is a long time to get your body back. But in 4-9 months from now when you look back you'll be sure glad that you jumped up and got things under control instead of going "Gosh, if I would have just started then, I'd be where I wanted by now".