Nutrition in Pregnancy
SEASON 1 EPISODE 4
with Jillian Lama
In this episode of Neighbourhood Nutritionist, I had the pleasure of speaking with Jillian, an emotional eating coach about nutrition during pregnancy. We talked about:
Her journey from being the Cake Lady to a health coach
Preparing your body if you’re planning to get pregnant
Exercise during pregnancy
Misconceptions around nutrition during pregnancy
How to tackle nausea *Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) hormone is what we couldn’t pronounce ;)
Supplements during pregnancy
Hormonal changes during pregnancy
Jillian’s 3 actionable tips for those who are expecting, or looking to conceive
About Diana Rosayn
Jillian is the creator of the Body You Crave Method and a certified life and weight loss coach. She teaches high calibre women how to end emotional eating, lose excess weight and feel amazing in their bodies, no cheating required.
Weight Gain during Pregnancy
So I'm nine months pregnant now. Yep. And I've gained about 21 pounds, which is roughly nine and a half kilos. So for most women, when they hear that their jaws kind of drop. And so, you know, and it's just, it's a quite low number to have gained in nine months for pregnancy, I think a lot of women tend to gain more like 30 to 50, and sometimes up to 70 pounds. And so a lot of people are shocked and and some are even a little concerned of like, you know, are you gaining enough? Are you you know, are you trying to avoid gaining weight? Are you trying to lose weight? So there have been a lot of questions and, and some just genuine concern around that. But it's all been very healthy. And so I am so excited to talk about this because I think there are a lot of misconceptions in the prenatal space around, you know, how much weight should I gain how much is too much, and then kind of fears that we can have around gaining the weight and having to lose it later. So So yeah, so I'm so excited to get to talk about this and shed some light on on such a tricky topic.
Jillian’s Journey on Becoming a Coach
It's definitely been a journey of trial and error is what I like to say. I graduated in 2008, with a degree in International Relations and Russian. And my thought originally was, you know, I'm going to work for the State Department, and I'll work for the federal government. And, you know, around 2008-2009, the economy around the world just kind of collapsed. And so I was really struggling at that point. I tried working in the gym because I was into health and fitness, and was a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, but I just wasn't quite satisfied. And so I moved to Bombay, where my parents, my mom works for the State Department. And so I had originally gone over with the intention of working in the embassy.
Well, once I got into the country, the State Department went on a hiring freeze. And so now I had maxed out my credit card to get there. I had no money, no job. And I was like what am I doing with my life? Right one of those like quarterlife crisis questions that we kind of get to. And and so as I started, just trying to fill my time, I just started baking, trying new recipes. And one day, my dad was in the kitchen, and he was like, you know, you want to get people to pay you for this. And it was like a switch had flipped. And then I was like, Oh my gosh, I should get people to pay me for this. You know, like, it seems like such a normal thing. Like this should have crossed my mind by now. But it didn't. And so I decided to pursue running a bakery.
I started a home based bakery in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and I ran that from 2010 to 2012. And so for those two years, I became known as the cake lady. So I did a lot of cakes, cupcakes, I did a lot of catering for different events. I did events for the United Nations, the World Bank, USAID, other foreign governments, birthdays, weddings, celebrations, things like that. And I often got asked, you know, kind of about two things, or there were two core comments I tended to get. Number one was, well, you're a lot younger than I expected. Because I was only 24. And then the second one was how are you not 300 pounds? Like how are you not overweight? How are you so thin and you run this bakery? And and you know a lot of people chalked it up to while you're young. You have a fast metabolism. There were a lot of excuses that were given as to why I was so healthy.
But there were, I'd say there were two kind of core core reasons. Number one was, when you're surrounded by cookies, cake brownies, like things are always available, there was no need to binge on it, because it was always going to be there, you know, I didn't have to worry about because there was so because there was no restriction. There was then no bingeing or no overeating, I didn't have to over consume it, because I knew I could have it the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that, it was like, there was always something there. But at the same time, I also had a lot of fear around carbs and sugar and fat at that time. And so, you know, I was over reliant on exercise and deathly afraid of like carbs and sugar. And so while I could have a little bit, I was also quite restrictive, in my own thinking about don't have too much don't gain the weight, you know, like, because you're not good at losing weight. You know, there were a lot of stories, I was telling myself to where it was a very interesting balance of making all these foods and yet not eating them myself. And so it progressed over time. And so when it came back to the US, I knew I wanted to have my own business, because I really enjoyed that. But I also recognised my cake decorating skills were like… I was not that great. So I was like, good for DACA. But it was not the type of business I wanted.
