A quick survey of friends and family and I wasn’t surprised to find that the most common goal for 2011 is to become healthier both physically (most common are eating healthy and working out) and spiritually.
A mix of low, medium, and high intensity cardio is important to help your body burn calories. Having variety in the intensity helps us to stimulate all of our energy systems (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins), protects us from injuries, and gives us some variety in our work out to help keep them exciting.
We use calories all throughout the day (even when we are at rest). Chances are that most of you reading this are in the “maintaining” categories.
I know firsthand how easy (and tempting) it is to sit around and cuddle that new, little bundle of joy in your arms all day long! It is HARD to get up early, get that precious little one in the car, and go work out. And I also understand the frustration when our bodies don’t look quite like we thought they would -- Your body has been through A LOT!! I think my next post will be on just how much your body has changed and I KNOW that you will be surprised!
For this post, we’re going to talk about becoming a “Healthy Mama!”
Tip #1: Exercise Consistently (Cardio AND Strength)
Most importantly, our bodies were DESIGNED for consistent exercise. In order to be a Healthy Mama, exercise MUST be a part of your lifestyle. Exercising will help you feel better, will give you more energy, will help build your immune system, will provide you with the strength needed to care for your little ones (they’re getting heavier -- and fast!), and lots more!!
Exercising consistently will not only help you see results, but it will allow your body to adapt to your new lifestyle which will allow you to burn fat WITHOUT EVEN TRYING! By exercising regularly, your body:
· Becomes more efficient at delivering and extracting oxygen – this helps your cells burn fat more efficiently
· Gives you better circulation so that fat is more readily available for fueling the body. Carbs, fat, and protein are fuel sources for the body, regular exercise allows the fatty acids to move more efficiently through the blood stream and into the muscle which causes your body to use fat more often as its fuel source.
· Increases the number and size of mitochondria which are responsible for providing your body with energy.
· Helps you manage your weight.
The more exercise that you engage in, the more calories that you will burn and the easier it is to create the calorie deficit needed to lose weight.
Tip #2: Cardio!
Benefits of aerobic training:
· Strengthens the heart
· Decreases resting heart rate
· Decreases blood pressure
· Decreases total cholesterol
· Increases HDL (good) cholesterol
· Increases metabolic rate
· Decreases fat stores
· Increases aerobic capacity
· Reduces stress
· Reduces anxiety and depression
· Improves cardiac output
· Reduces risk of certain diseases
· Increases life-span
· Increases lung capacity
· Increases blood flow to muscles
· Improves blood flow
As a general rule:
To maintain our body weight, we must burn the same number of calories that we consume.
To lose weight, we must burn more calories than we consume.
And when we gain weight, we are consuming more calories than we are burning.
We use calories all throughout the day (even when we are at rest). Chances are that most of you reading this are in the “maintaining” categories.
Breast feeding moms have good news!! The average mom will make about 24 to 28 ounces of breast milk a day -- it takes about 500 calories to make that much milk. That is about one pound/week lost if you make no other modifications to your daily routine! Look at all the weight that your baby is gaining – all of his or her nutrition is coming from YOU!
NOTE: It is important that if you are breast feeding or pregnant that you do not significantly reduce your calorie intake, your baby needs you to consume 1500-1800 calories/day for him or her to grow appropriately. However, studies show that consistent exercise actually increases breast milk production (that’s more weight lost!!).
Tip #3: Strength
Building muscle through strength training helps your posture, gives you the strength to care for your little ones, helps you feel less sore and tired at the end of the day, and it can also help with burning fat!
Strength training:
· Preserves muscle mass – muscle mass is important for your strength, posture, calorie-burning, and much more!
· Keeps your metabolism going – building and maintaining muscle mass helps keep your metabolism up.
· Helps burn calories – lifing weights at a high intensity can increase the calories you continue to burn even after your workout is over.
The exercise tubing that we use in class is GREAT because it can be adjusted in so many ways to create just the right amount of resistance for each individual. It can be used anywhere, anytime and because it takes up such a small amount of space.
And remember mamas, there are 3500 calories per pound of stored body fat (that's a lot of calories!). It won't happen overnight, but keep at it and you will see results!
Always remember though that your new body (although different) is a direct result of that precious little angel that you brought into this world. You are beautiful because of who you are and for the love that you have in your heart for your little ones, that is the most beautiful thing of all!
