Record your weight

The first step towards maintaining your weight is to keep a weight record. Start by weighing yourself every week or fortnight and make an excel sheet putting up the date, weight, kg gained/lost and number of days since last reading. I made such a record during my pregnancy and postnatal period. This table helped me to keep myself motivated and keep a track of my progress. After all its important to know the hard facts! :-)

I am grateful!

Thank you God for everything I have! Life is not so difficult after all. I may complain everyday about the small things in my life, but I want to acknowledge the good big things that really matter in the end. I may not have the best job or the best house or the best car, but I have the best husband, the best in-laws and I am lucky to have such a good-natured baby. She is turning 9 months on 20th September. :-)

I am thankful for all these things and also for some more to come my way.

Weight loss after delivery - When to start

After piling on pregnancy pounds many new mothers are anxious to lose all the extra weight they are carrying as fast as possible. Some may think of working out or watching their diets as soon as the day they deliver. But trust me, weight loss should be the last thing on your mind during the first few months after delivery. Here are a few pointers -

1. Check with your doc before resuming any exercise
2. Take care of your diet and don't cut back calories. At the same time don't over-indulge
3. Generally after your 6 weeks post partum checkup, you can resume mild physical exercises in case of normal delivery.
4. In case of C-section delivery, general advise is to wait for 3 months before resuming exercise.
5. Easy paced walks can be resumed as long as it feels comfortable.
6. It is more important to eat well and have some sleep as the demands of new-born and breast-feeding can be very tiring.
7. Some weight also starts coming off as you breast-feed your baby, but this is gradual and may take 2-3 months to see visible changes.
8. Take your doc's approval or wait for 4-5 months before resuming crunches and weight training exercises for C-section cases.
9. Go easy on your work-out routine as you resume it after delivery. Build momentum gradually.
10. Have faith that you will lose all the extra weight. Belief is very important to see results, even though it seems like a herculean task. You put on all this weight in 9 months, give yourself that much time at least to regain your former figure.

Quick tips for must have foods after delivery

It's important to take care of your diet in pregnancy, but post-pregnancy diet is also very important for mom's recovery and baby's nutrition. Here are the super foods a mom must have during 3 months after delivery-

1. Milk - for calcium, can't be ignored as breast feeding sucks calcium out of your body
2. Almonds, walnuts - for healthy fats and milk production
3. Raisins - for iron 
4. Lemon - for Vitamin C
5. Lots of water - to keep you hydrated during demanding breast feeding sessions
6. Carbs - cereals to give you energy
7. Eggs - to repair damaged and sore muscles which went through the rigors of delivery
8. Fruits - to add vitamins and fibers

Staying fit is a way of life

"Staying fit is a way of life." This cannot be emphasized enough. Leave aside flat abs, good looks and fitting into clothes, getting fit is much more than that. When we are fit, our body is in harmony. We feel energetic and have stamina to be active throughout the day. And we feel great and powerful. We feel quite capable to do all the things we want to do. We feel confident and sure.

Looking good comes as a perk of taking care of our body and health.

I woke up to exercise and health quite early as I watched my elder brother spend time at home working out with dumb-bells.I got the message that being fit and powerful is important. And slowly I started to incorporate a small workout plan in my day while I was still in school. This small workout plan had general stretching, jogging and crunches. Later on I started going to the office gym as I started my professional life as a software developer.

This habit continued on and off towards my life and it has become a part of my routine now. I lost considerable amount of weight after my wedding, owing to working out really hard. This not only changed my looks but gave me confidence about my body and control over it.

This belief that I can stay fit and maintain my figure helped me to lose my pregnancy weight and come back to somewhat near my pre-pregnancy weight.

Believing in yourself is one of the most important things if you want to lose weight and change your body. And embracing fitness as a part of your life is essential to stay fit.

Starting the journey

That fateful day when I took the test...I didn't know what was in store. My hubby bought a pregnancy test kkit from the chemist the night before. My monthly periods were overdue and I had an eerie feeling that "This  is it!". I don't know how I got this premonition, but it was there.

We had been trying to conceive for four months now, but without luck. I didn't know that even conceiving could be so tricky. We both were young and healthy. We had been happily married for four years and without any undue stress.Both of us were working and had a good work-life balance.We were fortunate to have a good family support system too.

I had pondered over our decision to conceive for long. After our second marriage anniversary I had decided to give myself one more year to enjoy my freedom before taking the plunge. Though I must admit it was a hard decision. I was not very clear about why I want a baby and how my life will change after that. May be it was a mixture of social conditioning, age issues and maternal instincts that led me towards it.

Most interesting was the day when I decided to go for it. We were holidaying in Thailand's Krabi beach on our third anniversary. Krabi is a very beautiful and green beach. I was really enjoying my time there. We came upon Thai massage shops in the market near the beach and though of trying it out, famous as they are. We opted for Thai dry massage. It lasted an hour with the oriental background music and elegant ladies as masseuse. I felt truly soothed and relaxed by the end of it. I was so much charged and blissful that I had the guts to have protection free communion that night, on a spur. I also had a purpose, to start our efforts to conceive.

We continued for some more weeks and I expected that I would conceive for sure. But I was dismayed to see my regular periods appear. This trying and waiting stressed us out for next three months at which point I decided not to wait anymore and keep doing it.

Back to the pregnancy test again..As I watched the two lines appear on the small white strip I just stared in disbelief. I didn't know how to react. I had wanted it for long. But now I had it, and I didn't become happy. Instead I just crept back to my bed slowly and tried not to let my husband know about it. But he was wide awake and somehow guessed that I had woken up to take the test. Obviously I blurted out the news and he was so happy! I was in tears on the other hand. We were both surprised at the tears and I knew they were not tears of joy. I was crying out of shock and fear. At that moment he put my fears to rest when he said he will support me in this journey and everything will be alright! This commenced the start of our parenthood. We were both hopeful that we will come out with flying colors with our love and companionship.

Why this blog?

I am a new mom with an 8 month old baby girl. Through this wonderful transition from a girl to a mother I have learned a few tricks of the trade. Its been a roller coaster ride and I want to share my special journey with moms-to-be and other fellow moms. Be with me to experience the first hand account of what motherhood is all about, mainly from the aspect of how your body changes, fitness plans and getting back your pre-pregnancy shape! Welcome!