VI. Stay fit during the pregnancy
This blog post is a continuation to my previous posts where I share my top tips for quick post-partum recovery
Have you ever been told that your pregnancies will be all different? Well they were right. Mine definitely were.
I enjoyed my first one from the day 1 to the end whereas I hated (you think strong word?- sadly not:( ) my second one from the day 1 to the very end:)
Despite of that I managed to stay healthy and strong both of the times. (And no it is not genetic in my family). So I had to do something right!? I am a big believer (and also there is no much science evidence) “the healthier you are during the pregnancy the sooner you recover after the birth. “
Now the tricky bit is HOW? Because nothing in my own experience is more challenging then to stay relatively fit while pregnant.
Your body size, your tastes, your energy levels, your priorities=they all drastically change..And it is SOOOO easy to settle and say..
“who cares…I give myself a break for the next 9 months and I will sort out myself later”…but it is actually not that easy later and many of my clients really struggled emotionally how difficult it was to get back to pre-pregnancy fitness level. I don’t even want to say pre-pregnancy shape as nothing like that exist in my opinion. You can feel great again but you will never be the same. And that’s great because your body is amazing and can grow people- hey! that’s awesome!
I know we are all different and I get it – some ladies are super happy with this chilled out “I don’t care while pregnant approach” – and I honestly envy to al of you…
But I had to be ruthlessly honest with myself and I knew that wouldn’t make me happy. So both times I invested some effort into staying fit so that I could go back to my physical normal (meaning I would have high energy level and I would be comfortable in my own skin) in no time…Also in my opinion staying fit while pregnant simply helps to enjoy it more and it eases many of the common discomforts.
So what is the magic to achieve it? Really simple
1. Eat real food!
What is real food? It is simple. Meals made from fresh 1 ingredient foods. If you have to use processed foods shoot for top 3 ingredient ones. Ingredients you can actually read easily and you know what those words mean:) Each plate should have loads of veggies (at least half of the plate) some protein (one third or so- animal or plant protein) rest of it filled with whole grains if that is what you crave. I try to stay of the grains and processed carbs as much as I can. You can also read about how to manage that sweet tooth during the pregnancy here:
http://18.139.30.106/how-to-manage-the-sweet-tooth-in-pregnancy/
2. Do not eat for 2!
Yeh right..But how to achieve it when I am constantly hungry? Eating for two is really a myth. You don’t have to eat twice as much as you used to if you manage to eat well. Your baby until 30th week really doesn’t need that much more calories.
I get it. You suddenly are hungrier. But this is a bit of a vicious circle. The more you get hungry the more easy options we usually seek for (those snack bars super high in sugar you can buy in the shops now etc…) the more these you eat now the more you seem to be hungry thinking it is the baby who wants to eat. Rather then eating loads per portion or choosing high sugar easy snacks- add healthy snacks into your diet. You can find some easy snack recipes here. Also you might need to adjust the composition of your macronutrients. Say I normally don’r eat much processed carbs. After 30th week once my babies started fattening I simply had to increase my carbohydrate intake. But I would still shoot for the healthier options of whole grain rather then loads of pizza and pasta and bread. Not that I completely avoided it I was just careful about how often.
3. And most importantly stay active!
I wrote loads on importance of prenatal fitness . I would be just be repeating myself. You can find some tips here:
http://18.139.30.106/benefits-of-staying-active-during-your-pregnancy/
http://18.139.30.106/tips-how-to-choose-the-right-exercise-during-your-pregnancy/
http://18.139.30.106/no-i-am-not-sick-i-am-only-pregnant/
http://18.139.30.106/my-favourite-10-min-upper-body-work-out/
