Maintaining pre-pregnancy weight through workout & eating healthily

SELF ESTEEM & BEING POSITIVE

I'm writing this post not to show off my body to the world ~ but I hope I could inspire other mommies who are currently struggling with weight related issue. I also hope my little sharing on exercise and eating could really motivate someone out there! If I have inspired someone, I have achieved more than what you have seen here! We inspire each other! And we are all strong mommies to do that!

Before I discuss further my routine and stuff like that, as you know I often share my life (kids, foods, activities, diet, fitness, etc) on social media such as Instagram or Facebook. A group of people with insecurities thought I was showing off my "amazing life" (although I thought there was nothing wrong sharing my what they called "amazing life" thank you! in a POSITIVE manner as possible on social media). Social media like Facebook or Instagram is there to create and to keep beautiful moments you could look into again in the future, so was there anything wrong with sharing beautiful/positive things? Rather than using words like "show off" I would prefer using positive words like "motivate" or "inspire" Anyway, it doesn't matter to me what people think of me, what if they talk behind my back, what if I receive bad comments from people whom I know but a group of backstabbers. It has always been a crazy life we are living in, you know?

Anyway, it really doesn't matter ~ I'm gonna keep posting whatever positive posts/thoughts on my social media that can bring me happiness and I hope to bring positive vibes to other mommies too. If I could inspire 999 people and there's 1 who doesn't like me, it doesn't matter to me at all right? Because I know, I have inspired the rest of 999 people! That matters more than anything! more than any haters!

I'm not a famous blogger and I don't need to be one to write this! Anybody could be an inspiration. It could be the coffee shop auntie you meet every day when you buy your breakfast, it could be that uncle security at your housing area. Anyone you feel giving you that positive thought and motivation could be your inspiration :) I have a few inspirational figures myself but the only one who motivates me the most is MYSELF! Yes! Simply because I love to look good & I love to feel good! This is already enough motivation for me to take fitness classes to tone up my body after giving birth and working hard for my kids & to feel beautiful inside out! :)
 
So yeah, people with insecurities & jealousy issue will keep bringing you down but it's UP TO you whether you want to be dragged inside their insecurities or not! Sourness remains sour and haters are always out there, that's the fact we can't change but we gotta move on! We gotta think positively and don't let any negative elements effecting our life!

FITNESS

So now, back to my fitness post! :) as you all read in my previous post on how I lost my baby weight. Here's the blog post I wrote earlier on. Time flew by so fast, It has been 3 months since I'm back to my pre pregnancy weight minus 2 kg and I have been maintaining my pre pregnancy weight very well. I'm currently 56 kg, from the previous 70 kg when I started my weight loss journey and I lost about 14 kg. I have never felt so good with my body shape before and it's absolutely boosting my confidence level as a mommy of 2 toddlers below 3 years old. It's also proven that exercise is working well in toning up my body. Not only I feel fitter, I feel more positive towards life too. I'm not just a mum, I'm a wife and I'm myself too and that's giving me enough reason to take care & enjoy myself through fitness and having my personal time :)

I'm a mom of 2 and often I can't travel far to go for fitness classes or gym (no gym or fitness centre in the place I stay) but it's NOT an EXCUSE not to get fit! Instead of going for expensive & far-away fitness center, I'm going for the classes conducted by my Community Centre nearby my house. It's pretty cheap comparing to other commercial fitness centre. For example: I paid about $90 for 8 sessions of Zumba classes and $100 for 8 sessions of the latest piloxing classes. And yes of course, I can see my result even though I don't workout from a famous place. It really doesn't matter! Besides, I also go for free classes conducted by women/mommy club in my area. Another good thing is I exercise together with other mommies and it motivates me to be stronger inside out! Working out together is proven to be a fun activity! One hour session just flies crazily fast! I met new people too and my social life has never been better than this!

I'm a lazy mom, I'm lazy to workout when I'm alone but I'm rather feeling motivated to workout when I'm together with other mommies. This kind of "workout together" kinda working on me. So find what works for you! If you find working out alone in the gym or at home works for you, go ahead! Just keep telling yourself "no excuse" and there's always a way to lose all your baby weight and to get fit! Self motivation and determination is all what you need!

