Lose Weight after Pregnancy

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At the risk of sounding too cautious let me inform you that it isn't feasible by people who have no nanny, chef, housekeeper, hair & make up staff and personal trainer to lose weight gained during pregnancy in just 3 weeks post delivery as claimed courtesy our celebs in 90210 zip code. However it is unwise to immediately hop on to the weight loss band wagon because Heidi Klum has done it thrice by now. Understand that your body has gone through well realistically almost a day long trauma in labor and if not then surgery in C section give it a breather for once. Here are some must knows every girl should keep in mind while entering this phase and yes the husband is going to do whatever it takes to stop you from losing weight asap post pregnancy so never tell him about it and yet get your hot body scientifically healthy way.

#1. The Natural Weight loss is Breast feeding - If you haven't already read my post on lactation diet I had mentioned how breast feeding is nature's way of shedding the excess weight gained. While producing milk the body utilizes its fat stores and carbohydrates to form the composite of breast milk mobilizing excess body fat. Do not over eat during lactation you only need 500 Kcals in excess to your non pregnancy dietary recommendation as compared to the 300 Kcals during pregnancy. The rest will be taken care by your body's hyper metabolism during the first 3-4 months of lactation. 

#2. What really gets you fat post pregnancy - Apart from the hormonal changes that occur so as to allow your body some breather from the physical exhaustion that can affect metabolism too. It is sheer tiredness while keeping the baby safe and sound not to mention the overnights. Your metabolism will sloppy down once it gets too comfy with the tiredness causing you to sleep whenever you can and have no energy to workout later on. Agreed that the baby really gets the biological clock topsy turvy and plus the noise, the clothes, the baby food, the diapers list goes on, but take a moment to keep your goal intact. You must give your body high fiber food and more hydration with fruits and veggies along with fluids to keep the metabolism kicked up during this phase. Sleep deprivation can be accustomed within 3 months of back up time that you have immediately after delivery. You must get your back up with food, fluids, sleep and energy on the ready by the first 3 months after delivery. Use the next 3 months to get your body stablized with enough energy, nutrition, metabolic regulation. You are totally ready after 6 months to lose that fat that no longer is required by you nor your baby, get started with a healthy yet leaner custom made diet plan that keeps in mind you and your baby's nutrition & of course the fitness regime that will obviously start out slow and go on to a steady moderate until your ready for an intense workout. 

#3. Maintain a good diet - I am going to come clean with this fact you have only the first year to lose tat baby weight and anything more than that is more excess baggage than you can handle. If you are a C section mom or a natural birth mom give your body a good protein rich, essential fat, moderate carb high fiber diet. Fiber will regulate the gastrointestinal system allowing slower gastric emptying therefore regulating insulin secretion and fat absorption as well as metabolism. Considering the body has a lot of damage control to do since the birth be it abdominally, internal tissues, muscle strength, blood volume, immune system precursors, bone strength a diet that will provide enough essential amino acids as well as antioxidants inherently in the protein food is a deal maker. Similarly to kick the metabolism a diet rich in good fats, and protein with antioxidant rich complex carbs makes sure you are prepared to lose that weight in the healthiest way possible. If you can keep up with the nutrient richness in your diet along with not gorging on excess fat "for the baby" food you and your baby will be well taken care of. Breast milk will surely depend on your diet but nobody said your diet is going to harm its nutrient content because you can provide rich breast milk and keep your fat and sugar intake in check simultaneously. We are not in the 1950's anymore so be fully aware of what works and what doesn't and trust me loading your diet with fat for the sake of breast milk is not either of the solution. 

#4. Fitness Or Fun - You have so much on your plate after a child is born you travel time for all intensive purposes. Your body and mind however cannot live up to it for long and they both need a time out. When you start out to lose the weight after pregnancy take it easy especially if you have had a C section delivery its always best to take it easy and then gear up. One needs a good stretching, lighter cardio and functional training to work the exercise into the body's functioning. Its also important you opt for more fun activities that benefit you in exercise as much like a sport or biking, exotic dancing, lighter pilates, power yoga, ice skating, roller skating, swimming, aqua sports, aqua resistance training. Stress is the first thing that needs to leave your body and mind if you intend to be a happy mother and a sexy woman again. 

