Getting Your Body Back After Giving Birth

You give up a lot when you become a parent, but your body should never be something you give up on. Despite what you may have watched other women go through and no matter what ideas you have about the female body after giving birth, there is no reason you can't get back into tip top shape after giving birth.

There are three simple things you need to do in order to restore your pre-pregnancy health after birth:

• Assessment
• Goals
• Action

That may seem overly simplistic, but it is in fact the basic recipe for accomplishing anything that you really want to achieve in life.

Assessment

As soon as you feel up to it, take all of your clothing off and look at yourself in a full length mirror. This needs to be done after you have given birth and have given your body at least a few weeks to reduce the swelling that is natural after giving birth. Don't torture yourself by doing this while the baby is still in the womb.

Now, assess what you think would have to be accomplished to feel comfortable with your body again. Maybe for you it's trimming up your thighs and rear end, but for someone else serious focus may be needed in the core of the body. This is a personalized journey, so just honestly assess what you think needs to be done to get your body back.

Goals

Now, it's time to pick up pen and paper and write down some goals based up on your assessment results. Get very specific here or your goals won't be easy to reach. For instance, rather than saying you would like to lose weight, state how many pounds you think would need to be lost. This will require stepping on the scale to get an accurate accounting of your starting point.

Other goals may be to tone or tighten up certain areas of the body or to lose fat from particular areas of the body. Note that you cannot force your body to lose fat just from one area of the body. You will need to focus on fat loss throughout the entire body to achieve that.

Make your goals as specific as possible and keep them tightly focused to your assessment results. Also, make sure they are realistic so you don't set yourself up for disappointment. Remember your life is not what it used to be prior to becoming a parent, so you may have less time now to devote to workouts.

Action

You will never get your body back just by writing down goals. You have to follow through with real action! This means performing workouts that will help achieve your goals and watching what you eat.

It is important to clear your workout schedule with a doctor and never to start working out before you are given approval. Also, if you are breastfeeding make sure you are not restricting your diet too much. You can choose healthier foods and that will help you meet your goals while feeding your baby higher quality nutrients.

The time to really get your body back is after your baby has grown some and you are physically and mentally ready to start working out on a routine basis. Give yourself time to adjust to your new life as a parent, then take action on those goals!