While our hunger skyrockets during pregnancy, it is so important to eat enough of the right things! Mainly protein! Nutrition during pregnancy is something that most moms struggle with, I have a specialization in fitness nutrition and STILL struggled with my nutrition during my pregnancy. During my pregnancy, I wanted all things not good for me, but I knew I wanted to keep my weight gain to a minimum.
Being a personal trainer with a specialization in fitness nutrition I knew that no matter what I did in the gym, I couldn’t outwork a poor diet. So I put together this little plan so that I could plan my meals accordingly, not have any temptations in my fridge, or any opportunities to eat to how I felt that day, in turn, that kept off the unwanted weight. For the most part, I certainly indulged at times!
First, I built my meals around the protein source I wanted. I’ll attach a chart on the next page of their macros.
Secondly, I made sure I was only eating one serving size, no more and no less. Third, I always made sure I had the correct amount of protein in every meal and snack that I ate.
Third, I always made sure I had the correct amount of protein in every meal and snack that I ate.
Protein helps in building your little one up! If you watch anything you eat while you’re pregnant, let it be protein as this is VITAL to both you and your baby. Attached below is a breakdown of some proteins and their macro breakdown, the correct serving size and how many grams of protein are in each serving size. You should aim to have a protein of the correct serving size at every meal, and should also aim to have a lighter source of protein (cheese, almonds, eggs) for your snacks.
As I am sure you already know, carbs are addicting, they’re delicious, they’re everything that will make you hold on to extra water and put on extra weight during pregnancy. But there are good carbs, so let’s start there.
Free Game Carbs as I like to call them, would be your non-starchy vegetables, Kale, broccoli, spinach, cucumber, asparagus, peppers. These carbs are the GOOD carbs, they fill you up, they contain great nutrients for you and your little one. You can seriously have as much of these carbs as you want.. One of my favorite pregnancy snacks was broccoli and ranch or baked asparagus with Parmesan cheese shredded on top. DELICIOUS!
Yellow Light Carbs. these are the carbs you need to be mindful of but still have on a daily basis. These would be your fruits, fruits are wonderful, but they contain sugar. Sugar holds on to water and helps to store fat in your body. Limit these to 1 apple or pear, a banana, or a cup of berries or grapes at a time. These are great for snacks.
Keep close watch carbs, these would be your grains and starchy vegetables. Brown rice, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, carrots, whole wheat bread. These carbs you have to keep a close watch on. They will sneak up on you and while you get nutritional value with them, you’ll also get some bonus weight. if you eat them in an influx.
During pregnancy, you should be having 3-4 servings of healthy fats per day. These are avocado, olive oil, nut butters (YES PB FOR PRESIDENT,) and coconut oil. I usually went back and forth between cooking with olive oil and coconut oil, this gave my food different tastes even if I was eating the same thing. Omega-3s are essential to your little one’s brain development. I took a pregnancy DHA as well as my prenatal to make sure I was getting enough DHA in my diet. It is super easy to go OVER your fat allowance for the day, and honestly, you and your baby only need HALF a serving size of fats to keep you fueled up and ready to go. It’s important that you pay attention to serving sizes and actually stick to what it says is one serving.
If you’re anything like me, I had a food aversion to beef for almost a month during my pregnancy. However, at the time I didn’t know I was pregnant. (I didn’t find out I was pregnant until I was 21.5 weeks pregnant, SURPRISE) I just thought I had a really bad case of food poisoning. But during that time, I wasn’t eating enough protein because beef is my protein of choice, I can’t eat plain chicken it makes me gag. But you could feel the difference in my energy levels. I wasn’t fueling my body properly and was consuming so many calories from carbs and fats trying to make up for my lack of protein intake which 100% hurt me more than it helped me. I was constantly eating, constantly trying to fill my self up, and with all the wrong things. Giving my little one zero nutritional value. This is why it is so important to eat enough protein during pregnancy. Your diet literally builds your baby! It’s hard and I certainly didn’t have 100% or even 80% perfect diet during my pregnancy, but it really does help in the long run, you have a healthier baby, and you’ll have an easier time losing the baby weight after your little one comes into the world!
Take the time to do your research, to plan your meals, to feed your body correctly. You and your baby will thank you for it! Stay tuned, our e-book is in the works! We are hoping to have it out by the end of summer!
