My Pregnancy Nutrition

I’m going to be really blunt when I say that I was on a mission to make sure I treated my body the BEST I could while pregnant and I didn’t once use the “I’m eating for two” quote seriously.

 

Yes, you are eating for two, but common, he’s not a secondary human in full form and definitely doesn’t require a few extra thousand calories per day.

In fact they say that most women need to increase their calories (depending on their regularly consumed calories) by roughly 300 per day.

For me, I did increase by much more than this - but not in the form of twinkies, ice cream and chicken nuggets.

My calories are not what’s important here and if you are focused on OTHER PEOPLE’S JOURNEY then you are doing it all wrong. Use other people as a source of inspiration or knowledge, but realize that I (and others you might be following) are completely different humans than YOU.

 

 

I didn’t come into this pregnancy with a poor mindset or a poor relationship with food. If you are already pregnancy and feeling lost because you aren’t in a healthy starting point - don’t sweat. I’m going to give you some tools that will hopefully help you get through this period with a a little more ease.

 

When I talk about my relationship with food I am referring to the fact that I didn’t previously, nor do I now count calories, diet, or restrict foods from my life. I eat intuitively and honour my hunger. Sure, I have burgers and pizza (and if you follow me on social you’ll know I do this on a regular basis) but I also fuel my body with badass nutrients the other 95% of the time. Again, these nutrients do not mean “diet foods”.

 

If you do need help with your relationship with food:

 

*journal what you want your relationship with food to look like while pregnant

*ask yourself what would make you feel good and in control with this relationship

*plan, prepare and execute: do your research on nutrient dense meals that you’d enjoy, go grocery shopping and prep those meals

 

I also have a 60 day nutritional course that works through your mindset with food, intolerances around certain foods that can be culprits to your gut health, and is stacked with recipes. This was co created with a registered dietician and is something I personally followed through with during my pregnancy.

 

 

I’m by no means saying these foods will make you have a magical pregnancy but I will say that the better you treat your body, and the more nutrients you deliver to you (and your little on inside you) the chances are high that you will have a healthier pregnancy internally. It just make sense, you aren’t going to feel like a vibrant rainbow of pregnancy sparkles when you are constantly feeding yourself with everything sugar and fat coated.

 

I ate a lot of the same things during this pregnancy as I did have quite a few food aversions, especially in the beginning trimesters. I was just like most of you, wanting all the carbs and disliked all the meats. So I improvised and made it all happen while feeling pretty good about my choices.

 

My breakfasts would include: protein oatmeals, homemade egg mcmuffins, cereals (mainly special k), and good ol’ toast with pb and honey!

 

My lunches would mainly be: protein cheese grills (cheese grill with scrambled egg whites add into the middle), all the protein shakes, turkey muffins, smoothie bowls, and greek yoghurt with granola/fruits.

 

My go to snacks: protein balls, fruits (tons of fruit), and protien bars.

 

My dinners were of the most variety but the main ones I navigated to were: soup/sandwiches, vegetable/bean pastas, homemade burgers, tacos and steak.

 

My desserts or after dinner snacks: homemade frozen protein cookies or cups, fruit, air popped popcorn and dark chocolate almonds.

 

Things I avoided while pregnant: to be honest I didn’t really avoid much during pregnancy other than sugar alcohols (so basically anything sugar free), artificial ingredients, nitrates (lunch meats) and chicken (by aversion).

 

Things I cut back on: caffeine was the biggest one! I went from drinking almost 900mg of coffee per day pior to pregnancy to maybe having one coffee per week and drinking only 1-2 fizz per day (50-100mg caffeine daily). This alone made me feel so much freakin’ better, lighter and sustained my energy!

 

As many of you know I switched over everything I was consuming supplement wise to Arbonne during my initial pregnancy months because I wanted to rid my body of toxins, chemicals and all the artificial junk that is in your typical proteins etc. I also wanted to stop taking whey and opt to a plant based protein to increase my health even further.

I was on a mission to literally make my gut the healthiest it had ever been while pregnant and knew this would create the healthiest pregnancy possible for me.

 

I started off really hesitant, it actually took me a year to say yes to trying out this whole brand that my other mama friend preached about - but once I tried it I literally became the lead singer to her choir because of how I felt!!!

 

I ended up grabbing the healthy living bundle to start with, which is an awesome starter pack for anyone wanting to try to get a healthier system going on in their life.

 

Vegan Protein Powder: this is a tri-blend of cranberries, pea and rice which didn’t give me any bloating or digestion issues! Oh, and it literally tastes GOOD!

Greens: this is 37 fruits and vegetables in one scoop which I took every single morning of my pregnancy! Also, as you will note above in my daily diet I stopped wanting all vegetables so intaking this was crucial to ensuring that I got in my vegetable nutrients.

Digestion Plus: this was my pre and pro bionics that helped to digest my food and create a healthy gut (and most pregnant women do suffer with some digestion issues, but I am happy to say this gut was healthy and operating my entire pregnancy).

Fizz: a bubble blend of botanicals, vitamins, ginseng, and green tea in delicious flavours! This was what I drank in the mornings as well that gave me all the energy with zero crash.

Herbal Tea: a caffeine free blend of botanicals that you can drink at any point throughout the day.

 

I used this entire system EVERY SINGLE DAY of my pregnancy! I literally cannot promote it enough because of how it made me feel.

So much of how we feel is created by what we put into our bodies, and this system was proof of that!

 

 

 

I took a pregnancy multivitamin from Jamieson with DHA, along with a Heme Iron (animal iron) as my iron dropped during my pregnancy. I also drank Calm magnesium each night (1 tsp) to help with my sleep.

 

 

This is NOT the time to diet or begin a restrictive approach with your nutrition.

This is NOT the time fo shame or guilt yourself for your body shape, size and weight.

This is NOT the time to try out diet plans, pills or protocols.

 

This is the time where you ask yourself, “what can I do to make the healthiest choices for my body and baby?”.

This is the time where you focus on your health and how you want to feel vs how you want to look.

This is the time where you remove toxicity from sugar free and diet foods from your body to create a healthy and happy gut.

 

But remember that you also want to eat things that are going to deliver nutrients to your baby.

And if you despise vegetables as much as I did then it might be in your interest to look into a greens supplement to ensure you are getting in those antioxidants and phytonutrients. Plus, I am totally giving greens the credit for my skin glow ;).

 

 

Hopefully in my next blog post we will have a min hot tamale to announce!

 

See ya all soon,