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MummyLion Flattens Her Mummy Tummy… & Does 50 Burpees

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MummyLionA few weeks ago I introduced you to Catherine, AKA MummyLion who is doing the 12 week MuTu System programme to lose her mummy tummy, alongside her Thinking Slimmer Slimpod to conquer destructive food habits & drop extra pounds. She has taken on the challenge with gusto & has videoed her 50 burpee challenge for your entertainment motivation.

Read MummyLion’s MuTu / Thinking Slimmer story so far here & to find out more about how you can lose YOUR mummy tummy by doing the right sort of exercise in your own backyard… check out the download here!

Leave a comment & give her a cheer… or better still, video your own attempt! :)

Want To Lose Your Mummy Tummy? 5 Facts Your Doctor & Your Gym Instructor Won’t Tell You

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Ab Exercises for Moms | Plank on a Balance Ball

Working deep core muscles with the right exercises, not crunches, will get you flat abs!

When it comes to losing your mummy tummy, baby belly, jelly belly,  pooch, muffin top or whichever is your preferred affectionate name ;) there are a number of areas of confusion.

A quick  search on YouTube & Google produced the following: an exercise for diastasis recti which showed a pregnant woman doing oblique crunches; an eminent plastic surgeon stating categorically that a mummy tummy was caused by “muscle weakness that no amount of exercise will improve”; & a number of ‘postpartum exercises’ that involved lying flat on your back & crunching into a sit-up type movement.

PLEASE STOP RIGHT THERE! If you’re doing these things you are wasting your time & will not get flatter abs after having babies, even a long time after having babies :(

5 MUMMY TUMMY FACTS YOUR DOCTOR OR YOUR GYM INSTRUCTOR WON’T TELL YOU  DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE MUMMY TUMMY 101  FOR FREE HERE!

1. Sit-ups or crunches (including oblique crunches where you twist as you raise your upper body) are NOT SUITABLE  for any woman who has had a baby. The reasons why are covered extensively on this blog (they make a Diastasis Recti (or abdominal separation) worse & exert pressure in all the wrong places…). But it is important to understand that you are not ‘waiting for the gap ( diastasis recti) to close’, so that you can then do them. YOU NEVER NEED TO DO THEM! Crunches are absolutely, categorically, without question NOT THE BEST EXERCISES TO GET FLATTER ABS

2. *Going through the motions* of  Pilates-style or core  exercises without ensuring that your tranvserse abdominus muscle is correctly engaged; or *just sitting* on a Fit Ball / Balance Ball now & again is not going to flatten your abs. It’s better than nothing, in the sense that your transverse muscle will need to ‘wake up’ a little. But Unless you consistently  focus on correctly ENGAGING & WORKING your Transverse Abdominus… then whatever exercise you’re doing, isn’t working. Note: whilst this will be a very conscious effort at first, it won’t always be so. Your weakened muscles simply need to re-learn their job!

3. Unless your pelvic floor muscles are integral to all your ab exercises, you won’t get a flat tummy. This applies if you had a c-section too!

Your ‘core’ is made up of: your transverse abdomnius, your diaphragm, the multifidus muscles of the spine & your pelvic floor. They are all connected & they all need to be strengthened following pregnancy & childbirth (regardless of the type of birth(s) you had). There is more to strengthening your pelvic floor than ‘squeezing as if you’re stopping yourself from urinating’. Newsflash: there is more than one hole down there…

For the Ab Exercises you SHOULD be doing, check out myTOP TEN AB EXERCISES FOR MOMS VIDEO!

4. Except in the case of an excessive gap (or hernia) You DO NOT need surgery to repair a diastasis or abdominal separation. But also remember that surgery will not solve all your tummy problems. A tummy tuck (Abdominoplasty)  fundamentally involves cutting away loose skin. It may also involve  (“while you’re in there Doctor… ;) ”) suturing the gap between the 2 halves of muscle, & maybe a bit of liposuction for good measure. You CAN strengthen your abdominal muscles & close a diastasis with corrective exercise – however long ago you had your babies & however weakened they might be. They’re MUSCLES. So you can strengthen them like any other. But you have to do it correctly, & in the right direction, if you want a flat tummy.

