In this post I'd like to offer a few extremely effective tips to help you (assuming you're a new mother) lose your pregnancy weight. Losing pregnancy weight is neither as easy nor as difficult as you may think. Following the advice to come will get you going in the right direction.

I don't remember the exact day I realized I was having great success helping new mothers lose their pregnancy weight. I do remember being fascinated by a simple idea: Unlike everything I'd always read, the mothers who came to me to train were highly motivated and didn't want to a second-class, kid-gloves treatment. They wanted to lose their pregnancy weight - now - and didn't mind the idea of working for it. So I started refining what we did at my fitness boot camp (The Fitness Camp in Irvine, CA) to fit the time-crunched schedule of a new mother. And voila! Better than Before: Get Your Body Back While Baby Naps was created.

Here are two quick things you can do to help you rapidly shed pounds and tone up. Soon you'll be looking better than before. ;-)

Tip #1: One of the best - if not the best - exercises to tone your abdominals is called a Farmer's Walk. It is simple to explain. Imagine walking as normally as possible while carrying a heavy dumbbell in each hand. The various muscles of your abdomen stabilize your midsection. Nothing works them in the way they're meant to be worked quite like the Farmer's Walk.

But how can you integrate the Farmer's Walk into your life without adding time to your day (which is the entire point of the Better than Before program). Easy. Carry just one dumbbell in one hand while you push your stroller with the other hand. The idea of being "lopsided" while Farmer Walking - let's call it "Mama Walking" from now on - forces your opposite side obliques and serratus muscles to work harder than if they were being counterbalanced and aided by the usual both-hands Farmer Walk. So the Mama Walk not only allows you to keep one hand on the stroller, it supercharges your abdominal work. That's some serious Bang for the Buck.

Tip #2: So now you're Mama Walking with your dumbbell or kettlebell. What can you do other than change hands every minute or so? Here's what: When your hand begins to fatigue after about a minute (which it will, if your dumbbell is heavy enough to effectively work your obliques), stop and set down the weight. Pick it up with your other hand and perform an exercise such as push presses or thrusters or some full-body exercise that is working both legs, but only one arm. I call this Hemispheric Training. We invented Hemispheric Training (as a system) at The Fitness Camp, and it works well for men, and incredibly well for women. Why? Because of the strength difference between women's upper and lower bodies. Imagine you're doing a thruster (a full squat, holding dumbbells, in which you continue the upward motion by pressing the dumbbells overhead, then lowering them and squatting again, repeating the motion until you begin to slow or technique breaks down). If you have a dumbbell in each hand, chances are your arms are going to tire well before your legs. But if you're gripping only one dumbbell, now you have both legs performing the squat while you work your right arm/shoulder, then both legs working again when you switch to your left hand. Good, effective stuff.

As mentioned above, there are many exercises you can perform while Mama Walking. The beauty of it is you can perform a quality workout of an intensity not possible with just a stroller while bonding with your child, and you can do it all while outdoors. It's a 1-2-3 punch that's tough to beat.