If you were a healthy eater before your pregnancy, you have an advantage now. If you weren’t, you should consider having a fresh start now. Every mom wants her child to be a healthy eater, and you will be the primary role model in your home. Your foundation for post-pregnancy weight loss also has to be a healthy diet. In the past, you may have lost weight in less than healthy ways – but you can’t do that now. Especially if you’re breastfeeding, your baby needs the best nutrition you can give, and that starts with your diet.
Eating for Weight Loss While Nursing
This doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t lose weight now. You need to eat, but you must learn to eat smarter. The right foods can become your allies in your battle against the baby-bulge. Some smart tips from the latest weight-loss research will empower you to eat for health and weight loss. For starters, begin to think about the source. How much of the food you eat is in the state in which it began? For example, are you more likely to choose grapes or grape juice? If you buy a breakfast cereal, do you go for the processed, refined sugary variety, or do you choose cereals with whole grains? This doesn’t mean that you need to munch on a twig or only eat nuts and berries. You simply need to increase the proportion of the food you eat that comes from whole, natural foods.
With every new decade, there grows a larger gap between the food we eat and its source. Children today need to be taught that milk comes from cows. After all, how many American pre-schoolers have actually seen a cow? We all know that the amount and variety of processed food is increases all the time. Designer nutrition bars are probably the most outstanding example. Who needs to eat a meal when you can grab everything you need in a food bar? It’s true that most energy bars have good ingredients and some added vitamins, but relying on them regularly to substitute for a meal is probably not a good idea.
The Importance of a Balanced Diet
The essential rule for healthy eating and long-term weight loss is not that much of a mystery, it’s just not always easy to live by. It can be summed up in one word - balance. Much of the processed food that is so easily available in our grocery stores can lead to weight gain because it violates this basic rule. The sugars and carbohydrates in processed food are not that bad in small quantities, but our sugary, starchy foods give us mega-doses of refined, purified carbs.
Have you noticed how much you crave sugar after you’ve just overdosed on it? Have you ever wondered why sweets are so irresistable? The reason is that the condensed, overpowering sweetness in these foods is like a drug to your digestive system. It’s kind of like an injection of sugar into your bloodstream that throws your hormones into high gear and then leaves you wiped out and craving more.
Try to keep your diet as healthy now as it was during pregnancy. Continue to choose whole foods over refined foods whenever you can. Keep eating those healthy fats like avocados, flax seed oil, almonds and cashews. Eat high quality red meat if you like it for iron. Keep your calcium levels up with dairy products – try yogurt or kefir if dairy causes digestive problems for you or your baby.
Source:
The Mayo Clinic Guide to Healthy Pregnancy
Lucy Tashman - As a writer, I draw on my background in environmental studies, natural history, botany, and herbal medicine, combined with a lifelong ...
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