The physio-ball that is. There are lots of names for it - Swiss ball, abs ball, therapy ball …

Whatever you call it, it’s a great tool for fitness for anyone but has some special benefits for postpartum women.

Just sitting on one will engage deep abdominal and back muscles for stabilizing. This is one area that needs special rehabilitation after giving birth.

If it’s not blown up too hard, the gentle support is great for the women who have had tears or episiotomy that need more healing time. It can be used to improve flexibility and posture.

Improve your quality of life – get on the ball.

However, if you lose weight by changing your lifestyle, maintenance of your loss is likely to be quite easy for you since it will be a simple transition. Keys to maintenance are the same as for losing weight. Being aware of what you are consuming, continuing to exercise and keep an eye on the scale. Do not let your weight waver by more than five pounds. It’s easy to make small adjustments to get things back under control.

If you take your time in the weight loss process you’ve had plenty of practice at doing the things you need to do to maintain. Just keep doing them!

Dividing your calories throughout the day will have a profound effect on your body’s insulin and glucose. These determine if you’re losing or adding fat, and energy levels. If you’ve ever felt that sleepy ‘crash’ after a big lunch, you know what I’m talking about. Frequent meals keep the highs and lows of blood sugar at bay. It will help regulate your appetite so that you don’t ingest everything in sight when you get hungry. It can help lower your cholesterol too.

It can take a little planning to make these meals balanced and yet easy to eat in our busy days. But it can be as simple as cutting your lunch in half, and eating the second half in about three hours.

]]> http://esjayinc.com/http:/esjayinc.com/WeightLossAfterPregnancy/1/feed/ http://esjayinc.com/http:/esjayinc.com/WeightLossAfterPregnancy/1 http://esjayinc.com/http:/esjayinc.com/WeightLossAfterPregnancy/1#comments Thu, 25 Jan 2007 03:59:37 +0000 esjaym weight loss postpartum http://esjayinc.com/http:/esjayinc.com/WeightLossAfterPregnancy/1 Studies have shown that people usually underestimate the calories they consume and overestimate the calories burned in exercise.  There is an easy solution so that you are not one of these people.

Losing weight is mostly a matter of math.  Now before you groan and complain about how much you hated math in school,  I’ll let you in on a secret.  In real life you get to use calculators!

When it comes to estimating calories burned, find one that includes your current body weight and the intensity of your activity.   Don’t fall for one of those tables that say ‘Walk 1 mile, burn 100 calories’.  You will never convince me that a 101 pound teenager strolling a mile while chatting on a cell phone is going to burn the same number of calories as a 250 pound body power walking up a hill one mile.  Try out this free calculator - http://www.healthcalculators.org/calculators/calories_burned.asp

Tracking calories consumed is a little more time consuming, but really not much.  The effort you put in will be priceless in the feedback from the data.  Most people have a limited number of foods that they eat on a regular basis which makes the job a lot easier.  If you don’t already know about it, try out the free tracking tool at http://fitday.com/  It has a function of remembering your common foods and it makes it easy to analyze not only how many calories you ate that day but also the ratios of carbohydrates, protein and fat.

Remember, ‘that which gets measured gets done’.

 So what is your small job for today?

What small change can you make in your eating plan or exercise plan which will lead you closer to your goal?  It is the people who apply a series of small changes to their lives which make the most progress at reaching their goals and it is no different with weight loss. 

 Do you think that you have to forgo all desserts and favorite foods to lose the weight?  Do you think you have to set aside an entire hour to exercise?  Did you know that just cutting 100 calories a day can lead to a pound lost in 6 weeks.  That’s between 8 and 9 pounds a year.   Maybe you could find a way to cut 200 calories a day.  Those calories really do add up fast – pat of butter, extra spash of salad dressing, a few more crackers or chips.

