Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Paris Postpartum Plan
This simple, effective health plan has two points of philosophy and seven tenets organized into two categories. It is untried and extremely specific to the experience and needs of one individual. It does not involve celebrities or photography. You are welcome to join, and if you are also a writer, we can work together as co-authors to pad this post into a lengthy best-seller. If you're a non-writing celebrity willing to be photographed during weight-loss, you can just be co-author anyway.
The plan has two philosophical premises:
1. Patience. It took nine months of bizarre food habits, walking less and less, and growing a fellow human being, to get into this shape. Plus the pregnancy before that, and the other one before that. You've been pregnant, nursing, or otherwise hormonally altered for well over 75% of the last five years. That was very important work that deserves a lengthy denouement.
2. Awareness. Try to live in the present moment, aware of whatever you are doing. This will be an asset in all of daily life, and will encompass eating. Don't let eating/exercise become detached from the rest of life.
Seven tenets
DIET
1. Stop eating between 9 pm and 7 am. Your 2-3 small meals eaten in the middle of the night, between nursings, can stop. Go to sleep hungry - it only takes a few minutes.
2. The majority of your sweets should be baked yourself, with the exception of chocolate, which should be eaten straight and not in complicated candy bars or packaged sweets with dopey names. If you plan to be extreme with sweets reduction, you will fail. If you bake it all yourself, you'll think twice about whether or not it's worth the effort. (It often is, but not always.)
3. Eat a big snack with the twins at 3 pm. It's always healthy, and will help you get by until dinner.
4. When eating a plain fruit or vegetable, eat lots of it.
EXERCISE
5. Breastfeeding 9-11 times a day counts as 5 miles of running. So says my friend Ruth, who has a PhD.
6. When at the park, do some sit-ups and a tree pose.
7. Prioritize swimming, and within the next few weeks, add weights.
Additions or corrections are welcome!
This simple, effective health plan has two points of philosophy and seven tenets organized into two categories. It is untried and extremely specific to the experience and needs of one individual. It does not involve celebrities or photography. You are welcome to join, and if you are also a writer, we can work together as co-authors to pad this post into a lengthy best-seller. If you're a non-writing celebrity willing to be photographed during weight-loss, you can just be co-author anyway.
The plan has two philosophical premises:
1. Patience. It took nine months of bizarre food habits, walking less and less, and growing a fellow human being, to get into this shape. Plus the pregnancy before that, and the other one before that. You've been pregnant, nursing, or otherwise hormonally altered for well over 75% of the last five years. That was very important work that deserves a lengthy denouement.
2. Awareness. Try to live in the present moment, aware of whatever you are doing. This will be an asset in all of daily life, and will encompass eating. Don't let eating/exercise become detached from the rest of life.
Seven tenets
DIET
1. Stop eating between 9 pm and 7 am. Your 2-3 small meals eaten in the middle of the night, between nursings, can stop. Go to sleep hungry - it only takes a few minutes.
2. The majority of your sweets should be baked yourself, with the exception of chocolate, which should be eaten straight and not in complicated candy bars or packaged sweets with dopey names. If you plan to be extreme with sweets reduction, you will fail. If you bake it all yourself, you'll think twice about whether or not it's worth the effort. (It often is, but not always.)
3. Eat a big snack with the twins at 3 pm. It's always healthy, and will help you get by until dinner.
4. When eating a plain fruit or vegetable, eat lots of it.
EXERCISE
5. Breastfeeding 9-11 times a day counts as 5 miles of running. So says my friend Ruth, who has a PhD.
6. When at the park, do some sit-ups and a tree pose.
7. Prioritize swimming, and within the next few weeks, add weights.
Additions or corrections are welcome!
5 Comments:
I love it! I'm trying to think of something else that can count for 5 miles of running, as I'm not currently breast feeding anyone. Walking w/ June, perhaps, for part of it...
Katie
By
Anonymous, at 4:26 PM
AskMoxie has a series of seven posts about preventing ppd. Lots of helpful advice for mamas and partners addressing the whole person here:
http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006/02/preventing_ppd_.html
I also heard about a study on NPR that found that women who received a 15 minute massage from their partner everyday had a lower incidence of ppd. I'm guessing those women also had a higher incidence of more babies... ;)
By
Colleen S.O., at 6:07 PM
The two tenets are great--especially the one about awareness. It's so easy to just gobble down food mindlessly when taking care of small children, especially when you're ravenous from nursing.
The home-baked treats principle would significantly reduce my sweets intake. I need an ice-cream-exception-clause, though.
By
Kate, at 6:54 PM
Katie, I think the only way that walking with June would count as 5 miles of running would be...if you ran five miles with her. Breastfeeding only counts as calories burned, anyway, not toning. Unless you count permanent saggy breastedness as toning, in which case nursing is a great exercise.
Great link on ppd, which adds a huge additional obstacle to regaining pre-pregnancy health.
By
Jenell, at 7:51 AM
Hey Jenell, new reader here, enjoying the blog immensely. Congrats on the relatively new addition!
Good plan; I'm a night-eater too when the schedule gets erratic, and agree that's something to nip in the bud.
Consider adding some push-ups to your sit-ups in the park; great upper body and core work. I'm all for running too, if you've got a good back and knees. It's hard to beat for developing cardio endurance, and the equipment is simple.
LLOL at saggy breastedness= toning; sad, but true! I find investment in excellent support for "the girls" a lactation fitness essential, layering if necessary (though there's a fine line between comfortable control and respiratory compromise!)
Steph in AK
By
Stephanie, at 4:51 AM
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