5. Diastasis Recti is not the only reason for your mummy tummy. Unless you tackle nutrition, digestive issues, correct your posture & core strength AND lose the flab that sits on top, don’t blame it all on the gap in your abs!

What’s frustarting you about YOUR mummy tummy?Just ask me my Lovelies… Mummies Tummies are what I do! :)

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Average Time To Lose Baby Weight?

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Is there an average time it takes to lose your baby weight? If your youngest is at school, can you really still blame the jelly belly on your babies?

How long does the ‘post natal’ (or post partum if you’re reading this in the middle of my night) bit last?

Well in my experience (& my clients’), a correctly prescribed postnatal exercise programme will put your body back to where you want to be well within a year of having your baby, including tackling the mummy tummy. If you commit to the exercise & lifestyle guidelines & eat for health & vitality (i.e. if you follow all the rules… ;) ) you can certainly be back in your jeans or even a bikini 4-5 months after having your baby.

BUT… & its a big BUT… most women don’t actually have the guidance, the inclination or the energy to commit to a ‘correctly prescribed  post natal exercise programme’ in the first few months after childbirth. Actually, come to think of it, within the first year or 3 ;)

Can’t imagine why. Anyone would think those early months & years were hard work, or tiring, or utterly overwhelming or something…  Anyway, point is, most don’t. Which means, that unless you are blessed with REALLY lucky genes, then that mummy tummy is going to be obscuring the waistband of your jeans for some months or years to come.

But it’s never to late to start knocking those wobbly bits back into shape!

I can already hear your ‘I’m the exception to the rule!’ cries: ‘But my stomach muscles split!‘ / ‘I’ve had 3 c-sections’ / ‘I’ve got big bones’ or ‘My mother never lost hers either’. But it can be done dear fellow knackered mum. Honest.

So, Question:  “What’s the average time it takes to lose baby weight?”

Answer: Until either your fairy Godmother waves the washboard abs wand, or you give it some help.

Can you relate to the school gate “Just can’t lose the baby weight”  chorus?  Or have you lost all yours? How long did it take you? Come on – tell us your tales of mummy tummy woe :)

A Cosmetic Cream to Banish Your Mummy Tummy??

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I have read in lots of places today about the magic mummy tummy cream that sold out in an hour at Harvey Nics - rub it into your mummy tummy & it disappears! *Slinks off without a job*

I’m impressed – this cream ‘burns fat’ (I’ve always loved that phrase… what with? A blow torch?) & gives results ‘comparable to surgery’. Wow, not bad for £18.85.

The list of celebrity endorsers does of course, as is so often the case, offer a realistic set of role model bodies all real mums can relate to… Kimberley Walsh, Denise Van Outen, Alexandra Burke, Diane Vickers and Ellie Goulding. Um, have they all even HAD a baby?!

No offense meant whatsoever at the gorgeous Denise, but may I be so bold as to suggest that she *might* have also undergone a fairly intensive exercise & diet regime as well as rubbed in the magic cream? Oh, shut up you old cynic!

Does the cream strengthen your pelvic floor so you don’t wee when you sneeze & cure back ache too? If it does I’m really in trouble. And I bet it smells nice too. :(

Ho hum, I’ll twiddle my thumbs til the queues at Harvey Nics die down ;)


Is Diastasis Recti The Reason for a Hard, Protruding Still-Looks-Pregnant Post Pregnancy Tummy?

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tummy that still looks pregnant | is it diastasis recti?

Pregnant? Or just...

Diastasis Recti symptoms & information can be confusing. A particular area that often causes concern is when your post pregnancy belly is not squidgy, or jelly-belly like, but rather hard & protruding, as if you were 5 months pregnant again :( Is this diastasis recti? Or could something else be causing it?

This can be more confusing when the rest of your body is relatively lean or slim, but the mummy tummy hasn’t gone away. It doesn’t *feel* like excess fat, because it’s firm & sticks out, literally like when you were pregnant.

