Regardless of where you’re located, Australian summers can put even the most heat-loving of us to the test.

We all know how important exercise is when it comes to weight loss and general health and wellbeing. Finding time in a busy schedule to fit in a blast of cardio and/or resistance can be tricky, but we all try and make the time to burn some calories. When the temperature heats up though, it adds an extra dimension to proceedings.

Whether it’s ‘standard’ summer heat or the extreme conditions we’re experiencing at the moment, a rise in the mercury can turn a normal sweat session into something resembling a sauna.

A well-rounded post pregnancy exercise regime is highly important to help you get the best out your lose baby weight plans.

There are multiple muscle groups in the body but there’s one particular group that’s highly important for functional movement, the core. Core muscles are basically the muscles around your trunk and pelvis area including the pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen muscles.

It’s really good for post pregnancy mums to do some core exercises to regain body strength, alleviate sore aching muscles, lose belly fat, and improve overall physical performance.Now, let’s take a look at a few simple core exercises that you can do from the convenience of your own home!

Superman

When trying to lose weight, meal planning and preparation becomes one of the most important aspects of your diet. Knowing what you’re having for breakfast, lunch and dinner allows you to stick to the program and also means that you have all the necessary ingredients etc to hand. It can be time consuming, coming up with a different option every day of the week, for both lunch and dinner, which is why dishes like stew, are an ideal addition to your healthy eating plan. 

We all know that too much sugar is the enemy when it comes to weight loss and healthy eating. Unfortunately, the sweet stuff can be a bit sneaky.

Not only is it found in the obvious places (soft drinks, biscuits, sweets), it’s also made it’s way into a whole bunch of foods that we’d least expect to find it in, making it difficult to keep track of just how much you’re eating.

It can be really easy to fall out of good habits – you get to your goal weight, or you go on holiday, and your healthy habits fall by the wayside for a week or two.

Weeks turn into months and months turn into a year, and you realise that you haven’t exercised in 12 months. Or it may just be that you were pregnant then didn’t exercise for a while and before you know it, it has been 12-18 months since you last did anything.

It can be difficult to know where to start when you haven’t exercised for a long time – but on the Lose Baby Weight Plans, we think that the best way to start your exercise regime again is to put on your walking shoes and pound the pavements.

When you start exercising again, you need to take things slow and steady. Your body won’t be used to the over-exertion caused by exercise, so to lower your risk of injury, you need to start off with a gentle, weight-bearing exercise such as walking.

Having my boys 7 and a half years apart meant that I really didn’t know what to expect when it came to shedding the baby weight of my second child.

I was 22 years old when my first son was born and I don’t even remember thinking about trying to lose weight. I guess the genetics of a being 22 years old, being a first time mum and frantically trying to learn everything for the first time, weight loss was the last thing on my mind and luckily came quite naturally.

We all know how important it is to keep an eye on how much sugar we are consuming, especially when trying to lose weight and eat healthily.

While the majority of us put things like biscuits, cakes and other sugary snacks on the ‘occasional treats’ list, the sugars in foods we otherwise think of as healthy can be harder to detect.

As well as including fruit in your Healthy Mummy Smoothie it is also a GREAT idea to add green veg like spinach, kale and even courgette into your smoothies.

They are all packed full of iron and and vitamins and are all very mild so you won’t even be able to taste them in your smoothies.

One of our fabulous writers and nutritionists, Amanda Dos Santos, has created a fantastic recipe using Kale – but you can easily substitute the kale for spinach or courgette.

Super Green Kale Smoothie

• 2 tbs of strawberry Healthy Mummy Smoothie mix (Vanilla works well too)
• 1 handful of kale leaves
• 1 cup of frozen raspberries

Iron is a very important mineral as it helps your body to make haemoglobin, also known as Hb, which is the protein found in red blood cells that is responsible for carrying oxygen around your body.

Low iron levels cause low haemoglobin levels, which in turn could make you feel fatigued, and if your iron levels are severely low, you could end up feeling weak and breathless. This is known as anaemia.

You can usually take in enough iron through your diet. It’s found in lots and lots of foods, but you need to make sure to eat enough of it as it is not easily absorbed by the body.

Low iron levels could be caused by not eating a wide and varied diet – for example, vegetarians and vegans need to take extra care to ensure that they take in enough iron, as it is not easily absorbed from non-meat sources. Women and girls with heavy periods are also more susceptible to low iron levels, due to heavy blood loss, and individuals suffering with blood loss due to an operation could also suffer with anaemia.

Superfood. The word itself suggests that it’s a type of food that is super packed with tons of essential nutrients that can greatly benefit our bodies and assist with your lose baby weight plans.

Well superfoods are generally ‘nutritionally dense’ food that has extra health benefits that can come from ‘anti-oxidants’ and ‘phytochemicals’.

The biggest difference between superfoods and regular food is that they contain high levels of vitamins and minerals for the size of the food. For example, 50 grams of almond will have more nutritious values in it compared to the same amount of regular peanuts.