Pregnancy and postpartum can take its toll on your body and your overall health. It’s so important for your recovery to be doing things to serve and love on your body. It is easy to get sucked into the cycle of overwhelm - you are caring for a new baby, navigating breastfeeding, creating a new schedule, redefining your identity...the list goes on and on!
Here are some ways to reframe your mindset during those challenging times of overwhelm:
🧘♀️Breathe and close your eyes
Taking just a few moments to close your eyes and take a few deep breaths can be mood changing! When I do this I engage my pelvic floor muscles and remember what it's like to feel that calmness, to sometimes be in a tranquil pool of blue/green water and to hear the sound of waves. It truly helps me relax, ground and come back to what a blessed existence I have.
🕺 Move/Shake
Moving your body is key for so many reasons. A way of movement that I’ve been focusing on (along with my usual) is somatic movement. One way to describe this is movement in which you focus on the internal experience and feeling of the movement instead of what it looks like from the outside.
🍪 Choose a healthy feel good snack or stuff your face🤣
Just kidding, don’t just stuff your face. Emotional eating can be very common for many reasons, but regardless it is not the best coping mechanism!
Slowing down, even if it is just for a minute or two can be the difference needed to reset, regulate your mood and get your day back on track.
What do you do when you’re having one of those days?
The holidays are a busy time - running in so many different directions, from family party to party, celebrating the season with the ones you love. This is your sign to prepare to take on healthier habits for the holidays
Look, I’ve been there (frankly still am there sometimes) where your circumstances are driving you to stress eat. Whether that’s family asking you crazy questions or long travels that you really didn’t want to do in the first place or maybe it’s actually fun things like that journey to see family you haven’t seen in awhile and are excited to see!
Whatever it is, one of the ways you can keep your mind and body in better shape is by making healthier food choices.
A lot of my clients and people I know are overwhelmed by the holiday onslaught of sugar laden foods or endless holiday parties where the eggnog is flowing (or maybe you’re more of a mulled wine person) and aren’t quite sure how to handle it all.
One of the best ways I’ve found throughout the years is to plan. Plan what you’re going to eat or drink and attach a why to it.
What do I mean by that?
When you attach a meaningful why to your eating plan that can be a game changer. It allows you to dive in with determination to make those healthier choices a bit easier.
My why is my brain.
Without healthier food choices my brain just doesn't like me. When consuming a lot of sugar, alcohol and processed foods I end up with a severe case of brain fog which can lead me further down the autoimmune path, which I choose not to do.
What I eat directly impacts my ability to process information, sleep, make choices and feel joy.
Those are some big impacts!
Throughout the years people I've worked with have come to realize (especially after a particularly rough holiday season) that taking a more planned approach to what they eat (and let's be real, many other things) can be really helpful when it comes to thriving and not feeling just plain gross come January.
This year (2023) I put together a fall meal plan challenge where folks got access to a two week meal plan and group support to implement it! I'll be doing these throughout the year so keep an eye out for the next one!
The holidays are naturally a busy time filled with family get together, exchanging gifts and yummy treats. If you are pregnant during the holidays you may feel an added layer of stress.
Last year at this time I was pregnant with our little man and I was seriously feeling all the feels. It was the holiday season and I was constantly working on the different things I should eat. And boy is there a lot of info out there! I knew there wouldn't be a lot of my usual items that I consumed on the menu (think wine, extra cookies and other less than stellar choices).
Even with my masters in clinical nutrition, there was A LOT of info out there, much of it is of course conflicting. So down the research hole I went.
Sometimes Google can be a great resource and sometimes it can be a little overwhelming, which is why I decided to simplify and create a guide for pregnant mamas!
Packed with tips, recipes and ways to still enjoy things, even if it looks a little different for you this year!
This guide will put your mind at ease and make navigating all of your holiday get togethers less stressful, giving you more time to sit back and enjoy the season.
Click here to join the waitlist to get access to the guide for pregnant mamas when it officially launches!
Stress has become such a commonplace part of our every day lives. So many things running through our mental checklists at all times, "Did I remember to get something out for dinner? Why didn't my baby sleep well last night? Did I take my supplements this morning?"
I wanted to share an intentional way for you to focus on relaxing your mind throughout the course of your day. This easy-to-implement habit will help to mitigate stress and improve your overall well-being.
Breathing! - we do it everyday, but can we do it better?
There are so many benefits and even different ways to be intentional with it.
Like yes we breathe everyday at every moment but when you take time to do that slow, deep and intentional breathing it’s an amazing impact on your mind and body ❤️
Deep breathing is the act of slowing down your breath and relaxing your mind.
How can deep breathing help me?
What comes to mind when you think of deep breathing? Things like meditations and yoga?
Did you know it’s actually beneficial for everyone and can be done in any setting?
Taking a moment everyday to do a simple guided breathing technique can have huge positive effects on your body and overall health!
The more oxygen in your blood, the more energy you’ll have; I know we could all use that!
When the afternoon slump hits, take a minute to take a few deep breaths 💕 you’ll be amazed at the feeling.
Do you take time for deep breathing?
I had heard of leaky gut, but didn’t really know what it meant in detail. The funny part about that, is I had heard about it while in school for nutrition and dietetics - now don’t get confused though, I didn’t hear about it from my program, but from outside sources.
So what is it, your gut leaks? Basically yes. (There are a million thoughts around this but one thing at a time) so when you are massively inflamed (think eating crappy, not sleeping enough, drinking, applying/living around a ton of toxins and living in a constant state of stress) what can sometimes happen is the lining of your gut can have large holes which allows partially digested food, toxins and more to release into your blood stream (very short version). This can trigger further inflammation and changes in the gut bacteria.
When you are massively inflamed (think eating crappy, not sleeping enough, drinking, applying/living around a ton of toxins and living in a constant state of stress) what can sometimes happen is the lining of your gut can have large holes which allows partially digested food, toxins and more to release into your blood stream (very short version).
This can trigger further inflammation and changes in the gut bacteria. This can also show up outside the gut in a variety of ways, for me it was through several things but the biggest, craziest one was eczema.
Eczema is definitely annoying, but this was so bad I couldn’t open my hands because of all the little cuts at each wrinkle of my hand. I had to wear Michael Jackson style white gloves to protect the cuts while putting on a mix of Shea butter and essential oils to get it to calm down.
The thing is, it’s wasn’t coming from the outside, so while those things helped, it was my leaky gut that was causing this. So knowing what causes leaky gut I had to make some changes.
Because the fact of the matter is, even if you change what you’re eating there is more to it than that. And leaky gut is known by some as a gateway into other autoimmune conditions.
I have some great resources around the gut, that can be helpful if you're unsure what to do!