#5. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise - Do not and I repeat this do not let anybody's opinion of you and your body get to you. There will be many who will ridicule you, tell you that you cannot look great post delivery or that its natural for women to look out of shape after child birth and that you're crazy for trying to lose the excess baggage after 6 months of your child's birth. You deserve to feel and look exactly the way YOU and only you desire. So if your desire is to be desire and envied by everyone including your partner you must get on the plan after the first 6 months of postpartum. Every women of any age has the capability, passion, and the right to look as beautiful and sexy as she wants to don't let anyone tell you any different. All you need is a moment of decision to go for the kill (read kill excess fat). Once that decision is made dive right in and come out a dazzling and gorgeous woman you were born to be. 

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Why is functional training essential for your career?

Functional training is a very vague concept in everybody's minds and yet has given the health & fitness industry a whiff of fresh air and a tremendous boost. Today I bring you a more functional explanation of this jargon of the fitness world so as to help you make your individual informed decisions about exercise routine.

What is it exactly? As the name suggests functional training is making your fitness regime as similar to your daily routine movements or activities. Now if I have to train a person whose job is being glued to his laptop or tablet for 9 hours working on the internet or a desk work I will aim at making his core muscles (abs & lower back) strong, stable and flexible also give him/her movements of the arms & shoulders as these tend to get stiff during the course of everyday work. So in other words with this form of regime functional training is just a type of exercise that trains our body to better adapt & be ready for activities of daily life without having any injuries. It originated as a rehabilitation program for people who suffered injuries, ailments of joints & bones or nerves, sportsman etc. From injuries to daily routine training functional training has come a long way piercing successfully into our average man's life.

What is the significance to your life? Well to say the least our average lives are equally stressful as any athlete or hi profile personality we just don't pay heed to our needs and thats what differentiates us from them. Be it a desk job, a chef, sales & marketing professional, computer engineer, web designer, hedge fund investor, project mangers, angel broker, housekeeper, wedding planner, fashion designer, hair stylists, housewife, nurses, doctor, lab attendants, teachers or a CEO each one of us has our own functional training requirements and like it or not we never pay attention to ourselves for the jobs we offer to others. To cut to the chase and hit the nail on its head your job and progress in the career depends not only on your talent to get the job done right but the ability to do the job in the first place. What is the difference between the two? Well lets just say I am a terrific chef, I have all the ingredients of creativity, budgeting skills, man power management, innovation, cultural diversity in culinary art and good communication skills but one thing I lack is doing my basic job cause of my inability to work physically or mentally due to some redundant ache, pain, flexibility issues or minor illness here and there occasionally. Occasional health problems aggregate to become a huge problem especially when you reach that critical point in your career when you're in line for the big pay day or promotion you've worked so many years for. Functional incapability is a core problem in most organizations as well as individual small businesses due to lack of awareness and forth right attitude towards the most important thing in our life that keeps us going - our life. Imagine being a little bit more functionally apt for the job, for the promotion, for your kids, for your family on vacations, for your group of friends over that weekend, for that corporate competition in a sport or a run. It takes 30 minutes every other day of the week to make that bridge between us and our success professionally as much personally. An inadequate fitness does no good to our work nor love life or family life. Thrusting that endorphin through your blood lines everyday keeps you going for at least 18 hours a day until.

Equipments & Exercise - The equipment used in the training is very easy to use, portable to carry wherever in a small bag and can be used at home, office and even outdoors. The equipment is mostly cable pulley, physio ball, resistant tubes, terra bands, dumbbells, medicine ball, balance discs. However you can do all the workouts focused on your daily functions with 2-3 things from the above mentioned. The most important aspect is the functional training exercises and they need to adhere to the individual's daily life. If the individual is a sales person on the field the exercises need to keep focus on the lower body stability, strength, power and flexibility not to mention the core stability. A computer engineer needs focus on the entire spine area apart from shoulders and upper body the same would go for banking tellers and BPO employees. In the hospitality industry including airlines and spas the focus in more on joints, spine and major muscle groups surrounding it including core muscles and endurance. The exercises need to be stabilizing at first, strengthening and progressive in the second stage and then giving it power with endurance depending on the tasks of real life. Exercises should literally mimic the daily chores or actions or responsibilities. This has two benefits firstly it trains the body exactly in the actions that take over in day to day pattern which gives the muscle tone more habitual actions and secondly the person can practice the exercises even at work as per suitability if it is mimics the work actions.