So I realised that I wanted to run my own business, but I knew it wasn't going to be a physical location. So at the time, my husband and I were engaged. And then we got married - my husband was an active duty Marine. So we were in the military, he was deployed, he would go temporarily, to different locations, and I knew that we would never be located in one place for long. And so to have to try to set up a bakery, you know, in a physical shop was very challenging when the thought is, you know, within two years, we're going to move locations. And so for me, I realised what I really wanted was like a laptop business, my dream was to be able to go to Thailand for like three months during the winter, and work from Thailand and have like a workstation. You know, like, that's really what I wanted. And so I started to experiment in different different fields. In business and marketing, I started to get more into kind of social media and coaching in that realm. And I loved working one on one with clients. But I found that the marketing wasn't quite satisfying. Like that was maybe a zone of excellence. It wasn't my zone of genius, though.
And so in 2018, I shifted gears and I really pivoted into more health coaching, just because I had, it was kind of interesting, I ended up attracting a lot of marketing and business coaching clients who were health coaches themselves. And so often, they had such BS tactics, like, things that I did not believe in. And I was like, I don't know how I can, like, genuinely and authentically hope this person. So their juice detox that I think is complete BS, like I, you know, like, I want to help them I want to serve them as best as I can. But I think it's total crap, what they're trying to sell and not actually helpful. And so I realised like, you know, what, I've got such strong opinions about this, I need to go into this space myself, like I need to get out of the the business marketing and actually get into more of the the health coaching weight loss aspect.
And as I did that made that transition, and I did my life coaching and health coaching certification. I also recognised wow, like, I have a fairly unhealthy relationship to food. And, and I, you know, like I started to see different habits and patterns with my own emotional eating. And for me, that was an indicator that I still have some work to do on myself. And it wasn't just a simple eat this not that or just avoid these bad foods that I really wanted to understand.
Like, why do I keep reaching for food when I'm not hungry? Why is that? It that, you know, the clock strikes 3pm And I'm looking for a snack or every evening I'm, you know, rummaging through the fridge or the pantry, you know, trying to find something. And so it really helped me in my own journey as now I'm helping others and there's and so that's, that's kind of like the long, the long version. It's You know, very windy road. But I feel like this is what I'm called to do and to really speak, you know, speak truth into a very noisy world that is full of a lot of tactics and get skinny quick schemes. And, you know, and just, frankly diets that do not help and do not work. And so I think we, you know, we have such similar philosophies and I love that because we need more people out there who are not going to keep trying these, you know, to push these juice fasts and detoxes and, or 90 Day shreds or you know, things like that, which I think they have the best of intentions. I just think they're doing it wrong.
Prenatal Nutrition
So I'd say on average, it's going to be around six months is a great time period, to start prepping your body for getting pregnant. And it depends on, you know, if you are obese, or you're severely overweight, and you are looking to lose 50 to 100 pounds, you're probably going to want to give yourself more like 12 months to get to a healthy weight to where you can have a healthy pregnancy, if you are just trying to prep your body and you're not, you know you're not very overweight, then in that three to six month range is going to be ideal. And so what you want to focus on are going to be kind of two things.
Number one is going to be the habits. So really, this is a time to start to build in those habits that you want to have during pregnancy. So like sleeping to seven, seven to nine hours every single night, drinking you know drinking water, so I recommend drinking 65 ounces, or roughly two litres of water a day. You know, if you're only drinking one litre, give yourself a month to work up to that two litres. So you know, don't start thinking like, oh, well, I got to drink two litres tomorrow because that's what Julian said, you know, it's no, let's let's start to add in incrementally and start to, you know, work your way up. So I typically drink like four litres of water a day. And that's just plain water, like coffee, tea, sparkling water, things like that are on top of that.
So you know really building these habits to where it becomes second nature is going to be extremely helpful. Because those are going to be the habits you want to carry over into pregnancy as well as some other habits might be like reducing your alcohol intake, reducing caffeine, you know, starting to cut back, one of the biggest challenges I think women have is going from drinking, you know, five or six cups of coffee a day and two glasses of wine every night to now they're like, now I can't have anything you know, and they try to go it's like all or nothing. And they can feel really, you know, really restricted and they tend to have more, more side effects can get headaches or withdrawal symptoms, because they're doing these drastic shifts.