As I have 2 kids, the best time for me to go for my fitness classes is in the morning. Anytime between 9am-10.30am is the perfect timing for me. That's the time EJ goes to his nursery class and while waiting for him to dismiss from his class, I go for my fitness classes nearby his nursery and I pick him up straight away after I'm done with my exercise routine. Oh yes, I was often asked "did you go for yoga?" by other mommies (I brought yoga mat along while picking EJ up from his nursery & often people assume "yoga mat is only for yoga related workout but in fact almost every fitness classes I go requires me to bring yoga mat haha..) I recently noticed a few mommies at the nursery started to exercise too (see them wearing sport shoes) :p it's a good thing if I could silently motivate someone to work out, I'm truly glad! :)

So here's my workout schedule: I workout 4-5 times a week, each session is about 1 hour.

Monday: Break

Tuesday: Body Sculpt & Tone. If I have extra energy, I will go for free kickboxing or HIIT class in the evening. Normally I don't have extra energy to attend 2 classes, to be honest here haha 

Wednesday: Break 

Thursday: Zumba (I love dancing although I'm not good in dancing)

Friday: Yoga (oh yes I love yoga class, I feel more relax after the class, I can sleep better, I feel more positive and most importantly, it's good for stretching my tired muscles)

Saturday: normally break but once or twice a month, I will go for free K-pop fitness conducted by the community centre. My favorite fitness class is of course K-pop fitness, not only it's fun dancing to loud K-pop music but I swear I sweat a lot by just dancing & jumping, thus I believe it's a good way of detoxing my body by sweating as much as I can as well as burning extra fats in my body. The fun level is absolutely 10 out of 10! 

Sunday: Piloxing! Piloxing is the latest hit in fitness. It's the combination of boxing, Pilate and dancing and it's also one of the high intensity workouts that keeps your heart rate going up fast. A work out to burn seriously lots of calories as well as improving stamina, balance and strength.
It doesn't matter what kind of workout you do, as long as you move a lot and stay active with the right eating pattern, you will lose weight, maintain that weight and stay fit & healthy :)

A good thing about having regular exercise is not only I feel stronger physically but I feel like my immune system is better too ~ instead of catching cold almost every month like last time ~ the regular exercise I do is keeping doctor away! Yay!!

I have a few fitness tips I want to share with you and I hope it's helpful :)

1) BREATHE IN and BREATHE OUT

One of the most important tips I can tell you is to breathe in and breathe out when you exercise and especially if it's high intensity workout!

I used to wonder if I wasn't very strong or my stamina was bad or what. I remember I got very dizzy and my view was turning blackish after 45 minutes of Zumba fitness with a lot of super intense dancing moves and jumping. I remember I felt like I couldn't catch my breath, I felt like puking from my dizziness. And also, why did I need so many water breaks during my Piloxing class, why did I feel so tired?

And apparently the answer was only one! I didn't breathe in and breathe out enough & properly!
I learned my lesson and I started to breathe in and breathe out as much as possible & kept repeating as much as I can and you guess what?

Hey, I didn't even need my water break during my high intensity work out because I felt less tired, I could catch my breath more easily and I could last longer than before! So please breathe in and breathe out to avoid dizziness!

2) Light meal with low carbo before working out

Light meal with low carbo is very important before working out. I remember feeling blacked out during my kickboxing session last time and apparently it was due to my high carbo food I consumed 1 hour before my punching, kicking & jumping class. So carbo is seriously a killer food before working out ~ it could cause dizziness & nausea! Instead of eating carbo like bread, I would prefer a banana, a bunch of heathy nuts or an energy bar with a glass of water.

But hey, don't forget to drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration after sweating it all out!

3. Take a baby step at a time! Don't give up!

When I started fitness class, I couldn't even hold plank for 5 counts, seriously! It was that bad! and now I can hold plank for 1 minute and more! I remember my balancing was really bad at the beginning and after months of training, I felt so much better with coordination, balancing & flexibility & more confident doing something I felt I didn't do so well last time! My stamina has improved as well :)

In terms of fitness, nobody is born talented with good balancing, strength, flexibility and stamina. It's all coming from taking baby step at a time. Our body can be trained and our body CAN get better with routine training and exercising!

If you feel like you are not good in doing something, be it yoga or Zumba or kickboxing or whatever! My advise is don't give up! Keep doing it! Don't bother what others might think of you! And give your body some time to train! Have faith in yourself! If your brains keep picturing yes you can do it, yes you will improve and get better as time goes by! Trust me, you really will! It's just the matter of time, you will feel stronger, your stamina & strength improved and your body becoming more flexible as well :)

Keep challenging yourself to the next level because you are more capable than what you thought you were!

