After having a baby, you are eager to lose the excess weight, but you need as much energy and nutrition as possible to fuel your new role as as mother. Give yourself at least six weeks to let your body adjust before embarking on any diet program. When you are ready, look for a plan that calls for 1,500 to 1,800 calories per day and that is based on nutritionally sound principles. Moderate exercise will help you reach you reach your weight loss goal.
The 90/10 Weight Loss Plan
Registered dietitian Joy Bauer wrote the "90-10 Weight Loss Cookbook" focusing on a balanced diet with 90 percent healthy choices and 10 percent "fun". The book contains more than 100 recipes, a 14-day menu plan, a guide to finding the best foods in the grocery store, child friendly and holiday meal plans and tips for getting more flavor out of food. The plan is based on balancing meals by eating lots of lean proteins and high quality carbohydrates that include whole grains and fresh produce. Eating a balanced diet reduces your cravings and feelings of deprivation. To cut back, she encourages you reduce or eliminate dinnertime carbohydrates like potatoes or white rice and instead, eat extra vegetables. The diet is easily adjusted to your new busy lifestyle. Joy encourages you to treat yourself with your favorite food once in a while.
321 Baby Bulge Be Gone Diet
Developed by trainer-to-the-stars Ramona Braganza and followed by the likes of Halle Barry, the 321 Baby Bulge Diet is based on eating three meals, two snacks and one liter of water per day. It consists of three, four week phases, each of which calls for a specific calorie requirement and exercise commitment. The diet emphasizes low-glycemic carbohydrates and offers manageable tips like always eat breakfast, consume primarily salads and steamed vegetables, choose whole grains and eat fruit for dessert. The exercise component begins with a 25 minute commitment during the first phase, working up to 60 minutes by the third phase. She includes compound strength training and cardiovascular exercises in every workout which are available on a set of three DVDs. The diet fits into your lifestyle and offers sound nutritional tips. The workouts may be aggressive at times, but are respectful of the limited time you have as a new mother.
Eat Clean Diet
Tosca Reno wrote the book "The Eat-Clean Diet" to share her experience with losing weight by focusing on unprocessed foods. Portion size and food quality are the key to weight loss, rather than rote calorie-counting. The diet encourages a lifestyle in which you eat many mini-meals throughout the day, each containing a protein and carbohydrate. Recommendations for lean proteins include skinless poultry, fish, whey protein and egg whites. Carbohydrates should consists of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The diet disallows refined grains (white flour, baked products, snack crackers), sugar (table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, sucrose) and alcohol. Monounsaturated fats found in olive oil and nuts should make up the bulk of your daily fat calories, while saturated fats are limited and trans fats are banned. The plan includes an exercise prescription of at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular work at for a minimum of three days per week. Strength training is also encouraged. The diet may sometimes feel restrictive because convenience foods are off-limits, but for a new mother it offers balanced nutrition and a way to lose weight without suffering with hunger.
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