Postpartum Weight Loss Workouts: Week 3

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It’s now week 3 of our postpartum weight loss plan and I thought it was time to talk about progress, or rather lack thereof.

Even the most strict and dedicated person sticking to the plan perfectly isn’t going to lose weight every single week. Sometimes you’re up, hopefully more times you’re down, and quite often you’re exactly the same on the scale. We all know that our weight is a really poor indicator of how well we are truly doing, but it’s what we use nevertheless.

My own progress on this plan according to the scale has been very slow, and here are a few possible reasons why:

one: not enough willpower. If you’re letting yourself have a little bite of this here and a little bite of that there, just remember that all those bites contain calories. One really bad culprit for this is tasting your kid’s food–you know what peanut butter on bread tastes like so why do you need to eat your kid’s crusts?  Remember, you are not a garbage can, you don’t need to eat leftovers!  And yes there is a cheat meal built into the program, but if you go way overboard it can absolutely derail your progress for the next week.  This is my favourite way to think about it:  willpower is like a muscle, the more you train it the stronger it gets.

two: not enough food. If you are not eating enough, or you’re going really long periods without eating, your body goes into starvation mode. It thinks you’re on a deserted island and doesn’t know when you’re next meal could be. So what you do eat gets stored as fat for your body to protect itself in case another meal doesn’t come along for a while.  So try adding some calories for a week (just up some portions a little bit, don’t add a chocolate bar!) and see if it helps.

three: not enough exercise. You don’t have to exercise to lose weight; decreasing calories alone will do it so long as you’re eating the right amount. Ultimately, you just need to be burning more calories than you consume. However, exercise helps by burning extra calories so you lose weight faster and it helps by growing your muscles.  The more muscle you have, the more you can eat without gaining because muscle burns energy even when you’re resting AND it makes you smaller because it takes up less space than fat.

four: not enough sleep. Say what?!  How is a new mom supposed to do anything about this?!?!  I know, I hear you.  But here’s the thing: your body recovers and changes its composition not during exercise but rather during sleep–if you’re not resting, your body can’t repair itself. Sigh, right?

five: not enough water. You need to stay hydrated because your body confuses the sensation of thirst for the sensation for hunger, so you end up eating more than you need when all you really needed was to drink.  Especially if you’re breastfeeding, you need so much water, and especially if you’re exercising!  So drink lots of water!

five: not enough patience. I know we all crave the instant gratification of the number on the scale going down every day. But just accept that it won’t. Instead, tally up your weight for a week and take the average. And take a look at yourself in the mirror–are you seeing changes?  Do you feel different in your clothes?  You could be gaining a bit of muscle now that you’re exercising and that’s why the scale is up. And cut yourself a little slack–you’re still recovering from having a baby!  Your hormones are all out of whack and your belly is still stretched, just accept this will take some time and exercise some self love. And heck, we’ve only been at this for a few weeks, it’s going to take time.  So just be patient and positive, and don’t let the scale disappoint you when you are indeed progressing in the mirror and in your target outfit.

So there you go, don’t worry, you’re doing great!  Even I am going to keep a close eye on these points and will check back in next week.

Here are the videos and the PDFs of the workouts.  Do each video twice in one day, and three times in a week.  I should have turned OFF the treadmill before doing those dips, that could have been a disaster!

Week 3 Workout 1, Make a Run For It Turquoise Toffee

Week 3 Workout 2, Armed and Dangerous Turquoise Toffee

My progress so far:

24 hours postpartum: down 16 lbs

6 days postpartum (eliminated sugar but not following the diet yet): down 22 lbs

Diet week 1 (no exercise): no weight loss

Diet week 2 (started exercising at the end of this week, had done 3 workouts): lost 1 lb

Week 3: lost 0.5 lbs

Week 4: gained 1 lbs (darn, but no big deal!)

Total weight loss so far: 22.5 lbs

First goal: get to my pre-pregnancy weight, need to lose: 4.5 lbs

In my diet video I told you my first real goal was just to look good in my dress for the baby’s  baptism.  Well, the baptism is on Sunday so I will let you know next week if I met my goal!

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Yoga Jacket: I got this year’s ago from Lululemon, it’s no longer available in this colour but they get new colours all the time, like this Define Jacket in Seascape.

Black pants: Lululemon (No longer available but just keep your eye open for flared yoga pants)

Leggings in West Palm Beach: no longer available from Liquido Active but they get new colours all the time, check them out!

Turquoise Nike Free Run 3.0 sneakers: no longer available but I found similar ones at Nike and Zappos

BKR 1 Litre glass water bottle in Sunday: BKR

Gaiam Studio Select Dry Grip Yoga Mat: Gaiam