Week 9: Lose the Baby Weight

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Welcome to week nine of our Lose the Baby Weight Challenge! We're getting down to the core of your diet and fitness success, in two ways. One is strengthening your midsection (aka your "core"), the other is making exercise and meal and snack planning core to your every day routine. Just like brushing your teeth!

This week's assignments will get you on track.

Exercise: Gut Buster Workout

Do two to three sets with 15 to 20 repetitions of each exercise.

• Lunges with biceps curls (isolated squats right leg then left)
• Squats with wood chops (alternating wood chop)
• Crunches
• Alternating opposite arm/opposite leg (stay on one side then switch)
• Reverse crunches
• Corkscrews (each way)
• Double knee tuck
• Side bridge crunches (each side)

For details on this workout, check out Core Strength: Abs-olutely Essential. Perform this two to three days per week, and do three days of cardio workouts.

Diet: Eat Sensible Snacks

If you're writing down everything you eat, you'll notice some snacking trends. For example, you may snack after dinner or perhaps around 2 PM or 4 PM. Don't get us wrong, snacks are fine; in fact, they keep your metabolism steady and blood sugar level even. Healthy snacking prevents you from bingeing on junk when you're ravenous. But … are you eating healthy snacks or just grabbing what's convenient? We suggest some healthy ideas and a few snacks to avoid. Time to make this knowledge "core" to your menu planning.

Attitude: Just Do It

We find time for the things that are important to us and procrastinate or avoid what we don't. You'd find 90 minutes in a day to go to the doctor if you were sick. Exercise is preventive medicine. It's crucial to your well being. You must do it. The housework can wait. The phone calls can happen later. The errands can be run after the gym. Prioritize your exercise as the one thing you have to do today no matter what. Enlist your partner to make sure this happens. If you didn't get to exercise during the day, ask him to handle baby duty for 30 or 45 minutes in the afternoon or evening while you take a brisk walk or go to the gym. We've got more tips and encouragement on why and how you should make time, not excuses for getting your workouts in.

Extra Credit

Plan your week day by day and write in bold letters when and how you will exercise. For example:
Tues, 9:30, Meet Gail at gym—45 mins Pilates class.
Weds, 2:30 PM, post-baby nap power walk with stroller. Call Jen to see if she wants to come too.

Write this on your schedule just like everything else in your daily must-do agenda.