This pic was taken at day 5 after I started again my exercise routine after taking break from CNY holiday and indulging on CNY food.

Never felt this good before after giving birth to 2 kiddos!

My thighs feel firmer too!

Bye-Bye flabby arms! My arms feel leaner!

Day 23 after exercising again from CNY break! my tummy is firmer although I still have extra skin from my 2 pregnancies hanging around my tummy. Hey, after all, I'm a mum! I gave birth to 2 wonderful kids and I embrace my loose skin! :P Nothing I can do about it! :p

I can still improve and be better than this! :) There's always a room for improvement in fitness!

EATING

I don't believe in eating clean 7 days a week! Seriously? Come on, I can't just live on eating vegetables and white chicken breast! I need my real food!

But I strongly believe in one thing: LISTEN TO YOUR BODY & CRAVING!

Yes my body will crave for chicken burger with fries, I listen to it and I will go ahead eating it without feeling guilty. I believe when my body is craving of something, it means my body is lacking of something and that's the way my body tells me I need certain nutrient I lack of! Not only fulfilling your craving without guilt is good for your body but it's also good to avoid unnecessary bingeing in the future. It's like your body telling your brains "hey I have gotten enough, let's eat as per normal again.."

It's okay to eat what I crave for...

Listen to your body also means following your HUNGER! Don't force yourself in eating!

For example: I had big lunch with big portion of rice in the afternoon and I felt so full for dinner. So, I didn't want to force myself to eat what should be eaten for my dinner. Instead of eating full dinner, I could just go for chicken soup or oatmeal.

Another example: I had a fitness class in the morning and I felt super hungry. So instead of going against my own body and eating small healthy meal, I would eat big fulfilling meal with full carbo & fats to fulfill what my body needs!

As result of following what my body needs, I have been maintaining my pre pregnancy weight very well without feeling hungry and I have more energy to do activities with my kids too :)

Of course eating in moderation must apply as well. You can eat your normal food, you can fulfill your craving and maintain your weight by being active (and/or exercising) and giving in to your body what it needs and what it doesn't!

That's the end of my post and I really hope my sharing could be helpful for mommies trying to lose weight or struggling to maintain pre pregnancy weight. Keep growing positive thoughts and eventually you will harvest positive results! All the best!

P/S: The nursing picture at group gathering on the left was taken last year, 3 months plus after I gave birth to Calysta.. I was struggling to lose pregnancy weight I gained so much during pregnancy (17 kg) but when I got pregnant with Calysta, I was still stuck with 5 kg baby weight from having EJ and those weight kept accumulating, as result I gained so much & I looked so gigantic. A year later, with exercise & eating healthy, I lost all my baby weight minus 2 kg and it's amazing how human body can change with the right determination! pic on the right was taken early this year!

I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight!

Hello fellow mamas!

This blog post is to share with you how I lost all my baby weight in 10 months post delivery. I really don't believe in strict dieting but I strongly believe in eating more healthily and exercising. So I hope my sharing can inspire mamas out there to be able to go back to their pre pregnancy weight. It's a very long post! Please be ready!

Maybe you will find me by googling "how to lose postpartum weight" and you come across my blog here. Anyway here's my story :)

I have always been a tall slender girl for my entire life. I'm a 1.77m tall girl & my weight had never exceeded 60 kg in the past. Maybe there was once I weighed 63 kg when I was studying in Australia & lived on junk food! And when I came to Singapore to work, my weight went down to 57-60 kg, mostly on average, 59 kg. it was rare for my weight to go beyond 60 kg until I got pregnant with my first child.

For a girl with my height, my BMI had always been around 18-19. It varied from a little underweight to a normal weight. So yeah, I was just that one skinny tall girl!

So I got married & pregnant in the same year and gained a crazy weight of 25 kg in my first pregnancy and I remember being a shocking 85 kg super huge pregnant mama at the end of my pregnancy was a bit depressing. Luckily I managed to lose 20 kg of baby weight when my son was 8 months old by almost exclusively breastfeeding him. That put me into 65 kg of 8 month post delivery frame (5 kg extra weight I didn't manage to lose) and bam, I found 2 lines in my pregnancy test when my son was about 11 months old. Apparently I was 1 month plus along with my second pregnancy when I found out. So I conceived my 2nd child when my 1st child was 10 months old & I still had 5 kg extra baby weight I didn't manage to lose.

