Overweight / Obesity (Gave a birth recently)

Strengthen your abdominal muscles with the Pelvic Tilt exercises. You can easily do that at home. You can do this exercise as early as one week after you had your baby if you had a vaginal delivery; if you had a C-section you might have to wait for 8 to 10 weeks. Consult your doctor before you start with this exercise.

Watch an instruction video:

For more exercises similar to this, visit this site.

Before starting any diets or exercises, consult your doctor. Depending on your physical condition, and whether you had a vaginal birth or a  C-section, he will recommend you proper diet and exercise.

The best way to avoid eating junk food at home is to completely remove it from the premises. When you have a craving for sweets or for a salty snack, and you are well stocked with it, nothing stops you from overeating and obtaining a huge amount of calories. And then you feel bad and are depressed.

If you have absolutely no unhealthy snacks at home, you are more likely to resist the urge, especially if it is the middle of the night or if there is no store in the walking distance of you. It will be hard, and you will be frustrated, but you will endure, and afterwards you will feel good about yourself.

If you absolutely must snack on something, replace junk food with healthy alternatives. Fresh or dried fruit, nuts, rice crackers, etc. are a good choice.

Just because a certain food is considered healthy, doesn't mean you can eat as much as you want. Healthy food still has calories. For example, almonds are considered healthy because they contain fiber, good fats, minerals, vitamins, and protein, but it is really easy to go into calorie surplus with them. A handful a day is enough.

Be especially careful with "healthy" processed food like canned food, low-fat cereals and dairy products, low-sugar/fat snacks, substitutes for butter (margarine, canola, soy or corn oils) etc. They claim to be healthy, but if you carefully read labels, you might get shocked.

Most cereals and dairy products that are low in fat, are high in sugar. Sorry to burst your bubble, but when you remove fat from yogurt, it tastes horrible. That is why manufacturers add sugar, various high-fructose syrups or artificial sweeteners.

Snacks that claim to be low in sugar, tend to be high in fat and contain artificial sweeteners that are connected to various diseases, including cancer.

Butter substitutes are industrially made vegetable oils (canola, corn, soy) and various kinds of margarine that bring disbalance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids to your body and are also filled with potentially cancerous ingredients. Use butter or homemade olive oil instead. Just like with any other food, all within reasonable limits.

Bottom line, stay away from the processed food as humanly possible, no matter how healthy it claims to be. Stick to the real, whole food.

Kegel is the earliest exercise you can do almost immediately after delivery. It might not help you lose weight, but it will strengthen your pelvic muscles and prepare you for more complex exercises. 

See this video to learn how to properly do Kegel exercises:

If for some reason, you are unable to do any sport, or perhaps, you just don't feel like it, try walking. It doesn't sound like much, but any activity is better than no activity. Walking at least one hour per day, especially after a meal, can help you lose weight.

Cut down on driving in a car, or in a public transportation system. Use stairs instead of elevators. Walk everywhere you can if you have time and your health/physical condition allows it.

• Soft and carbonated drinks are filled with sugars and artificial ingredients that give you extra calories without any nutritive value. Stop drinking them and switch to water or green tea. If you can't do it instantly, do it gradually. If you miss the flavour, you can add squeezed lemon in your water or tea.
• Alcoholic beverages add a lot of unnecessary calories and even suppress the ability of your metabolism to burn fat and make it harder for you to lose weight. Remove it completely from your diet or at least decrease consumption.
• Coffee on its own won't affect your weight much, but if you drink it with lots of cream and sugar, then it becomes a problem. If you drink several cups of coffee a day, those extra calories from sugar and cream can really add up. Gradually reduce sugar, cream and whatever else you put in your coffee until you start drinking it black or with low-fat milk.

Being sleep deprived harms the way your body burns calories. Learn more about how sleep deprivation affects your weight here.

Practicing yoga with your baby isn’t just about having fun and enjoying yourself while the two of you bond.  You’re also exercising your entire body while your baby develops necessary motor skills. For more information about doing yoga with your baby, as well as many parenting tips, visit this site.

You have probably read multiple times about famous new moms who got back their skinny figure in a ridiculously short amount of time. Don't try to copy that or get frustrated because it takes you longer. Those celebrities most likely did it in an unhealthy manner, with strict diets and rigorous exercise. Remember that it took you 9 months to put on pregnancy weight. It is perfectly fine if it takes you as much to lose it. 

Don't go on any low-calorie diet, especially if you are breastfeeding. As a new mom, you will stressed enough without depriving yourself of your favorite food and being hungry all the time. Instead, aim for a well balanced diet combined with exercise.

Breastfeeding is recommended anyhow because it strengthens a bond between you and your baby and has all the nutrients that your newborn needs. In addition to that, it can also make you lose weight.

Numerous mothers claim they lost their pregnancy weight simply by breastfeeding even though they ate more and haven't really exercised. Breastfeeding can help you burn between 300 and 500 calories a days which adds to a pretty decent sum over a couple of months.

If you need to lose 30-40 pounds, don't set your goal to be 40 pounds. It could easily frustrate you when several months have passed and you still haven't reached your desired weight. Instead, let your goal be to lose 5-10 pounds. And when you reach it, set your goal for another 5-10 pounds and so on. Reward yourself every time you successfully reach a goal.