Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Buck Stops With You: Your Health

Taking control of your birth means first taking control of yourself.  Healthy moms with healthy babies have normal births.  This is one of my favorite phrases and I use it often when I teach a class.  It's meant to be an encouragement to moms.  No major health problems?  Then feel free to plan for a normal birth and be sure to question anyone who wants to start in with any interventions.

Even when health issues do arise it's not necessarily a reason to start panicking.  Most often it merely means that your health provider will need to be more vigilant about your care so that potential problems are spotted before they become an emergency.  Note: I said POTENTIAL problems.  Don't let anyone cause you undue stress simply because of a blip in the proverbial radar.

But even with that in mind, health problems are the number one way to end up in the path of interventions, and the worse the problem, the bigger the needed interventions.  Even your home-birth midwife who believes so completely in your ability to give birth will have to drop you like you are hot and send you to the hospital if your health gets too out of whack.

But I digress.

Healthy moms.  Healthy babies.  You have to have to care for the first in order to get the second.  Before we go further, let's clarify something.  "Health" does not mean "skinny", it does not mean you have to be able to run a marathon.  Take every mental image you have of your head.  Now is not the time to start dieting or get onto a new extreme fitness routine.  In fact, it's my humble opinion that some of these extreme "health" fads are soon going to prove not so healthy.  I don't think extremes are ever healthy.

When seeking to avoid health problems it's important to remember two things.

1) Eat
2) Move

Simple enough right?

Now, I'm not a dietician, and there are truckloads of resources out there that have suggestions on healthy eating for pregnant women.  I'm not going to give you a step by step eating plan here.  If you are interested in something of that nature The Brewers Diet is often recommended.

Here's what you do need to know.

I like to start by asking two questions: Is it real food?  - and- How close to the original source is it?

Real food - I define this as anything you could theoretically grow yourself.  Fresh fruits, veggies, real fresh meats, fresh eggs, milk - these things are real.

Then ask yourself, how close is it to the original source?  Where exactly did your meat come from (much of what you find in the grocery store has been tampered with, although it's still better than your overly processed cheeseburger).  How many additives are in that cheese?  How many times have the nutrients been pasteurized out of your milk?  I understand you picked up the "Vegetable Stir Fry" version of a microwave dinner, but are those veggies really veggies anymore after what they've been through?

Guess what - real health takes some work.  So does real birth.  Lean Cuisine isn't going to get you through your pregnancy with any kind of real health.  To get that you have to have real foods and real foods usually require some form of preparation (personally I think raw steak is gross even before you factor in bacteria).

Once you have determined that your food is indeed real and as close to the original source as your personal beliefs (I know many don't believe in raw milk, though I'd like to see that change - there are some potentially great benefits to raw milk) and your pocketbook will allow (cause let's face it, frozen veggies are often cheaper than the fresh ones), you can begin to look at the following criteria for your diet.

Protein.  Lots and lots of it in healthy sources.  Your overly processed cheeseburger does not count.  I'm going to take you back to high school biology for a moment, try not to panic.  Our bodies are meat.  Meat is made of protein.  Your baby has muscles and joints and bones that are growing at an incredible rate.  Therefore your baby (and your body) need lots of protein to keep up.  Inadequate protein can cause a whole host of pregnancy problems.

Fruits and vegetables.  I promise, you are not getting enough.  Did you know that our bodies don't just use the vitamins found in veggies?  There are thousands of nutrients that are even smaller - micro nutrients - that science is finding may be even more important than even the vitamins we try so desperately to supplement ourselves with.  Thus far the only way to get them is from whole fruits and vegetables (and preferably as unprocessed as possible, it takes very little heat to kill off many of those nutrients).  Does your meal or snack contain fruits and veggies?  Find a way to add some! ^^

I promise if you are concentrating on these two things, the other things like carbs and fats will fall into place much easier. 

Which brings us to moving: exercise.  I've been through three pregnancies, only one of which (my second) I managed to stay active during.  I've been there ladies - I KNOW it's hard.  I KNOW you are tired, but I can promise the rest you might get isn't worth the hardship on your health and your body.  Just like you don't have to start following a crazy diet, you also don't need to start working lifting weights and running for hours on end every day.  If you want to do that and have the strength and stamina to do it without overdoing it, knock yourself out.  For the rest of us, here's my little tip.

Real health is having the strength and energy to do what you need to do in life (work) and still have some leftover (play).  Even something as simple as 15 minutes of yoga or dancing in your kitchen can make all the difference in your day. Five minutes here, five minutes there, it can all add up. If you are looking for some inspiration or just a few videos to get you started, I highly recommend you head over to the Fit 2 Be Studio (check out the button at the bottom of my page*).  Beth has some great things going on over there as well as a great community to help encourage you!

Following these tips is not necessarily going to guarantee you the health you are looking for (especially if you were particularly out of shape when you started), but they are going to get you that much closer!  The healthier you are, the more you can trust your body will do what it was designed to do, no interventions needed! 


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^^ Getting fruits and veggies is incredibly important and can often be incredibly hard.  This is why I encourage women to think about using Juice Plus+ to bridge the gap in their diets.  After researching it and seeing the benefits in my own pregnancy it is a recommendation I honestly feel obligated to pass along.  Please see the statistics for yourself.
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* I love Fit2Be and everything it offers women.  I love it so much I became an affiliate!  Your membership will go towards helping THREE stay at home moms - myself, and the two moms who run the Fit2Be Studio!

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