Postpartum Dieting

July 6, 2021

Let’s have a candid chat about postpartum dieting!

While you may want to return to your pre-baby body, remember that maintaining a healthy diet won’t just help you lose weight. Focus on foods that will also keep you energized and provide you with key nutrients postpartum. This includes:

Healthy protein: Adequate protein intake can help you stay full while breastfeeding and support your post-exercise recovery. Fish, chicken, nuts, and beans are all excellent options.
High-fiber foods: Whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are all sources of fiber, which helps with postpartum constipation. Plus, they’re great sources of quick-burning carbohydrate energy.
Nutritionally dense fruits and vegetables: The vitamins and minerals in fruits and veggies will help support your recovery, and those with higher water content can help you feel fuller and avoid cravings.

Foods that are important to avoid include:

Sugar and refined carbs: As tempting as they may be, it’s best to avoid or limit sweets and refined carbs. If you like bread and pasta, opt for wholegrain over white. Try to soothe that sweet tooth with a dessert that includes fruit, nuts, whole grains, or dark chocolate. A small treat once in a while isn’t going to hurt, but too much sugar and refined carbs can easily start to work against your weight loss goals.
Highly processed foods: Fast food and other processed snacks are generally high in calories and low in nutrients, making them relatively useless for supporting recovery, exercise, and breastfeeding.

Here are a few things that can help make eating healthy possible:

Order Groceries

I don’t know about you but I really dislike grocery shopping. I feel like when I go into the store I am always spending so much extra time searching for those one or two items on my list that I need but just can’t find. Plus I am always tempted to buy that yummy-looking cake or that candy bar on my way out. This past year I have been sitting down at my computer every Friday morning with my nutritious menu and recipes and ordering my groceries. I have found that this not alone saves me time but lots of money too because I am not buying that extra treat or the salad dressing that I forgot I had.

Meal Prep

Some people are much better at meal prepping than I am but I like to do little things that make preparing a meal easier and faster. I always wash my fruits and vegetables as soon as I get home from picking up my groceries. In the past, I have even gone as far as having containers for each day in my pantry where I put in all the dry and canned ingredients along with spices separated out for each meal. (I really liked this method, but I found that it took up a lot of room I need for my kid’s lunch stuff.) This may sound like a lot of work as a new mom, however, you can hire a postpartum doula (such as myself) to come over and do meal prep for you. (A postpartum doula does other awesome things like cleaning and folding laundry too!)

Menus ad Recipes

I love to make up a weekly menu. I hang it on my fridge so that I know every morning what meal we will be having. By doing this I tend to remember more often to pull out any meat I may need for dinner that evening. I also try and keep my recipes for the week on my little stand next to my stove for easy access. This way I am not searching for a recipe come dinner time.

Keep It Simple!!

I make simple meals with not a ton of ingredients. I have found if there are too many things to prep or pull together that I get frustrated and it takes too long for me to make the meal and it just doesn’t seem as enjoyable when I finally get to sit down and eat it.

Being Real

I have a HUGE sweet tooth and I love my desserts. Some say I can get a little crabby if I haven’t had a treat at least once a week. I try my hardest to only eat one treat a week. Sometimes this is easier than others. Now, this doesn’t mean I go all out and get a gallon of ice cream and go to town. (Although some days may call for this…. I try not to do it.) I try my hardest to keep this to a reasonable size treat.

Exercising 3-5 times a week for 30+ minutes is a good idea too. I will go into this more in another blog.

What do you do to help you lose weight and be healthy after baby is born?

Note From Your Doula

Make sure you let your body heal all the way before starting your workout routine. This is important!