How do you eat yourself back into shape after giving birth? 8 nutrition tips to help you feel good as a new mom!
Taking care of a newborn baby is a tough row to hoe. After being pregnant for 9 months and giving birth, it’s easy to put your own well-being on the back burner. We’re often very good at that: you tell yourself you’ll take a nap during the day, and ultimately you end up with a to-do list that’s much too long and you decide to skip the sleep that you need so badly! Even though this is essential for your own well-being and that of your little one. We give you a few tips on how to expedite your recovery.
Don’t forget that a lot has happened and changed in your body, as well as your brain! You will have depleted quite a bit of your nutrient reserve while you were growing a tiny human. If you’re breastfeeding, all of the growth of this wonderful baby will come from you. For all these reasons, your nutritional intake is very important for recovery. What’s the best thing to eat when you’re busy taking care of your baby?
Your guts determine your health
It’s not about what you eat, but about what you digest. You might’ve noticed this in your surroundings. One person can eat whatever they like and feel totally fine, while the other has an ever-growing list of symptoms and foods to avoid. The difference comes down to the health of your bowels. Your bowels are the place where the things you eat are turned into useful substances for your body to function properly. They also get rid of anything that isn’t usable.
When you have good digestion, it's much easier to get all the nutrition you need from your diet, and you’ll feel much better. Most mothers suffer from intestinal complaints during as well as after the pregnancy. This happens because the intestines move: first to make space for the baby, and after birth to move back into their original position. So it isn’t unimportant to pay attention to them!
You can do so by eating plenty of vegetables. Vegetables contain lots of nutrients and fibers, which are great for your intestinal flora. That also makes it beneficial for your hormonal balance. It’s also good to have fermented vegetables a few times a week. These are chockfull of healthy bacteria, which are excellent for your bowels. You can take two bites of organic sauerkraut every day before dinner, or eat pickles or other fermented vegetables. Afterward, mix in a handful of fiber with your food, like flaxseed, chia seed, hemp seed, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, and/or pumpkin seeds.
Inhibiting inflammation processes
After giving birth, many inflammation processes take place, as a result of hormonal shifts as well as any tissue damage that has occurred. This is completely normal. Your body needs time to heal, and nowadays we struggle to give ourselves this time. But if this inflammation period is extended too long, you can begin suffering from fatigue, mood disorders, and hormonal issues and thereby delay your healing.
A healthy diet is your best friend, as antioxidants and so-called phytochemicals contain anti-inflammatory properties. They are often found in the bright colors of the peel.
A few anti-inflammatory foods are:
Leafy greens such as kale, spinach, chard, and arugula are full of antioxidants and phytochemicals. A helpful tip is to fill your plate with these leafy vegetables, and then serve your dinner on top of them. The vegetables will wilt, and you won’t have to come up with a new recipe to include them in.
Eat more berries like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries. If they’re out of season, you can add frozen ones to your oatmeal or smoothie. The bags of frozen berries are often cheaper than fresh ones, and they’re just as good for you.
Ginger and turmeric are great additions to tea or your meals.
Green tea and matcha contain antioxidants but be careful you don’t consume too much theine. Especially if you’re breastfeeding or struggling with sleeping. Just like caffeine, theine can keep you up!
Avoid fast sugars whenever possible! These promote inflammation, which is exactly what you’re trying to avoid.
It’s best to eat these foods 2 to 3 times a week (or more)!
Good fats
Right after giving birth and during it, the hormones shoot up. After the birth, they quickly plummet. In fact, it is the biggest fall in hormones you can ever experience.
For the production of hormones, your body needs good fats. The sex hormones are derivatives of cholesterol - this is why good fats as well as saturated ones are so important. Because without cholesterol, the body isn’t able to produce enough sex hormones. These fats are also needed for digestion, maintaining a healthy weight, satiations (say goodbye to unhealthy cravings!), energy, absorbing vitamins, as well as to make full-fat products taste as good as they do!
You can find good fatty acids in:
Dairy butter, grass-fed butter, or clarified butter (ghee).
Extra virgin coconut oil, cold-pressed olive oil, linseed oil, or hemp oil. It’s best not to heat these oils, so mix them through your salad while cold or stir them through your meal once it’s done cooking.
Fatty fish
Avocados
Unroasted nuts
Try to add these to your daily diet!
Stay away from unhealthy (trans)fats, as they do more harm than good, especially when it concerns the stimulation of inflammation. We’re talking about fried fat, hardened fats in chips, cookies, and similar foods, but also the processed vegetable oils that can be heated, as they contain a lot of inflammatory fats. This includes canola or rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, and soybean oil.
Proteins
For your mental health, but also for the recovery and reconstruction of your body and hormones, proteins are essential. If you notice that you’re struggling to be satiated, it’s often a sign of a lack of protein in your diet. Your digestion takes a longer time to break down proteins, which sends your brain signals of satiation that make you feel full for a longer period of time. This is because of a chemical called cholecystokinin (CCK) that is released when you eat proteins and fats. One of the things that it does is make you feel satiated.
You can restrict yourself to only eating plant-based proteins or also eat protein from animal sources, as long as you’re sure to have some form of protein with every meal. This could be poultry, full-fat yogurt (that has added probiotic cultures), organic eggs, unroasted and unsalted nuts, seeds, and kernels, but also beans and legumes. An easy way to eat these is through hummus and tahini, which is a sesame seed paste. You could also choose to add a (vegan) protein powder if you’re finding it difficult to have proteins with every meal.
Stay hydrated babe!
It’s important to drink enough fluids, for both your body and mind! Not having enough fluids has a direct effect on your ability to function both physically and mentally. You’ll want to drink about 30 ml (1oz) of fluid per kilogram (2.2 lbs) of body weight a day. So, if you weigh 60kg, that will be around 1.8 liters of water every day. If you exercise and sweat a lot, or if you’re breastfeeding, you’ll often need more fluids. If you struggle to drink enough, it’s a good practice to start your days with a big glass of lukewarm water, since that will stimulate your thirstiness. According to experts, you should mix in a pinch of (Celtic) to add electrolytes. This is supposed to help create a healthy fluid balance (though it hasn’t been definitively proven scientifically).
Supplementing shortages
Don’t underestimate the importance of vitamins and minerals after giving birth. There’s a big possibility that you’ve run out of your reserves, which means that you might want to fill them back up. That can’t always be done through diet alone, so a high-quality vitamin formulated especially for mothers can support you in this. Are you breastfeeding? In that case, you can continue to take most pregnancy multivitamins.
Try to plan!
You don’t just fall into a healthy diet. If you don’t have enough time and are tired, it’s easy to slip back into eating convenience foods. These often don’t contain a lot of healthy nutrients. Planning ahead for the week can be a great help. Here are some tips:
Make sure you have access to three breakfasts you can quickly whip up.
Cook a bit too much food for dinner, so that you can have your leftovers as a healthy lunch the following day. Not able to cook? It might be a good idea to arrange a meal plan.
Buy unroasted nuts and chocolate that’s at least 70% cocoa to have when you’re craving a snack.
It can be a difficult time, so don’t be afraid to ask for help from your partner, family, or friends if you’re unable to cook a warm meal every day. That isn’t weird, and you shouldn’t feel guilty about it.