Sometimes it gets worse throughout the day, getting bigger at the end of the day or after a big meal.

Bottom line, you’re fed up with being asked when the next one’s due, & can’t understand why the rest of your body has pretty much ‘gone back’, but the belly is still a BIG problem.

OK, well there are a few factors which could be contributing:

Firstly, & this applies especially if your belly seems to get bigger throughout the day, or if you feel bloated or uncomfortable after eating: there could be excess sugar in your diet, &/or you could have developed an intolerance to certain foods. All of these will cause swelling & bloating, as undigested food in your intestine is literally ‘pushing’ your stomach outwards.

Cut out processed foods, including sugar, & try cutting out wheat & dairy as well for a few weeks. None of these foods are necessary for healthy diet so you won’t come to any harm by removing them for a while! And try to monitor when it feels worse. Very often women complain of bloating which varies throughout the day – if this is the case for you, then your muscles are not to blame, this is a digestive issue.

Clean up your diet as much as you can, drink plenty of water & herbal teas to encourage digestion & eat plenty of fibre in the form of whole fruits & vegetables & wholegrain carbs such as wholegrain rice, quinoa, rye, oats & spelt (Note: the last 3 grains on this list contain gluten… you may be intolerant to all gluten containing foods, so if the problems persist, you may need to go totally gluten free).

You can get propoerly tested for gluten or other allergies – I found this really informative site which very clearly explains a lot of food intolerance issues & conditions.

But sugar is the place to start… it may well be all you need to cut out, to see a dramatic difference & to make you feel a whole lot more comfortable.

Second possible cause is your posture. The posture of pregnancy & mothering doesn’t do the profile of our tummies any favours! Imagine your pelvis is a bowl of water, which you have to keep upright to stop the water spilling… If you are over-arching your back (& consequently sticking out your belly), you’ll need to level out your pelvis by tilting it back towards you. When this over arched back & protruding belly is a permanent postural state (as it is for many mums), then the outward pressure on the rectus muscle (the one that splits with a diastasis) is increased. It also further weakens your transverse muscle, the important one to strengthen to get a flat tummy.

Thirdly, you may be doing your core exercise, but it is possible to go through the motions of these exercises without engaging the transverse muscle correctly. The key is what your lower abdomen looks like as you do them. Does it bulge out at all? If so, you are unknowingly increasing intra-abdominal pressure & training the muscles to push outward still further. You may be ‘bearing down’ or pushing (yes, this relates to your pelvic floor muscles too!) when you want to be achieving the opposite. When you engage your transverse muscles correctly, the lower abdomen should hollow inwards as the muscle contracts.

And the fourth factor is of course, diastasis recti… plenty more on diastasis recti here.

Lastly, a bloated, painful & swollen abdomen CAN be a sign of something very serious like ovarian cancer – this is not to scare you, but simply to say that there’s no harm in getting checked out if you’re really concerned. Remember this is much less likely, & the above are  much more likely causes, but I want to make sure I cover every possibility!

I hope this helps! Are YOU fed up with being asked when the next one’s due?

Want the definitive guide to Diastasis Recti? Get the ‘MuTu Free Downloads’ here!

The MuTu System 12-week coaching download leaves no stone unturned in your quest for a flatter post-baby tummy! Download Here

Is Diastasis Recti The ONLY Reason for Your Mummy Tummy? You Sure About That…?

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Lose your Mummy Tummy with the MuTu System

Mind the Gap...

Diastasis recti is without doubt a major culprit in the mummy tummy stakes. But make sure you don’t overlook diet, excess fat storage & maybe a lack of motivation or a feeling of hopelessness about your situation too :( Here’s some ideas & strategies that might help.

If you have a post pregnancy belly which bulges or protrudes, & seems to form a cone shape when you get up from lying on your back, then you probably do have split abdominal muscles, or diastasis recti. You will also likely be suffering from weak core muscles – that’s the muscles that support your lower back, define your waistline & are connected to your pelvic floor.

