5 Tips on Losing Postpartum Baby Weight

Congratulations!

You are finally bringing home your bundle of joy from the hospital and now it’s time to adjust to life with a newborn.

Let’s be honest with each other… it can be hard to focus on yourself when 99% of your time is feeding, burping, changing, and rocking your baby. Not only that, but it’s time to start losing postpartum baby weight and get your body back on track.

Remember, it took 9 months to grow your baby so it is supposed to take some time to get back to pre-pregnancy weight.

We are not in a race!

Rather, let’s take the time to really let our bodies heal from giving birth and gradually get back to where it was.

Here are my 5 Tips on Losing Postpartum Baby Weight

1. Prepare Meals Ahead of Time

Ok, I know what you’re thinking. You just had a baby and now there’s no time prepare food let alone eat it!

Well, my tip isn’t about preparing meals ahead of time after the baby arrives. This tip is about preparing meals before the baby arrives. 

About a month before each of my kids were born, I made sure to have my deep freezer stocked with tons of healthy freezer meals. I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of time to cook with a newborn in the house so these meals had to be easy to pop in the oven or something I could just take out of the fridge and eat.

So, the first thing I focused on was breakfast. I love quiche and found a great healthy quiche recipe that I whipped up and stuck in the deep freezer.

TIP: Make sure to put the date on the meals you put in your freezer. Trust me. Postpartum mom brain is no joke.

Another thing I love to have in the morning are smoothies. I had individual bags of frozen fruits and vegetables (dated of course) and placed in my deep freezer. Some bags would have berries, bananas, and spinach while others would have mango, pineapple, and kale. 

Once I was ready to drink the smoothie I threw in a bag of my frozen smoothie mix, add in some unsweetened vanilla almond milk, a few sprinkles of chia seeds or flax seeds, plain greek yogurt (or even a little avocado) for healthy fat, ice and blend it all up!

Snacks would consist of things like mixed unsalted nuts. I love roasting a bag of unsalted almonds in the oven (350 degrees for 10 minutes) and snacking on them throughout the day. You can make these ahead of time and save them in a cute mason jar.

Healthy bars are also an easy way to curb hunger but you need to be careful. Bars can be stocked full of sugar. Some great ones include Go Raw bars (organic, gluten-free, vegan, sprouted) and GoMacro bars (high protein, vegan, non-GMO, organic).

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I am also a big fan of rice cakes but I think people have a love/hate relationship with them. Some people love them and others think they taste like styrofoam, ha!

I like to do a rice cake with peanut butter or hummus and cucumber. This isn’t something you can make ahead of time but it’s quick and easy to make. 

Lunch would be another freezer meal. For example, you can make something like this delicious looking chicken taco recipe in a crockpot then freeze it. When you’re ready to eat it, thaw the chicken and add to a tortilla with your choice of toppings! Some healthy choices would include avocado, lettuce, tomato, and black beans. Leave out the cheese and rice!

A favorite of mine is Jamie Eason’s Turkey Muffins. You have got to try them. Easy to freeze and so delicious!

Dinner is always fun because the options are endless! Whether it be chicken fajitas, chicken/turkey burgers, or even tacos, there are many healthy options that you can put together and freeze before the baby comes.

Dessert is an all-time favorite of mine. I was a big fan of ice cream during both pregnancies so an alternative would be to freeze some greek yogurt for 15 minutes or so and add some mini chocolate chips on it. Another great dessert idea is some chocolate chip stuffed raspberries. YUM!

 

2. Move Your Body

*First off…  make sure your doctor approves that you are able to do any sort of workout after giving birth. They have strict guidelines on what you can/cannot do.

A great exercise for losing postpartum baby weight is walking. Don’t just walk… walk with your baby!

Put your baby in a stroller and go for a nice brisk walk. Or call a friend to go with you!

My friend and I had babies two months apart so we would meet up and go on walks together. It was nice to workout, get fresh air and catch up with each other.

Another thing you can do is join a “baby and me” class. I took this class once with a friend and it was so much fun! A bunch of people met up in a park and a trainer was there with her baby as well. We all did workouts with the stroller, without the stroller, with our babies, without our babies, and it was a blast. 

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My last tip with moving your body is to workout with your baby at home. I follow a mom named Alexa Jean who has an Instagram dedicated to showing video workouts with her babies. 

 

3. Stay Hydrated

Staying hydrated during your postpartum recovery is incredibly important. Not only does it get rid of toxins in your body, make your skin feel better but it is essential for kidneys and other bodily functions.  

Hint hint: If your pee is a dark color, you are dehydrated and need to drink more water!

If you are craving something sweet and want to eat something just to eat it, try drinking water. Drinking water can create the feeling of “fullness” which might curb the craving.

However, if you are hungry for food and not just craving sweets, please make sure you eat along with drinking water.

Not a fan of water?

Read my post discussing 6 Tips on Drinking More Water and Staying Hydrated. 

I cover everything from flavoring you water to my favorite water bottle and how to “eat your water.”

 

4. Track your progress

One of my biggest motivators is seeing how far I’ve come. I love tracking weight loss, writing down what I’m eating, my fitness routines, how much water I drink, how much sleep I get, and more. 

It can be hard to track at first but once you get the hang of it, it becomes fun! My two favorite things I’ve used to track my progress is an App called, “My Fitness Pal” as well as a Fitbit.

My Fitness Pal has been around for ages. It’s a good way to track your goals and progress. You can upload recipes, write down what you’re eating, what workouts you’re doing, etc. 

The Fitbit I use is called a “Charge 2” and of course, I have it in rose gold.  You can track your steps, heart rate, calories burned, how many stairs you’ve climbed, etc. It truly is amazing. It’ll also alert me if I have a text, phone call or calendar message (not as important but still kind of cool). 

I also got these replacement Fitbit bands because you know a girl’s gotta have white and pink options!

Those two items hold me accountable and accountability is what drives me to succeed!

 

5. Give Yourself Time

To me, this is the most important tip I can give you. 

Please give yourself time.

Too often we pressure ourselves into looking a certain way. You just gave birth to a beautiful human being and your body has been through a lot. Love your body and give it time to heal.

If you treat your body right, eat the right foods, drink fluid and move around, you will see results. 

It took me over a year to lose my postpartum baby weight both times but that is because I set attainable goals.

Goals like, losing a few pounds here and there and focusing on how I feel rather than the number on the scale.

To be truthful, I don’t even weigh myself anymore. If my clothes fit and I like the way I look in them, I am happy!

I’m going to be honest with you. Do I feel comfortable in a bikini anymore? Not really. I have loose skin on my stomach and stretch marks on my thighs so a bikini is not something I feel comfortable wearing.

At least not yet.

However, over the past year, I have been losing my postpartum baby weight and I feel great!

Implementing the steps above has really helped me get to my goals and I know they will help you too.

A little bit of patience and a lot of self-love…

That’s all you need!