I've finally hit week 6 of the Tupler program, and I will admit it's hard to keep up with! It takes some concentration a few times a day to keep up with all the diastasis exercises.
I was having trouble getting all the basic Tupler contracting exercises in because you “hold a splint” with each exercise now. This means that you use a scarf or another similar piece of fabric to help hold your muscles together even more tightly as you do the exercises. This isn't easy to do when you're trying to balance a baby most of the day (and when you're not, you're trying to prepare meals and snacks or chase after older children…). I finally decided that I'd do my Tuplers while nursing and driving as I had been, and if I found time to do sets while holding the splint I would do that.
This probably means it will take longer for things to heal up completely, but it's better than not doing the exercises at all because I don't find time to hold the splint.
I was having trouble getting all the basic Tupler contracting exercises in because I “hold a splint” with each exercise now. This means that you use a scarf or another similar piece of fabric to help hold your muscles together even more tightly as you do the exercises. This isn't easy to do when you're trying to balance a baby most of the day (and when you're not, you're trying to prepare meals and snacks or chase after older children…). I finally decided that I'd do my Tuplers while nursing and driving as I had been, and if I happened to find time to do sets while holding the splint I would do that.
This probably means it will take longer for things to heal up completely, but it's better than not doing the exercises at all because I don't find time to hold the splint.
I've also been having trouble getting in the headlifts. That wasn't a problem at first. Then we started stripping everything off of the walls. Even with plastic down the floors got yucky, including the mats where I normally did headlifts. So I didn't want to stretch out on those.
They're relatively clean now, though, so I need to push myself to do the headlifts again.
Back to Basics
I've added in the rest of a basic fitness routine, which I am doing three days a week now, and I feel really good about it. I like feeling like I'm up and moving again. I feel like I can move boxes around (as we pack up the things we can live without for a few months) and I can actually help stripping the walls.
Best of all, my tummy is definitely trimmer. I still have a long way to go, but especially from my belly button up my belly is a lot flatter. Below my belly button I still have a definite pouch, but I think some of that is still skin shrinking from carrying Honor. I can see a bit of extra padding there, too, that I think the next several months of nursing will probably use up.
But I can button one pair of shorts that I couldn't button a few weeks ago, and I have hope that everything will be getting buttoned soon (and I can wear one of my skirts that wasn't fitting too well!)
I'm still struggling a bit because the extra “baby weight” is just NOT budging. I've been around 154 for weeks, and I was 158 right after Honor's birth. So things just aren't moving there. But I can see definite changes in my body, so I'm trying not to sweat the weight too much. I'm gradually reducing carbohydrate intake while making sure my milk supply stays strong and my milk stays rich.
And as I mentioned, I just added in a fitness routine. So I'm hoping that those things, combined with breastfeeding, will bring the rest off over the next several months. I look forward to seeing how my tummy looks as I move farther through the Tupler program, too. Time to make room for those headlifts again!
Healing a Diastasis Series
- Diastasis Recti: Closing the Gap
- Splinting a Diastasis
- Prescription for a Flatter Belly
- Postpartum Body Issues
- I'm in Week 6!
- Reflections on Corwin's Birth (Pregnancy after Healing a Diastasis Recti)
- Watch me demonstrate a diastasis width on Natural Birth TV
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