My Postpartum Fitness Journey

This has been one of the most asked about blog posts recently on Instagram & I love that I have been able to inspire so many new moms for taking care of themselves through my Instagram account! Before I dive into the deets, I want to make sure that anyone reading this understands that this journey is VERYYY different for everyone & it takes time.Your body made a human, love it for everything it did! I had a vaginal delivery with a second degree tear & my doctor told me to take it slow for the first six weeks and then listen to my body. Things might be different for C-section mamas & Mamas with different level of tear or even if you had a second degree tear like me, every body might respond differently to that. Please make sure to get clearance from your Doctor for any sort of physical activity and listen to your body! This blog is only about sharing my journey & is not intended to provide any sort of medical advice. Also, I am not a fitness coach or a trainer/nutritionist in any way as I just followed a workout & nutrition plan by FITTR (based in India), so consider this as sharing what worked for me 🙂

First of all, Congratulations for your little one & be proud of your Body for giving you the biggest joy of your life!! <3

The First six weeks

As they say, at least the first 6-8 weeks should solely be focused on recovery and adjusting in your new life. It is a HUGE change and you need to take your time to take it all in. Some might feel a lot better after this mark and some might need more time, both are totally okay! I was also bleeding for about 4 weeks post delivery. I personally took my 6 weeks and based on my Doctor’s advice, started slow (Just some walks outside on good weather days and as its cold in Minnesota in March, I did very low intensity walks inside or on the treadmill for like 15-20 mins and slowly increased it). The reason I say listen to your body is because there was this one day when I was outside for a walk & did 10,000 steps at around 7 weeks postpartum and had bleeding the next day. That was my cue to know that I needed to slow down and I did. I took a break for 2-3 days and started again with slower and short walks. My Body adjusted to those and I knew I was ready for the next level. At my 8 weeks postpartum appointment, my Doctor confirmed that my stitches were healed, uterus looked fine & my vitals were good and gave me a green light for slowly resuming physical activities. Shaleen & I had resumed intercourse at around 6 weeks postpartum (this is a whole different topic, you should do this when you’re ready and in our case, both of us couldn’t wait lol) and the doctor also asked me if I had any pain during the intercourse which I didn’t & that was a good recovery sign as well.

Building the Home Gym

Thankfully, we had the space & ability to build a gym at home but you don’t really need a huge gym setup for FITTR program. Cardio can always be running outdoors if you don’t want to invest in a Treadmill, Elliptical etc. The reason we build a Home Gym was because of the Pandemic but I also feel it made it a lot easier for me to stay committed as I didn’t have to drive to get to a gym and time is definitely very precious with a newborn! So, pandemic or not, I feel Home Gym is a blessing for new Moms! Here is what we have in our Home Gym:

• Pro-Form Treadmill
• Schwinn Recumbent Bike
• Exercise Bench
• Dumbbell Set
• Yoga Mat
• Resistance bands
• Exercise Ball
• Mirror (We used a frameless vanity Mirror from Home Depot as its cheaper than gym mirrors)

If you don’t want to build an extensive gym, just a set of dumbbells (not a full set but a couple of pairs), a Yoga Mat, resistance bands and an open wall should totally work! A cardio equipment is a plus but not a necessity.

Nutrition (Calorie Deficit/Quantitative Nutrition) & Workout Plan:

When you talk to a fitness coach or a trainer, let them know all about your preferences and what may or may not work for you.I told my coach that I am a new Mom, so there might be some deviations & especially the fact that I’m breastfeeding, so I needed enough calories!

Calorie Deficit:

My Coach at Fittr designed my nutrition plan keeping breastfeeding in mind and started with an intake of around 1700 calories per day. She would adjust it based on my progress but we have never gone below 1600 calories. I bought a Digital Kitchen Scale & started measuring my food based on the guidelines from my coach. Everything is measured raw! I won’t lie that it was definitely a lot of work initially as I was cooking my food separately. It required a lot of meal planning and I started it right after my parents left and Shaleen’s parents’ trip was delayed, so it was just us. I can’t thank Shaleen enough for his support! I used to prepare for my meals in advance by cutting ,chopping & measuring in advance. But once you get the hang of it, it becomes apart of routine. The only issue with us living in the US with no domestic help is double the number of cooking utensils etc. as I was cooking my food separately but I tried to do cleanup while cooking to use my kitchen time efficiently.

