Mommy Talk Show Candid Conversation with a TV Mom
While celebrities have personal trainers, chefs and plastic surgeons to help them lose the baby weight, the rest of us have to go it alone. One book to keep handy in your pursuit to get fit post-baby is Baby Weight: The Complete Guide to Prenatal and Postpartum Fitness. Author Micky Marie Morrison is a wife, mom and physical therapist.
Keep reading for more of Morrison’s expertise in a Q & A on celebrity moms like Beyonce who look amazing shortly after giving birth, how long you should wait after delivery to workout and how moms (like me) who are still carrying their baby weight two years later can finally get in shape!
Book Review
Baby Weight offers step-by-step guide to exercises you can do with your infant or toddler nearby. The photos of real moms (not models) help your identify with someone who looks just like you. Work at your own level and refer to the exercise images along the way.
The author also recommends that you bring the book to your first postpartum appointment to go over your fitness plan with your OB/GYN.
Q & A with author Micky Marie Morrison
Question: The photo I showed you of Beyonce one month after delivery. Does it motivate moms to lose the weight or is it an unrealistic goal to look like that?
Answer: While Beyonce may have access to trainers and chefs and nutritionists (and a cleaning lady) that make it easier, she still has to do real work of getting and staying in shape. I’d bet that the worked hard to stay fit during pregnancy and started right back up after baby came. Every woman has the power to adopt a healthy lifestyle and take control of her postpartum recovery.
However, seeing a flat tummy a month after baby can be disheartening if a woman compares herself to that image. But what you see is not the real picture… her post-baby bump is most likely well contained under a binding garment which gives her the svelte figure in the photo. She probably has more curves than she’s showing there.
Question: What would you saw to a mom who wants to start exercising 4 weeks after delivery, instead of the usual 6 weeks doctors suggest?
Answer: Doctors routinely say to wait 6 weeks after birth to exercise, often regardless of the individual circumstances. If you have a vaginal delivery, you can start exercising just days after giving birth. After a cesarean you have to wait a little longer to allow the scar to form but even then there are many exercises women can begin around 3 weeks post-op. All the exercises in Baby Weight have Cesarean variations listed to indicate when it’s safe to begin and with special modifications to reduce stress on the forming scar.
Question: What’s your advice to moms like me who haven’t really exercised two years post-baby?
It’s never too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle! If you still have baby weight that you want to lose, start now. If you never got your waistline back, start now. Healthy food choices and regular exercise can profoundly affect you physically and mentally in a short time. Make a 3-month commitment. Then it’ll be habit and you’ll be well on your way.
Sounds interesting! My biggest roadblock is just getting up!!! I know how to exercise but I would be interested in seeing how to exercise 5 minutes at a time for all the days when I don’t have time to do a 30 minute workout.
I would love to learn how to exercise with baby. I love a book with pictures of women that look like me after giving birth. If I have this book this would leave me with no excuses to say I dont’ know where to start or how to include my baby. Seem like it will be a good book.
This book would give me the knowledge on how to exercise and bond with my baby. I like a book with pictures to make sure my form is right. This might jump start my weight loss with no excuses.
This looks like a great book. Great review also!