Back to Pre-pregnancy figure!

nearlythere2

I am a 29-year-old working mother of two children. My second child was born one year ago. I am having great difficulty getting my body shape back. I was hoping that some of you could help me with some of my queries.

I have a BMI of just under 22. I run 4 times a week (ran my first 10k last year). I usually run 7-8k on my runs (at around 9.5 – 10 kph). I go for regular walks. I am very good with my diet (90% good 10% bad). Yet I still have a lot of flab & skin around my stomach. The rest of my body shape is pretty good. I think I have thinner legs/arms that before I was pregnant with my first child.

As a working mother I find it is a hard enough as it is to find the time and energy to exercise as much as I am. How much more do I have to do? Is it possible to get back my flat tummy? Can I ever wear a bikini again?

g'em

think your hubby posted about this here!!!

the post-pregnancy tummy is usually very difficult to shift. Fair play to you for all the running and walking, you've obviously got a good cardio regime going, which in itself is mind-boggling with two young children to look after!!!

But really to shift tummy weight, the best way to do it is with diet, which you say is already good. Tbh I wouldn't question that, a BMI of 22 is very healthy, I just hope you're eating the right kinds of healthy food. I'm always saying that here- people are eating what they percieve to be 'healthy' food just because it says low fat on the label, but the truth is, much of the processed slimming foods are crammed with preservatives, additives, colourings and salt and sugar to taste- case in point, I had to get a can of tuna for my lunch- the weight watchers tuna, mayo and sweetcorn individual cans were 111 cals for 80g with only 9g of protein as well as a list of added ingredients as long as your arm. An identical sized can of pure tuna steak was 18.7g of protein, 79 cals and virtually no fat.

Excess salt in the diet is a sure fire way to cause bloating and water retention, and will be found in most packaged and processed food (even the sweet ones!!). Make sure you drink lots of water (herbal teas are fine too) and minimise caffeine. Cut out processed foods as much as possible, and cook from scratch, so you know exactly what you and your kids are eating.

Unfortunately, some women find that pregnancy will stretch their tummy just that little bit too much and find it very difficult to get rid of any excess wibble. But make sure your diet is up to scratch- if you feel unsure about any of it, post up what a typpical day's eating habits would be and we can tell you if theres any hidden dangers to cut out

Edit: sorry, completely forgot to say, pilates is a brilliant way of toning up the abs and strengthening your core and many women have used it to tone up after pregnancy- Liz Hurley swears by it, and have you seen the size of her child?!?? God knows how she walked after that...

t-ha

Hey nearlythere2,

I'll deal with skin first, unfortunatly the only thing I've heard of people use for this beyond surgical procedures is to take fish oil caps and vitamin E to keep the skin healthy. The good news is at 29 (& presumably a non-smoker) your skin's elasticity should still be pretty good so here's hoping.

As for burning the belly, I have the following points to offer for consideration;

Eating healthy foods, and eating them at the right time are two different things - I could take the same healthy foods and come up with two daily food plans one of which would make you slim, and the other would make you fat. Basically I'm talking macronutrient timing.

- Carbohydrates are intended for energy, either for exercise or for refuelling after exercise. Therefore, eat most of your carbs early in the day, or around your exercise sessions when you'll use them for something other than padding.

- Take your fats on board, but try to take them when your insulin levels will be lower so you burn them rather than store them (carbs raise insulin levels, generally the higher the GI of the food the greater your insulin response will be). Essentially, one way of doing this is to avoid mixed high carb & high fat meals and to take your fats later in the day.

- Eat protein, this macronutrient is very handy for dieters, it helps preserve your muscle stores which is vital for the long-term success of a diet, and is also more thermogenic than carbs or fats (temporarily raises your body temperature slightly higher than normal - burns more calories just by eating it). Keep a steady stream of this stuff entering your bloodstream, i.e. eat protein at every meal.

- The overall calorific content of your meals should lower as your activity lowers (i.e. big breakfast, small dinner, no tea & biscuits at 9 o'clock, etc.). If you run in the evenings then obviously you should eat some protein and carbs after that, but otherwise keep evening meals small.

In general it sounds like you do alot of endurance type training. Not to knock this at all since it probably has you very healthy and fit, but it's not the optimal way to a lean toned look because it can induce catabolism if you don't eat enough food to compensate for your training. I may be wrong, but certain things you mentioned such as your arms and legs being skinnier than before, and your BMI being pretty low, give me the impression that you have lost alot of your lean body mass (muscle) but have not managed to get rid of that last annoying bit of your adipose stores (fat). The trouble with this is that if it is the cause of the problem, then the usual responses (less food, more running) will only exasterbate the situation by wasting up more muscle and lowering your base metabolic rate.

If this sounds like you then you need to concentrate on getting back your muscle. The way you do this is to reevaluate your diet and take up some resistance exercises. Log your diet for a typical week, then establish how many grams of protein/carbohydrates/fats and total calories you are taking in on various days (rest days, running days, weekends). You may find you are eating very few calories (I suspect this to be the case, but obviously can't be sure) and not enough protein. Whatever the case, this should highlight any problems. Also, again just to emphasise, make sure you eat after your run.