But there may be other factors at play. Appropriate exercises for diastasis recti are the core activation & strengthening exercises discussed here. You see, the muscles that have split – the outermost, vertical recti muscles of your abdomen – are connected to the important transverse abdominus muscle that lies deep inside.

Any exercise that strengthens the transverse muscle & draws it IN, by default will also draw the recti muscles TOGETHER.

Multi-tasking exercise. We like that.

But I would like to add a cautionary note, that follows on from my post about the psychology of excuses… if you do not perform these exercises on a daily basis to repair your diastasis recti & strengthen your core AS WELL AS eat & exercise intensively to lose fat… you will not get rid of your mummy tummy.

Diastasis recti is:

1. Reparable

2. Not the only problem with most mummy tummies

In our determination to identify the one issue to place all our focus on, we easily lose sight of the maybe more obvious stuff. I recently dealt with a client who was so fixated on diastasis recti as the key to all her mummy tummy woes, she chose to ignore (or at least downplay) her excessive sugar consumption. The abdominal gap wasn’t the big deal in this particular case, the sugar in her diet was. But it was easier to focus on the former as that felt more ‘medical’, more out of her control, or was maybe just less painful or less hassle to deal with.

Post natal fat loss does not have one isolated answer.

This is why my MuTu System incorporates 5 essential components, ONE of which is treating diastasis recti.

Don’t kid yourself into thinking that if you could just close the gap in your abdominal muscles, all would be flat & gorgeous. In some cases this may be the predominant problem (every individual is unique), but there are 4 other issues. Ignore them, & you will make improvements, but you won’t have solved the problem.

Are you confused by the extent of your own diastasis recti, & how much it contributes to the appearance of your tummy? Let me know where you’re struggling & I’ll try to clear it up for you!

The Mummy Tummy Food Diary Analysis… How To Eat the MuTu Way

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Karin at Cafebebe & her food confessions start here… This is how to eat to lose your Mummy Tummy, the MuTu way!

Cafe Bebe and Little Miss

Karin, her tummy and her Little Miss

Want postnatal fat loss? Even if you’re not so postnatal anymore… that’s OK. Please join the *really-quite-a-few-months-postnatal-now* lovely Karin on her journey to a smaller stomach!

I have a few days of food diary from Karin now, & so have added my suggestions, alternatives & waggy finger *tut tut*comments below.

Keep the confessions coming Karin! You did tell me to let you have it, & I, um, have. Hope you’re sitting down Love.

Thursday, Early AM:
1/2 cinnamon-raisin bagel w/ light scraping of Bertolli spread; Cup of tea/splash of milk; 2 tsp Splenda

Bagels are very high GI – this means they convert to sugar almost immediately in your system, give you a quick energy burst & blood sugar high, then fizzle away to empty calories & hunger. Wholegrain spelt, rye or wheat (more on wheat later) bread with some no-crap-added peanut butter or an egg for protein would give much more sustained energy & nutrition.

More on bloating & sugar & intolerance here

Late Morning:
1 piece of Hovis Hearty Oats bread; 1 poached egg; 1 small satsuma

This is a much better combination… have it first thing then you could delete those empty bagel calories from the equation!

Snack: 1 pkt Lighter Choice Tesco Melba Toast (6 wee slices); 2 tbsp Caramelized Onion Hummus

Beware packaged foods claiming to be ‘light’, ‘low fat’ or ‘diet’ foods. A food that naturally contains fat will taste pretty darned odd or unpleasant without it. So they add something else (usually more sugar, or salt, or something chemical & nasty) to make it taste nice again. Keep foods in their natural state, & you can’t go far wrong.

Lunch: 2 cups tri-colour, whole wheat fusilli pasta; cream & mushroom sauce (but not very creamy… I think single cream & not much of it); small piece of chocolate sponge; Cup of tea/splash of milk, 2 tsp unrefined golden caster sugar

The wheat was wholegrain, so that’s good, then lots of sugar, lots of saturated fat… & one vegetable! ;)

Snack: Banana
I like that snack! Have a handful of nuts with it to slow down the GI, add protein & keep you feeling satisfied.

