How to get back in shape after postpartum recovery

10 months after giving birth to my little Taozi, I have steadily returned to my pre-pregnancy weight of 92 pounds. I have never eaten a bland fat-reducing meal, nor have I spent a lot of money on private postpartum recovery classes. The core experience is actually not to rush the exam and follow the body's recovery rhythm first. There is no "quick weight loss formula" that applies to everyone.

I used to see two groups of people arguing when browsing maternal and child forums. One group said that you should lose weight as early as possible while your postpartum metabolism is high. You should wear an abdominal belt during the confinement period, control your diet, and wear pre-pregnancy pants after the confinement period. The other group said that you have to wait until three months before moving, and you can't touch cold water, let alone exercise. I encountered pitfalls in both of these when I was my first child. When I just gave birth, I heard from my sister in the delivery room that the girdle could tighten the belly and prevent visceral sagging. The girdle tightened my ribs so hard that I couldn’t even lie flat. After three days, the amount of lochia increased. When I went for the 42-day review, the doctor scolded me and said, The abdominal girdle is originally used to protect the wound and relieve pain after cesarean section. People who give birth naturally wear it every day, but it oppresses the pelvic floor muscles. The pelvic floor muscles that have been stretched due to pregnancy are even worse. The belly is not harvested, and the urine leakage is not worth the loss.

The mother in the unit next door to me was even more anxious. She started eating boiled vegetables every day after confinement, and danced to Pamela videos every day. She lost 10 pounds in half a month. Later, her hair fell out in handfuls, and her milk supply dropped by two-thirds. She went to see a Chinese medicine doctor who said she suffered from a severe loss of qi and blood. It took half a year for her to recover, but she lost weight even later than me who had slowly adjusted.

My pelvic floor muscle strength was only level 2 after a reexamination. The doctor said that running and jumping are absolutely not allowed. So every morning I pushed Xiao Taozi to the park in front of the community for a walk. I walked slowly for forty minutes. When I got home and sat on the sofa to feed the baby, I did a few sets of Kegels. I replaced the stewed pig's trotter soup with a thick layer of oil into a clear stew. I skimmed off all the oil before drinking, added two more pieces of lean meat and blanched vegetables, and took half a bowl less rice than before pregnancy. When I was hungry, I ate an apple and drank a glass of milk. In the second month, I lost 8 pounds when I weighed myself, and my milk supply was not affected at all.

There are also friends who have been exercising all year round before pregnancy. They started doing low-intensity core activation more than 20 days after giving birth, and returned to the vest line in three months. All indicators were normal when checked again, so it does not mean that everyone must wait for three months before moving. The key is the signal your own body gives you. If you have back pain after standing for a long time and the lochia is not clear, then just lie down and rest. Don't try to wear a small skirt.

To be honest, there is really no need to try random methods like unboxing a blind box to get back in shape after giving birth. Think about it, the uterus expands from the size of an egg to the size of a watermelon at ten months of pregnancy, and it will take a few months for it to shrink back slowly after giving birth, right? Forcing yourself to do aerobics on an empty stomach is like driving a heavy truck on a freshly patched road before it dries out. It seems fast, but in fact it hurts your foundation. Now I occasionally drag my husband to late-night barbecues when I'm greedy, and I do half-an-hour low-intensity yoga along with videos two or three days a week. My weight has remained stable at the pre-pregnancy numbers, my stomach is not loose, and I haven't had any sneezing or leaking urine. Compared with those sisters who lost 90 pounds just after confinement but got back pain when they held the baby, I feel much more comfortable.