Postpartum Fitness

My first self-realization happened two weeks after delivery at my daughters very first pediatrician appointment. My husband drove us to the hospital and as it was a busy hour, he had to park our car quite far from pediatrician's building. We started walking towards our doctors building with my husband carrying our daughter in her car seat. But as he started speeding to avoid the sun from falling on my little one's face, I found myself trying real hard to catch up with him! As I saw people walking past me wondering why I was walking so far away from my husband and baby, I felt a weakness I had never felt before! It was that I had any kind of body ache but just physically incapable to move any faster. Obviously that got me feeling low and I was visibly upset after catching up with my waiting husband at the hospital entrance. To top that, we had an old lady walk up to my husband asking 'Is your wife upset because she is already pregnant with second baby?'. Yep, I still had my post delivery tummy and that was officially a bad day for me! Apart from making a mental note never to assume any lady to be pregnant just by the size of her tummy, I realized how important it is for me to get back feeling fit and strong soon for my very own mental sanity.

As I had a cesarean, doctors recommend not doing any physical exercise till six weeks post delivery and to avoid lifting anything heavier than 10lbs other than your baby. So all I could do was walk around the house doing chorus while avoiding sitting on couch for longer durations. And yes, it is very important to start eating healthy. As I was taking care of myself without anyone to help around post delivery, I had pretty good control over what I ate and avoided the much recommended postpartum food items like butter and ghee. Trust me, there are healthier ways to improve your milk supply such as fenugreek supplements and shatavari.

Why postpartum fitness is important?

• Postpartum body needs to gain back its core strength. It is very important to have good core strength to help prevent back pain, maintain good posture to avoid injuries.
• Exercising helps prevent postpartum depression and anxiety by releasing feel-good brain chemicals.
• While doing all the baby work round the clock, it is good to have a 15-30 minute where you take care of your own fitness and health.
• Taking care of a baby is no joke and you will need all the strength possible to hold and play with them as they grow up. So having a good fit body will only make it easier and more fun.
• And the obvious one is you will be able to fit into whatever clothes you want to and thus keeping your confidence high.

Here are the exercise tips that helped me recover quickly. Please make sure you get a clear go ahead from your doctor before starting to do any exercises and stop anytime you feel an abnormal pain or discomfort.

• Walking is always a good starting point as you can do it with your baby. And getting some fresh air helps you feel good as well.
• Postnatal workout on youtube is a good slow stretch workout that focused on post delivery sore muscles. Do it till your body feels ready for next step.
• If you had a pre pregnancy fitness routine, slowly get back to doing it while including cardio and strength exercises.
• Jillian Michaels 30 day shred is a good workout that helps strengthen your complete body. You can start out easy by doing it for 15-20 minutes and later progress to completing the entire set of exercises. Always listen to your body and accordingly plan to workout 2-5 days every  week.
• Breastfeeding itself is a big calorie burner as it aids in loosing the extra fat gained during pregnancy. But this also means, you need to be eating and snacking healthy food needed for your body to help produce all the milk. 
• Personally, I am against following any kind of diets as their effect never lasts long. So I would instead recommend eating healthy and portion controlling your meals. 
• Last but not the least is to stay hydrated throughout the day. Drinking tons of water helps both breastfeeding as well as your fitness. Stick to plain water instead of any of the sugary or flavored drinks.