In terms of resistance exercises, I don't want to go on too much before I hear back if you want to do them or not, or if you want to do them at home or in a gym.... but squats are great. Depending on your starting level you can just do them with a sweeping brush handle, or hold something (like a small bag of spuds) in your arms while doing them. One legged squats and pistols are more difficult. Lunging steps are good too. Picking a bag of spuds off of the ground, standing up with it, hoisting it up to your shoulders and press pushing it into the air, then catching it and letting it down again for one rep, is another fantastic home exercise. Anyway, that's enough to be getting on with...

Here's a thread by a fitness model on another board who got back into shape after a pregnancy using a high protein diet and resistance training (just in case you don't believe me ). The first bit's all just pics, and the usual suspects saying "I'ld hit it!" etc. but she does give some info on her diet & exercise programmes in the thread.
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=857096&pageNo=0

nearlythere2

Thank you for the comprehensive replies. I read the link above. I couldn't believe how much she was eating and still lost the weight. I will post a detailed week of food on this thread. I do want to get it right so I will think about it tonight. Think it might have been the hubbie as he told me about this site....:o Glad he has the interest though....

g'em

oops... sorry, hope I haven't put my foot in it..:o

nearlythere2

Thanks again G'em & T-ha, I think there is something in what you are saying about the timing of eating food. A typical day of food will consist of

Breakfast (8am)
Medium bowl cereal (usually Crunchy nut Cornflakes or Coco Pops) with low fat milk
Coffee

Lunch (1pm)
Salad (Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, ham, cheese)
Danone Bio Activa Yogurt
Banana
Apple
Orange
somedays also rice-cakes or rivita with low fat soft cheese

Dinner
Beef/chicken or fish
3 veg
some form of potatoes, pasta or rice
Packet Gravy/bread sauce/white sauce
I also drink about 2 litres of water a day.

That’s it then for the night even after my 7-8k run. I try no to eat then until the next night. I don’t snack at all.
I am a creature of habit so my weekday food does not vary much from that. At the weekend I try to stick to that, but my weekly treat is to have Chinese takeaway or chips on one of the weekend nights followed by some chocolate. A also usually have dinner with my mum on sundays which is a roast with mashed potatoes and a desert. I have never really written down my diet before and as I write this i can see plenty of flaws in it, I am particularly interested though in the timing and the right foods at the right time. I am open to new foods.
I don't do any resistance training. I have done squats etc as part of an aerobics class before but I haven't the time to go to the gym anymore (you can't prepay classes at our gym and its a first come basis which can mean you have to be there at least a ½ hour before to get in). Any workouts I do really have do be done at home. After our second child my husband bought me a treadmill (decent one) a stationary bike (the one where the handles move with the pedals like a cross trainer) and a weights bench with free weights. I don't use the bike or the weights at the moment, to be honest I really enjoy the running and the stress relief/relaxation I get from it.

Exercise Routine
Running (7-8k) Tuesday, Thursday & Sunday
Power walking Monday & Wednesday (though I do this with my friends and they don’t exactly exert themselves )

Transform

Running will help you drop fat and increase fitness (when done at the right intensity), however it is the job of weight training to increase your muscle tone and definition.

Do your weights and try something like zest magazine for new ideas all the time - its not great but its good for someone starting out in the area. Available in all good newsagents

g'em

nearlythere2 wrote:

Breakfast (8am)
Medium bowl cereal (usually Crunchy nut Cornflakes or Coco Pops) with low fat milk
Coffee

oh lordy no- you're pretty much eating a bowl of sugar for brekkie!!! have no added sugar muesli or ideally porridge (I put in a lf fruit yoghurt to sweeten it and make it creamy). porridge is the breakfast of kings. or have a slice of wholegrain toast with fruit. or even a home-made smoothie with natural yoghurt, fruit, and some porridge oats thrown in- yummy in summer time.

Lunch (1pm)
Salad (Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, ham, cheese)
Danone Bio Activa Yogurt
Banana
Apple
Orange
somedays also rice-cakes or rivita with low fat soft cheese

lovely, but watch it with the fruit, the high natural sugar content will raise your insulin levels.

Dinner
Beef/chicken or fish
3 veg
some form of potatoes, pasta or rice
Packet Gravy/bread sauce/white sauce

fine, make sure all meat is lean, no skin, no fat and use baby potatoes, wholemeal pasta and rice, and cut out the gravy. Try and cut out most things that come from a packet in fact!

That’s it then for the night even after my 7-8k run. I try no to eat then until the next night. I don’t snack at all.

snacks are GOOD!! if you don't eat for 5 hours or more your body starts to go into starvation mode and will use muscle tissue instead of fat stores as fuel. Snacking healthily prevents that so eat every 2-4 hours, aiming for 4-6 eating periods a day. So ideally you have a breakfast, snack mid-morning- piece fruit (instead of at lunch maybe), or yoghurt, or handful nuts (unsalted, natrually!), lunch, mid-afternoon snack, dinner and then maybe another small snack before you go to bed (low in carbsand fat, high in protein).

