October 2017

Have you ever heard that you should drink 8 glasses of water a day? Well this is a very basic way of putting it but I’ll expand so you can appreciate why. Now stick with me on this because half the reason there is so much confusion about nutrition is because only half the message is heard.

Do you know how this feels? How long has it taken for you to gain weight? For most people the answer is years. Then how do you expect to lose weight in a matter of weeks or months and then maintain that weight loss?

While breastfeeding it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle. You will be producing about 600ml of milk per day during the first few months and this will increase to around 1 litre per day by the time your baby is 4-6 months. If you are undernourished then you run the risk of depleting your own nutritional reserves and this may affect the nutrient levels in your milk. You need to maintain good nutrition for both yourself and your baby.

There are a couple of things that you need to understand about your body to ensure you succeed in creating a new, healthy you. Firstly, as much as we have always just shoved food in our mouths and expected our bodies to deal with it, our bodies would prefer to be treated differently.

I want to explain breifly (and hopefully relatively easily!!) how proteins and carbohydrates are utilised by the body. Even if you don’t use this information every time you eat, having this knowledge may help you to think about what is going on inside your body.

“How am I supposed to ever get some sleep when all you want to do is feed??!!! Who would have know this kid was going to eat so often, I need some sleep.” And I would take just about any opportunity to sleep because, let’s face it, sleep deprivation is used as torture in some countries! I’d had enough, I just needed to get a good, solid sleep. Not this ‘hour here, half hour there’. Well through pure sleep deprivation and last resorts I came up with an idea that works! I managed to get 5-6 hours straight each night. Tell me more you say…