The 4 Changes One Woman Made in Order to Lose 40 Pounds

Being a health coach, Maya Henry put a lot of pressure on herself to "bounce back" from her pregnancy pretty quickly. To her dismay, she hardly slept, was extremely irritable, and even craved sugary, unhealthy foods she never used to like.

It wasn't until she changed her mindset that she started to see the pregnancy weight come off.

"I was forgetting that our hormones begin changing the moment we get pregnant and continue to change for nine months and beyond," she wrote for MindBodyGreen. "Of course, I couldn't expect to be back to 'normal' just a few months after having my baby. [...] I had to relearn the fundamental practice that is at the core of my business. To be gentle on ourselves and to acknowledge all that we already are doing!"

Below are the changes Henry made that helped her lose the 40 pounds of baby weight.

She listened to her intuition.

When Henry went back to work she listened to her intuition. "Instead of staring foggy-brained at my computer, I quickly recognized when I was too tired to be productive and laid myself down for a nap," she wrote. "Instead of spending two hours staring at my computer and accomplishing very little, I could nap and then easily accomplish much more in the same amount of time."

MORE: One Woman Lost 120 Pounds After Making These Simple Diet Changes

She set smart goals around exercise.

Instead of signing up for a 5K, Henry knew she needed to start small. "I started attending Tabata classes at a local gym. I made those classes nonnegotiable on my schedule and honored that commitment. I set my goal at two times per week, something that was easy to be actionable but that I could also see results from. I didn't overwhelm myself with setting too big of a goal."

She scheduled monthly massages.

"I didn't realize how disconnected I had become from my body after having my baby," she said. "I just didn't see it. But getting an hour-long massage and feeling how all my muscles and ligaments were there and connected completely re-cemented my mind-body connection."

She planned simpler meals.

"Meal planning saves so much time and money, plus, we don't suffer from 'decision fatigue' and start making unhealthy choices because we are overwhelmed by decisions all day," she wrote. With her meal planning, Henry realized that she was spending too much time cooking — time that could have been spent napping, exercising or getting a massage. So she simplified dinnertime!

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