Natural weight drop for moms
Walk fast and walk a lot to get slim. There’s no other way. Forget about slow promenade walking.
Moms have a perfect combination of time for power walking: child’s day nap time and a stroller to walk with. And it doesn’t cost you anything to get perfect weight loss training just everyday.
Power walking is fast and energetic walking for longer distances. It makes you slim and sporty.
after three years of daily walking with baby stroller I came up with some tips on weight loss walking for moms:
What’s important for the weight loss:
Speed up – your should walk fast. It’s needed to burn calories. Check point: you need to outrun other moms with the strollers and your grand mom can’t walk along. Walk dynamically and energetically. Right speed will make you feel warm after 20 min. But don’t overdo: walk slow enough to be able to keep going for at least one hour! A quick check that your speed is right – you can speak short sentences, but it’s difficult for you to have a chat. Yep, and don’t chat while walking!
Walk everywhere – from point A to B by foot. Consider it’s your training. If you have a choice whether to walk or to drive by car – choose the first one. If you need to go shopping – do it, I mean – GO by foot! Your stroller has a shopping basket anyway, and you won’t have to carry bags. Estimate the distance between your home and place you need to get: if it’s less than 1,5 hour of walking: grab water and snacks for you and your child and go there.
…And every day – do one walk per day. Every day. For weight dropping it’s a way more effective to have 30 minutes of energetic walk a day than 2 hours in a gym twice a week. (read here if you wan to know why). The weather conditions and your mood don’t matter. If it’s raining – take a stroller rain cover and get waterproof clothing for yourself. Dress warm in winter. If it’s hot – go to the nearest park. Check around. I don’t take my car to get to the central park of the city, but it’s 8 kilometers from my home. I just I walk there while my child is sleeping and after he is awake, we are in a nice park spending time there.
Turn off mobile – for one hour while you’re walking. This is the time dedicated only to you. It’s time for training! Get some rest for your mind too. Nothing extra-urgent will happen during one hour (well, if you’re not a Mrs.President in the country). You can call later. Now it’s time to work on your body. If you are just like me, who can’t steer at the sky all the time and every day, use this time for self-education. Get an iPod and listen to podcasts or audiobooks or enjoy your best walking music and start doing Strollnetics!
Be happy – Being positive makes your walk much effective. Smile. Look around and start being happy about everything your eyes see: the sun, clouds, dogs and flowers. Be happy about even noisy traffic and perhaps gloomy people around. Smile to them. After a while of exercising you will notice that previously gloomy people are smiling in return. Gooood!:)
Be conscious – listen to yourself and feel your walking process. Listen to what exactly you’re doing at this particular moment. Your legs touching the ground, arms holding the stroller and your breathing. Listen how your muscles are working. Realization helps to get better results: listening to how your muscles are working, muscles are getting an impulse from the brain and will work more “consciously” to get firm and strong. If you start to think and realize that you are getting slim and fit – your body will react with burning fat and strengthening of the muscles.
Plan your tour – make your daily walk in green areas if possible (parks, forests, quiet streets, sea coasts etc) or choose the streets with less traffic. Stay aside of the streets with the high-voltage electricity lines. I’m always walking in the areas where I can get to a pit-point at the end of my journey: I call it a “Base” – a place where your can sit down, have rest, give food to the child or get something to eat for yourself. It can be a cafeteria or a shopping mall, park with sitting chairs. I have 8-9 “routes” to choose depending on a season or day I have.
Excellent article. I just took a childbirth class on mindfulness and I would love to do mindful walking with the child after he is born to get in shape!
Great comment, thanks! A mindful walking is an excellent practice, especially for the new moms. Not only to get in shape but also to make an everyday life more calm and peaceful!Doing it every day and feel awesome!
I have an 8 months old baby and walking is the only option for me. I do walking for an hour daily in the green areas. I am very much worried about my weight. Hope to lose my weight and get back to pre-pregnancy weight.I dont know how many pounds i will lose by walking for an hour daily
Hi Urmila,
Losing weight by walking is almost inevitably. The thing is – it’s not happening as fast as you might expect. For myself it took half a year for sure. Good news is that this weight drop is long lasting. My son is five already and I’m still two sizes less than before. Practical recommendation is to walk not less than an hour a day at a quite dynamic pace. Check your speed while on the go: you should be able to say a word or two but feel difficult to support a conversation. Walking at such pace burns calories while not exhausting you to walk longer time. Wishing you all the best and keep walking!
Hi Lena,
I am so happy to know this from you. I should have started walking long-back. However, i started it now and would want to lose as much as i can by doing only walking for an hour daily, as it is not possible to go to gym with the baby. Will I lose tummy also. Do I have to maintain any diet. I am sorry to bother you but, I felt your suggestion helpful and something similar to what I am doing now so asking you so many questions.
Thanks for your reply.
Hi Urmila,
Don’t worry – the best time is any time. Doesn’t matter when you’ve started unless you don’t stop.
Thinking on how to make sure you’re maintaining a proper (weight losing) speed. Beside a ‘talking’ test try these two: you should start to feel warmness already after 20 minutes of walking – it means your walking speed is high enough to start burning calories. Either check yourself this way: a proper weight losing walking speed is such as if trying to increase it – you’re already running.
About a diet. A brutal truth is that consuming more calories than burning – the weight will not go away. Again, it doesn’t mean starving or avoiding certain products by any means. A young mother should eat properly: my motto is to eat only good quality, fresh and tasty (!) food.
About a tummy – I know that there’s three things that tummy doesn’t like: running, swimming and walking. To let it go away – just keep dynamic walking a bit more than hour a day and every day! Don’t forget about a balanced nutrition! Wishing you all the best! In case you have any further questions – always welcome!
I would like to thank you for this article. Sometimes I don’t have the will power to get out.
Hi Cristina,
Yes, sometimes we ALL feel like that. To conquer yourself is the toughest task. Time to time I check http://reasonstobefit.tumblr.com/ to get a kick and get it out:-)
Hi Lena …. I have a 2 year ols kid… I jad lost weight after pregnancy in a year but the no workout/walk i put it all back again in 8 months … Now i need to lose 20 kilos in 6 months …. Dont know how long to walk to lose at this pace .. please guide me … Thanks in advance ….
Hi Richa,
Sure let’s try to figure out how to fix this! I lost like 12 kilos in a year BUT I lost them forever. Now after 7 years I’m still like 58-60 kilos and this seems to be my ideal weight, I wear 38EU size which I’m happy about.
To help you I need to ask some questions about your eating habits and lifestyle – so I’ll drop a line to your email.
I think you need kinda jumpstart but then we go slow and steady:-)
Take care and talk to you!
Lena
Hi any updates?