postpartum exercise
Eat less; exercise more. Those four words make it sound so easy. Here's how two new moms managed to lose pounds postpartum and power up in just a few months.
BY DANA WOOD
FROM LEFTLaura Miller lives in New York City with her husband and son Matthew, 1.
Danielle Mann lives in New York City with her husband and daughter Lucy, 1.
Back in the day, Danielle Mann was a self-described "gym bunny." Then she and her husband moved to the suburbs, and her workout time was eaten up by her commute. After her daughter, Lucy, came along, she couldn't find the motivation to lose the last 10 or so of the 37 pounds she had gained during pregnancy. Her nightly cheese-and-cracker ritual and prebed chocolate binges—bad habits she and her husband fell into because they were too exhausted at the end of the day to cook—weren't helping the cause.
Laura Miller's life used to be filled with exercise and nutrition until she got married, purchased a new apartment, and gave birth to her son, Matthew—all in the same year! The last 15 of Miller's 35 pregnancy pounds weren't budging, because she was completely strapped for energy, time, and drive. Adding insult to injury, Miller turns to food when fatigued and stressed (as many of us do) and, without even realizing it, would pick food off her son's plate while feeding him.
Cookie enlisted trainer Emanuel Gonzalez and nutritionistJackie Keller to help Mann boost her energy and trim down. In four short months, those experts taught her long-term strategies for making smart food choices and incorporating exercise. What worked for her can work for you, too.
THE PROGRAM
Mann and Miller had the will to get back in shape; we gave them the way: counseling sessions with nutritionist Jackie Keller and workouts with trainer Emanuel Gonzalez.
THE DIET
Mann and Miller each had weekly half-hour phone calls with Keller, founder of the Nutrifit food-delivery service and author of Body After Baby (Avery), who had the moms keep their own food logs online. With each of them, Keller addressed trouble spots (i.e., Mann's sweet tooth and tendency to graze and Miller's habit of picking off her son's plate) and set small goals for the week ahead, like eating a balanced breakfast every day and cooking simple, nutritious dinners.
THE WORKOUTS
Twice a week, before work, Gonzalez took each mother (in separate sessions) through an hour-long session at New York City's Alta gym. Each began with five-minute warm-ups on the treadmill, followed by a 45-minute circuit of multimuscle strength training (crucial for "core"-challenged new moms), interspersed with running in place to keep her heart rate up. The last 10 minutes were devoted to stretching. Gonzalez also gave Mann and Miller 20-minute home workouts built around a handful of the strength-training exercises.
BEFORE
During her pregnancy, Mann bought an elliptical trainer and used it daily. After the baby? "It became a clothes hanger," she says. Not only was she exhausted—by 9:30 a.m. she'd usually already been up for four hours—but between the baby's needs, her full-time job as an event planner, and hurrying home to see the baby before bedtime, Mann had no energy for meal planning, let alone exercise. "My husband and I would go to the kitchen, open the fridge, and graze," she recalls. Without a proper dinner, she never felt satisfied: "Between 8:30 p.m. and when I went to sleep, I wanted to eat everything in the house." And she often did.
Miller hadn't worked out since her sixth month of pregnancy when the baby moved to the top of her bladder: "My exercise was walking back and forth to the bathroom," she recalls. So after a year hiatus, she had to get her head back into the idea of workouts, let alone the physical aspects of getting in shape (lifting weights, running, doing sit-ups after a C-section). Not relying on food when she was tired, stressed, and/or alone—Miller's husband is a human-rights lawyer who travels frequently for work—was another (even more daunting) hurdle for her to overcome.
DURING
It did take an appointment with a trainer to get Mann out of bed; she knew Gonzalez would be waiting, so twice a week she got on the 7 a.m. train to make it to the gym by 8. On other days, she would squeeze in cardio homework after work, even if it was just a half hour on the elliptical. "I was so tired when I got home, but both Emanuel and Jackie said if I stuck it out for just 30 minutes, I'd feel better," she says. "And they were right." Mann's multitasking twist on strength training involved using Lucy as a weight: "I'd do sit-ups with her on my lap or lift her over my head." She also bought a jogging stroller, "so watching the baby wouldn't be an excuse."
Scribbling accompanied all this sweating: Keller had Mann keep a journal of everything she put into her mouth, and "after a week, it clicked that I was making poor food choices." Instead of falling into the usual cheese-and-crackerstravaganza, Mann started planning her daily intake ("For a snack, I can have a small cottage cheese or a piece of fruit, but that's it"), reading labels, shopping for specific meals, and cooking easy recipes. "I have one for chicken marinated in soy sauce and olive oil that I eat all the time now," she says.
Like Mann, it was the sessions with Gonzalez that got Miller to the gym. "If I don't have a set appointment," Miller says, "it's very easy to blow it off, since I need to get home right away after work [to relieve the nanny]." Gonzalez helped Miller with overall toning and kept her focused and motivated by varying the exercises. "It wasn't just the same old routine," Miller points out. "He really mixed things up [and introduced] a good combination that I can do on my own now." From working with Keller on the nutrition front, Miller learned to weigh her eating against her exercise. Keller suggested Miller use a pedometer to measure number of steps she took (either running or speed walking). "I became addicted to it," Miller confesses. She even took it with her on a recent trip to Paris with her husband—"not to be militant, but because I wanted to be able to see what I did and then have a big glass of wine and everything else."
AFTER
"Before, I never realized what times of the day I was hungriest, or why I was choosing the food I ate," Mann says. "Now I think before I eat. I try to make better choices: fewer cookies, more fruit and vegetables. My carbs have to be whole wheat, not white flour." The changes brought immediate rewards: "When I eat fruit, I have more energy in the afternoon, whereas I used to get tired. Plus, I'm more motivated to get outside and run, and that in turn motivates me to eat better."
From the food diary she kept, Miller saw that she needed to structure her food intake and only eat when she needs to?not when she's feeding Matthew or when she's alone watching TV. She also observed that breaking a sweat is about way more than just her body; "there's also the emotional aspect of working out," Miller confirms. It's a tremendous mood-stabilizer, which is essential when you're being pulled in several directions.
NO WEASELING OUT!
Every excuse can be broken down.
What you say: "I can't find the time."
Why it doesn't hold water: You have to make the time. If that means hiring a trainer—whose time you're more apt to respect than your own—so be it. The cost of the sessions will be worth it, because you'll have a workout, tailored to your needs and weaknesses, that you can actually do on your own. For instance, Mann can do cardio until the cows come home, but she'll only motivate to sculpt and stretch when Gonzalez is around. "I much prefer to go out for a run than to do lunges in front of the TV," she says.
What you say: "But I'm nursing!"
Why it doesn't hold water: To keep up your milk supply, you need only 500 extra calories a day-and those should mostly be lean proteins (such as six ounces of skinless chicken breast), for your sake and your infant's. So it's especially important to make your food choices count while you're nursing. As Mann learned, a food log keeps you honest: "After the baby, I was eating entire boxes of Tastykakes. Now I think before I mindlessly shovel anything like that into my mouth."
What you say: "I'd rather spend the time catching up on sleep."
Why it doesn't hold water: True, sleep is a crucial aspect of staying healthy and sane, but so is exercise. While working out, you trigger hormones that relieve stress and stimulate blood flow, increasing the amount of oxygen your brain receives. With this burst of alertness, you're likely to feel more capable and invigorated. Mann found that when she got herself to do a circuit before sitting on the couch after work, she had more energy for the rest of the night.
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