And so by giving yourself that time to work in these habits, it allows you to build that into your routine and to feel good about it to and to kind of leaning back and taking those baby steps. So the habit aspect is one and then really giving yourself like three to six months to strengthen your core and your pelvic floor muscles.
So once you you know, once you get beyond your first trimester, your belly is just going to stretch, you're not really going to be able to strengthen those muscles at that point. You just want to allow them to be relaxed and to stretch for the baby's growth. So the time before pregnancy is actually really critical. So yoga, pilates, doing planks, you know, not necessarily crunches, you know it's going to be other movements and really strengthening the core to prepare for you know, the, what your body is going to be going through during labour and delivery. As well as then your pelvic floor which runs from the the top of your pelvic bone all the way back through your genitals to your tailbone. So those are your pelvic floor muscles. So working on strengthening those and, and so most people think of like cables You know, is like different exercises to do, which those are great. But again, other yoga and pilates movements can be really helpful too. So it doesn't have to be, you know, anything serious or intense. But just getting into the habit of, you know, I move my body, I strengthen my core every day, like building up those habits are is what's really going to be important.
Abs during Pregnancy…?
So there's nothing wrong with having abs during pregnancy. And actually, my midwife, just last month, she had made a comment, she was like, wow, I just can't get over your ab muscles. It was, I just kind of laughed, because I was like, you could still see them. Like, I feel like there's nothing like it's just the baby. Now I feel like I don't have muscles. But no, it's actually been very beneficial. And it's very helpful. And, and as the, as the uterus is going to contract during labour, it's using those ad muscles. And so the stronger they are, then the more effective they are. So instead of having like a long, slow process, you can have a more like, ideally, you would have a quicker labour and delivery. And, and so having more ad muscles is not a bad thing. You certainly don't need six pack abs in order to prepare for baby. But really, you know, getting into the point where you're strengthening that. And then just being mindful of, you know, the different positions and things that you're doing, as you're pregnant as your belly does grow and get bigger. And, you know, in recognising like, I, you know, I can't really see my abs, but, but they're still there. And they'll come back so much faster as well after, after baby.
Exercise during Pregnancy
So most physicians, midwives and naturopaths are going to recommend that you maintain the same activity level that you had prior to pregnancy. So if you were walking, you can continue walking, if you were doing yoga, Pilates dance classes, like you can still do those so long as you feel good. If you are doing absolutely nothing, you should not start CrossFit. While you're pregnant, right like that, okay, don't start something that you haven't done before. I tend to lift, you know, two to three times a week prior to baby.
And now through the pregnancy, I still been lifting about one to two times per week, because my body's familiar with that. So I do squats, deadlifts, you know, chest press, and I it's, it's modified a little bit now as I've my belly has gotten bigger, and there's more strain on my lower back. So there are some modifications that I do. But I still maintain the same activity level, basically. And then I started to add in yoga three times a week, even if it's just a 20 minute session, just to get in some good stretching, especially for your lower back your hips, it's really, really helpful there.
So if you haven't been doing a lot of exercise, and you it extra, you know, moving your body in a way that feels fun is going to be another piece to do and that, you know, prenatal period. And then once you are pregnant, walking is good. You know, 20 to 30 minutes a day is great. And it's just being mindful that you don't get overheated you don't allow your heart rate to go up too high.
I tend to stay away from more HIIT workouts that really try to spike your your heart rate. But also recognise that my heart rate is going to climb a little bit when I'm you know, if I'm doing a light jog, or if I'm lifting weights, you know, towards the end of the session, something like that.
Can We Run/Jump during Pregnancy?
Yes! So your your body like your uterus is designed to keep the baby safe. It is designed to reduce impact to make sure that like and that has been a concern for some women who have like toddlers and the toddler will run and like headbutt them in the stomach, you know, like they're just playing. Yeah, but they're, you know, and they can kind of freak out a little bit and it's completely normal to have that response, to have that fear, because we're very protective already.
But there's nothing wrong with, you know, with running in the early stages of pregnancy, that's more of an old wives tale that, that it can increase your chances of miscarriage.
90% of miscarriages are not to any fault of the woman
So I had a miscarriage last year in September. And it's, you know, 90% of them are not to any fault of the woman, it was nothing as to what she was doing or eating or drinking or anything. It's just a chromosomal abnormality to where there was some kind of defect between the sperm and the egg and the foetus just was not viable. Right. So there's nothing, there's often nothing that you could have done to prevent it, which I think for a lot of women who go through that we feel a lot of guilt, at least initially of what did I do wrong? And when you have people in your family who maybe are asking, Well, what did you What did you do wrong? Or insinuating that Yeah, I did something to cause this. But that's, that's more older thinking. So like, my grandfather, had made a comment like, Well, maybe you shouldn't be working out. Or, you know, maybe you overdid it in the gym, and he has good intentions. He's just not up to date on his, you know, pregnancy. Understanding and, and where we're at with science today.
