In Part One of this series, I told you that consistency is key. In Part Two, I challenged you to challenge yourself...and told you to eat something already. Now I share with you my final tips on how to get back into those pre-pregnancy skinny jeans (I just wore mine for the first time in almost two years!).
8. Set goals...but don't set unrealistic expectations.
If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. - Lawrence J. Peter
As with all ventures in life, setting goals is imperative to your success at losing your baby weight. Without set goals, you're less likely to end up where you want to be. So you should absolutely set goals, however small they may be. When you set your goals, make them very specific and easily measurable. For example, instead of saying "I want to get in shape," say "I want to be able to run an eight minute mile by February 1." The first statement is very vague, and there's no way to know if you ever really met your goal. The second statement, on the other hand, has a set deadline, and it easily can be determined whether you met your goal - you can either run that mile in eight minutes or not.
With all of that being said, the expectations that you set for yourself at the onset of a new endeavor can absolutely make or break whether you achieve your goals. You want your expectations to be realistic and attainable so that you're not setting yourself up for disappointment.
Often times, when people start a new exercise regime, they expect to see results after only a week. In rare circumstances, this may be possible, but for most of us, it's going to take longer than a week to see the numbers on the scale move much. When you're setting your goals, start small. "I want to lose one pound in two weeks." That's possible. In fact, it's probable if you are increasing your activity level and/or decreasing your calorie intake. That works out to only a 250 calorie deficit per day (burning an extra 250 calories per day or cutting out an extra 250 calories per day or some combination of burning and cutting calories to equal 250). But if you had said, "I want to lose 20 pounds in one month," that's a different story. That requires a daily calorie deficit of 2,333 calories. That's per day. You would need to burn that many calories per day through extra exercise or cut that many calories per day from your diet. Unless you're currently eating over 4,000 calories per day and can drastically reduce your calories this much or you plan to workout five hours a day, this is impossible. Start small. Be realistic. Small successes will snowball into larger successes, and before you know it, you will have lost that 20 pounds - but in a healthy manner.
(For reference in setting your goals, one pound is equal to 3,500 calories. In order to lose one pound, you must either burn 3,500 calories or cut 3,500 calories from your diet or some combination of burning and cutting calories. Take the number of pounds you would like to lose and multiply it by 3,500. This is the total number of calories that you will need to burn or cut to meet your goal. Now divide this number by a reasonable daily calorie deficit for you. This is the number of calories that you will burn or cut each day. I used 250 in the example above. This is very manageable for most people,but it can be more or less depending on you. The number you end up with is the number of days it should take you to lose that many pounds. That's your goal.)
It's also important to remember that there are some factors that cannot be taken into account on a scale. For example, if you're doing strength training, you will be gaining muscle, which may actually increase your weight (because muscle weighs more than fat). For that reason, I try not to focus my goals too much on weight. Your goal could certainly be to fit into (and look and feel good in) your little black dress. Or why not make your goal something focused on an activity? Maybe you could make your goal be to swim a mile by a certain date or to do 50 push ups in a row. There are no rules as to what your goal can be. Make it something that will motivate you and that will feel like an accomplishment you when you reach it.
9. Track your progress.
This goes hand-in-hand with setting goals. You will never know if you have met your goals unless you're somehow keeping track. For me, this looks like weighing myself once a week and writing it down on a chart so that I can see where I started and where I'm at now. I also like to write my workouts down in a notebook to keep track of my progress at the gym. Sometimes progress is slow, and you need to see the big picture to keep motivated. Sometimes progress is quick, and you need to write it down for those later times when you need a little encouragement. This is also a great way for you to see what has been effective. Maybe you started a new exercise program, and if it happens to coincide with an increase in weight loss or an increase in strength, then you know that your new program is probably effective. Find what works for you, but just make sure you're keeping track of your progress in order to stay motivated, to know when you've reached your goals (and need to set new ones), and to know what has been effective.
10. Love the skin you're in.
We've been talking a lot about making changes to your body, but let's stop here and consider how amazing your body is. You just nurtured and protected another human being in your own body for nine months. Then you miraculously pushed this human being out of your body with little damage to either of you (hopefully). Within a short period of time, you were back up on your feet taking care of your new baby. If you breastfed your baby, he lived his first months off nothing but the liquid gold that came directly from you. All of this is nothing short of awe-inspiring. These are feats to be proud of. These are accomplishments that should give us confidence in whatever goals we set in the future. Your body is amazing. If it can do all of this, what can't it do?
Just as your thoughts and life will never be the same after pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood, your body will probably be changed forever too. Most of us will carry little battle scars to remind us of these times. Certain parts may be a bit softer, while others may sag a little more. That belly pooch may never go away, and your skin may be a little looser where your baby once resided. For me, I've come to terms that I'll probably always have stretch marks and loose skin on my stomach. Because no amount of diet change or exercise can fix the stretching that comes as a result of two babies being in my belly at one time. And I'm ok with that. It's a small price to pay for my babies.
If you're fixated on these things that you can't change, you're going to have a difficult time ever meeting your goals. Honestly, some of it really is impossible to change. Short of plastic surgery, you can't fix some of the battle scars that come from pregnancy. So, instead, why not let those battle scars be a reminder of the great things you have accomplished? Why not let those stretch marks spur you on to greater things by showing you that your body is capable of so much more than you think? Look at what it once did.
A little secret.
So what if you had your last baby twenty years ago or what if you've never had a baby? Will any of this help you? Yes! Everything we've talked about in these three posts (with the exception of nursing) is a basic principle of fitness and nutrition that will work for anyone, in any situation. That's right. This will work for you. It will take perseverance. It will be challenging. It may be slow at times. But if you stick to these guidelines, you will see results, whether it's losing those last ten pounds or running your first 10K.
So you can now, with confidence, go for it. Set some attainable goals. Try something that makes you uncomfortable. Make some new friends. Work hard. In the process, discover how amazing you are, inside and out. And don't forget to eat something.
No comments:
Post a Comment