Bounce back
As a new mom, you can’t wait to get back into your favourite pair of pre-preggie jeans. Make it happen a little faster with these tips.
METAMORPHOSIS
Pregnancy is a time of dramatic changes for each and every woman.
We become larger and rounder, and extra curves appear before you can say Special K. It’s all fair enough, because your body has to make space for another small being inside of you. Your ribs expand to make space for her growing body, and your hips become larger for you to be able to give birth. Your breasts become fuller to make milk, and extra fat is stored to give you energy. The scale and the mirror don’t really know what to do with these physical changes. Looking in the mirror, you might feel like the princess who changed into a frog… and it all started with a kiss. Know this: you’re not alone!
PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE
If you started out at an ideal weight, and you did not gain too much during your pregnancy, the scale should be where it was before at about six months after the birth of your baby. But if you started with a few extra kilos or picked up more than is healthy, chances are that you’ll struggle more after the birth to get rid of the extra weight. As much as a quarter of moms celebrate the first birthday of their baby with an extra 5kg or more.
This also means a higher risk for obesity at a later stage, which can lead to health problems such as diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
A complicated eating plan is the last thing you feel up to as a mom of a newborn; for this reason, we keep it simple. Follow the guidelines in this article, and within a few months, you’ll be back in those jeans! If all the changes are a bit much all at once, rather tackle them one by one. It’s more important to ensure that your good intentions don’t last for only a week or two but that healthy habits – the kind you also want your children to follow – are established for life. When your baby starts solids, she’ll learn her eating habits from you. These will determine her behaviour for the rest of her life, and so influence her health. So do the best for yourself and your little one!
BROKEN SCALE?
Don’t think you’ll walk out of the maternity ward in your prepregnancy clothes.
You’ll still be in maternity wear for a month or two. Your scale is also not broken if it suddenly seems to get stuck four weeks after you’ve given birth. With the arrival of your baby, your days are shorter, and your day (and night) shifts become more and more. You realise your new bundle of joy is dependent on your care for her wellbeing, and in the blink of an eye, your priorities shift to put her needs first and yours last. Exercise and healthy habits are the first things that are forfeited in your packed new schedule. If Dad or Gogo can’t keep an eye while you go and sweat it out on the treadmill for a bit, your gym contract is bound to expire soon. Between feeds and nappy changes, you forget to eat breakfast, so by lunchtime you’re starving, so you reach for a packet of crisps in the cupboard, and when your partner gets home, you’re so tired that he has to make do with takeaways… again! Post-partum depression, sleep deprivation and bottle- instead of breastfeeding also contribute to the extra layers around your normal slinky self.
But be realistic, and accept that these extra bits are part of your life at this stage. It can take up to a year for the scale to settle on where it was before. Accept this, and don’t look in the mirror as often, because unhappiness with your appearance can lead to you putting even more in your mouth…