Losing The Baby Weight

So you are here because you are about to become a new mum or you are a mum, or a super cool Dad, looking for ideas . There is one thing that often gets left off mums ‘To Do’ list, when it should actually be at the top of her list. The top of your list needs to be YOU, your health and wellbeing, but for some reason that can be translated as selfish, but I think it is actually selfless. What is the point of having beautifully dressed children, living in a perfectly clean show home, with all the beds made, garden immaculate, cars sparkling and you feeling exhausted, unhappy and unhealthy at the end of that wasted day. Remember that saying ‘a clean house is a sign of a wasted life’.

Somewhere in each day you have to make time to do something active and eat healthy food through out the day. You can never fall back on the excuse, ‘you don’t have time to exercise’ when in fact you don’t have time NOT to exercise! By skipping breaky, grabbing junk food in the food court, and take away for dinner you are stripping your life of years later down the track, and setting a poor example for your little people! If you are a busy stay at home mum, working mum or a brand new mum, from today on you must start putting yourself first, otherwise you will always finish last!

It’s time to take control of your health and we can start that in the kitchen. Your body that carries you around all day is the way it is because of what you put in your mouth! It’s only a small percent genetic, look at the parents of some athletes, they aren’t athletic looking at all, it’s about what you do with what you have. It’s not because you have had 2 huge 9lbs babies via 2 c-sections, there are some of us who have had 3 c-sections, with 10lbs babies (yes me!). It’s the choices you make each day that make you look and feel the way you are. Once you are ready to take control and be and feel the way you want to you can start in the kitchen, then work on the exercise part.

You have to automate your eating. This means as in almost eat the same thing everyday. Sounds boring but if you make your eating habitual you wont end up standing in front of the fridge asking ‘what can I eat?’, you will know what the next thing to eat is. To explain this better I am going to show you what I eat everyday, it’s automated, easy and it works. Make some habits, as soon as I get up the kettle goes on, I make a cup of tea and check my emails. Gives me a few quiet moments before the kids stumble out of bed.

Breakfast. It’s true what they say, the most important meal of the day. If you set yourself up with a healthy breakfast you are in the right mind set for the entire day. If you have mud cake from the dinner party last night for breakfast, all day you will be thinking, oh well I’ve already eaten crap, what’s a bit more? After my cup of tea, while making the kids breakfast I make my oats. Not Uncle Toby’s processed sugar added type, just a $1.66 black and gold pack of rolled oats, nothing added nothing taken out. Oats in the bowl, covered with low fat milk, in the microwave for a 1min. Once cooked I add, vanilla protein powder, LSA (linseed, sunflower seed and almond), chia seeds and cinnamon, I have now added protein and omega 3, to my good carbs, and calcium. That’s breaky, everyday it’s the same, I never get sick of it as I know how good it is for my body.

Exercise. After the kids are dropped off to kindy and school, Mr Chilled 1 and I go to the gym. He goes in the free crèche I go and sweat my butt off for an hour. I don’t have a personal trainer, nor do I bore myself on a treadmill. I do group classes, my favourites are RPM that’s like a spin class, and Body Pump that’s 1hr of resistance training. So each weekday I alternate between cardio and weights. After the gym I grab a coffee on the way home.

Morning Snack.Then back home hungry as, I boil or poach an egg, and eat a banana while I am waiting. Never get sick of it as I know how good it is for my body. You should always eat within that first hour after excersise, if you are going to eat something bad this is when you should do that, in the after burn, when the body is using up everything to return to a normal resting state.

Lunch. If I am at home, a chicken or tuna sandwich (wholemeal) or a salad. If in a food court salmon or tuna sushi, if a cafe/restaurant the soup of the day or a salad. Watch out for the Shamwich full of mayo, white bread, full fat cheese, never a creamy pasta, never maccas, that is just the rules. I never get sick of it as I know how good it is for my body.

Afternoon Snack. Everyone gets the 3pm hunger bugs, so a smoothie is whipped up. I always have frozen blueberries or strawberries, low fat milk, greek yoghurt, protein powder. If I’m really hungry some crackers and cheese, or a muffin with greek yoghurt. The trick with these carbs is to add some protein, takes longer to digest and wont head straight to your butt. Late afternoon I always have a cup of tea.

