I have had so many conversations
with other moms trying to navigate
recovering after having your baby.
It's so emotional, right?
Your body is drifting different.
You're struggling between being a new
mom and you're taking care of yourself,
or at least you're trying to doctor.
Angela Tran is joining us to talk
more about postpartum care for moms.
It's so good to see you.
Thank you so much for having me.
So excited to be here.
We have been talking about
this the last time we met.
Just talking about, you know,
the first thing I think a
lot of moms think is, OK,
I'm gonna have my baby,
I'm gonna get my body back,
and then it doesn't happen,
and then you're disappointed.
Can you just talk about physiologically
what is happening and why we should
be a lot more gentle on ourselves?
Of course. Oh my gosh, anoosha.
I gained 40 pounds with my daughter Haley.
I'm also an older mom, and I dealt
with borderline gestational diabetes.
Yeah. So the hormones that you're
making actually makes a major chemical
shift in your body composition.
So not only are you increasing your body fat,
but you're also losing muscle that's
going to slow your metabolism way down.
And it gets even complicated if you've
had a C-section or other problems.
What does a C-section do
that complicates that?
You know, so you're, again,
there's so much of this chaos
in your body chemically.
Your body actually is storing
body fat to just, you know,
transport everything that it needs.
But because your metabolism
really needs to make a shift,
you really just need to get everything
in order to just keep things going.
You
know? There's just so much, you know,
pressure or unrealistic expectations
that you're supposed to just bounce back,
you know, within a couple of months.
What is realistic and and should you really
expect your body to just be the same that
it was before having a kid? Like I said,
you know, it took you nine
months to make a baby.
So please just give yourself
at least a year just to kind
of restore and you know,
obviously you can start exercising,
eating right. But but please,
it's, it's it's not realistic
to expect that you're going to
start losing baby weight right
away after the baby's born
and and so total bit about like
the stress behind it. Right.
Because I've had conversations with my
best friend and I had babies within a
couple of months and we were just so
stressed because like it's not working,
you know, our bodies aren't changing.
What does that do to the whole process?
You know, guess what, baby.
You know, having a baby is very emotional,
and we eat when we're tired,
we're stressed and overwhelmed.
We just don't understand that
we're consuming even more
calories than what we're burning.
And then what happens is,
is that your mental health?
You're just so tired and
we just don't ask for help.
I really encourage women to
make mental health a priority,
look for other moms for support or
even talk to your doctor just so that
we can make sure you're doing OK,
so that you're enjoying life with your baby,
right. That was a game changer for me.
I've been very open about my struggles with.
Postpartum depression.
And how do you have to get
your whole head to toe?
Like, aligned again?
What are your tips to a mom who's,
like, I wanna see changes,
I wanna get myself aligned.
I don't know what is realistic for me. Yes,
believe it or not.
You know the biggest challenge is sleep,
right? Yeah. No prescription medication
that's going to make us drowsy.
So I recommend magnesium,
200 milligrams at bedtime.
You know, it's a natural muscle relaxer.
It's going to help you get that deep sleep,
but you'll also be aware in
case your baby needs you.
OK, the second key.
Protein rich foods, you know, protein
is the building block for your muscle,
which supports your metabolism.
So you want to eat lean chicken, fish,
Greek yogurt, eggs, things like that.
And then finally, believe it or not,
exercise, but not just any type
of exercise weight resistance.
So you want to go, you know,
go up and down the stairs,
use your body weight resistance bands.
Those are the type of muscle,
you know,
exercises that are going to
get that metabolism up so that
you can get back into shape.
But it's not like everyone has to
do like seven days a week, right?
I mean, even if you can't get into
it and just get into a routine that.
Because it's hard, right. With kids.
Yes. Yes. In fact, I exercise
with my baby, and that's just bonding.
But you're taking care of yourself.
You're taking care of your baby.
And then, you know,
it's just a win, win situation.
And don't expect it doesn't
have to happen overnight.
Right. Well, thank you so much.
And hopefully, this gives people a
good place to start, a little piece
of mind to be kinder to themselves.
This morning. Yes.
It's always so good to talk to you.
It's very good. Thank
you so much. Again, this is
just one of my personal topics.
And just telling women that,
you know, you can do it.
And it is OK to take care of yourself too.
Yeah, absolutely. I could not agree more.