My Weight Loss Journey After Pregnancy

Losing weight after pregnancy wasn't a main concern of mine, but I did spare it some thought occasionally. Losing weight after pregnancy isn't much different from loosing weight generally but there's a few things to look out for. When you loose weight after pregnancy, you have to be even more careful.

Your body just went through major trauma which means you need to take extra good care of yourself. And of course on top of that you have a brand-new little human to take care of. But fortunately, a lot of the principles of losing weight are actually really good for your overall, like healthy eating and exercise. so let's take a look at how I lost weight after my pregnancy.

1. Take A Walk Every Day

   Now I know in some cultures it's not advised to go outside for a new mom for a period of 40 days even! But I went outside with my baby within a week. It was winter here in the Netherlands and about minus 2, which is under 30 Farenheit, but for a healthy baby that's really not a problem provided you dress them warmly.

   Make sure you start out really small and make sure to take someone with you. You're still really not recovered from giving birth, so just take a very small walk around the block. When you start getting used to walking and you feel confident, make sure to take a walk every single day. This is great for you and your baby. After giving birth, I made sure to take a walk outside every single day for a year. And this really helped me regain some of my shape and helped me gently burn some calories.

2. Breastfeeding

   Breastfeeding is one of the most natural ways to loose weight after pregnancy. Breastfeeding not only burns a ton of calories, it also releases the hormone oxytocin which helps your uterus shrink back to its normal size. It also reduces the amount of bleeding after pregnancy. I remember I didn't have much bleeding and my uterus shrank insanely quickly.

   However, It was a real struggle for me to breastfeed. I had to get help from a lactation specialist and it took 4 months of relentless trying for the breastfeeding to truly become effortless.

   If you don't want to breastfeed or you can't, don't worry you can easily loose weight without it, I just thought I would mention it because it is nature's way to help your body after pregnancy.

3. Join A Postpartum Sport Group

   5 weeks after I gave birth, I joined a postpartum sport group. This was a group supervised and led by a physiotherapist. You have to go through a physical examination to get the green light. This was a great way to talk to other women who have just gone through the same experience as you as well as working on your fitness in a safe way.

4. Fruits First

   One of the most important rules I have when I feel like eating something delicious even though I'm not really hungry is fruit first. That means that I always make myself an apple or an orange or preferably both or some other fruit before I allow myself something like a cookie or something less healthy. Usually having one or two pieces of fruit curbs the appetite so much that I can control the need for something less healthy. At the same time I help my body recover by eating essential fibres and vitamins.

5. Excerise At Home

   One of the easiest things to do nowadays is to exercise at home. YouTube makes it so easy to find really great do it at home exercise. My favourite channel is pregnancy and postpartum tv, because it has workouts especially for women after pregnancy.

9 Months To Recovery?

Despite the fact that keeping to these 5 things made my weight loss after pregnancy pretty effortless, I did feel much weaker for a long time after giving birth. They say 9 months pregnant and 9 months recovery, but I felt it was more than that for me. Perhaps also because we struggled a lot with sleep. (our baby really wasn't sleeping). Just keep in mind that a big part of losing weight is loving and respecting your body. So take the time you need, be patient with yourself and your body and don't forget to appreciate it for the amazing feat of growing a human being and giving birth to it :).

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