This is one of my last "Let's Eat" posts. I've been harping on nutrition so much, and I want to lighten this up a bit by posting this video. It is so true, relevant to "Let's Eat", and so funny...
That whole stand-up act is hilarious and you can see other bits of it on youtube. I definitely recommend it.
In this post I want to talk about nutrition during pregnancy and post-pregnancy. I don't know much about this, but there are a couple things I want to share that helped me deliver a healthy baby and then lose weight after. But the first thing I want to say is talk to your doctor! Don't go off of what I write here if his/her recommendations are contradictory. Clearly doctors know more about this than I do. Also, I want to say that if you are eating healthy pre-pregnancy, listen to "what your body tells you". Let your hunger dictate when and how much you eat. Don't get too caught up in the numbers that I write below.
That said, I want to say that what helps you return to your normal weight fastest after your pregnancy is to not gain too much weight during your pregnancy. I am not, by any means, saying that pregnancy is a time to skimp on food! It is important that you and your baby are getting enough calories. However, the phrase, "You're eating for two," is a little misleading. True, you are nourishing two people when you are pregnant, but keep in mind that second person is very little. Your baby does not need as many calories as a full-grown person. In fact, most doctor recommend only increasing your calorie intake by about 300 calories during the first two trimesters and 400-500 during the third. Many women use pregnancy as an excuse to "let go" and eat whatever quality and quantitiy of food they want. This is dangerous and can have very negative effects on the mother and baby. Contrarily, I would encourage you to maintain your healthy eating habits and simply add a little bit more to your daily intake such as one extra sandwich or a couple extra snacks. Don't let your extra calories come from sugar and junk. Think about what you eat and whether it will benefit you and your baby or not.
I say all this because it is so common now a days for women to gain way too much weight during their pregnancies. This not only results in more weight to lose after the baby is born, but increases the possibility of pregnancy complications and more difficult deliveries. I gained 25 lbs during my pregnancy, which was just about right for a person my size. This is a good article for referencing how much weight you should expect to gain during a healthy pregnancy. However, I will say that many women eat healthily during their pregnancies and still gain over the suggested amount. So, keep in mind that optimum nutrition for you and your baby is the goal, not staying within a certain weight range.
As far as nutrition and weight loss after delivery goes, I want to say a couple things. The first is that breastfeeding is not only beneficial for your baby, but also beneficial for you. I understand that a lot of women don't breastfeed for a variety of reasons and I respect that. However, it can be very helpful in losing pregnancy weight. My sister and I were joking that, "It literally sucks the fat out of you!". As I said, I gained 25lbs during my pregnancy. Piper weighed just over 7 lbs, and at the time of delivery the amniotic fluid and placenta are thought to weigh about 10 lbs. This means that I only had about 8lbs to lose. I am almost positive it all melted off within the first month or two of breastfeeding without me putting in any other effort to lose weight.
Finally I want to encourage you to pay attention to what you feed your kids once they eat solids. This is important for a couple reasons. First, obviously your child's nutrition is your responsibility and how you feed them now will impact the way they grow and develop their own eating habits. A friend once gave me some advice that really impacted how I feed Piper. She said that she always started her kids on the "plain" or sugar-less versions of food. As a result, her kids preferred sugar-less foods when they were older. She encouraged me that the "sugar addiction" (as we talked about in the previous LE post) can be avoided in childhood, especially if you start your kids on sugar-less food while they are young. I took this advice and I know that Piper loves "plain" yogurt and thinks the flavored stuff is gross. She also prefers raw nuts to honey roasted. She developed a taste for more natural things, which will be so helpful to her throughout her life.
Feeding your kids healthily is also important for your nutrition. As someone once told me, "You will eat what your kids eat." I have found this to be so true. Piper and I always eat the same things for our meals and I constantly find myself eating the snacks I pack in her diaper-bag when we are out and about. If you regularly feed your kid mac-and-cheese, spaghetti o's, fruit snacks, and candy, be prepraed to be eating those things yourself. As I said in the second post of this series, healthy eating starts at the grocery store, so pay attention to how you stock your cupboards.
Rebounding from having a baby is definitely more difficult for someone women than others. However putting what I wrote above into practice may help. In America it is a common idea that women usually stay fat after they have a baby. But, in many other countries and throughout history this has not always been the case. A woman's body is designed amazingly to carry a baby and to recover quickly afterward. Pregnancy is a natural, beautiful, temporary state that should not make women fat for the rest of their lives. So if you are hoping to have a baby someday, are pregnant, or are a new mother, know that pregnancy is not necessarily a death sentence for your figure and that eating nutritiously is very beneficial for you and your family.
I hope this helps! There is only one more post left in this series and I am suspecting I will post it over the weekend. Thanks for reading.
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