Dinner:
2 handfuls McCain’s French Fries; 4 Tesco Cheese & Onion quiche; 2 tbsp Heinz beans; 1 tbsp coleslaw (Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference)

After dinner I was MASSIVELY bloated & uncomfortable!
Hmmm, that’s because the only healthy thing in there was the baked beans… & possibly you ate a bit too much, quite late at night.  Shop-bought baked goods (anything with pastry) will almost certainly contain nasty hydrogenated fats. We don’t like those. More wheat in the pastry too.

2 pint glasses of water w/ splash of Oceanspray Cranberry & Raspberry squash drink

Lots of sugar in it, but could be a lot worse!

(slinks away & hides)
:) Karin

As well you might Mrs…

Friday: (45 minute walk)

Some exercise! I like that!

Cup of tea w/ milk, 2 tsp sugar; 1/2 cinnamon bagel; Bowl of Rice Krispies w/ semi-skimmed milk

Try to reduce the processed nature of your breakfasts – any goodness the grains used in these packaged cereals had has been long since processed away (that’s why they add all those vitamins). Try oats, spelt flakes, dried fruit, nuts, seeds (ie make your own muesli) Just buy all the things you like separately – much cheaper – then throw them all in a big tupperware.
Coconut milk (wonderful, healthy stuff), hemp or organic oat milk (most supermarkets do sell this stuff  – try the dairy/wheat free aisles or sometimes it’s randomly in with the cartons of long life milk) are great alternatives to dairy.

Chicken/mayo/salad on white bread sandwich; 6 Pringles; 1/4 boiled egg; 1 scoop hazelnut/chocolate ice cream

The salad’s good… ;) Seriously though,  just a few changes will  make this healthy. Ditch the mayo, double the salad & switch the bread for one of the types mentioned before, add free range chicken… Healthy sandwich! Pringles are the Devil’s work. Nothing more to say there. The egg is good, good, good! The ice-cream… well I think you KNOW about that one.

1 small nectarine

Fruit. Fruit is good.

1 pkt. Tesco Light Choice Melba Toast; 1 tbsp carmelised onion hoummus

1 poppadom w/ 1 tsp mango chutney; Onion Baghee (4 small ones/starter); Mushroom Biryani (4 tbsp rice/2 tbsp sauce); Plain Naan; Small glass Rosé

You went out for a curry & a drink. It’s OK, that’s allowed… so long as you make the changes to the rest of the week!

Saturday 7 August:
2 cups of tea w/ milk/ 4 sugars; 1/2 cinnamon bagel; 2 small nectarines

1 piece Hovis Hearty Oats bread; 1 tbsp peanut butter

Oat bread OK, nectarines good, peanut butter good (so long as it’s the crunchy, no sugar added sort)

2 pieces garlic bread (Tesco Light Choice); 2 cups baked spaghetti;
1 breadstick

It’s white (ie processed, no goodness left) wheat bread again – this is what is making you feel bloated, honest.

1/4 Mattesons Smoked Sausage; 2 pieces Hovis Hearty Oats bread; 2 tbsp Heinz baked beans

Sunday 8 August:
1 cup of tea/milk + 2 tsp sugar; Bacon Roll & Hash Brown (McDonalds); 250ml Orange Juice

Med Mocha Frescato (Costa)

Sugar, sugar, sugar & a bit of sugar.

So you darkened the doors of the Golden Arches & followed it with a nice cold cup of sugar & additives. Just don’t do it again if you want to lose that tummy, Lady.

10 Meatballs w/ gravy (IKEA); small portion of chips

Well, so long as the meatballs were made with organic, lean mince, the gravy had no hydrogenated fat in it & the chips were oven baked. No? Oh, not so great then.

2 pieces of chicken; 1 tbsp stuffing; 2 small roast potatoes; 1 corn on the cob; 1 piece of Yorkshire pudding

If this as all home made & fresh – nothing wrong with a good roast in my book.

2 pint glasses of water

OK, so now Karin hates me & has slunk away to eat a baguette with jam on whilst sticking pins in a small annoying Wendy doll.

