Many women after the birth of their first child are very anxious to reclaim their figure. And I encourage you to be patient, so that you can establish a healthy breastfeeding schedule with your baby, give your body time to heal, and just adjust into your new lifestyle. And so, a fair and realistic goal is to take 9 months to lose the baby weight from your pregnancy.
One of the best predictors of successful weight loss in your postpartum time period is to actually try to gain the appropriate amount of weight that your doctor recommends for you during your pregnancy. So if you have the opportunity to monitor your pregnancy weight gain throughout your pregnancy, and ask for support and assistance if you notice that you start to gain quicker then your physician would recommend, that will be immensely helpful for you in the postpartum period.
One of my favorite tools to help postpartum moms is to really help them hone in to their own intuition, so that they can trust their own hunger and fullness cues to guide their bodies back to their pre-pregnancy. The intuitive hunger and fullness scale is so useful because it's something that you can intuitively raise your awareness of at anytime, any moment, and with any meal.
And so, you don't need to necessarily be counting calories or points to successfully lose weight after you've had a baby. Infact, most of us don't have enough time to do that. I'd rather have young women queuing in, becoming more mindful of their hunger fullness cues, and really trying to develop patterns that keep them from being vulnerable, but also trying to end their meal with a more neutral, or gentle satisfaction.
And so, you can kind of think about neutral as the time after you start eating, when your hunger cues have. You're no longer feeling those intense rumblings or physical sensations of hunger. And so, many times when we pause, when we've kind of subsided those cues, the hormones will travel to your brain and you'll actually feel gently satisfied within 15 minutes or so, when those fullness cues really have their full potential to register in your brain. If you're feeling a little bit hungrier, you can certainly eat until you're gently satisfied.
Again, you want to just make sure that you keep pausing and appreciating how full you are throughout your meal, because you'll be surprised at how eating consistent, well-balanced meals and snacks will really help to curb the cravings, and help you regain your pre-pregnancy and weight, and have that successful weight loss over these next several months.
As you consider how to craft a balanced meal and snacks try to opt for whole foods as much as possible, because the more fiber that you add into your meals and snacks, the more voluminous you feel, which will help to curb any cravings, it'll give you that gentle satisfaction, and it will support your long-term weight loss goals.
Another important factor to help promote weight loss in the postpartum period is to consider breastfeeding. Not only is it immensely wonderful nutrition for your infant, but it actually will contribute you about a 500 calorie deficit for you every single day. So, it's in essence, like you're walking five miles a day by just nursing your child, and having that incredible bonding time with your infant.
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