by Sila Anton

Created on: September 18, 2008   Last Updated: November 01, 2008

The day after I gave birth I was expecting my body to bounce back to its pre-pregnancy shape. It didn't. In reality I should have expected as much, I mean I was carrying around something the size of a small watermelon for almost a year, my body needed time to get back into shape. However, the thought of wearing maternity pants for the next six months did not appeal to me so I devised a simple exercise regiment to get fit and become the yummy mummy I was destined to be.

My pregnancy exercise regime consisted of opening a bag of Cheetos and twisting open a bottle of caffeine free root beer. Aside from the daily vitamins I was a junk food addict and to say I was inactive would be an understatement. So I had to revise my eating and exercise plan post baby.

Nutrition wise, as much as it pained me, I traded in my Cheetos for lots of fruits and veggies. My husband was in charge of cutting up carrots, celery, apples, oranges, pears and strawberries. I kept them in Tupperware dishes in the fridge, I also moved my Cheetos to the fridge. Whenever I would go to the fridge for the Cheetos I would see the fruit and veggies and eat that instead. My soda pop was replaced by smoothies. Once again my hubby made them for me and I just kept them in plastic water bottles in the fridge. They were easy to grab and they saved me a ton of time. In my sleep deprived state, I don't think I would have been able to operate the blender.

The last thing on my mind my first week home was exercise. The food was easy, I needed to eat and having quick snacks on hand made things easy. But to get into yummy mummy shape I needed some sort of exercise. I didn't feel like doing any sort of cardio and lifting weights was out of the question, but I could walk. My newly devised exercise plan had one piece of equipment; the stroller. At first it was just up and down the driveway. I may have been in my pajamas walking up and down the driveway but at least this way my son got some sunshine and I could get out of the house. Gradually as I got the hang of being a mom, I was able to go on longer walks; this really helped to shed the pounds. Also I would look for hills on purpose. The added resistance of pushing a stroller up hill did wonders for toning my arms and working my leg muscles.

Once I mastered walking, I incorporated one more element to my weight loss program, the park. I would take my son to the park almost daily. While we were there I use the playground equipment to get into shape. Doing step ups on the steps leading to the slide, or doing squats next to the stroller as my son slept.

Around three months later, I was back into my pre-pregnancy clothes and a yummy mummy.

Learn more about this author, Sila Anton.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.