Your homework for the next week Lovely CafeBebe:

  • Cut out refined wheat. This means white pasta, white bread & all types of pastry or baked goods made with wheat flour. I PROMISE you will feel better. Seek out rye & spelt bread, try oatcakes instead. If you must have wheat, have wholegrain (not just ‘brown’ ). Go to the health-food shop & find different types of pasta, crackers & breads. Don’t think ‘ it’s too much hassle’ – it’s not, it’s your body & it’s important & you want to change it, remember?
  • Eat more fresh vegetables – at least 5 servings a day
  • Drink more water
  • Start reading – really READING – labels.

Will you join Karin on her quest to clean up her food act & lose the tummy? Please leave a comment & give the lady some encouragement – especially since she probably thinks she’s just been right royally told off.

This is where I say, it’s for your own good’ , but she still wants to punch me. She’ll have to catch me first though. XX

How to Eat To Lose Your Baby Weight & Your Mummy Tummy!

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Eat to lose your baby weightHow do you eat to lose your baby weight & your mummy tummy?  Karin, mummy blogger at CafeBebe is a good few months (years… ;) ) postpartum, but still has baby weight & mummy tummy she’d like to see less of. And I’m a sucker for one of the sisterhood in tears, so when she came to find me at the CyberMummy conference for a hug & some support because yet another person thought she was pregnant… I had to step in. Postscript early 2011 – she is pregnant again now – congratulations Karin!)

arin’s mummy tummy is due to a number of factors, almost definitely including  diastasis recti – weak core muscles & a good few layers of fat sitting on top :( There may very well be other factors, including food intolerance or allergy causing excessive bloating, insulin resistance or unbalanced blood sugar levels due to eating habits, lifestyle factors & stress.

Karin is under orders to write down every morsel of food & drop of drink that pass her lips for 2 weeks. As she has already learnt, the very fact of writing it down can be rather effective in itself. Suddenly you’re accountable. ‘Some one’s going to read this. Hell, what if they think I’m a pig? What if they think I haven’t got a clue?’

The writing down bit is a start, even if you’re not going to get a scary personal trainer-type read over it. Try it for yourself! It really makes you think about what you’re eating & may surprise you. Often the number of coffees/ biscuits/pieces of toast/glasses of wine/handful of crisps that creep in whilst not actually counting as ‘meals’ can add up without your realising.

I’ve had one day’s worth form Karin so far, but I’m going to prolong her agony for a couple more days before telling you what she’s eating or giving any advice. I need to know how she eats for a few days (then we can all have a good look ;) ) in order to give some meaningful guidance.

If you are following any kind of regime or programme of any description, if your nutrition is not being addressed as a priority then you’re not going to get anywhere. You can exercise until you collapse, but you won’t see any improvement if you’re sabotaging all your hard work with crappy eating.

Just so you know, I will NOT be putting Karin on a diet. I don’t do diets. Diets are rubbish & don’t work because if they did there’d only be one diet book instead of thousands. The diet industry makes an utterly scandalous amount of money by convincing us we need to buy their excuses for food. We don’t. Nature makes food quite well by itself thank-you. But I can give you some ideas & guidelines on how to navigate the labels, the claims & the ‘science bits’ that the food industry loves to confuse us with.

This is not a diet, its how to eat the MuTu Food way.

So please give Karin your support & why not join her by keeping your own food diary for the next week or so?

2nd postscript early 2011 – this was a pretty fair anlaysis as it turned out that Karin is actually Coeliac & so completely intolerant to gluten!

Lose Baby Weight Fast By Avoiding These Foods!

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Trying to lose your baby weight fast can feel like a long old road. Your ‘Mummy Tummy’ is wobbly for a number of reasons, all of which are covered elsewhere on this blog, but here we’re talking about the specific foods you need to avoid if you’re ever going to see that flat tummy. These foods will make or keep your mummy tummy looking fat & bloated, regardless of how much you exercise!