Dinner. Dinner is for everyone so it is a family meal that we all eat together, I work out a meal plan each week so I know what to buy. Usually more on the basic side, chicken breast/salad, fish/vegetables, if it’s pasta its wholemeal, or if it’s rice it’s brown rice. My rule is you can eat what ever junk food you want but you have to make it yourself. So if we want pizza we make mini pizzas, if we want something sweet we bake banana muffins.

Dessert. You are human and you are programmed to crave fat and sugar in case of famine, sorry I can’t help you there but I can offer you dessert alternatives. I love low fat vanilla yoghurt with nuts, or blueberries with cinnamon, tastes too good to be healthy. This can also be a snack during the day. Serve it in a cute glass so it feels fancy, this  has blue berries at the bottom for an extra flavour pop.

Hydration. If you feel thirsty, you are probably already de-hydrated. Buy a BPA free water bottle and have it with in reach all day. Take it to the school drop off, gym, shops (stops you buying iced tea/coke), make it a habit to always be drinking out of that thing. You will find yourself filling it up twice a day and you will realise just how much water you should be drinking.

Some Tricks.  If you still feel hungry after a meal, have a cup of tea try green tea, it will give you the warm belly full feeling that you are used to. Swap mayo for greek yoghurt. Swap all white bread, pasta and rice for brown. Ditch the white from your diet, the only white things in your home should be eggs, milk and cauliflower, anything else white has been made that colour by man and he has completely over processed it, might as well eat cardboard. Don’t bring chips and cakes in to the house, if they are there you WILL eat them, just don’t even kid yourself they are for the kids. Swap chocolate for dark chocolate that way you wont eat the whole block. Do eat chocolate, do eat cake, do eat cookies, if you deprive yourself of these you will binge when you are tempted, don’t cut them out  just cut back. Have a big jar of nuts and seeds in the pantry for when you are peckish!

What I know for sure. By automating your eating, you will always know what is next you will never be left feeling hungry and poking around in the kids recess part of the pantry. Once it is a habit your belly will start telling you when to eat and what is next. You can lose weight eating like this, or maintain your healthy weight eating like this, you can even be pregnant and eat like this, if you are pegnant make sure you eat for you not for two, that’s the biggest pregnant mistake we all make, you really only need to eat an extra apple and a banana a day, that’s all. I am not a nutritionist, or a dietician but I have a huge interest in my health and the health of my family. I have done lots of research on what to eat and what to avoid and this is how I eat everyday. This is me below after 3 c-sections and the little guy was 10lbs2oz in Jan 11. I just wanted to show you that I can back up what I am passing on, my way works, no pills, no abb rocker, no lemon juice, no meal replacement shakes just healthy eating and being active, if you don’t use it, you will lose it!Losing Baby Weight.I have always been healthy and fit, hence why I was attracted to the Army at 18. When I fell pregnant at 25, I ate what ever I wanted and dropped my fitness back to just walking, I put on 20kgs. By eating my own food plan, I dropped the 20kgs, by 6mths. When I was 29, pregnant with my 2nd, I put on a whopping 23kgs, just by eating what ever I felt like and not much exercise. After my second c-section for a big baby I got back in to my fitness and healthy eating and dropped every 23 of those nasty kgs!. With baby number 3 last year I put on 17kgs, I worked out through the whole pregnancy at the gym and junk food made me feel sick so I ate healthy. I had a huge 10lbs2oz baby via my third C-Section. I lost my third lot of baby weight by eating healthy and exercise. By the time he was 8 months old I did my first 10km fun run and at 9 months old I ran the 12km City to Bay Fun Run. The only thing stoping you from losing weight and getting healthy is the excuses you keep telling yourself. Take this from someone who has put on baby weight and lost it 3 times, that’s my qualifications, that’s my proof it works. Give yourself the gift of health, and it will flow over to the entire family. If you only change one area of your life you are one step closer, but if you change every area you are half way there. Clean out the fridge today, start today, make today the first day of the rest of your life, today is YOUR day!

Renee

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