Like my first pregnancy, I gained a lot of weight in my second pregnancy too. 17 kg to be exact. So my weight went up from 65 kg to 82 kg at the end of my second pregnancy.

I was exclusively breastfeeding my second child, a baby girl and my weight dropped from 76 kg (only lost 6 kg right after birth) to 70 kg in 7 months time. No kidding, despite I was told and I read that breastfeeding would make you go back to your pre pregnancy shape fast, it wasn't really true for my case. I only lost a sad 6 kg in a long 7 months time! Different with breastfeeding my first child, I lost an astonishing amount of weight already by 8 month postpartum! (20 kg to be exact!)

Oh well, I was pretty depressed. 7 months post delivery & I was 70 kg! 10 more kg to pre pregnancy weight. Just breastfeeding alone apparently didn't help me to shed extra weight. Breastfeeding may have worked well to lose baby weight with my first child but NOT with my second child! I remember I had only 5 months to go before Calysta's first birthday and wondered if I could look good on her birthday. It was pretty depressing until..

I posted on breastfeeding mum group on my Facebook asking for advice on how to lose extra baby weight. Many kind mommies giving me advices such as exercising, eating brown rice and there was one mommy suggesting me to replace a meal with a glass of protein shake and that's the start of my breaking point to lose weight which I'm going to share with all of you soon!

And so, I decided I needed to lose weight! Since Calysta had been eating solid well & cutting down on nursing sessions, I thought it would be okay for me to change my diet and start exercising. And so, I did some changes for the first time and my motivation was simply I wanted to look good, just like before!

So here are things I have done and some of it, I'm still doing right now & I would like to share with fellow mamas struggling to lose baby weight and hope my sharing helps :)

1) A cup of coffee in the morning with two big tall glasses of water (750ml)

I'm not sure about you but whenever I drink a cup of instant coffee in the morning with normal breakfast such as a slice of bread with cheese or a slice of bread with tuna spread, etc and wash down with 2 big glasses of water (each about 350ml) and it kinda stimulates my bowel and I just need to go toilet to clear my bowel movement. Find what works for you! If you find fruits working well for your bowel movement, go ahead & eat more fruits in the morning. I find a cup of coffee and plenty of water working really well. Drinking plenty of water in the morning I believe is the way to detox out toxins in your body.

My kind of breakfast

2) Weighing every morning

I have a digital scale and I weigh myself every morning. I find weighing every day is a way to control weight gain very well. For example: today I weigh 59 kg in the morning and I eat pretty lots of junk food, thus next morning my scale shows 59.5 kg. So I know that I gain 0.5 kg due to junk food, so the day I find out about the weight gain, I will try to control my diet for that day. For instance, less fried stuff or less snacking, etc. The day after, my weight should be back to normal

My weight in the morning is 58.5 kg and it's normal to be heavier (1-2 kg) at the end of the day due to water retention. So weighing every morning will be more accurate :) My current BMI is 18.7 (Normal Weight)

3) Eating FULL Lunch plus a little snacking

I don't believe in strict dieting because once you crave for something, eventually you will let go and you will eat more than before. So strict dieting doesn't work, trust me!

I always have full lunch of my choice without any restrictions. It can be anything from rice with complete meat, fish, veggies, fried stuff or noodles or anything I feel like eating. I just eat it! I don't restrict my lunch at all BUT.. I do restrict my dinner!

And it's okay for you to have a little snacking (100 calories) at 4 pm. 100 calories food can come from a slice of bread, half can of tuna, bunch of healthy almonds, a cereal bar, an apple or a cup of instant milk tea. Make sure you are aware of your calories intake for your mid-snacking. Always read the label! So I do snack because I just feel like to!

My kind of lunch, I eat anything I like with MODERATION. If one day, I eat too much for my lunch, the next day I will eat in moderation. The key to lose weight is eat in moderation!

4) Protein or LIGHT Dinner

I was introduced protein dinner by one of the mommies I crossed upon in the breastfeeding mum group and I was told that protein shake is actually safe for breastfeeding mum. So I gave it a try and oh btw, if you'd like to know, no no no I didn't sign up for slimming course/session to lose weight. I wasn't interested in those MLM business offering protein shake together with slimming program to lose weight with monthly installment to pay the slimming course and I knew it's not cheap, it would cost thousands of dollars.