Of course if you eat more food than your body needs, you will gain fat & will struggle to lose your baby weight. But there’s a bit more to it than that, when you are storing excessive or disproportionate amounts of fat around your abdomen, & / or suffer from bloating. If this is you, then that tummy isn’t baby fat & you can get rid of it! By eating ‘clean food’, balancing your blood sugar & avoiding foods which cause bloating or intolerance.

Storing disproportionate fat around your waist is directly related to SUGAR, & how you manage the insulin level in your blood. Taken to the extreme, diseases like diabetes type 2 can be the result. It may also be due to FOOD INTOLERANCE OR ALLERGY.

LOSE BABY WEIGHT FAST BY CUTTING OUT SUGAR & REDUCING STRESS

First we need a little ‘science bit’, so concentrate ;) Insulin is a hormone our body produces to control the circulating sugar level in our blood. It is also a fat storage hormone. Storing fat is one of insulin’s jobs.  High levels of insulin in your blood make your body really, really *clever* at storing fat. The insulin will actually inhibit the breakdown of fat, so no matter how much you exercise, you won’t lose your baby weight & the flabby tummy remains.

When we eat food, insulin is released to ensure that our blood sugar level doesn’t rise too high. The amount of insulin released depends upon the type of food that we eat – the more sugar, the more insulin is needed. This is not just about eating obvious sugar, like cakes, sweets or cookies, but any highly refined, starchy, carbohydrate foods such as white pasta, white bread, white rice, or alcohol.

As far as your body is concerned, any refined or simple carbohydrate is pure sugar. It can’t tell the difference!

Carbohydrate-rich foods serve as our main source of energy, & are ESSENTIAL, especially for a busy mother with many demands on her time & energy, & definitely if you’re breastfeeding. You SHOULD NOT cut out all carbs. But if you want to lose your baby weight, you do need to cut out bad carbs.

Your consumption of carbs should be in the form of whole-grains, fruits & vegetables. If there is no alternative but to use white pasta or rice, ensure that there is a good level of protein (beans, eggs, fish, meat) in the same meal to help balance your blood sugar level.

We commonly think of fat as the problem when it comes to being fat, but actually sugar is the real enemy. Sugar, in all its forms & including alcohol, is empty calories, plain & simple.

Stress, caffeine & other stimulants & skipping meals are also major culprits. All of these things create stress hormones which trigger the release of even more glucose from your liver into your blood stream. More glucose (IE more sugar) = more insulin = more fat.

Stress could be ‘life’ stress, but it could also be ‘body’ stress caused by eating rubbish foods, not drinking enough water or not getting enough sleep. Another reason to take time out & relax – stress doesn’t just make you stressed, it makes you fat!

LOSE BABY WEIGHT FAST BY INDENTIFYING FOOD INTOLERANCE

Firstly, an intolerance is not the same as an allergy. If you are allergic to a particular food, it will cause an immediate (or within an hour of eating), acute reaction. This is likely to be itching in the mouth, difficulty breathing or swallowing, followed by vomiting, diarrhea & abdominal pain. It is an abnormal, immune response to certain food (such as peanuts, shellfish or milk). Less than 3% of adults & 6-8% of children have clinically proven, true allergic reactions to food.

A food intolerance is much more prevalent, & is defined by a difficulty or inability to digest certain foods. This is usually due to insufficient digestive enzymes in the intestine. It doesn’t affect the immune system & is rarely life threatening. Unabsorbed foods cause gas, bloating and cramping, particularly if large quantities of the food is eaten. Common offenders are milk products, wheat or other gluten-containing grains.

A bloated or gas-filled intestine will appear as a distended & enlarged abdomen… that’s not baby fat you need to lose, that’s gas & an unhappy digestive system… Only cut out one food at a time (otherwise you won’t know what caused the reaction) & see if you feel any different after a week. If there is no difference, re-introduce the food & try something else. The western diet typically includes excessive amounts of wheat & dairy products anyway, so going without for a few days will certainly not do you any harm!

And you may even see a rather miraculous change in the shape of your tummy as you LOSE YOUR “BABY WEIGHT” FOR GOOD!

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