Becoming a parent is a unique and rewarding experience, and after childbirth, you’ll have to learn how to manage the baby and yourself, which takes some doing. A mother’s body goes through a year of extreme physical and mental change, and it takes some time to get back to normal.
Many mothers fall victim to post-pregnancy depression because their body transforms so significantly or because they find it hard to conquer the juggling act of managing themselves and the baby simultaneously. Getting back to your old self isn’t that hard, but it will take some time. Here are a few things you can do to get yourself back into shape.
Diet
Your diet pre-and-post pregnancy will play a big role in how effectively and quickly you recover from childbirth. Your body has just gone through a very stressful period and needs fuel to rebuild and restore itself. There are a number of diets you can follow, but the underlying principle remains the same. You need to be absorbing good quality protein and fat along with plenty of nutrients in the form of minerals and vitamins.
Eating fresh fruit and vegetables is great for getting the nutrients that you need, but you can also support your diet with supplements. Calcium, zinc, and vitamins are the most important.
Makeover
Getting your body back to good physical shape is challenging and sometimes might not even be possible given the extent of the physical changes its been through. For instance, if you need to firm up flabby upper arms or redo your eyebrows, no amount of food or exercise will rectify that problem. A more effective solution is to get a mommy makeover for all the specific things you want to be changed. This is a much faster way of getting the body you desire and through the makeover, you can customize things to your liking. Depending on what kind of procedures you get done it can cost anywhere from $5000 to $25000.
Exercise
Most women are not too physically active during pregnancy, and the body deteriorates even more. However, after childbirth, you need to take things slowly, even if you were a competitive athlete before the pregnancy because it will take some time for your body to get back to that level again. The best strategy is to start off with low-impact exercises and gradually work your way up. These exercises will help you lose the initial few pounds and also get your body used to working out and training again.
Focus on improving your flexibility and stretching out to help strengthen the ligaments and tendons. It’s often the ligaments and tendons that get damaged when women start working out again because the muscles and bones can bear the stress but these smaller components are much weaker than they used to be.
After a pregnancy, the way your body metabolizes the food you eat and the way it produces hormones and building blocks in the body is very different. When you start to expose it to the stress of exercising and training you need to start gently to give it time to adjust. During this phase, rest and recovery are very important. It’s not uncommon for new mothers to be sleep deprived because they are busy caring for their children. On days when you are too busy or too tired, you don’t push yourself too hard to go out and train. Give yourself the space to slowly build up rather than injuring yourself and making life harder for yourself and the baby.
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