I'm trying to lose my post-baby fat, so I should stay away from cold water, right?

Hi doctor,
It had been 2 weeks since I had my baby son,  and I had an appointment for 
his circumcision, and while in the waiting room and being nervous, tense
and extremely thirsty, I asked my mom who was with me to get me a bottle 
of cold water.

As soon as she came in and handed it over, this woman with us, who was 
quite friendly earlier jumps up and snatches the bottle from me. 
She starts yelling  " COLD WATER ??  DONT YOU LIKE YOUR SELF ? 
"U WANT TO WALK AROUND FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE WITH A
LARGE STOMACH??"

She then went on to tell me that she has 5 sons and the reason that her
stomach was flat was that she never drank cold water, because it 
congeals the blood and fat in the stomach and prevents it from draining out. 
I should instead eat hot pepper soup, and drink hot water for the next 
2 months.
She even scolded my mum for encouraging me by buying me the cold water.

I complied that day but unfortunately I have since gone back to my cold water 
drinking, as I cannot stand drinking hot stuff. 

However, It’s been 5 weeks plus now and in spite of that, there is a 
visible reduction in the size of my stomach

So tell me Doc, am i actually sentenced to walking around with a large tummy 
for the rest of my life, my second question is that  can we get DocSays on fliers 
distributed in Antenatal wards so that the  culprits behind the myths get to 
read them?
From M.C   
P.S.: I want 5 sons and want to have a flat stomach too.


   Dear M.C,

Welcome to DocSays and thanks for your mail!
Your experience is not surprising when you consider the popularity of 
myths on pregnancy and the length of time they've been enforced. 
We're talking about generations upon generation of culture and tradition.
Unfortunately, most of them are not backed by fact, many of them in fact, 
are completely contradictory to medical or scientific fact.

With the proper exercises, you need not have a big stomach, even after
as many sons as you can possibly want. As explained in passing in the article, 
the flatness or otherwise of the abdomen depends in a large part on the 
strength of the abdominal muscles. 
These muscles while having been stretched beyond 
their elastic limits by the pregnancy, can regain their tensile strength 
through regular and repeated exercises.
Even just holding in your tummy for short stretches of time is exercise and 
will help in your journey back to the world of the flat and strong abdomen.
There is a Docsays series on post-baby tummy trimming exercises coming 
soon, which you can look forward to for more help on this.
Until then, relax easy and keep holding your stomach muscles in, you will
see a great difference in a short while.
As to your second question on the provision of hard copies of Docsays in 
the Antenatal clinic wards, look out for the Docsays newsletter, 
which will be widely distributed.
Stay tuned.
Cheers and stay healthy!