Are you ready to lose the baby weight? Whether you have one child or several, you know how hard it is to juggle your mom responsibilities and still find time to get your body back. The whole process can seem impossible. But it’s not.
I recently spoke to one new mother who lost weight and got in shape to run a half marathon. She did it while balancing a career and caring for three children under the age of five. Use her inspiring story, her helpful tips and my 6-Step Plan to Lose Weight After a Baby to shed those postpartum pounds.
Find a Reason to Be Motivated
Losing weight is a good reason to exercise. But it’s often not enough motivation to get your body off the couch when you are exhausted from taking care of others and there are five loads of laundry to get done. So you need to find a more compelling reason to work out. For Nikki Hauck, that reason was time to be alone. More info: lida daidaihua slimming capsule
Nikki, 32, is the mother of three children under 5 years old. She also works from home as a professional recruiter. Nikki lost some of the baby weight between her two oldest children, but after her third, she had a hard time slimming down. So she began running.
“I wasn’t a runner before my kids,” she says. “I had run before but I think was 11-years old when I ran my last race.” Nikki chose to run because it gave her a chance to be by herself, organize her thoughts and have some much-needed time to clear her head. “It’s my time and no one touches it!” she says.
Nikki describes what many behavioral experts call “intrinsic motivation.” Experts have found that when exercisers have an internal source of inspiration, they are more likely to stick to their program and reach their goals. Of course, intrinsic motivation doesn’t make the actual exercise session any easier. But it provides an internal message to keep going when you want to stop. For Nikki, this helped her reach her goals.
Set a Goal
Nikki set smart goals for herself that ultimately helped her lose the weight. She started running 5K races in her home state of Minnesota, then graduated to 10K races and eventually to a half marathon. “After each race I found myself asking ‘what’s next’?”
After her last event, she decided to take her sport to the next level and register for the 2014 More Magazine/Fitness Magazine Women’s Half-Marathon in New York City. “ I’m not a city girl,” says Nikki. “This was an opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone and conquer my fear of the big city.”
Nikki specifically chose an all-women’s event. “I could have signed up for any race, but I feel that, as women, we need to raise each other up.” The More Magazine/Fitness Magazine Women’s Half-Marathon is the largest all-women’s half-marathon in the country and invites women of all ages and backgrounds to participate in an atmosphere of camaraderie and fun.
More importantly, however, Nikki says the race is an opportunity for her to inspire her five-year old daughter. “My daughter wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. She calls her the ‘green lady’,” laughs Nikki. “And she wants to be a yoga teacher when she grows up so I want to inspire her.” Nikki plans to bring her daughter to NYC so the little girl can see her mom cross the finish line in Central Park on race day, Sunday April 13.
Surround Yourself with Support
To reach her running and weight loss goals, Nikki surrounds herself with people who support and inspire her. Her children serve as a continuing source of inspiration, but she also runs with her father, who took up running at the same time Nikki did. She says she needs to rely on others to help her out from time to time.
“It’s very hard to ask for help,” she says, “it’s what holds most of us back from reaching our goals.” But Nikki explains that every day brings new challenges. “It’s so hard to juggle the kids, my career, the house, school activities. You need to make yourself a priority and learn how to ask for help when necessary.
She also gets creative to overcome obstacles that arise. When she has to, Nikki takes her kids with her to the gym. Instead of going into daycare, the kids watch her run around the small track. “They cheer me on,” she says. “It’s inspiring for them and motivating for me.” More info: lida diet pills
Make a Plan for Maintenance
With a month to go before race day, Nikki is close to reaching her weight loss goal. From her top weight of 251 pounds, she has slimmed down to 162 and hopes to reach 145. When I asked her if she will keep running after she reaches her goal, she says emphatically, “absolutely!”
Nikki’s strategy is the best plan for keeping the weight off. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 150 minutes of exercise per week for people who want to maintain heart health, but 250 minutes per week or more for people who want to maintain their weight loss.
In addition, according to data from the National Weight Control Registry, 90% of the people who have maintained their slimmer figures for over five years exercise every day for approximately an hour or more.
Nikki’s plan to use running for weight loss may not work for you. The sport of running isn’t for everyone. But the smart strategies she used can work for any busy mom. Get motivated, set a goal, ask for help and come up with a plan to lose weight, get healthy and keep the weight off for good.