Let me prove I CAN lose weight without spending thousands of bucks!

So I did my research about protein shake, which brand to start, how to make, how to get, etc

Protein shake meal replacement was my initial breaking point to lose weight!

August 5 was the date I started to replace my dinner with a glass of protein shake containing 200 calories. Those shake drinks tasted okay, but not too great for a food lover like me. I blended protein shake with a glass of water and fruits (normally a bunch of strawberries or one banana) I tried to blend it with yogurt drink as well and it tasted pretty decent to be honest. So total calories intake for dinner was about 300 calories.

And I lost an astonishing amount of weight in my first week. Although I did cheat one or two times hahaa..

Here's my first week weight loss journal. With protein shake as dinner replacement and regular EXERCISE!

Starting day: 5th August
Day 1 70.1 kg (starting weight at 7 months postpartum)
Day 2 69.6 kg
Day 3 69.1 kg
Day 4 68.9 kg
Day 5 68.6 kg (eating instant noodle for dinner, cheat day!)
Day 6 68.7 kg (no protein shake but eating salmon and chicken soup)
Day 7 68.3 kg
Week 1 Weight loss: 1.8 kg

To be honest, I religiously had protein shake for the first week only (with 2x cheat) and the rest, I only had protein drink like 3 times a week to replace dinner because honestly I didn't quite like protein shake drink but I found it pretty effective to shed extra weight fast!

The question is when I didn't have my protein shake drink, what did I eat for dinner? The answer is anything except rice! I can have soup, fish, meat, fruits etc (of course the portion shouldn't be enormous)

25 August was my day 21 and I have lost total 2.5 kg in 21 days time or 3 weeks time

Week 3 total weight loss: 2.5 kg
Day 21: 67.6 kg
Day 27: 66.4 kg
 
5 September was my day 32, four weeks or in 1 month time. I have lost total of 4 kg :)

Month 2:
Day 32: 66.1 kg
Day 39: 65.5 kg
Day 44: 64.9 kg

My second month total weight loss was 2 kg. We went to Jakarta for short holiday & I skipped drinking protein shake for a week. Instead I indulged on spicy and high calories Indonesian local foods, ops!

2 October was my day 59 or third month in my weight loss journey. Total weight loss was almost 3 kg

Month 3:
Day 59: 63.9 kg
Day 67: 62.9 kg
Day 85: 60.7 kg

So my total weight loss:
Month 1 (August) : 4 kg
Month 2 (September) : 2 kg
Month 3 (October) : 3 kg
Total: 9 kg

Total weight loss in 3 months time from August to October was 9 kg! And that's lot and in 3 months time , with eating light dinner (either protein shake drink or meat/fish with veggies/soup or a bowl of oatmeal) and regular exercise which I will talk about later on. I have successfully gone back to my old weight and shape like before getting pregnant!

From October to December. I lost another 2-3 kg. In fact, I gained a few kg of weight because I went on long holiday with my family and indulged in super delicious Taiwanese cuisine. Oh well!

However I managed to lose all weight I gained in Taiwan & lost further 2 kg before Calysta's first birthday party in mid December :) so I'm about 58-59 kg now! From 70 kg in August! I have achieved more than what I expected!

The first three months, I tried my best to replace my dinner with protein shake at least 3 times a week but after I lost those extra baby weight, I didn't want to drink protein shake anymore. I would prefer something nicer like chicken soup, steamed fish, homemade oatmeal, anything I like without rice for dinner. I find that eating rice for dinner is the biggest killer when I try to lose weight. Rice equals to high carbo and somehow it slows down my body ability in burning calories. Having said that, I'm a breastfeeding mum, so rice or noodles or any carbo food is still as important as before. The difference now is I'd rather eat rice or noodles for lunch, not for dinner :)

Btw, if you are a breastfeeding mum and not able to lose baby weight like me previously. My advise is be patient! Wait until your baby starts to eat a lot of solid food or doesn't only depend on breast milk for most of his/her calories intake, by that time, your baby should be around 7-8 months old and eating solid well, that's the time you can start your weight loss journey. If your baby hasn't started on solid food or not eating solid well, forget about cutting down dinner because you need lots of carbo to produce enough milk for your baby.

