At my latest meeting of fitness pro’s I got together with Sara Sutherland Dean. She works with new mom’s to get them back into tip top shape. I figured that you could benefit from some of her advice. Lots of my clients are ‘new mom’s’ and their babies are teenagers now…;)

So, even though most of our babies may not be newborns anymore, maybe we can still benefit from Sara’s advice…take it away Sara…

Biggest Barriers to Losing Baby Weight after 40

If you’re over 40 and had a baby in the last few years, you may find yourself looking at young moms and Hollywood moms with a bit of an evil eye.  I don’t blame you.  The youngins have it easy when it comes to bouncing back from baby belly fat.  But that doesn’t mean that you can’t look just as fabulous as they do.  You just need a few more tricks up your sleeve.

Below you will see the tips and tricks many of my moms use to recover from their baby bodies.  I have recently been working with two moms in their 50’s who both have sets of teenage twins.  These moms are awesome – first, because they are super hip parents and can keep up with their TWINS and second, because they have recently committed to taking back their bodies after 15 and 18 years of letting them go.  Their results have been phenomenal.  They don’t even recognize their own bellies!

Here are the 3 biggest mistakes moms make with fat loss . . .

Eating the wrong foods for fat loss:

Diet is typically the biggest barrier to weight loss for moms of any age, but particularly moms over 40.  No matter how old your kids are, you likely are surrounded by food that is less than optimal for you.  If you have little kids, there’s probably goldfish crackers and high sugar yogurt in your cupboards and fridge.  If you have grade school kids, there’s probably chips and cookies on your counter everyday.  If you have high school age kids, there’s probably an endless supply of carb loaded and sugar coated treats and snacks filling your pantry.  That’s just how it is when you have kids, right?

I don’t want to start a mutiny in your household, but I would strongly recommend that you limit how much of this kind of food you have in your house, as you’re not doing your kids any favors by having it around.  I grew up with a lot of junk food in my house and was a very overweight teen and young adult as a result.  My mom really regrets keeping this kind of food in the house after seeing my struggle with weight loss.

When you have unhealthy foods around for your kids, inevitably you will dabble and/or dive into them.  One of the best things you can do for your whole family is clean out your cupboards and fridge make some fresh changes.

The biggest things to keep in mind when you are making dietary changes over 40 is to start thinking about fueling yourself rather than just feeding yourself.  If you’re fueling yourself, you are eating for energy and performance – mental, physical emotional energy and performance.  You want to keep your carbs low.  This means all sources of sugar, of course, but also all sources of grains.  Just trading whole wheat pasta for white pasta is really not going to cut it, especially if you’re looking to lose belly weight.  To lose belly fat, especially as you enter your 40’s and 50’s it is a matter of reducing grains whenever you can.  You do not truly need grains at all.  We are just very conditioned to think we need a side of rice/pasta/bread at every meal.

The truth of the matter is a meal high in protein and veggies will fill you up and fire you up.  By that, I mean you will be full, satisfied and full of energy.  With a carb heavy meal you will likely find yourself lethargic, cranky, and hungry for more sugar in a short period of time.  I’m not endorsing an Atkins diet here.  You can get plenty of carbs from fruits and vegetables.  So, if you can fill your plate with protein and veggies and a side of fruit, you will get your daily carb quota, promise!This is how I eat/fuel.  I have many, many moms who now eat this way as well and they feel and look amazing.  No more eating their kids’ junk.  No more eating off their kids’ plates.  They are really satisfied by this way of eating, as they get to eat a lot and they feel very satisfied.

It is really motivating when you quickly see your body respond to the dietary changes made in shifting to a primarily protein/veggie diet.  You will find yourself less bloated and you will loss weight in all the places you tend to hold fat (belly, love handles, hips, thighs, back of the arms.)  Interestingly, these are the areas moms tend to hold the most fat after having kids.  Many moms struggle for years, until their kids are fully grown, perhaps, to lose this “baby weight”.  But making this shift to fueling yourself will hugely impact your ability to lose that “baby” weight, regardless of the age of your “baby”.

