LIFESTYLE 10 years ago

How I lost 40lbs After My Pregnancy

I’ve been getting a lot of questions asking on how I shed my baby weight, and now after 7 months I’m finally at a place where I feel comfortable & confident enough to open up about this! Today I’ll be sharing with you guys what I did after my pregnancy, and what I learned!

Disclaimer!!! The 40lbs I lost was not pure fat, you have to remember- there was a baby inside me. Chloe herself weighed around 7lbs, and the uterus was 5lbs. When you lose baby weight after giving birth, you don’t just instantly become thin again because beyond the baby weight, there’s also the fat you gained from eating. Pregnancy isn’t an excuse to eat whatever you want, ladies! If you gained an extra 10-15 lbs solely from eating, that’s 10-15 lbs that you’ll need to lose! Baby fat and food fat are different! Luckily, I was pretty good when it came to eating while I was pregnant. I ate out and stuff, but I lost my sweet craving, so that helped me to not eat sweets and sugary things during my pregnancy. So beyond my ‘baby weight’ I only had an extra 20lbs to lose!

So here’s some weight loss tips after having a baby!

TIME:

Key thing is, you have to be patient. After I gave birth, I was really shocked that I still looked like I was 6 months pregnant! (As you guys can see from the timeline.) For about 2-3 months, I was obsessed with my weight because I was still 25-30 lbs over my normal weight. But you have to realize, a lot of  junk is still in your body from the pregnancy. For me, it took about 5 months to really flush it all out.

BREAST FEEDING:

I had always heard that you can burn calories (300-500!) when you breastfeed. Personally, I never believed it, but the more I breastfed, the more I shed the pounds! At this time, I wasn’t even working out! (I tried doing pilates two months after giving birth, but I think I damaged my body, so I didn’t start ‘working out’ until three months later, which was when I started taking light walks!) Of course, I also had to eat a lot while I was breastfeeding so I could produce nutritious milk for my baby. But breastfeeding definitely helped keep my metabolism up since I was staying “active” by breastfeeding.

 EXERCISE:

It’s really important for people to know that it’s hard for a new mom to find the time to exercise. I told myself that after the third month I would start working out- but that’s also when I went back to work, so it was hard to find the time and energy to work out! I tried to stay consistent, but it was impossible. Around the 5th month, I began going on family walks (and the occasionally run) as much as I can, while pushing Chloe in the stroller. Whenever I have the time, I try and squeeze in a walk, but I don’t stress out about it anymore. The most important thing to remember is to let your body heal. It’s unrealistic for the majority of woman to get right back into shape right after giving birth. Don’t compare yourself to them! Exercise when you can, and take it one day at a time. Here’s my general schedule: On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I’ll do some light pilates in the mornings, and night or in the evening I’ll go for a run with Allen and Chloe- and that’s on a good week, it doesn’t happen all the time. The key is just to do it when you can, and be patient!

EATING:

Like I said before, I was eating a lot in the first two months because I had to make sure I had enough nutrients in my body for breastfeeding. Around month 4 was when I started to really start to watch what I’m eating. I tried to eat clean (steamed fish & veggies) every night as you might remember from watching my snapchats. But throughout my pregnancy I’ve also been drinking my detox smoothie, which I felt really helped give my body the nutrients it needed as well as made me feel full so I didn’t eat as much.

I really wish I could give you guys a magical solution to lose weight, but every body is different! I don’t have a story of “this is what I did” to lose all my weight. It really just took a lot of time and patience on my part. Initially I was so depressed that I didn’t immediately lose all my weight, but I became so preoccupied with Chloe that my weight almost took a backseat to the grand scheme of things. I mean .. I created life with my body! Although I did get back within the same weight as I was before Chloe, there are changes that happened beyond just weight, like having stretched skin and wider hips. For all of you guys who have been following my journey, it might not seem like I gained that much, or that I really did lose that much. But really it took around 7 months for my body to get back to where it is now! If you guys look at the timeline above, you can see that I was really covered up in the beginning, really putting my oversized sunnies, dresses with flattering waist lines and peplum tops to good use.

One thing I learned is that you can’t measure your new body on the scale. I thought I’d be happy once I got back to that original number, but I realized that I need to embrace my new body. It brought my baby into the world, and what’s not to love about that!

I really want to encouraging you all to embrace and love your body as it is right now, no matter what shape or size! Happy Thursday!

Credits:

Photography by Karen Rosalie