I rarely watch TV anymore. Daytime is taken up with playtime with my bub and working and night time is time with my hubby so the only occasional TV time I get is if I have the Today Show on for 5 or 10 minutes in the morning just to catch up with news and the other morning when I had it on there was a segment called “Girls on the Grill” where Georgie Gardener and Lisa Wilkinson are ‘Grilled” by Karl on hot topics.
The topic that day was on the subject of new mums eating more and exercising less – leading to weight gain which is seeing new mums as one of the fastest growing overweight groups in the population.
Other than my obvious interest in the research in new mums, what I liked about the segment was how candid Georgie was – she talked about her own experience of feeling ‘trapped’ in her home when she had her baby and how because of that she tended just to eat junk and healthy eating or following a weight loss diet plan to lose her baby weight was not something she was thinking of and as such she could identify with the research.
I absolutely agree that mums can feel ‘trapped’ and possibly suffer from post natal depression. If you have a baby who doesn’t sleep (mine was and still is a shocker and at his worst was up 5-6 times a night), you are just so tired in the day that you can get to a point where you just don’t care about being healthy or exercising
I am a pretty motivated person in the health and exercise stakes and was keen to lose my baby weight and follow my weight loss program as soon as I could but I had a good few occasions when I was just so tired and grumpy that I just didn’t care what I ate and I would happily eat my way through my cupboards and I remember on one day munching through an entire french bread stick and tub of Philadelphia (light of course!) – and feeling so guilty afterwards but at the time I didn’t care – I wasn’t even sure if I was even that hungry all I know was that I wanted to eat it and once I started I couldn’t stop and I didn’t care.
I soon recognised this and made sure that when I had days like this I had lots of low calorie healthy recipes and foods to eat so that the weight loss wasn’t a disaster that week – and I always made sure I chucked out any biscuits or chocolate people brought over out as I knew they would always be the first pitt stop!
So I think if mums aren’t getting much sleep it can then lead to all kinds of issues with eating the wrong food, feeling depressed, feeling trapped in the home and generally feeling like your life has been hijacked – which doesn’t make it easy when you long for your old pre pregnancy body to be back and want to lose your pregnancy weight. So what are some things that mums can do to feel less ‘trapped’ and to start feeling better about their bodies post pregnancy:
- Try and get your partner to do some of the night shift – express some milk if you are breastfeeding – and get some extra sleep when you can
- Only have healthy foods in the fridge and cupboards so when you feel like eating everything in sight at least you are not eating fatty foods
- Take fish oils – these are great for brain function and help prevent depression
- When you feel down right down a list of all the things that you have that make you happy and keep referring back to it
- Ask friends and family for help and if you don’t have any get a nanny to come to your house for the afternoon so you can have a break – I did this and it made the WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!
- Have as much protein as you can – which will keep you feeling fuller for longer and stop you feeling hungry
- Get onto Facebook and connect with other mums – Lose Baby Weight has a Facebook page where you can share your weight loss struggles but there are lots and lots of pages and sites/forums where mums are in the same situation as you and you can talk online – so you won’t feel so alone and trapped
- Try and get out for a walk with the pram every day – the fresh air will be great for you and bub and the exercise will do your mind and body the world of good
- Eat little and often so your blood sugar remains stable and doesn’t trigger sugar cravings
- Catch up with other mums either in a mums group or one on one so you can chat to someone going through the same thing
- Get the right nutrition in your diet – try the Lose Baby Weight plans where you have two nutritional smoothies a day, plus eat snacks during the day and have a healthy meal – which your whole family can enjoy – you can see our plans here
- Do exercise around the house – mini push ups, press ups, leg raises, squats, dancing – anything to get your blood pumping. My baby LOVES it when I dance for him and it always makes both of us laugh!
And remember it does get easier as the baby gets into more of a routine – my baby still is a terrible sleeper and I am still up 3 times a night (he is nearly 5 months) but it is 100 times easier now than it was 4 months ago so bear that it mind when things are tough.
