Nutrition

We wanted just to touch on this. It’s our worksheet on How to increase energy and reduce your waist size. And for our ladies who have had surgery, Foods for Healing

How to increase energy levels and reduce your waist size

As women, we find we are constantly busy, either with children, work, or just life in general, so we wanted to give you a little cheat sheet to make things a little bit easier and, hopefully make you feel better.

Water! Do you drink enough?

Most of the time the answer to this question is ‘NO’!

If you don’t drink enough water, you will become dehydrated which in turn makes you feel tired

Tip 1: get a bottle of water ready beside your bed and first thing in the morning when you wake up, try to drink that bottle of water. I (Lizzie) use a 50cl bottle and it usually takes the morning to drink it but as soon as I start I can feel myself begin to wake up. Try it and see how you get on. You should be aiming for two litres a day, more if exercising or it’s a hot day.

Breakfast! Do you eat breakfast? Do you eat quick release carbs?

If you don’t eat breakfast you are setting yourself up to fail throughout the rest of the day.

You want to make choices that are going to fill you up i.e. protein, and give you energy i.e. carbs (slow releasing carbs)

Our two favourite breakfasts are:

• Two rashers turkey bacon, grilled tomato, 2 poached eggs and handful of spinach.
• 40g porridge half with dairy free coconut milk, half with water with a handful of blueberries and a pinch of pumpkin seeds.

Great energy foods, good protein to build with a side of vitamins and good fats, a great way to start to the day.

Do you eat regularly through the day?

To keep your metabolism up and burning fat and blood sugar/ energy levels topped up you want to be eating every two to threes. That doesn’t mean chocolate every couple of hours just keep topped up, here is an example of a typical day for me, I am Lizzie a mum of two young boys.

• 7.00am – Wake up
• 7.30am – Breakfast
• 10.00am – Snack
• 12.00pm – Lunch
• 3.00pm – Snack
• 5.00pm – Dinner
• 8.00pm – Snack

Depending on my work that is pretty much the pattern for me.

When you start doing this you should see fewer slumps in energy throughout the day and it will reduce the cravings for high fat and high sugar foods which is what happens when your blood sugar levels drop, you crave the food that is going to pick those levels up the quickest. This then becomes a vicious cycle which over time affects a whole load of hormones which lead to imbalances and many problems to do with weight control as signals from hormones to the brains have been numbed.

Our Top Tips to lose that extra weight

1. Eat as much as you like of vegetables, this does not include white potatoes, but cabbage, broccoli, carrots, peas, etc. This should make up half your plate.
2. Eat as much as you like of certain fruits such as: Apples, berries (all kinds), lemons, pears, cherries and limes. All other fruit is to be eaten using the (8 bite) guide.
3. Eat between 8 bites of the following foods: Artichokes, leeks, pumpkin, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, turnips, chickpeas, kidney beans, brown rice, lentils and wholegrain pittas.
4. Protein is to make up of just under half of a meal, these include: Lean chicken, lean beef, lean turkey, quinoa, fish and eggs.

Attempt to do 20-30 mins of exercise every day, whether that is a walk, cleaning the house, tidying the garden or doing “The Mummy Rebuild Programme”, this will increase your metabolism and help burn fat.

Heal your body

This is good for all of us but especially those who have had surgery recently or a baby.

Because we feel we are invincible and are not always offered rehab after something like a hysterectomy or myomectomy, we think we can just carry on as normal. The body has been through so much trauma and the more we can do to help the better.

Now when you look at it like that you start to think that maybe we should give it a little bit of T.L.C so it will work for us again the way we want it to.

Now my thoughts on this are that it comes down again to nutrition, what can we do to help heal our body, so it returns to normal effectively?

The Immune System

Try boosting your immune system (your body’s wound-repairing agent) – by eating foods that contain certain healing nutrients.

Zinc: this is the most effective one and can be found in nuts, meat (especially liver) dairy produce, such as yogurt and crumbly cheeses like Parmesan and Lancashire, whole-wheat bread, poppy, sunflower and pumpkin seeds (try roasting them) and oysters.

By adding these into your diet you will encourage your immune system to fire on all cylinders and start doing its job effectively, thus making you feel a bit more human.

Vitamin C: the next vital nutrient, it is an antioxidant and has great healing power. Vitamin C can be easily consumed within your 5 a day, however if you are under a lot of stress (which most of us new mums are) then you may need a top up, so either grab a few more vitamin rich items into your daily amount or take a vitamin C supplement, whichever is easiest for you.

Foods rich in vitamin C are: Spring greens, guavas, blueberries, kiwi fruits, blackcurrants, strawberries, papayas, oranges, nectarines, mangoes and grapefruits which, in my opinion are some of the best tasting fruit out there. So stock up and start snacking on them, juicing them, making smoothies or preparing bowls of fresh-fruit salad whatever works best for you and your busy schedule.

Foods for scarring

Vitamin E: this is said to reduce scarring by encouraging wounds to heal. Although nuts, seeds and oils will provide your body with vitamin E, you could also buy some vitamin E capsules from your local health-food store to break open and gently massage into your wound. Aloe gel is also good.

BE AWARE

Stress, anxiety and depression are all conditions that drain the immune system, so please take some time to chill out. Easier said than done, we know, we have been there, but in the long run it will be best for you and baby if mummy has some down time, whether that’s taking a bath or listening to music or doing some yoga, whatever works for you.

OK as you can see, we are giving you as many tools as possible to help you feel better, you can use these how you see fit. So if you want to focus on healing diastasis or pelvic floor for now, then focus on the breathing technique. If you want to strengthen the abdominals, follow the Pilates, same for stretching or functional training, you all have different aims and goals but we suggest, for the next two weeks, doing a little of all of it, as it all helps with the end goal.