The best way to make sure you, and your baby, are and remain healthy is to incorporate fruits, veggies, whole grains, and lean proteins into your daily eating routines. Being a new mom is challenging; from sleepless nights to feeding your baby every two to three hours, exhaustion is unfortunately something that is hard to beat. Eating foods that are energy dense, but also high in vitamins and minerals, will give you all the energy you need to encourage recovery, increase milk production, and support rest, leaving you feeling like the best mom you can be.
We know we all need to eat. The question is truly: How much do we need to eat to be able to optimize our days, keeping both our mental and physical health in mind? While this differs from person to person, the US Department of Health set baseline minimums of 1200 calories per day for women and 1800 calories per day for men.
We all know the feeling of being too full: a stomachache, lethargy, gas pains. On days when it’s expected, like Thanksgiving and many special occasion days, we accept it, take a nap or chill on the couch, and move on. However, if you’re feeling this way on a regular basis, and find it hard to stop eating (even when you’re full), there could be more to the story.
Were you ever told to “finish your veggies” or not to get up from the table until you “cleaned your plate?” Most of us were conditioned from an early age to follow external cues when it comes to food consumption. This discouraged our innate tendencies to be attuned to our bodies and to listen, quite literally, to our gut instincts.