Post Natal Weight Loss Obsession

Dear ladies, you have just completed an amazing nature task – gave a birth to your little one or ones For a while you will be feeling delighted and after a few weeks or months the question of how to get back to your previous shape is occupying your mind all the time. Grrrr annoying!  And the all chores that need to be done all the time, feels like there’s no time left to look after yourself.

There’s a way though, if you just put your mind to it.  You can do a lot of fitness when looking after your kids: going for walks, chasing them, using balance ball and yoga mat whilst they’re sleeping. I know it can be hard to find  the right balance of what needs to be prioritized first but you want to be a healthy & energetic mummy for your kids, when you angry and grouchy nobody wins and lots of problems start to appear in a household including marital ones. So you should definitely consider looking after yourself as one of the important priorities.

Even 10 minutes will give you a sense of self worth and returning confidence because we all want to feel significant but with the amount of stress and chores in our lives we unfortunately forgetting our lovely selves.

Also something to consider here is Pelvic Floor Exercises.

After giving birth

Resuming pelvic floor exercises as soon as possible after giving birth will help reduce swelling and speed up the healing process. If you have had stitches you may wish to start the exercises lying down and work your way up to doing them whilst sitting.

Continuing with your pelvic floor exercises until you feel they are completely back to normal is a good idea. Doing them for the rest of your life will help prevent problems in later life such as a prolapsed uterus or bladder.

What is the pelvic floor?

Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles and ligaments which go across the base of your pelvis in two joined halves with gaps for the urethra, vagina and anus to pass through.

The pelvic floor:

• supports your internal organs (bladder, intestines, uterus etc),
• maintains bladder and bowel control (including when you sneeze, cough or lift heavy objects etc),
• plays a vital role in supporting the spine and
• helps you enjoy sex more.

Your pelvic floor muscles are made up of two kinds of muscle fibre: slow twitch for stamina and fast twitch for quick contractions. For best effect, you need to exercise both kinds:

Slow exercise option 1

1. Sit or lie comfortably with your knees slightly apart. Pull up the muscles surrounding your back passage, then pull up towards the front. Hold and count to four, remembering to breathe normally.
2. Double check you aren’t pulling in buttock muscles by placing your hand on your bottom as you do the exercises. It’s OK if you’re tensing your lower abdominal muscles slightly.
3. When you find this exercise easy, try holding for a longer count, up to a maximum of ten.
4. With these exercises, quality is better than quantity: it’s much better to do a few good ones at a time.

Slow exercise option 2

1. Imagine your pelvic floor is like a lift. Tighten the muscles around the anus and vagina, as if closing doors in a lift. Now tighten a little more as if you’re going up to the first floor, then the second, then gently come back down to the ground again, making sure you keep breathing normally throughout.
2. Try coughing or blowing into your fist. You will feel the muscles of your pelvic floor being pushed down. This will also happen when your baby’s head starts to move down the birth canal during the second stage of labor. Knowing how to relax these muscles will help you give birth to your baby.

Fast exercise

Try tightening and then relaxing your pelvic floor muscles as quickly as you can, 5-6 times in a row. These are the muscles which contract instantly when you cough or sneeze to resist the rise in abdominal pressure. Before you cough, sneeze, lift or laugh, try to take a moment to pull these muscles up.

When should I do pelvic floor exercises?

Try and work up to doing about 50 exercises per day. Try and fit them into your daily routine like doing them while you are stuck in traffic, watching TV or on the loo. Some women have found it helpful to put little stickers round the house and do a few exercises each time you see one.