What to Eat while Pregnant
Raw fish is not always a no go when you're pregnant. So it depends on how you feel eating it, like how comfortable you feel with this. But eating one serving of like sushi of raw fish, especially if it's salmon, or you know, like, it's not tuna, it's not going to be high in mercury, your body is actually going to be okay with that. And with the way that things are prepared, how it's preserved, we really have a very low, there's a low risk associated with that, because the whole issue with sushi is that it could contain contaminants and you get food poisoning from it, that's really the issue. And then you could get dehydrated, like, those are more of the ripple effects of it. But you could get, I mean, that could happen from like a kale salad, or a hamburger, or, you know, kind of any other thing. And so it really comes down to your comfort levels with it.
And then, for me, personally, I wouldn't do more than, you know, like one sushi roll per week, I would just limit that intake. But there are no severe significant impacts on your health. And there, you're going to find doctors, physicians, people with varying, you know, opinions on this specific topic. And so it's really about like, eating the foods that you feel nourish your body, and that you feel comfortable and not anxious over eating, you know, like, if you're going to feel a lot of anxiety, eating that sushi roll, leave it be because that spike in your cortisol and stress levels are not going to be healthy for the baby. So you know, like, keep that in mind as well.
But another one is, is often, you know, the idea of eating for two, so I have to double up my portions or I have to get, you know, significantly more. And we end up using this often as an excuse or justification to eat beyond just feeling satisfied. And so we often think, well, we need more food than what we really do. So throughout your pregnancy, you're going to need maybe an extra 300-500 calories, and especially in the beginning, you really don't need that much more food, if any at all. So it might look like a handful of almonds. You really don't need that much more. And so this idea of eating for two, it kind of leads us into this misconception of like, Baby wants a cupcake or, you know, like, Baby wants this and we use, we use the baby to justify some of the bad habits maybe.
I think women also overestimate how many carbohydrates they need. For the most part throughout pregnancy, you don't need a tonne of carbohydrates. Your body needs more vegetables and fibre, protein and fat. And so having one serving of carbohydrates at every meal is great, but you don't need to eat like pancakes and potatoes and cereal and you know, stuff like that.
And so I always say you know, no naked carbs. So whenever I have carbs, I always want to make sure I'm pairing it with a protein, fat and fibre. So if it's a piece of toast, I want to make sure I have like eggs and some kind of vegetable, maybe some turkey bacon, so that it's more of a whole meal, versus just having like carbs alone. So those are a couple of big ones.
A lot of times for most women in the United States anyways, we we are so we used to dieting, and we were chronic dieters to where, when would we get pregnant, it's like now this free for all. And it's like, I can eat whatever I want. Or I'm going to gain weight anyway, so who cares, I'm just going to stuff my face, or, you know, like, this is my one chance to eat the food, or I'm going to have to restrict this when I lose the baby weight. So better enjoy it now. You know, we have a lot of different thoughts and ideas around what we can and can't eat prior to pregnancy, that a lot of times it it just becomes this big excuse to eat whatever we want. And we kind of go the opposite direction of like, well, now everything is fair game. And and that's that's where we can get into trouble because then we're often not listening to our body we're eating when we're not hungry, we're overeating at meals. And and it's just it develops more negative habits that are going to be harder to break.
Nausea during Pregnancy causing Dehydration
It’s very common, especially if you are vomiting to the point of losing weight in the first trimester. Don't freak out. It is totally normal. And it's so it yep, you're right. You want to look at dehydration and make sure that you're getting enough water as well as looking at other kind of sports drinks like Gatorade Powerade, Pedialyte, looking at ways of replenishing your the nutrients in your body, or PROPEL is another one.
For me in the first trimester, the taste of like regular water was terrible. I hated it. So I made sure I did lemon water and then I would drink like some Crystal Light lemonade occasionally or propel or the Gatorade or Powerade Zero. And really not not judging yourself for that. But recognising you know what my body is in a very weird place right now. And that's okay, like I'm going to do what I can to get in the fluids that I need. And so a lot of times the nausea has been associated with the HCG hormone which is human chorionic gone. I can't even pronounce the last word quite honestly. That one is often typically associated with the nausea or the morning sickness.
