- Pre Natal | I was exercising until the week before going into labour
- Post Natal | I was in a good shape as expected
- Body | Physical Fitness Recovery Aid
- Lessons Learned | Sharing Is Caring
Pre Natal | I was exercising until the week before going into labour
Because
- I was feeling great when doing so, I was always a gym bunny and I will always be
- it helped me in my breathing, at that point and was a good training for me for when being in labour
- it helped me carrying around 15 kg more, and I was moving with ease until the last moment
- it helped me feel that I am doing my best and I am treating my body as a temple, so I was expecting my body would be in a good shape post labour and my recovery as speedy as possible due to that
- I was generally feeling OK: I was in the office until 2 weeks before labour
Post Natal | I was in a good shape as expected
I had chosen to have an epidural free natural labour. Why? I wanted to experience the whole thing to the maximum. I do tend to believe that our societal developments that tend to make us numb, impacted this magical moment as well so I wanted to de-numb it and have it as naturally done as possible. I was into hypnobirthing techniques and everything natural. Like a hippy as a friend said. Ideally, I would had have a bath birth but that was not possible as I did develop gestational diabetes and had to be monitored and wear thingy’s around my bump during labour. In addition, some of the side effects of epidural can be disgusting i.e. vomit during labour and I do HATE vomiting or permanently dangerous i.e. leave you with some paralysis, if done improperly.
Labour went well – ish. I had lost 10 kg within the first week or two. So I thought that 5 kg left would had been an easy peasy. Hmm… was/is not really. Although, my pre natal phase was great my post natal was probably the opposite. My body was/still is misbehaving in a number of ways and still feels to be in a recovery mode 20 months post labour, now that I am writing this blog post. I was told that recovery takes as long as 3 to 5 years and although I originally though “yes right” in a sarcastic tone now i do know that is very true!
Body | Physical Fitness Recovery Aid
I was always careful to what I was eating not so much because I had to but because I wanted to: I do enjoy eating healthy food and if I don’t my body complaints. And for that reason, it’s important for me to be eating home made food. I suffer when we go travelling and I am eating restaurant food for an extensive amount of time. I was always exercising and by living in London, one walks long distances by default anyway. My normal day was about 10k – 13k steps, even when being pregnant. So I had a good relationship with my body and I was putting effort to maintain it.
It was a big shock to me not to be able to fit in my bras, in my clothes, in my bikini and always wear loose tops to hide my baby bump. I started exercising again when Faye was 6 months old but my body was not responding in the same way and my joints were in pain until she was about 12 months or so. My baby bump is still visible even if I am still exercising 3 -4 times per week and I am being careful on my calorie intake. This made me feel uncomfortable, unpleasant and some times was so frustrating.
However, I respected and I still do, that my body prepared and created something magical: a super cute new life, so I trusted that it needs its time to heal. On top we moved to a new country when Faye was 9 months also, Soteris left us when she was 6 months old to make this transition smooth, and those were also some big challenging changes that came our way.
Lessons Learned | Sharing Is Caring
FYI: I have lost 15 kg so far from the pregnancy and I would like to lose another 5 kg or 7 kg before the end of the year. Although I have just made it to be where I started kg wise just before conceiving, my body does not look and feel the same. During this weight loss journey, I developed an understanding about certain items and gain insights about some lessons learned, that I would like to share with you. Sharing is caring they say.
⭐ What we eat is quite important. They say the ratio of eating VS exercising factor is 70% to 30%. That means that it’s important what we eat and its also important to exercise aerobically in parallel while doing so. When we saying what we eat what do we mean? Your quality of food as well as your quantity of food. It’s important to eat food compatible to your body and in less than normal portions quantities, to lose the extra weight. It’s important to eat less carbs and sugars when trying to lose weight. Why? because you need to start burning your camel hump fat. It’s OK to increase the amount of fiber and salad intake and keep protein intake at normal portions while going for less fatty meats such as chicken and turkey but is not OK to eat crisps, desserts, dark meat, take aways etc.
⭐ Eat small meals more regularly ie
8 Breakfast/11 snack/13 lunch/15 snack/18 dinner.
⭐ Try to eat your last meal 3-4 hours before going to sleep and try to have a light meal ie 1/2 dish to be salad 🥗 & a piece or 2 of chicken.
⭐️ Try to exercise in the morning. In that way, you will make your priority to exercise and you will not be able to have an excuse if you don’t make it later on the day.
⭐️ Try to eat just after exercising as the metabolic rate ie the way that we burn stuff is higher just after the exercise.
⭐️Try to eat the not so good stuff in the morning if you cannot avoid it at all ie piece of cake in the morning will be burnt better during the day rather than having it late in the evening that you are not that likely to exercise or burn those calories.
⭐ Download an app ie “Lose it”, to track what you are eating and get insight on their calories. Some foods are not that innocent…ie a Tsp of oil is 100 calories and that is about 10% when trying to lose weight for me if not more, so why spending 100 of my calories in a teaspoon of oil and not eating a couple of kiwis that enjoy more? In the app you can put what weight is your target that you want to lose and gives you your daily calories target. You should be eating less than your normal intake when willing to lose weight. Hmm I would say that if you target to lose 2-3 kg per month that can be possible and sensible.
⭐ Have some days that you are strict with the calorie/food intake and allow you to be more flexible in some others ie less calories on Tue and Thu but OK to eat ice cream on Wed and Sat.
⭐️ Exercise aerobically i.e. walking, running, treadmill, rowing machine, cycling etc for more than 30 min at a rate of about 70% of your effort 3 times per week if not more. That means do not push your self too much. Its probably better to do longer ie 1 hour at 70% instead of doing 30 mins at 100%. The longer the session is, the better it is for burning the fat stored here and there. If you are not into exercising go for long walks in the hood, in the park, in the mall.
Hope you will find these inspiring and useful. 💖