Exercising the wrong way:

Most moms assume cardio is the best way to burn belly fat.  In fact, many moms come to me with impressive workout routines that involve hours and hours of cardio each week.  Would you believe that I make them stop doing their cardio?  Yes, it’s true.  Well, mostly true.  I tell have them replace their traditional steady state cardio workouts with much smarter cardio.  Instead of 45 minutes on the elliptical at the same level of resistance everyday, we move to high intensity intervals using body weight or strength moves or power moves or burst training on cardio equipment.

This is what makes boot camp type workouts yield such impressive, body changing results.  Research has shown us over and over that interval training, when done correctly, will burn up to 9 times more fat in LESS time than traditional cardio.  And interval training specifically targets belly fat, unlike any other kind of cardio.  Kind of a no brainer, right?!  Why would you slog it out walking on the treadmill for 60 minutes when you could do intervals for 20-30 minutes and move on with your day???

In our programs, we have moms use strength training exercises in quick succession, so their heart rate gets up nice and high.  This allows you to cover your basis for strength and cardio work in the same sessions.  Brilliant!

It is important to note that we teach strength training in a very specific way for moms.  Because you likely don’t have much time to commit to exercise, we want you only perform exercises that incorporate multiple muscle groups at once.  So, you’ll never see bicep curls or crunches in our programs.  Those exercise are a complete waste of time, as they burn no calories and isolate little tiny muscle groups that can easily be incorporated in big movements that burn big calories.

For people who really love cardio machines, you can still use them.  Just, please, use them smartly.  You can do intervals (or burst training) on any piece of cardio equipment.  Instead of reading your favorite magazine put in your headphones and power through a 20-30 minute session, performing 30-60 seconds bursts of high intensity, followed by equal recovery time (decreasing your resistance or speed enough to recover to a 5 on a scale of 1-10).  If you can read on a cardio machine, you’re NOT using your time to be maximally efficient in your workout OR your fat loss.

Having the wrong mindset:

I think this is the single most important factor in moms over 40 losing weight.  In many cases, moms get to a point where they’ve accepted their “mom bodies”.  Do you wish you could be smaller, leaner, skinnier, more toned?  Do you feel like you’ve been stuck where you are for so long, this is just where your body is meant to be?  Have you gotten too comfortable in elastic waistbands and loose tops? Have you resorted to hiding your shape everyday?  This is the case for many moms.

There is NO doubt in my mind that you cannot look completely different in 4-8 weeks if you set your mind to it.  But, YOU have to SET YOUR MIND TO IT.  I can give you all the advice in the world, but YOU have to take that advice and do something with it.  You have to have a designated starting point where you decide to commit and succeed.  Failure cannot be an option.  With that mindset, the idea of “cheating” or skipping a workout will become unappealing, because you will be so determined and disciplined that nothing will stand in your way.

All it takes is feeling your clothes get a little looser, finding yourself a little stronger in a workout, receiving one compliment from a friend or loved one who recognizes these changes and you’ll be hooked on your new lifestyle.  But, you have to commit.  You cannot give 50% and expect to change 100%.  You get out what you put in.  So, if you put in 100% for 4-8 weeks, you will see something dramatic that will change you.  From there, there’s really no turning back.  You will crave this new feeling of confidence, beauty, strength, empowerment.  You will be a better and stronger mom and wife (physically and emotionally).  It is simply a matter of committing to yourself and accepting nothing less than the best from yourself.

I hope you take these three pieces of advice to make some significant changes in your life.  You deserve it.  Know there are a lot of moms out there, just like you, just getting started on this journey.  You can meet many of them in our community at www.FitHealthyMoms.com.  Be sure to reach out and ask for help and support as you need it.

Sara Dean is the founder of Fit Healthy Moms, an international online community.  Sara’s passion is helping moms lose baby weight and burn baby belly fat. Fitness and exercise can completely change your pregnancy and postpartum experience. At the urging of her clients, Sara launched Fit Healthy Moms to provide moms with the necessary information about postpartum weight loss.  Moms all over the world are currently using her downloadable postpartum weight loss program, 6 Week Pregnancy Weight Loss 

This entry was posted on December 12, 2011 at 4:13 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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