I had that pretty severe for my second month. And it was all day. So there was like, no relief for four weeks. And it was rough. And, and at that point, I was just thinking, I just got to survive. Like, I'm just in survival mode. And so it was really about listening to my body. I had a lot of food aversions, I haven't had many food cravings, it was more of everything that I had been eating previously, like, all the vegetables and proteins and everything, like sounded terrible. Like I did not want broccoli and brussel sprouts and cauliflower rice and, and all of my normal foods. And so it more became an issue of, okay, can I get in one vegetable today? That's it.
I normally like six, seven servings a day. And I was just I was down to one I was like, Can I just get in some carrots? You know, like, what can I do to get in a little bit of something, you know, can I get in some some cucumbers today? Looking at kind of that baseline of like, alright, how do I get my body the nutrients it needs while recognising that I feel terrible. And so that was also when I would have probably no more crackers and cheese, a little more cereal at that point. And just really giving yourself grace and compassion and trying to eat foods that will calm your stomach and get as much in as you can. And in smaller amounts.
So instead of eating every like four to five hours, I was eating maybe one to two hours and eating a little more consistently, and a much smaller portion. So more just kind of snacking throughout the day. And everybody's going to be a little bit different.
This is when like the no naked carbs rule kind of goes out the window and it's, you know, it's more of like eat what you can and if it's just a you know, a piece of toast or bagel and cream cheese or something like that, you know, eat what you can and recognise that this will pass you know it might take a few weeks. Hopefully it's not more than you know two months, but but really just try to work with your body as much as you can and and get it in as much you know as much protein as you possibly can.
Given the you know, food aversions that you might be feeling and protein shakes can be a good option too, for some women who feel like they don't want to eat meat, or they just can't, you know, stomach the thought of certain foods, that can be another way, shakes, smoothies ways that you can get in some spinach with the fruit and, you know, still get your body the nutrients it needs, making sure you've got a really good prenatal vitamin.
Supplements during Pregnancy
So because baby needs so much and it's pulling so much from you, especially in the second and third trimester, I really recommend supplementation for most people. I think it's best if you do a blood test, though, in each of your trimesters to really identify where you're at currently, and what areas you may be deficient in. That way, you're not just randomly increasing certain doses. But I would say folate is one.
Folic acid is just a synthetic form of folate. Folate is going to be a great nutrient and vitamin that your body needs. You can get this in a lot of vegetables. So broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, again, all the foods that I really did not want to be eating and that first trimester. Fruit like great fruit, oranges, avocados, eggs, nuts, legumes, so especially if you have a lot of food aversions or you're feeling really nauseous supplements can really be helpful at that time, because you're not getting in the typical foods that maybe you would have been eating normally. So folate is a big one, calcium, iron and DHA are another two that are really important.
I take a prenatal vitamin, and I take a separate iron supplement as well as a separate DHA supplement. And that's after having worked with a natural path and recognising that my body was a little deficient in iron. And while I had really good iron usage, my iron storage, which is called ferritin, was kind of low. And so we started on that as well as I also am eating red meat every single day for at least one meal and incorporating that. And then we found that even though even though I've added the supplementation, that number kept going down, which we wanted it to go up. And so then it was okay, let's increase that dosage to two. So bloodwork can really help and give you a clearer picture of where you're starting at and where you should be.
I have loved working with a naturopath because a lot of physicians from what I found have, they've been helpful, but a lot of times there's such a wide range for what normal looks like that they're like, Oh, you're in the range, you're fine, you know, yeah, when really a naturopath is going to be like, Oh, well, you're in this range. And you might fit this, but you're a little high, or you're a little low, or here's where I think, you know, we can improve it.
I also have 23 and Me, I have the genetic data and history and everything I was able to send to her my raw data and she could pull out specific genetic variations that I had in my own body that made certain supplements harder or easier to to absorb into to get the nutrients that I needed. So it made it easier to identify what form of B 12. I needed, what form of iron was going to be best. She noticed that I have a gluten sensitivity and she said you know you may not have any issues now but if you if you want to maintain not having issues, I suggest you cut back on gluten then you start eating more gluten free. And so it's again, we can learn so much about our own individual bodies that can be so helpful. But those I would say that calcium, folate, iron and DHA are going to be some of the top supplements that I would recommend in addition to a really high quality prenatal vitamin.
