On my plan, there isn’t a crucial need to exercise as results will happen either way. I didn’t do a lot of exercise in pregnancy, and I wasn’t feeding my body with the nutrition it needed. I was very tired all the time and lacked energy. After a few weeks postpartum, when my weight loss journey began, I decided to introduce light-moderate exercise, in the form of daily country walks. Fortunately, this was around the same time as the UK locking down, so it seemed like there was never a better time to start reintroducing exercise. I felt very unfit too, but after every walk, I started to feel fitter and each time the walk got easier for me. In the end, I found walking very good for helping me to burn off a few calories, but also to clear my mind. For anyone who isn’t so keen on exercising, I would always recommend just trying to do some daily walking.
I think it was around halfway through my weight loss journey, I decided to introduce more exercise. I’ve always liked exercise as I believe it’s good for the mind, body and soul, but after being very unfit during pregnancy, I knew I would have to take baby steps. Therefore, I bought an indoor exercise bike as it was most convenient to use whilst baby Olivia was napping, plus its very low impact on all my muscles and joints. So as part of my plan, I started cycling on the bike every other day for 30 minutes (alongside my daily walks), to ease me back into my fitness regime. After this point, I noticed I was getting faster weight loss results from burning these extra calories that I wouldn’t have burnt otherwise.
However, since then my weight loss has started to slow again, and I’m now looking to step up my fitness programme once again. So in the last couple of weeks, I dusted off my running trainers, which I don’t think I’ve worn in the last couple of years and been attempting a jog / slow run. It obviously takes time to become good at something again. I use to be really into my running 4/5 years ago now. My hope is that alternating running and cycling, will help me to lose those final kilos, so that I can get to my goal weight.
I’ve also noticed after giving birth I have a new problem area – the mum tum! I have started to do sit ups, planks and other little exercises for only 10 minutes at a time to work on this specific area. However, admittedly, I haven’t got into much a routine with the strength conditioning yet. Also, my husband has bought a beginner Pilates DVD, which I plan on trying out this week. I’ve done a few moves before as my mum has a Pilates machine, but other than that I’m a real beginner. My plan is to do a Pilates workout (10 minutes a session), when it’s not a running or cycling day.
As I said at the beginning, there isn’t a need to exercise on the plan that I’m on. However, personally, I quite enjoy exercise and I think it has many benefits not just on the body, but also on mental health. It’s those feel good endorphins that get released after every workout, which makes me feel much better about myself. In a way, I also think it helps to keep me on track with my eating as after I’ve exercised I always feel like I should be “good” that day, or alternatively, I feel that bit better if I’m having a cheat meal that day as I’ve somewhat earned it.
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