Spoil your babe with breast milk
Don’t be so afraid of your boobs sagging in the process. Breastfeeding is actually a real weight loss process that you should make sure to add in your health regimen; so, all you need is to invest in a good pull-up bra to hold your breasts properly. Your body is burning more calories when you’re breastfeeding. With your body adjusting to continuously producing milk for your baby, it increases your metabolism. The milk production process makes your body burn calories faster.
There are other benefits to breastfeeding as well. It also boosts up your immune system, how? Since your body has to take care of two different entities the body, your immune system is heightened to protect your body to produce sterile milk. Other than that, your body produces oxytocin. This hormone is a diet hormone that helps in keeping your metabolism running.
Spice things up
Literally! Add more spices to the food you’re eating. You may wonder why Indians are pretty slim. There are only 6 out of a hundred adult Indians who are obese compared to the 6 out of 10 adult Americans who are obese.
Adding cinnamon, turmeric, garlic and curry to your daily diet. These spices, among others, help you in your healing process. It prevents your body from infection and helps you heal faster. Unlike most American foods, which are mostly salty, Indian food packed with spices and less salt helps your body reach its natural state. It means that your body won’t be hard up in consuming chemicals found in salty foods.
These spices help your blood sugar levels and are highly sensitive to insulin making your body burn fats faster. In cooking, lessen the amount of salt you’re putting and sprinkle either turmeric or curry powder. When eating yogurt or oatmeal, or when drinking chocolate, milk or coffee sprinkle cinnamon or just dump a cinnamon stick and enjoy.
Meat meat meat!
Meat is definitely the largest source of protein. But don’t get too excited, you should pick which type of meat is healthiest to help you maintain a good diet. In order to help you keep track of your steady weight loss after childbirth, you have to invest in protein.
Your body just experienced a major trauma when you gave birth and you need to strengthen the foundations of your body (i.e. your bones and muscles). That is why meat is crucial in your diet. You might be surprised with the top 3 most delicious protein-packed foods:
Eggs: You must have seen plenty of body builders who drink raw egg whites every morning. That’s because protein is concentrated most in egg whites. Having a sunny side up every morning may give you a healthy dose of protein but it would be better if your egg is half done. Don’t cook your egg too much because you might lose half of the protein it contains especially when the egg whites are done well.
Tip: When making a child-friendly non-alcoholic punch, mix in a raw organic egg in iced tea. Top the bowl with slices of apples and oranges and voila! A delicious protein drink! Make sure you keep the drink cool and consume the drink within 24 hours, if there’s more left, throw it away.
Chicken Breasts: The most popular protein-rich food is the chicken breast. In cooking chicken breasts though, some of the protein is often lost. The best way of keeping the protein within the chicken is by cooking chicken breasts in the oven.
Tip: In cooking chicken breasts, add a pinch of turmeric with salt and pepper to taste. Turmeric helps soften your chicken and keep the fine juices intact.
Almonds: Not only are almonds rich in protein they’re rich in vitamin E. Vitamin E is incredibly helpful in keeping a good-looking skin. It makes your skin more youthful and tighter. The next time you’re planning on going somewhere, go to the groceries and have almonds as the preferred snack to munch on.
Water isn’t the only liquid
Adding more liquids to your diet is extremely beneficial to help your body produce milk. Not only that but it also aids your body’s cleaning process. Adding more liquid intake promotes better internal organ functions. This way, your body will work more efficiently including better body metabolism.
Tip: Drink about 700 to 1000 mL of water a day. Sometimes it’s hard to count when drinking from a glass or cup, so have a water bottle with you at all times.
Stick to drinking natural juices, invest in a juicer. Naturally juiced fruits and veggies extract the most potent health tonics. You are breaking down the contents of a fruit or vegetable in a more digestible form making your body absorb the nutrients better.
Tone down in drinking coffee, tea and sodas. These are highly caffeinated. Caffeine helps in the fat burning process and helps in increasing your metabolic rate ONLY in controlled amounts. Too much intake of caffeine will affect not just you but your child as well. You may handle quite an amount of caffeine in your system but your baby’s body is incapable of digesting it. Limit your caffeine intake to a morning cup of coffee or just an afternoon cup of tea. Once a day is good enough, don’t go too far and have three cups of these drinks within 24 hours.
Snack up!
If you’re the type of person who loves eating snacks, don’t fear. You don’t have to give it up just so you can regain your pre-pregnancy waistline. As the matter of fact, eating snacks is a must. You should expect that you would be eating twice the amount of food you’ve been consuming when you were pregnant. You are feeding yourself and a continuously growing baby.
Chips and cookies are definitely a favorite among moms who just gave birth. You’ve been restricting yourself from eating these treats since day one and for months you’ve been trying your best to control yourself from downing any of these. Just because you’ve given birth to your baby, it doesn’t mean that you should go back and stock up on chips.
Processed foods are always a threat to everyone. Even if you are getting a healthy processed snack, the fact that it has been processed and packed still includes chemicals that keep these snacks preserved. Check your snack packs and reduce potato chips for the meantime, choose a healthier alternative by getting dried nuts and fruits.
Tip: Choose a snack whose expiration date is only a couple of months away from the date you are purchasing on. The shorter the expiration period is the lesser amount of preservatives put in your food.
Snack up on fruits, grab a bowl and toss in finger fruits like grapes and all sorts of berries. You may also want to mash up some avocados and add some slightly sweetened cream or milk and enjoy the healthy snack.
Calories ain’t all that
Don’t think too much about the amount of calories you should be taking in. What you should know about a breastfeeding mom is that, when you are breastfeeding, your body is regulating everything that goes into your body. If you think you are eating too much, don’t worry too much because your body is speeding up on the production of milk. It means that because of the milk production process, your body can manage a higher amount of calorie intake and distributes it well across your body as well as the amount of calories that goes into your baby’s milk.
Think about it! No matter how much and how often a baby drinks milk, they never get obese unless of course if it’s congenital. You have to be careful with the type of food you should be eating and not the amount of food. Be more concerned about what goes into your mouth. If possible, avoid things that are processed.
The Food Plan
If you used to have a list of calorie intake a day, resort to a modified version of your food journal. Develop your own food plan. Create a list of healthy food you should be consuming in a day like a checklist. This way you can distribute the consumption of different types of food in a day. This way you’d be counting nutrients instead of calories.
Although a calorie calendar is helpful, you would have to consult with your healthcare provider to check the total amount of calories you should be eating in a day. They would have the need to check your weight, your metabolism and level of activity.