Once a week we do groceries. Freeda and I take a train and go to the city where we meet with Fredy after his work. We like to go shopping together. He could do it by himself but I mostly cook so I like to pick the groceries by myself.
As I was getting ready this week, I pulled out of my closet a pair of jeans that I used to wear before I got pregnant. Last time, when I tried them on, right after I gave birth, they didn’t fit at all. No surprise.
Then, I tried them on this time, 5 months after and THEY FIT!
Why I was so surprised though? For the last 5 months, I was working out hard and following a strict diet. Haha, you must be laughing if you know me well. But wait, it’s not that far from reality. Although I didn‘t put my running shoes and my workout outfit on for a very long time, I’ve been actually doing some very effective exercise.
Before I got pregnant, I thought that I would carry my pregnancy weight even after having my babies. I’ll be a cute chubby housewife that makes banana bread and cookies every weekend. That kind of housewife lady doesn’t have much time to work out, because she’s so devoted to her family. It’s beautiful and totally fine to be like that. She’s happy and her husband loves her.
Anyway, it’s amazing how we women, can forget about ourselves and our comfort while we are raising children. We’re so generous and selfless creatures. Sending love to all mothers in the world! You’re awesome in everything you’re doing!
In our family, we’re practicing attachment parenting. It’s a philosophy that promotes the physical and mental attachment of parents and their babies. We are doing co-sleeping and babywearing to enhance the physical attachment with our baby. We also want our baby to be in mental health. We don‘t want to cause her any stress or trauma. We never let her cry and always try to find out why is she crying. Is she hungry? Does she feel alone, scared, or sleepy? Babies cry for a reason and their cry is the only way how they can communicate with us. When you leave your baby to cry out, it’s like ignoring someone who‘s talking to you.
Now, you might ask, where is the workout in this? As I said attachment parenting promotes physical closeness. Just imagine, being very close with a 7kg dumbbell most of your days. Picking it up, putting it down, taking it for a walk, cooking while carrying it...
Do you have the idea now? But that‘s just the intermediate level of the workout. Nobody starts to exercise with heavy tools right?
Here is an example of a workout routine. For the first month, you will be equipped with a dumbbell size Newborn. It usually weighs just about 2 or 3 kilos but the workout sessions will be pretty intensive.
There are two ways of how to proceed with the exercise: 1) carrying the dumbbell for almost 24 hours a day; you are allowed to have a short shower break once a day; during the nap or sleep leave a dumbbell on your chest or at least very close to you 2) carrying it for most of the day; you’re allowed to drop it for a nap or even longer sleep; short shower allowed; bathroom breaks allowed sometimes. The term ”carrying” includes carrying in the arms, carrying in the wrap or carriers.
Over time your workout sessions will be decreasing slowly, however, the weight of the dumbbell will increase gradually. Regarding that, joints and muscle pain will most likely appear. Stretching of your body frequently, vitamin supplements, and a high protein diet recommended to handle this problem. Don’t be surprised if the workout routine changes unexpectedly. It is just a natural setting of your dumbbell.
And how does this exercise routine work for me?
I tried all the recommended ways of the exercise. Mostly the style depended on the setting of my dumbbell. The first three months were intensive and sessions were painful. After that, the night work out session decreased to a few short lifting or cardio exercises.
I also follow the recommended cardio exercise once or twice a day. That implies carrying the dumbbell while going for a short/long distance walks. In the beginning, I practiced two or three long-distance sessions once a week and one to two short sessions daily. We didn’t have a car at the moment, so the long-distance walks were necessary.
I would highly recommend attachment parenting work out for all parents. You will effectively get rid of the pregnancy weight and keep you dumbbell...I mean baby...happy.. :) After all, happy baby, happy parents, right?
Now, let me go buy a scale and check how much kg I lost...because people like to see results in numbers.
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