Supplementing Iron for Vegetarian and Vegan Mums-to-be
Iron and protein as well for them so it could be adding in like a protein shake or making sure that they're getting in enough you know, healthy forms of protein and fat Not just soy, but getting in different forms of that. So you may do you know, way, or you can do pea plant, you know, kind of getting more variety is also going to be helpful.
Hormonal Changes during Pregnancy
It depends on the person. So for me, I haven't I don't think I've had like very many mood swings, if any at all. So it would irritate me prior to pregnancy irritates me now, hopefully at the same degree, you know, okay. I would say sometimes my patience is a little low. But prior to pregnancy, sometimes my patience was a little low anyways, you know. So I haven't felt that but it's totally normal. If you do you know, it's completely normal.
If you do feel big mood swings, where one moment, you are enraged. And then the next moment, woman, you're crying. I remember trying a birth control years ago, this was probably like 2014. And they gave me a synthetic form, which I was really, like opposed to, but the doctor wouldn't give me the name brand. So I end up switching doctors later. But I took this, I started taking this birth control for a couple of days. And I ended like, I had really bad mood swings really, like terrible, like anger, rage. I was like, yelling at the Walmart pharmacist and then crying like the next moment, it was yeah, it was awful. And so sometimes, like the synthetic hormones for some women can increase them. And so when you get pregnant, you may not see that kind of change, because it is more natural. But it is completely normal.
Key Takeaways
Here are Jillian’s three actionable steps for you:
Sleep.
This is one of the best things - sleep will help regulate your cravings. When you get even one less hour of sleep at night, you are 30% more hungry and 20% less satisfied. So you are whether you are pregnant or not, you are more irritable, you have higher cravings, you want to snack and crunch and munch you're going to be way more moody and your body will not reset those hormones until you go back to sleep. And so something where sometimes a nap can help for some people. Other times, you just have to like suck it up and get through the day and just go to bed a little bit earlier. So really hitting that seven to nine hour window, and really finding what's best for your body.
But sleep is going to be so so important. That's when your body's going to repair itself. It's also when your body's going to burn fat. And when you're pregnant, it's when you're helping to really build this little baby. So really prioritising sleep would be my number one recommendation.Eat when you're hungry, stop when you're satisfied.
It seems simple, but it doesn't always feel easy in the moment, especially when you're like, oh, but this tastes so good. Or, hey, it's free, you know, like free doughnuts in the break room. Like, doesn't matter if I'm hungry or not. It's free, who turns down free food, or to throw away those like three bytes of you know, your salad, or you know, something that you're eating because you're thinking well, I don't want to waste it. And so we have a lot of these excuses and justifications that kind of steer us out of that.
But really focusing on eating when you're hungry and especially when you're pregnant, like this is a great time to dial in to your body's natural hunger cues. So really understand like your body will tell you, girl you got to eat. And your body's also going to tell you when it's had enough. And so slowing down can help you with that as well so that you're not overly full at the end.
But really finding that window to where you're you're eating for true physical hunger and you're identifying what is like if you're not truly hungry, like, Why do I want this food? What am I feeling? instead? It's a great question to ask is like, Am I hungry? And if the answer is no, you're like, Okay, why do I, why am I reaching for this? Why do I want food? What? What is it that I'm trying to avoid? Or what am I trying to achieve with this.Practice patience.
Practice patience with yourself, patience with your body, patience with the time you know, throughout pregnancy, and then also patience with you know, postpartum and the weight loss process.
Oftentimes, we find ourselves getting, like, roped into these fad diets, or these get skinny quick schemes or you know, things that, that really we, we want the outcome because ultimately, we want to feel a certain way, I want to feel proud and confident and sexy again, or I feel like I'll be more loved or appreciated or valued if I have a certain body or shape or weight. And so really giving yourself the patience to let your body recover naturally on its own. There's no right or wrong, whether it takes you, you know, three months to get your body back, or it takes you a full year, you know, really giving yourself that grace and compassion. Patience is probably the number one skill I am still working on. And the number one skill I wish that I could give my clients as well.
The One Food That Takes You To Your Happy Place
Frozen yoghurt that is what I used to call my “guilty pleasure”. But I don't feel guilty for it. You know, it's something that I plan and I have it a couple times a week and I enjoy it and when there are flavours like that usually the shop near me it'll rotate through flavours and you know, I haven't been there in a couple of weeks just because like I haven't really liked the flavours that they offered, you know, so it's something that I really make sure that I enjoy it on a scale of like one to 10 it's going to be like a nine or a 10 You know, I'm not going to eat it if it's like a myth that was okay.
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