Hi all,
I hope you’re well.
I had an email from someone the other day who was on mumsnet and was told to do “Jillian Michaels 30 day shred to lose that baby weight” and asked me if it was safe to do 3 months post-partum. I’m going to be honest, I hate that question.
I have to admit I’m not ridiculously familiar with 30-day shred so I had to look it up. I watched Level 1 and I have to say it’s not a great routine for women with any post-natal issues. There are too many crunches and jumping exercises in there. If you don’t have any issues anymore it’s fine so I’m not knocking the program.
The main reason I struggle with the question is that it focusses on the wrong thing.
Just no
When you’re 3 months post-partum you really should not be focusing on doing exercise for weightloss yet. I have written before on how exercise for weight-loss is a waste of time and whilst you’re breastfeeding it’s even more difficult so check out those blogs if you’d like to know more.
Things like Diastasis Recti, pelvic floor issues, back and neck pain, poor posture, hip weakness etc. should almost all be addresses before doing a generic exercise program. Even things like high stress levels can be massively detrimental to your health which is why I would much prefer people do a short routine every day rather than trying to squeeze an hour’s worth of incorrect exercise in every day.
Exercise is for improving strength, flexibility, feeling better, happier and more confident. Being able to walk up a flight of stairs without being out of breath. For being able to run around with your kids without being pooped after 5 minutes or having joint pain. For getting everything back in it’s proper place again and get the body functioning properly again.
I’m not one of those trainers that say there’s something wrong with wanting to lose a bit of weight, but the best way to do that is by eating a nutritious, healthy diet and giving your body what it needs.
This is what I’m talking about.
In the past 2 weeks I already gave you a couple of links to some healthy eating recipes (week 1 and week 2) and here’s number 3 as a free download.
HPNB Post-Natal cookbook week 3
There are some lovely vegetarian and vegan recipes in there as well for those of you who have requested some so I hope you enjoy it.
Take care of yourself, do the right kind of exercise and, for the love of everything that is Holy, don’t worry about losing any “baby weight” when you’ve just given birth.
Peter