Difference between fixed equipment & functional training - In a research conducted by Spennewyn in 2009 that was later published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research which showed 58% better conditioning and strength of subjects that were functional training as against those who were doing the conventional fixed equipment weight training.

In order to get individual diet & fitness regime that adapts you to function & improve your daily activities visit our wellness programs for further information or sign up for free wellness consultation. For organization/ institutional wellness programs please write to contact@wellnessandi.com

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Health effects of Cola drinks

Pop, fizz, shhzzzzz.... Isn't that a familiar sound on a dry hot day when you've opened a can of your soft drink say coke, pepsi, Dr. pepper, mountain dew, 7up etc. I must admit when I was a kid these were very addictive territories and I had a bad experience drinking them. However my education while becoming a registered dietitian and common sense prevailed and then of course years later here I am writing to you this post about the health effects of cola soft drinks we are used to consuming as good as or in some cases even more than water.
Composition in a can - Most cola drinks lately have dropped the ever so flavored Kola Nut that not only was the reason why we call it cola but also it was the original flavor of the soft drinks. Now however better sophisticated flavoring agents like vanilla, cinnamon, lime, tamarind are used to differentiate between each brand of drink. The most dreaded ingredients in the drink of course are caffeine, phosphoric acid, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame/ sucralose (if diet soda), salts, citric acid, carbon dioxide (fizz).

Physiological effects - Most commonly heard, talked and written about is the one with removal of rust. Agreed that the human body physiology doesn't have any such rust problems but the key point of discussion is if what you drink can remove rust what could it do to your tender tissues inside? Steel rust removal, tooth dissolver and lavatory cleaners all are recent attributes given to Cola drinks especially coca cola. Is it really that bad? Yes, it is. How? Phosphoric acid present in the cola drinks is the prime suspect and guilty. Phosphoric acid does have a calcium depleting effect on the bones. Many a studies have been showing that the lowered bone mineral density has a lot to do with phosphoric acid as higher the phosphorus levels in the blood than calcium the bones will have to remove their calcium stored to the blood for balancing the act. Addiction to soft drinks and especially cola drinks has shown a directly proportionate relation to Osteoporosis. Caffeine content makes it possible to get addicted in the first place having anywhere from 30 -60 mg per serving (350ml) add to that the excess sugar content to worsen matters. Caffeine makes it possible to become more dependent on the drink and gives the same effects as regular coffee addicts face with heart, nervous problems and concentration. The sugar content obviously adds on to the obesity issues but even the artificial sweeteners like aspartame don't work well with the body as their metabolism down to the methyl group they come from harms the brain in the long run. Caffeine known for its diuretic qualities as much as ergogenic ones plays a vital role when the levels go down with anxiety, nervousness, a constant need to replenish more and ending up doing an overdose of cola. The acidic nature of he drink adds to the woes of the drinker for its constant lowered pH levels into the blood stream as much as the intestine and the tissues and also it is this acidic nature of colas that makes for a great cleaner of the utilities such as rusted steel, or a lavatory. The cumulutive effect could harm not only the bones but also the heart, gastrointestinal functioning, nervous system and metabolism in general affecting the hormonal function.

Food Interactions - Caffeine interferes with calcium absorption and thus mineralization of the bone leaving the bone porous aiding osteoporosis. Excess sugar also causes a lot of fat deposition in the body creating insulin resistance and therefore not allowing the body to metabolize glucose for energy generation. Many such antioxidants and minerals do not get their bio availability while combined with cola drinks. These are essential nutrients for the body as they fight and protect it from free radical attack. Phosphoric acid as mentioned above hampers the calcium as well. The flavoring artificial agents cause toxicity in the body and deplete it from the valued added nutrients it needs for regulation, immunity and repair. Even Diet Soda do no good by just a sugar content minus as the aspartame present in Diet Soda causes metabolic harm to the body as well. Sucralose is a better sweetener to aspartame but any addiction and overdose is bad no matter how good the substance.

Cola drinks are a definite no no for more than occasional especially on a regular weekly/ daily consumption. For more insights on your diet and fitness regime visit Wellness & I Programs or submit your information for a free wellness consult.

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