How to Lose Weight While Caring for Your New Baby

Most new moms can start to exercise within a month or so after giving birth. Checking with your doctor is always the best thing to do though, especially if you had a C-section or a difficult birth with complications. There are some simple exercises that you can do, along with your baby, to kick start the weight loss experience. If you are able to include your baby, you will be more apt to continue exercising and doing it on a regular basis.

While holding your baby, step up and step down on your lowest step in your house. If you have a step bench, you can use that as well. Switch legs every 30-60 seconds. Focus on pushing your butt as well as your leg for your best toning results. This exercise can take less than ten minutes to do each day. If you are still in the mood to work out, while holding your baby, dance around with some dance music on. The baby will love this and it may even put him/her to sleep from the constant movements. While supporting your baby's head and neck, you can do some dips and kicks. Try to keep this at a higher intensity for at least five to ten minutes. Dancing burns lots of calories so do it for as long as you want and can.

Some other quick workouts that you can do include squats, lunges, reverse ab crunches, planks, push ups and stationary walking. You can start out with some stationary walking to warm up a bit. Then you can move onto some push ups. You can walk with baby in your arms. Then you can put baby on the floor right in front of you while you do your push ups. Keeping the baby near you and entertained by you is the key to being able to do more than just a few minutes. You can hold the baby while you do squats and lunges. The baby will enjoy the movements.

After I gave birth each time, I would get the stroller out and go for a nice long walk. This gave me the chance to have a little quiet time while getting some exercise and it usually put the baby to sleep. That was a win-win situation!! I would usually get in a two to three mile walk and everyone involved enjoyed it. When the weather was bad or in the winter, I would hold the baby and walk around my family room with a pedometer on. I made my own walking track around the furniture and walk for about thirty minutes. The baby always fell asleep in my arms. Again, another win-win. He got much needed rest and I got much needed exercise. A bonus for me was that my other kids would sort of chase me around my track and that would keep them happy, occupied and active all at the same time. They all loved it and would wait for me to start walking.

Another great indoor activity is a workout tape. I never had the time to do a long tape and the baby never wanted to be put down so I did a walking tape. It allowed me to hold the baby and it was a quicker workout. I usually did the two mile workout which was about thirty minutes long. It is an easy tape to follow and you can hold the baby the entire time.

You can do almost any type of workout with the baby either in your arms or placed right next to you. There are even some gyms and dance studios that host mommy and me yoga classes or other mommy and me type of exercise classes. That is a great way to meet other moms that have new babies as well. In some cities, there are special stroller fit classes as well. They are classes that meet outside somewhere and utilize the stroller in their workout routines. Babies just love moving and most love the stroller so these classes are a great thing if you can find one locally.

Whatever you decide to do, keeping your baby close is the key to getting that whole workout in. My son didn't like to be put down as an infant so I always worked out with him in my arms or when he would be napping, a rare occasion. Thankfully, at 19 months old, he isn't like that anymore and he allows me to work out without holding his 27 pound body. He loves the stroller and even asks to go on walks now. We usually walk after dinner. That winds the kids down, works off some calories that were just taken in and everyone loves the routine. Keeping fit is important in today's society, keeping your children motivated to be fit is also an important factor of today's life. Sometimes, you burn off a lot of calories just by playing with your kids. Enjoy and happy exercising!!