 And you don’t need an hour to exercise.  You only need 10 minutes.  Can you fit in 10 minutes of activity?  I bet you can find it in your day.  Find it three times and you can make a significant change.  I love this campaign, you might find it inspiring too:  http://www.do-groove.com/

 Pair cutting a few calories a day with exercising more and you’ve got a sure fire plan to be thinner one year from now.  But it takes persistence.

Go

Do

Are you hard on yourself? Have a negative self talk playing in your head all day?

Like mental imagery, positive affirmations can be used to help program your subconscious mind to achieve your goal and end the negative self talk.

You are what you think.

Think positive thoughts and you are a positive person.  Think you can achieve something and you will.  Affirmations should be stated in the positive not the negative.  Instead of  “I’m not going to be fat anymore”  it should be “I’m getting thinner every day”.  They should be stated in the current tense not the past or future tense.  Instead of  “I will become thinner” a better affirmation is “I am becoming thinner”.   ‘I am’ is a great way to start any affirmation.

Here are some examples you might consider for yourself:

I am in control of what I eat today.

My favorite beverage is water.

It feels good to be active and I do it every day.

I love the taste and texture of vegetables.

Write out a few and practice repeating them every day.  They can help change your mind.  When you change your mind, you change your body.

That should really be all you need to know to go get a glass and make one change in your habits today. If you’re interested in the details, continue reading.

Water is a natural appetite suppressant. Some studies have shown that a decrease in water consumption will result in an increase in fat deposits, while an increase in water intake can actually reduce fat deposits.

The kidneys main function is like a filter for your body.

The livers main function is to metabolize stored fat.

The kidney can’t do its job well without enough water.

When they don’t work to capacity, some of their load is put onto the liver.

If the liver has to do some of the kidney’s work it can’t operate at full capacity either. This results in less fat getting metabolized and more fat remains stored in the body and weight loss stops.

Many people are so unaware of their own body signals that they eat when they actually are feeling thirst. The next time you feel the urge to eat, drink some water first.

There are a lot of benefits of drinking water.  It can help reduce appetite, water retention, and blood pressure. It increases energy levels, lubricates the joints helping to reduce pain, and improves bowel functions.  It can also improve skin tone and reduce dry chapped lips.
Go fill your cup.

Picture yourself at your goal weight.  Maybe you even have a photo of yourself  as how you would like to look now.  Put it up somewhere prominent like next to your written SMART goals.  Spend a few minutes every day picturing how you will look and feel.  How easy it will be to get in and out of the car, or how easy it will be to carry your baby and your purse and the diaper bag and…  you get the picture.  Imagine yourself bubbling with joy and happiness or twirling around in a pretty dress.  Your aches and pains are gone and you feel good.

You just used imagery.  It’s not hocus pocus.  There is no spirit guide or black magic here.  It’s using the power of your mind to create what it already sees as reality.  There is an old Chinese proverb:

If you can believe it, you can achieve it.

See it.

Feel it.

Believe it.

Just the act of breastfeeding is going to help you lose weight.

There is good news/bad news about breastfeeding and weight loss.  A mothers mild varies very little in nutritional content no matter what her diet.  The bad news is that if the diet is not nutritious enough, then stores are taken from the mother’s body to meet the demands of producing milk.

The key to losing weight while breastfeeding is to be sure to consume highly nutritious calories.  They must be high in vitamins, minerals and fiber.  Snack smart while you are breastfeeding and the pounds will come off.

Read, study, and emulate the succesful people is a sure fire way to get what you are going after.   So, when it comes to weightloss you can not ignore the data found in the National Weight Control Registry.  People who are in the registry have followed a great variety of paths on their journey, but they have all maintained a weight loss of at least thirty pounds for at least one year.

89% of registry participants used a combination of both diet and physical activity to lose weight

Other common behaviors include:

1) eating a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet

2) eating breakfast almost every day

3) frequent self-monitoring of weight

4) participation in a high level of physical activity

If you are not engaging in all of those strategies I highly recommend you begin.  Maybe in the future you too will be eligible to enter the National Registry yourself!