Last time, I tackled what I call “Minimums” in my Navigating the Newborn Phase series. Today, I’m sharing my experience with Nutrition in Navigating the Newborn Phase.
Transitioning from Pregnancy Nutrition to Postpartum Nutrition
I struggle with excessive nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. This last pregnancy, I was on my anti-nausea medicine until the 34-week mark. (Diclegis, I love thee!) Even after I was off the medication, I was still nauseated 24/7. As with all of my previous pregnancies, my prolonged nausea changed my attitude toward food. For the first 24-ish weeks, I just ate whatever I could keep down for the sake of getting calories regardless of how it tasted or its nutritious value. Toward the end of my second trimester, I began to be able to eat most foods. Unfortunately, even with my full dose of the anti-nausea medicine, I had to eat around the clock to keep the vomiting at bay. Between meals, this translated into me eating a granola bar here, a cheese stick there, a handful of grapes here, a cookie there, a yogurt here…you get the picture. So, even though I vomited more than I care to share this past pregnancy, I gained more weight this time than in previous pregnancies because of my need to eat around the clock.
Instead of enjoying food, eating became a constant chore. My relationship with food became tiresome, and I dreaded having to come up with something else to stop me from getting sick because everything sounded awful after I had eaten it for the zillionth time that week. If I didn’t start having aversions to food from having them on repeat, I had aversions to them from getting sick after eating them. Yummy.
You can imagine my excitement to re-enter the world of normal eating once Baby Dorothy arrived!
The Year of Me & Nutrition
As you might remember from my post about The Year of Me, I’ve decided to take better care of myself from here on out. It’s time to stop putting myself last and start putting myself toward the top. As one of my favorite mentor mamas told me, “Fill yourself up so that you can pour yourself out for those you love.” Nutrition is one of the areas I’m focusing on, and I’ve spent my 6 weeks postpartum trying to figure out my game plan. The date of my 6-week postpartum check-up with my OBGYN will be my “Second New Year” when I start officially holding myself accountable to my Year of Me goals.
I’m pleased to report that I think I’ve found a nutrition solution that will help me to:
- Reach my fitness goals
- Consistently eat healthy
- Reach my breastfeeding goals.
My Fitness Pal
My new favorite nutrition tool is the app My Fitness Pal. (I’m not getting paid to share my endorsement of this app; I just love how it works, and I want you to know about it!)
How it works:
You enter your age, your height, your current weight, and your target weight. With that information, the app determines your target daily caloric intake. (Breastfeeding note: Unfortunately, the app doesn’t have a special setting for breastfeeding mamas. After a little research, I learned that most doctors agree that the average woman uses between 250-500 calories breastfeeding. With this information, I simply added 500 calories to my target daily caloric intake to make sure I’m staying in the healthy intake range while nursing.)
Once you have your target caloric intake number set, you can log every single thing you eat in the “Diary.” My paper and pen food diaries were never successful in the past because I never knew what the exact caloric values of the foods were, and I’d find myself away from the diary, so I’d forget to log everything. With My Fitness Pal on my phone, I’m able to log things shortly after I eat them. Sometimes, if I’m in a pinch and can’t log things right away, I’ll take a picture of my meal on my phone so that I remember exactly what and how much I ate.
My Fitness Pal makes it so easy to track exactly what I’m eating, how much I’m eating, and what it’s “worth” in terms of calories. When I go to enter a food on My Fitness Pal, I find multiple results in the search bar. For example, when I’m having my favorite snack, I could type in, “Banana Cream Greek Yogurt,” and my exact kind of yogurt pops up with the exact caloric value. “Banana Cream Dannon Light & Fit Greek Blends, 5.3 oz. 80 calories.”
Another great feature is the ability to adjust the serving size based on how much I actually end up eating. If I decide I’m full and don’t need to finish that dessert or want to eat some extra fruit, I just change the serving size to reflect that.
If you’re like me and have some regular staples in your diet, you can choose to “repeat meal” on a subsequent day instead of plugging in all of the information over and over again. Also, as I start typing things in, the app has a “Recent” for the foods I’ve recently plugged in. I haven’t done this yet, but you can plug in your favorite recipes to draw from, too.
In addition to being able to track your nutrition in the food diary, you can log your daily exercise. As you enter in your physical activity, the app subtracts the caloric value from what you’ve eaten. This helps you to see if your nutrition combined with your exercise is helping you to stay above or below your caloric intake goal.
The app has a helpful blog on the home page with articles sharing healthy recipes and other fitness tips. I’m still exploring all of the features on the app like the goals, challenges, reminders, etc. One feature that I’m excited about is the ability to find other friends on the app. I just did a quick search, and a bunch of my friends are already using the app. I love the idea of being able to hold each other accountable by sharing what we’re doing on the app–what we’re eating, how we’re exercising, what’s working, what’s not, and when we reach personal goals.
Another benefit of My Fitness Pal is its ability to help me “be good” even when I’m eating out. The app has most items on nationwide restaurants’ menus, so it’s easier to track what you’re eating when you’re out.
Shift in Attitude
Now that I’ve been using My Fitness Pal for a few weeks, I’ve noticed some big changes happening. I have had a shift in my entire attitude toward food. Instead of treating food as fuel or something to stop me from being sick, eating is back to being an event that I look forward to. I’m savoring the calories I consume.
Today, I opted for the small protein smoothie at my nearby coffee spot. My thought process was, “This way, I can enjoy the smoothie this morning and still have a little something sweet later,” when my old mentaility would have been, “But $.50 will get me MORE SMOOTHIE.”
A small smoothie is still a delicious smoothie
Instead of just scarfing down whatever’s within reach when I’m in hangry mode, I’m planning out exactly what I’m going to eat that day, and I’m planning for busy times so that I have nutritious options available. Now that I’m more aware of what I’m eating, how much I’m eating, and what kinds of calories they are, I’m making the calories count. I know this sounds silly and ridiculous, but laziness can sometimes be a good thing with My Fitness Pal. If I think, “Man, how in the world would I log this food item on the app?” it probably won’t get eaten because of the hassle! Instead of mindlessly eating, everything I eat is a deliberate choice.
Going Forward With the Year of Me
I’m looking forward to officially launching The Year of Me. As I get started, I’m still working on my meal planning as well as meal preparation. After using it for a few years, I still love the app Paprika for organizing recipes and putting together meal plans. We’re not very good at eating the same things over and over again, so we’re always looking for new recipes. Lunch is always my most difficult meal to figure out. My brain gets stuck on the same options on repeat, and I struggle to come up with something I actually want to eat if I don’t have leftovers available. One of my friends does a “Sunday Set-Up” every Sunday where she does a lot of the prep work for the meals she’ll be eating that week.
Help a girl out! I’d love to hear your favorite, nutritious recipes. What about your meal prep hacks? What kinds of things do you do to cut down on your meal prep time? What tips or tricks do you have for helping yourself to make better choices when you’re hangry? What do your fridge and pantry look like? Share, share, share away!
What would The Year of You look like in the area of nutrition?