Putting it very basically, fat as we eat it gets stored to fat very quickly because it doesn't need to get processed very much by our bodies. Carbs however need to get broken down and protein even more so. So our bodies burn more calories breaking down protein and carbs. Ideally you should lookat eating about 60% carbs (you'll need lots of energy to look after kids and distance run) 25% protein and 15% good fats (by which I mean flax oil, extra virgin olive oil and fish oils).

Have you ever heard of the GI diet? Apart from being a 'new craze' its not actually a diet at all. Its a healthy eating plan and is applicable to everyone in the family. I posted about it in detail here... there's a new book out written by the author and his wife called The Family GI Diet which would be a great idea to help you and your hubby plan healthy meals to keep the whole family full of energy, fit and healthy.

nearlythere2

Thanks Transform G'em & T-ha, i don't want to bug you, but could you recommend any good books on weights for women with programmes and illustrated exercises? I think I'll check out the family GI book.

g'em

It's no bother at all!! Check out The Complete Guide to Strength Training (good all-rounder for beginners right through to advanced with accompanying colour photos and step-by-step guide) and Food for Fitness: Nutrition Plan, Eating Plan, Recipes for an accompanying nutrition book.

You've have totally the right idea though- educating yourself is the best way to ensure you eat right and train well. Without the right knowledge its easy to listen to snippets of information and make mis-informed decisions about how you're going to workout. Once you know the basics, you can always rely on your own know-how to do it right. Plus, it'll encourage your kids to eat well, which these days is happening less and less. Good on ya girl!!

t-ha

nearlythere2 wrote:

Breakfast (8am)
Medium bowl cereal (usually Crunchy nut Cornflakes or Coco Pops) with low fat milk
Coffee

Lunch (1pm)
Salad (Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, ham, cheese)
Danone Bio Activa Yogurt
Banana
Apple
Orange
somedays also rice-cakes or rivita with low fat soft cheese

Dinner
Beef/chicken or fish
3 veg
some form of potatoes, pasta or rice
Packet Gravy/bread sauce/white sauce
I also drink about 2 litres of water a day.

OK, this is pretty much exactly what I thought it would be. Healthy, but not optimal for body recomposition. First off, just to restate the point about sugary cereals, don't eat them. A nice breakfast is a few tablespoons of oats with a chopped up bit of fruit (or get mixed fruit bags - Nature's Way do a really nice one, not like those supermarket ones that are basically just raisins and orange-peel. I mean who the hell wants to have orange-peel in their mixed fruit bag?! Oh sorry.... rant) and some natural yogurt.

Do you not get hungry between breakfast and lunch? If you do you could take some of that fruit from lunchtime and have it in between. You didn't say if you have salad dressings, if you do then be aware that they are not all made equal and some you can have a fair bit of, and some you need to be a bit more sparing on. I think you would do better to take alot of your starchy carbs out of your dinner and have them at lunch-time instead, not necessarily all of them (especially if you run in the evenings) but most.

For dinner make meat and veg the foundation of this meal. Limit yourself to smaller amounts of potatoes/rice/pasta. Try to use wholewheat pasta and brown rice as they release more steadily into the body. I appreciate that with a family it can make dieting changes more difficult, but when I started making changes I found that it was reasonably convenient to take most of my carbs out of my evening meal and save them for the next day (i.e. no special cooking or anything - the family eats as normal but you keep your spuds for the next day).

The water is good. I think you could maybe take the banana out of your lunch-time slot and have it after your run instead. As g'em said, have mixed nuts around for snacking, especially in that period between lunch and dinner.
In general, I'ld probably give your protein a bump. I'm not sure what your intake is now, but if your lunch salad contains one slice of packaged ham and a few diddly bits of cheese, be aware that that doesn't amount to much in the protein stakes. Give yourself a few slices of ham, or add a serving of cottage cheese to the salad. The oats & yogurt will give you some at breakfast, but it might be a good idea to throw a tablespoon of ground linseed in there too. This, with the extra nuts should give you enough. If your urine starts to smell strongly of ammonia, this typically indicates that your eating more than enough so you can cut back a little bit.

I know it might sound odd to suggest actually eating more per day than before, but give it two week honest try and see how it goes. Just so you're prewarned, cottage cheese can bloat you, that doesn't mean it's making you fatter or anything, but some people don't like that about it.

As for weights, you have a free weights set! Great! In addition to those already posted, here's a site that I think is great for starting off and goes through the correct form for some lifts too;
http://www.stumptuous.com/

Best of luck

t-ha

sorry, my browser made a boo boo or something and I posted twice

loup

This is a fantastic thread and very imformative. Just wondering what u guys think of the Karen Voight weight training videos? I've been following one for ages and it seems ok but i'm lifting 2kg weights where she recommends 2-3lbs..I found these too ineffective. What do u think? Many thanks

Transform

I think as your body adapts you need to increase the weights otherwise progress will come to a hault