Calysta was 7 months old and eating solid well at that time, so it was fine for me to start cutting down my carbo intake and start exercising.

Btw, if you are wondering if protein shake is fine for a nursing mum. I say YES, it's safe! It didn't affect my milk supply, Calysta was getting enough milk, I had my let downs, milk was leaking, etc.

And of course, provided you have good balanced diet (lunch) and healthy snacking. I find that protein helps to fasten metabolism & burn calories more than carbo does which is why resulting in weight loss. If you don't like protein shake, go for meat or fish. I'm not a meat lover, so protein shake would be my better option to get enough protein to burn more calories for my initial weight loss plan.

Again I'm not a big fan of protein drink, so right now after I have achieved my target (and still breastfeeding). I only drink protein shake once a while to finish the rest of my protein shake stock hehee.. As mentioned above, I eat anything in moderation for my breakfast and lunch (sometimes big lunch) and yes carbo for lunch is a must too, no one can survive with no carbo at all and for dinner, I normally will go for a bowl of healthy oatmeal, soup, fruits etc. I prefer homemade foods like chicken or fish with vegetables with NO rice of course!

My kind of light dinner. Oatmeal & fruits!

Orange is good to curb your craving if you feel like eating salty fried stuff.

5) Keep a Weight Loss Journal

I kept a weight loss journal and I found it motivating! Mine is like something I wrote above.

Example:
Day 1: would be your starting weight
Day 2:
Day 3:
Day 60:
And so on..
 
It helps you to keep track on your weight loss and motivate you to achieve your target fast

6) Regular Exercise

I started to go for Zumba dancing, kickboxing & piloxing classes as soon as I started my weight loss journey and by doing those work outs, it helped me to fasten my metabolism. I'm a lazy girl, honestly. I hate to exercise, totally! So I know that exercising at home will never ever work because I will exercise for one week and the following week, I can't be bothered at all. So what I did was to sign up & pay for classes

Paying for classes is another way to motivate me to exercise. Hey I have paid, if I don't attend, I waste my money, simple as that! And classes like Zumba, kickboxing and piloxing are not only fun, but it's kind like a therapy for me to relief stress being a long term stay at home mum.

Exercise is not only good for body, but good for mental health too :)

Classes shouldn't be expensive, as long as you move your body, you sweat, you work out, you burn calories. I have my classes 2 times a week at the community centre. Cheap & fun! My current favorite work out is piloxing (combination of boxing, Pilate and dancing) and it's seriously very fun! 1 session is about 1 hour and I have 1 hourly work out class twice a week!

Remember weight loss is 70% from your diet and 30% from your exercise. Exercise is just to fasten your metabolism. Exercise alone won't work unless you change your diet.

My kind of exercise ~ Zumba, kickboxing and piloxing!

7) Going to bed a little hungry

Yes! If you go to bed a little hungry, that means you are on the way losing those extra weight! It's a way for skinny to stay skinny!

But seriously, I often go to bed a little hungry since I don't eat carbo (or even if I eat, it's a tiny amount of carbo) at night, but it's not harmful to me at all. I can still sleep well, I don't feel like vomiting, I don't feel nauseous. So actually it's not really hunger what we perceive as hunger. If I don't feel nauseous or dizzy and I can sleep well, a little hungry is fine! My body needs to rest at night and so my body digestive system, it needs to rest well too. Normally a glass of water will do the trick when I feel a little hungry. Sometimes you are not actually hungry, but feeling thirsty instead and your body sending the thirsty signal as hunger, thus you have the craving to eat at night. So next time, try a glass of water. If you don't feel dizzy/nauseous or sick and you CAN sleep well, you are not really that HUNGRY!

8) Go on indulging in your favorite food once a week

If I feel like eating KFC, I go ahead with no worries at all! If I feel like eating junk foods, it's okay too to eat it once a week. The reason is the more I avoid my craving, the more I feel like eating, eventually I won't win & give up and at the end I eat more than ever. So this is why strict dieting never ever works.

Indulging in high calories food once a week is also a way to cheat your body! Technically if you eat the same amount of lesser calories that you normally would eat, your metabolism will slow down because your body recognizes those changes in lower calories intake & automatically slow down your metabolism to avoid starvation mode and preserves those calories for other use in your body.

