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healthy-foods
Nov 09

Guest post: How to lose the baby weight!

Published by Wendy McAuliffe In Guest Posts 5 Comments

Guest post by fitness expert Jango Alptekin

Following this week’s review of my Boot Camp in Bournemouth, I have been asked to contribute some really targeted advice for new mums on how to shift that baby weight, in a quick but realistic way.

So, firstly…

How soon should you exercise after giving birth?

If you were sedentary before and during pregnancy, take it easy on the exercise.

If you have had a caesarean section then I advise doing nothing for up to 6 to 8 weeks, apart from looking after your baby, which should keep you pretty busy for the time being!  After this, start off with light exercise, like walking or x-trainer and focus on getting your heart rate up.

Think of a pain thresh hold from 1 to 10, 1 being easy and 10 at maximum effort (when you start to feel sick), and aim for around 5 to 6.  Remember you’ve just had your abs sliced open, so best to let your body recover fully before you start exerting and straining too much.

If you had an active lifestyle before and during pregnancy, then getting into the swing of exercise should be much less trouble compared to a woman who was inactive prior to birth.

I’ve had women at my boot camps start exercise within 2-3 weeks after giving birth. Therefore I really believe, depending on how active your lifestyle was before pregnancy, it can have a huge impact on your recovery to exercise after giving birth.

You should re-introduce exercises that you enjoy doing and always listen to your body.  It is vital that you don’t strain and over-do it in the first few weeks.

Whatever type of birth you’ve had, eating right to get achievable and long lasting results is the way forward.  If you eat rubbish then you feel rubbish and you look rubbish!  Your body needs proper nutrition to get back to your full working pace and to recover fast, and by eating garbage here and there it is not going to help………

  1. To lose the unwanted fat on those trouble spots
  2. To feel healthier and speed up your recovery

When you see celebs in magazines who have miraculously lost all their unwanted baby fat in just a few short weeks, it is a load of drivel.  Photoshop is a great tool for hiding the truth and and making others believe that it is possible to lose a tonne of weight in a short space of time.  Have you seen a celeb stay slim for long after they have dramatically lost weight and actually keep it off?  I haven’t… because it is not possible to survive on low calorie diets and sustain it for a long period of time.  It causes a lot of unnecessary stress for many women, which can affect your body in the long run towards a speedy recovery.

You can lose weight, if you play your cards right…

Here is what I would recommend.  Cut out the foods below and put them in your banned list:

All products containing caffeine – coffee, tea, hot chocolate and fizzy drinks

Sugar – including sucrose, glucose and fructose

Processed Foods – the list is almost endless but pretty much anything tinned, baked or pre- packed or if it has numbers or unpronounceable words on the packet

Wheat Products – bread, biscuits, cakes, pies and breakfast cereals

Dairy – milk and cheese only for the first 2-3 weeks

Alcohol – all of it!

All of these foods are toxic to your body and send the wrong signal to your hormones causing the body to store more unwanted body fat.  Cut them out of your diet and watch the fat melt away!

Now you are probably thinking, what is there left to eat?

Loads actually…

Dairy (not stated above), meat, vegetables and fruit:

Eggs, beef, asparagus, apples, olive oil, butter, chicken, aubergine, avocado, sea salt, yoghurt, turkey, broccoli, lemons, black pepper, lamb, cauliflower, limes, haddock, cabbage, oranges, sardines, celery, grapefruit, mackerel, green beans, mushrooms, onions, peppers and tomatoes……the list goes on!

These foods would be a good place to start but don’t forget you can buy plenty of other foods to eat.  Just make sure they are not on the banned list.

If you have any questions about this article please feel free to email me at info@jangohealthandfitness.co.uk, or comment below where I will be sure to respond.

 

About the Author

Wendy McAuliffe

Social media & online PR consultant and trainer, and ex-journalist. Founder and Director of Populate Digital and Mum of two. Living by the sea in Bournemouth. @wendymcauliffe.

  • Loz

    Surely also, to lose weight and keep it off, you need to learn about calories. There are great sites and apps out there to help – with moderation you can eat loads of different kinds of foods rather than being restrictive.

  • Jango

    By cutting out the said foods above your not really being restrictive because all your doing is eating meat fruit veg and legumes and dairy. The list above was to give you ideas, their are tonnes of other foods to choose from so the variety is endless. I just suggest cutting out foods that give the body all the wrong hormonal signal that in the end, make your body store stubborn body fat. Which is not the goal if you want to look slimmer & healthier. You can count calories but it just makes the whole weight loss process stressful. Measuring or weighing every food, counting every calorie is not much fun in my eyes wouldn’t you agree? Eat clean meal 3 times a day, snack when hungry and by avoiding the banned foods, you can shift a lot of body fat in a very short period of time.

  • Greenie S

    Jango – I have heard that your Boot Camp is excellent but your nutritional advice is not based on scientific evidence. There is no evidence that milk and cheese are “toxic to your body” and if a woman is breastfeeding she needs a good source of calcium. Fructose and glucose are in many foods including fruit. Wheat products are a good source of many nutrients (particularly iron in the case of breakfast cereals). Women should follow the advice given by NHS Choices.

  • Jango

    I’ll admit I don’t know much about what a woman should or shouldn’t eat when breast feeding.

    If you are not breast feeding then this advice will not cause you any harm.

    Other than eggs, butter and FULL FAT live yoghurt you should try and avoid dairy where you can. This is because most dairy produce is heavily processed and uses pasteurisation and homogenisation in order to maintain is ‘shelf life’ unfortunately, these processes kill of ALL of the enzymes required to properly digest them meaning that your body has to work overtime to digest them. This is a major cause of food intolerance.

    Wheat and gluten- For many, wheat and gluten products are simply indigestible or place stress on the digestive system leading to a sluggish metabolism and intolerances. In addition, modern wheat, especially after processing is barely distinguishable from simple sugar, leading to all of the same problems!
    Believe it or not, wheat has found its way into a huge proportion of
    the food chain, try to avoid wheat bread, cakes, biscuits, pies etc In fact, avoid anything that contains ‘wheat flour ’but also be aware that many soups and sauces have gluten added as thickeners Stick to rye, corn, millet and wheat free breads.

    You can check out why cereals are a no go when it comes to fat loss here http://jangohealthandfitness.co.uk/blog/2011/10/25/why-cereals-are-keeping-you-fat/

    You don’t have to follow any of what I have said but I know it works because I’ve seen it with all of my clients; you can ask any of them. Just take a look at my testimonials for proof. I basically want you to avoid certain food’s that may be causing you to hold onto that stubborn fat.

    http://jangohealthandfitness.co.uk/blog/2011/11/07/back-to-school-6-week-body-transformation-results/
    http://www.jangohealthandfitness.co.uk

  • http://www.dietdocnewyork.com/ dietdocnewyork

    Nice tips to lose the weight of a baby. These are natural and seems to be effective to lose the weight.

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