Burning Off the Baby Cakes

Baby weight. Uuuggg... Before I was pregnant, I was confident that after I had my future babies, working off my pregnancy weight would not be a problem. By the end of my pregnancy though, when I felt a little like a whale, I was not so sure.

At the hospital, before I was discharged, my doctor went over the postpartum "rules" with me. I was not allowed to do anything for two weeks. Then, I was allowed to walk. After my six week appointment, I would hopefully be able to exercise again. But that was SIX weeks away, and my poochy stomach was already driving me crazy : )

My Heroic Husband and Marvelous Mother encouraged me a lot in the hospital. When I got home, I was too nervous to step on my scale. Finally, after a few days, I took a deep breath and hopped on. Wow! I was already only seven pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight! I did not feel like I was, but the scale does not lie.

Between breastfeeding, constant deep squats to pick up BC, and bouncing my colicky baby on the exercise ball for hours, those first two weeks went by pretty fast. I thought I was going to gain lots of weight back, but to my surprise, I did not. I continued to slowly drop weight.

Once I was allowed to power walk again, HH and I took BC on lots of walks around the neighborhood. He slept, while we pumped our arms and talked. Pushing the baby stroller added some extra calorie burn too.

After my six week postpartum appointment, my doctor gave me the OK to exercise. I was so excited! I started that night with an old favorite exercise video that I had not been able to do since before I was pregnant. It felt so wonderful to hop, skip, and jump again!

Since then, HH and I have started to run again together, something we did a lot of pre-pregnancy. I also have discovered several new exercise videos on YouTube. Here are some of my new favorites:

• RealFitTV - I love step aerobics and kickboxing - and RealFitTV has great videos for both!
• Christine Salus - She has some of the most intense HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workouts I have ever done. The first video I did nearly killed me : ) 
• FitnessBlender - This husband and wife team have something for everyone. They have intense workouts with lots of beginner options. They also have lighter workouts. (I did one of their arm workouts two days ago, and I am still sore.)

I still walk and run with HH almost every day. We also enjoy doing core exercises together while BC plays on the floor, and after he goes to bed.

Although my stomach still feels poochy to me, my arms and legs are slowly shaping up - and yes, quite a bit of that toning is simply from juggling a 15 pound, very wiggly, baby boy : )

BC does side plank lifts with HH and me : )