Okay. So remember that time I wrote that post about How to Embrace Your New Postpartum Body?
It’s A Lot Harder Than Expected
It’s not like I thought I would lose my baby weight immediately.
It’s just that I thought I would lose my baby weight immediately.
For some reason I had it in my head that I gained all of my pregnancy weight because I was growing a baby and that once the baby was out, I’d gradually get back to my pre-baby weight without having to try too hard.
But I’m learning now that there are important things going on in my body behind the scenes.
Hormones Have The Last Laugh
Basically, I’m still growing a baby– even though he’s on the outside now.
Breastfeeding brings about lots of hormones that weren’t around pre-baby.
And those hormones are making feeling comfortable in my body pretty difficult. A.k.a. the hormones that your body produces while you’re breastfeeding make it pretty hard to lose weight.
So I think it’s time to redefine “comfortable,” and to shift my focus to other, more important things.
After all, my Mama friends have all told me that it takes longer to lose baby weight than you would expect. But it does get hard when you see people on social media who are 1 month postpartum and looking back to their pre-baby selves.
So I’ve been pretending that I’m my own health coach and thinking about what I would tell myself if I were my own client. I’m much nicer to my clients than I am to myself.
5 Points Of Advice
1. Focus On Yourself
Someone smart once said: “Comparison is the thief of joy.” It seriously is. When you find yourself on Instagram looking at “Transformation Tuesday” pictures, be aware of the negative thoughts that pop into your head.
Everyone is different. Everything works differently for everyone. What worked for these women might not work for you. Besides, you don’t even really know what they’re doing anyway.
They could be struggling with body image and be really unhappy – you don’t see that in a picture. So stop comparing yourself to others and focus on where you are right now. You are doing the best you can.
2. Focus On Your Baby
Even though that precious babe isn’t in the womb, you are still his only food source. He is priority number one. He’s growing like crazy and he depends on you. He depends on you to put him before yourself and to make mostly healthy choices.
You need to eat to nourish this beautiful baby. Experiment with focusing on nourishing your baby as your main goal and pushing weight loss to the back burner.
3. Forget About Weight Loss
I sometimes find that the more I focus on weight loss, the less weight I lose and the less fun I have and the more stress and grumpy sadness I have.
So practice forgetting about weight loss for now. Listen to your body. Eat what it’s asking for. Forget about macros and eat intuitively for a while.
And when those weight loss driven thoughts pop into your head, gently tell them off– you’re focusing on more important things right now.
4. Eat Mostly Whole Foods
Yes, you can have chocolate chip cookies from Whole Foods, but focus on eating mostly fruits and vegetables and good sources of protein.
Forget about grams of carbs and fats and protein and eat what feels good to you. Make your plate beautiful and have fun eating all of those delicious whole foods. Be creative and eat what you love.
5. Be Persistent And Consistent
You will get to where you want to be. You WILL feel comfortable in your body again. I promise. It might take longer than you think it will, but that’s okay– there is no deadline. Everything will happen in its own time and will unfold as it’s meant to unfold.
Make the healthy choice most of the time and try not to get down on yourself when you find yourself making less healthy choices. Every small change adds up.
You are exactly where you are supposed to be right now. You are doing exactly what you are supposed to do.
Things will turn out exactly as they are supposed to exactly when they are supposed to.
You are amazing and you’re doing great.
So, to summarize:
- Focus on your own journey. It will be different from everyone else’s.
- Focus on nourishing your sweet little one.
- Push the weight loss goals to the back burner for now.
- Fill your plate with beautiful whole foods that you love to eat.
- Be Patient and Kind and Persistent.
If your best friend was struggling with her weight after baby, what would you tell her? Share you thoughts in the comments below.
