Tips For Staying Healthy and Active Postpartum

A quick update and progress report on losing the baby weight plus tips for staying healthy and active postpartum.

Five months ago I gave birth to the most adorable, happy, blue-eyed baby (if I do say so myself.) He is the light of my life and if you follow me on Instagram, I apologize in advance for the endless baby photos.

Three months ago, I shared my Strategy and Game Plan for Losing the Baby Weight so I thought it might be a good time to check back with a quick update and progress report.

First thing’s first, I’m excited to report that I have lost over 34 pounds since giving birth in November. That is an average of a little over 1.5 pounds/week which means I’ve exceeded my goal of losing 1 pound/week by 150%. I am 21 pounds away from my goal weight so I am 62% of the way there.

There have been many ups and downs over the last 5 months (as you can clearly see above!) but I can definitely pinpoint a few strategies that have been working well:

Eat More Calories from Protein:

If you’ve never used a food tracker to see what percentage of your daily calories come from carbohydrates vs. protein vs. fat, you may be surprised. Trust me, I love healthy carbs like oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and fruit. But I’ve found that even just a slightest shift in the percentage of overall total calories coming from protein results in better weight loss. These Ham & Cheese Baked Egg Cups have been a huge help to start my day off with a heft dose of protein. While I’m not strictly gluten-free, I have found that I am eating and cooking more and more gluten-free recipes as a result.

Frequent Exercise:

It’s not rocket science, but you wouldn’t believe how many excuses I can come up with to avoid exercising! “I won’t have time to make dinner.” “I’m too tired.” “I don’t like the class being offered tonight.” Every single day there are hurdles and obstacles to overcome in order to get to the gym.

The fact is, if you wait for perfect conditions to exercise, you’ll never exercise a day in your life. Between breastfeeding, nap schedules, fevers, doctors appointments, household duties, work deadlines, friend commitments, etc. it is pretty easy to see why people can accidentally go months without stepping foot in the gym. (Replace gym with your preferred choice of exercise.)

Once I got out of my own way and stopped making excuses, the weight started to fall off. As I always say, the only person who will make your health a priority is yourself.

Variety and Intesity:

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of switching up your exercise routine on a regular basis. One of the reasons I love group exercise classes is because I can take a different class every single day. Going from kickboxing to yoga to cardio blast all in one week not only helps me prevent boredom but it keeps my body guessing and my muscles growing. If you’re hitting the elliptical for 45 minutes every day, your body is going to get used to it and results will be slow and minimal. Whether you change up the intensity, boost your speed, or increase the number of weights you’re lifting, I’ve found that my body always drops weight fastest when I keep my workouts varied.

What are your best tips and strategies for losing weight, boosting your health or staying fit? I would love to hear from you.