How to lose weight after birth in Tokyo

One of the great things about Tokyo is that you get quite vigorous daily exercise with relatively minimal effort. How? Walking! Walking to the train station, walking up stairs to the platform, walking to work, walking to lunch, walking to the supermarket, carrying heavy shopping back from the supermarket….the list is endless!!

Add on top of that a baby, baby bag, bottle of water, toys etc, and you have yourself a fantastic postpartum daily workout!

This has been my daily exercise since my baby was born, with some postnatal ‘baby and me’ pilates at Belly Motions thrown in. To my excitement today, nearly 6 months since my baby was born, I tried on my pre-pregnancy jeans and they fit! Hooray!

I thought I’d share this with you, in particular expecting mums, as I remember when I was pregnant I often wondered how long it would take me to get back in shape. Japanese mums seem to have a flat tummy within a month of birth, which always amazed me! Of course everyone is different, but personally I was really happy with my effort (or non-effort!) of 6 months:-)

My message to you all – don’t worry too much about loosing your pregnancy weight. Take it at your own pace and enjoy the time getting out and about with your new baby. We are lucky to be living in a city where we don’t need a car – so take advantage of all the walking and public transport available in Tokyo and you will be back in shape in no time!

Here are some “before and after” shots:
Left – 40 wks pregnant (I put on 20kg during pregnancy)
Right – nearly 6 months after birth (finally fitting into my pre-pregnancy jeans!)