The basic idea of calorie deficit is to eat less calories than what you’re burning throughout the day. With breastfeeding & pumping (both of which burn pretty significant amount of calories), quantitative nutrition & workouts, I was definitely taking lesser than what I was burning.

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Workout plan

I get a lot of questions on how did I reduce my belly and my only answer is that you should focus on overall body workout as spot reduction doesn’t really work. You will definitely see toning when you work a particular set of muscles but the best results are achieved when you work you entire body vs a specific area. Also, when it comes to fat, the ‘Last In First Out’ rule holds true in most cases.

In my workout plan, I had a plan for 6 days with one rest day but initially I did take 2 rest days in a week sometimes (Again, listen to your body). Also, if I felt a workout was too heavy, I would tell my coach to adjust it accordingly. Here are the day wise muscle groups that I workout:

Don’t forget to warm-up before starting the workout & Cool-down plus stretch post workout!

Day 1: Chest (Wall pushups, Chest press, Chest Flys & Dumbbell Pullover) & Abs (Crunches, Double Leg raises & Oblique Knee tucks) + 30 mins on Treadmill

Day 2: Glutes (Bodyweight Squat, Dumbbell Lunges, Dumbbell Glute Bridges, Donkey Kicks, & Fire Hydrant) Hamstrings (Dumbbell Stiff leg deadlift) & Calves (Dumbbell Calf raises – Skip the dumbbell if you don’t want to build calf muscles) + 30 mins on Treadmill

Day 3: Biceps (Bicep Curls, Double hand hammer curls, Bicep concentration curls )Triceps (Overhead Tricep extension, Dumbbell skull crushers, Bench dip & Dumbbell tricep kickback) & Abs (Crunches, Flutter kicks, Double Leg raises & Plank) + 30 mins on Treadmill

Day 4: Lats (Dumbbell Deadlift, Dumbbell bent over rows, Low one arm standing rows, Dumbbell upright rows & Resistance band seated rows) & Abs (Knee crunches, Leg Raises & Plank) + 30 mins on Treadmill

Day 5: Shoulders (Dumbbell arnold press, Dumbbell front raise, Dumbbell lateral raise , Dumbbell rear delt flys & Seated Shrugs) & Side (Plated Side bends) + 30 mins on Treadmill

Day 6: Glutes (Jump Squats,, Dumbbell glute bridge, Dumbbell lunge, Dumbbell Split Squats, Fire Hydrants), Quadriceps (Dumbbell goblet squats & Dumbbell step ups), Calves (Calf raises) & Abs (Leg raise, High Knees & Plank) + 30 mins on Treadmill

The primary muscle group would usually have 4-5 exercises & secondary would have 2-3 exercises with 3 sets of each exercise (10-12 reps). Pretty much all of these exercises are available on YouTube by verified accounts if you are not working with a fitness coach of your own. + 30 mins on Treadmill

I mostly stayed consistent with Cardio on the treadmill & did switch it up with the bike sometimes but I can only manage bike for like 15-20 mins at high resistance. I took rest days, had cheat meals (not too much but just a little) and inculcated calorie count in my everyday lifestyle. I strongly believe that you shouldn’t be on a ‘Diet’ but figure out something that can work for you as a Lifestyle & quantitative nutrition has definitely become mine!

Commitment & Motivation:

A lot of you also asked me who my FITTR coach was but I honesty believe that staying committed and motivated is the key. A coach can help but you are the one who needs to implement the plan for it to work. I loved my 6 days postpartum body as much as I love my 6 months postpartum body but the goal for me was to feel fit & healthy. Everyone’s level of feeling healthy & fit might be very different and as long as you feel happy, that is all that matters!

I also carried my own food when our friends would invite us for casual dinners or gathering. If it was a special occasion like Birthdays, Gender reveal etc. , I would obviously eat out as I don’t want to add to their work by using their kitchen etc. but didn’t want to compromise on my goals when we were just hanging out for fun! You have to make people around you a part of your journey and support from friends & family is of immense importance!

I had gained around 40 pounds during pregnancy & have lost around 50 pounds in 6 months since I had Aaira. I’m sharing this because I get a lot of questions on this but like I said, your goal should be feeling fit & healthy vs weight loss/short term diet etc.

Most importantly, be patient & have fun! The newborn snuggles phase flies by very quickly , so make sure you’re making the most out of it <3

See this Journey in a Reel on my Instagram profile and as always, feel free to comment here or on my IG Reel if you Have any questions 🙂