Sorry guys, this one is for the ladies this week!  A lot of my friends who have had babies at the same time keep asking is it safe to exercise and breast feed?  They have heard (a tale from an old wife) that if you diet or exercise when breast feeding it will interfere with your milk supply! Well luckily the old wife who made this tale up wasn’t right.

There are only a few substances that can affect milk supply with are, these are:

• Smoking
• Caffeine
• Contraceptive pills and injections
• Severe weight loss diets
• Peppermint, parsley, sage (in excessive amounts)

You are also able to carry out a wide range of activities, including impact work, without it effecting the feeding or milk supply.  It is important to wear the correct apparel for obvious reasons,(big boobs need supporting) and timing of exercise is also important. Do not try and exercise when you are hungry.  Its best to eat, then feed the baby and then exercise for both your comfort as well as for your energy levels.  Depending on your activity, you may find that you also need a small snack before you exercise after feeding.

So, boot camp sessions are going well, as well as my run, jog and walks.  These are a great way to start back running after a long break.  If you break down your run into walking sections and running sections before you start it will motivate you to actually run the running sections rather than do it ad-hoc when you won’t actually run the run sections.  By pre planning these sessions you will actually run further that you would have done by just saying ‘I’ll run to the next lamp post’.  These interval sessions are a great way to build up stamina before working on speed.

Also this week as I’ve been writing a lot of nutritional plans for Anatomy clients, so I decided to take a good hard look at my own.  Did you know that just one bottle of beer a night is an extra 1000 calories a week!  Which is roughly a pound of weight gained every month through just beer alone!  Wine is even worse, as a glass of wine can contain double the calories of a bottle of beer, which can equate to two pounds a month in weight gain.  So dry January is not only good for your liver, if you are serious about losing that Christmas bulge, cutting out drink is an excellent way of reducing your calories intake.