Sitting at 6 months postpartum now, I am ready to reflect on my personal experience and what tips helped me throughout recovery and adjusting back to a healthy routine!

*these are what personally helped me throughout my postpartum period and are solely related to nutrition/weight loss*

Hydrate

The level of thirst during that first month postpartum while breastfeeding is indescribable! Get a big water bottle with a straw (linking this one here) and keep it by your side. Add in lemon wedges, cucumber, mint, strawberries or any other flavour boosters you like. Hydration is absolutely crucial in your body’s healing process and especially while breastfeeding. Other liquids I recommend are coconut water and bone broth for restoration postpartum.

Start With Breakfast

Even the thought about getting on a weight loss plan or counting macros in the early weeks postpartum was way too overwhelming for me. You are sleep deprived like never before and have very little time to yourself. Rather than going all in, I decided my starting point was breakfast- everyday I committed to having a healthy, protein packed breakfast. Making sure my first meal of the day was nutritious made me feel accomplished and eventually I extended this to the rest of my meals and snacks.

Movement

Not necessarily exercise, but gentle movement. When I was ready (around 3 weeks) I completed a pelvic floor exercise program to reconnect my breathing and core, combined with gentle walks. My son was born in December so getting out for walks in the winter was hard but even 10-15 minutes always made me feel better. I slowly increased my goal for time and pace each week. Those first family walks may be barely one block… don’t get discouraged! Little by little you will increase your stamina and ability.

Rest

I really hated hearing the advice “sleep when the baby sleeps”, because it is not practical. Even though you are exhausted, it is hard to fall asleep on command. I instead changed this piece of advice to “rest when the baby sleeps”. This removed all pressure to actually fall asleep, but instead commit to giving myself time to rest whenever I could.

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I personally felt ready to start tracking macros and begin exercise again at 6 weeks postpartum, but implementing these 4 things prior to that point really helped me those first few weeks postpartum.