But when you cheat like eating high calories food once a week, your body will think hey I'm not starving, let's get the metabolism work faster! So weekend is my indulgence day & I eat whatever I like. Sometimes I will have 2 days in a week that I will just eat whatever I like :) if you wonder, will I gain weight after having indulging in something higher calories than usual? The answer is yes and no! The next morning I will gain about 300-800 grams (depending what I ate day before) and once I get back to my normal diet, I will lose those extra weight in a day or two and continuously losing weight following the same diet routine and exercising :)

I eat this if I want to and I don't need to worry at all!

9) Do cardio if you wish to eat extra calories

Let's say if you crave for noddles for your dinner, 30 minute of cardio work out will help you to burn extra calories you take. Or if you feel like eating a pack of chips, just eat it! Don't worry that much but make sure you do 30 minute of cardio work out after that! Simple, right?

When I eat "extra" I will burn extra too. When I eat "extra", I will do 30 minute cardio from my room and the YouTube cardio work out I love the most is this:

https://youtu.be/7GWcPcgWu08

Although it's only 30 minutes, this cardio work out never fails to make me sweat like I'm having sauna bath :) eating without feeling guilty is the best feeling right?

10) Tummy wrap & shaping cream

I wouldn't say tummy wrap & shaping cream helping me to lose my weight BUT it helped me to shape my waist & flatten my tummy!

The tummy wrap I love is belly bandit, not only it is organic bamboo material but it's so soft and comfortable that I can wear for 8 hours without break. I can wear it at home all day long (except I'm eating or sleeping). Not only it helped to shape my waists and hips and flatten my tummy (seriously proven) but it gave me a good back support when I'm carrying my toddler. I tend to get backache easily and notice that belly bandit is a really good back supporter :)

I have been wearing belly bandit since August until now December, about 5 months now and I feel my waists and hips are more defined. Really never feel this good before after giving birth to 2 kiddos in a short period (Hey, I popped 2 kids in 1.5 years time only!)

The tummy cream I love is Clarins because I feel my skin is super smooth & my tummy is flatter now (not sure if it's the workout, my diet, belly wrap or combination of everything that flattened my tummy) but most importantly, I don't get itchiness from wearing belly bandit and putting Clarins cream at the same time. I feel comfortable and plan to put on both for a long term period. When I was in my confinement, the Malay belly wrap and hot cream gave me such as torturing effects such as itchiness & redness I couldn't stop scratching, belly wrapping was a horrifying experience until a new friend of mine recommended bamboo made belly bandit postpartum wrap to me and since then, I'm hooked with this super effective yet comfortable belly wrapper. The best ever & I would recommend it!

That's the end of my sharing, sorry for the long post. I hope my little sharing will help mommies out there who are still struggling to lose baby weight. And my body is not perfect yet. I gained too much weight and lost it all and as result, my tummy is no longer firm & tight, I have extra skins in my tummy, thighs and butts. My thighs and butts are still flabby/not firm enough like before. I'm still working hard in toning my body. I'm still taking classes twice a week and do some cardio workouts at home but I know my body will improve and so yours too.

So if I CAN lose ALL my baby weight, a total of 11-12 kg in 5 months time and a total combined of 24 kg in 12 months postpartum, you can do it too! I remember the first time I was able to fit into my old size S dress, it felt amazing, more than a victory I can tell you! It felt so good to be able to fit into UK size 6 or 8, to be able to wear all my pre pregnancy clothes. And I felt more confident with my body and it automatically boosted my self esteem as well. From size XL to size S is an achievement I should be proud of :)

My tummy at 12 months postpartum and I'm still working hard to tone my body :) Yes we all CAN do it!!

My advice is don't give up and nothing is impossible! Whether you have 10 kg or 20 kg extra weight, you are ABLE to lose it all and back to your pre pregnancy weight but most importantly you must be ready to change your diet, drink plenty of water and start exercising. Trust yourself and be confident YOU CAN DO IT!!

Find something that can motivate you. My motivation was I wanted to go back to my old size S figure & to look good with my own body. So find something you really look forward to. If you are still breastfeeding, continue to do so. I'm pretty sure breastfeeding alone will not help me to lose all those kilograms but the combination of breastfeeding together with new diet and exercising might be the reason I lost those extra weight fast.

Best luck and you can email me if you want to share with me your story or if you have any questions to ask me :)