I've nursed four babies. And let me just say, nursing makes me HUNGRY! So hungry in fact that with the first three, nutrition went out the window in a desparate attempt just to feel full.
UNHEALTHY:
For my first three babies I doubled my portion sizes of everything. I purposely ate anything I knew was high fat and high calorie like donuts, chips, and cookies. I also added extra butter, sour cream, cream cheese, and peanut butter to everything just to get full. (I still lost weight eating this way because my metabolism was in high gear, but we all know you can't keep eating like this for long without consequences!)
HEALTHY AND EASY
With this baby, I started drinking a green smoothie everyday. Wow, I feel soooo much better! Finally, I can eat healthy while nursing!
I still have to eat a ton of extra food, twice as much in some cases, but it is usually whole grains, legumes, nuts, unprocessed meats in small amounts, salads and plenty of healthy oils (olive oil, flax oil, coconut oil) and butter which isn't ideal, but better than margarine. I eat this instead of the junk and I feel FULL. Eating twice as much food before without green smoothies still left me with overwhelming cravings and hunger, so I credit the difference to green smoothies.
I think green smoothie should be standard fare for all nursing mothers. Honestly, they should give you your first one as soon as you deliver that baby and teach you how to make one before you go home from the hospital. That is what I think. If you are feeding two, you NEED it. Green smoothie gives moms an energy boost too. And don't forget, green smoothies are weight loss enhancers, which is a big deal to most new nursing mothers.
Update:Although I'm no longer nursing I'm still trying to solve the puzzle of what would have been best to eat as a nursing mom. I always see moms who are well past that stage, who have all the answers. They say "if I had only known what I know now, I would have done it then and I would have felt so much better too..." Well, it is true, several years later with no babies, I am a much healthier eater and my health is better in every way. However, I am not going to say "if I had only known", I did know and it was too much to handle then. Having a baby is Hard Work. You feel tired and hungry because its such a physically demanding full-time job. Lots of things slide. You don't drink enough water, you snack on sugar a lot because you are weak and its hard to have resolve, you don't have time to plan and prepare the ideal food. This is what i say--do the best you can and have faith in yourself that when you are past the stage of having babies some day, things will get better. Trust me, all the exhaustion now is worth it! Kids are worth it.
6 comments:
I forgot one really important note on breastfeeding. Drink lots of water. At least a pint first thing in the morning and more about 30 min before each meal. A lot of the "hunger" I felt was really from not getting enough water. Water is obviously a lot better for energy than over-eating!
I just stumbled upon your blog from a comment from the green smoothie girl's blog and I know exactly what you mean!!! I'm on my 4th pregnancy and i swear I can never ever get enough to eat when i'm nursing. only difference btwn you and me is that i actually gain MORE when i'm nursing than i do when i'm pregnant. I'm really wanting to try the 12 step program, but just can't quite spend the money yet (hubby's a grad student :)
thanks for your tips and posts!
~ your new "virtual" friend,
noel
if you can't afford 12 steps, you can still take on a new healthy habit or two a month! Also, you can try to talk your library into getting 12-steps or a green smoothie book for you! Most libraries take patron requests and they usually order "recipe" type books if you ask.
Oh wow. A friend of mine sent me your blog and I'm so happy. I went from eating very little (all my life) to out eating my husband, who LOVES food and a lot of it. I'm going to try going green, because I've been gaining weight while nursing my daughter. It's driving me nuts! Anything that will keep me full at this point is worth trying. I wish I'd found out about this when I had my daughter, almost six months ago.
Hi, as I was reading the stuff from greensmoothie girl website, I also found your blog, I am a mom of 3, nursing with youngest being 7months, looking to make some major changes to eating better...I am on that path but still need to go more. Would you recomend that 12 steps book to whole foods or the green smoothie book, I currently make my own smoothies but do not get the stuff she has in hers and I'm thinking about ordering it but just not sure where to start?
I enjoyed the 12 steps to whole foods program, but I was able to get an old beta copy and I could never afford or recommend it at its current price tag. Instead, I recommend the principle of it which is this: learn one and only one new healthy habit a month. If you go too fast IT WONT WORK. Research the habit for free online for a day or two, gather recipes that look good (I usually didn't use the green smoothie girl recipes anyway) and then practice it for a whole month. See this post for details:
ttp://greensmoothiemama.blogspot.com/2011/02/12-steps-to-whole-food-transforming.html
About the green smoothie diet book, if you are already doing green smoothies you don't need it, it just explains why you should start. You can't really follow her recipes anyway because its almost impossible to have all the right ingredients on hand at the same time for any one recipe. This is how I get variety in my green smoothie. I bought a $10 kitchen food scale from walmart. I always put 11 oz greens/veggies in my GS with 2 1/2 cups of water. Then I add 11 oz fruit, 10 drops stevia (less if using bananas), and a bit of flax oil. If I want to add something new like broccoli, celery, beets, beet greens, carrots, carrot greens, kale, etc I start by adding 2oz. of it and then the rest of the 11oz something I know I like. If it tastes fine, I'll add a bit more in future smoothies. I think the book "Green for Life" by Victoria Boutenko was a very interesting read about the history of green smoothies though and I recommend that.
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