What started as a simple “what I eat” blog post a while back has turned into 3 posts and a few changes in my diet. For a couple of years I followed a pescetarian diet for a few reasons that I won’t go into anymore than this:
- I have never been a big meat eater and so felt I wasn’t missing out on much by ditching it altogether
- Whilst I know that the end is very quick for meat producing animals I don’t agree with a lot of intensive farming practices (free-range all the way)
- As a yoga practitioner it made sense to me not to eat animals, even if we’ve been eating them for millions of years, plus meat proteins take longer to digest so the theory goes that yogis remain ‘light’ and therefore able to practice postures
- I included seafood as the health benefits are big and the research is pretty unanimous (plus I really like seafood!)
However… I always thought that if my iron levels became too low or there was some other health problem occurring that I could fix naturally with my diet that I would do just that, rather than take supplements or have injections.
And that first blood test when I became pregnant revealed very, very low iron levels. So I started eating meat again immediately along with a supplement to get my stored iron levels back up in time for the birth.
Funnily enough I had dreamt about eating meat a few times (weird I know!) a year prior and assumed that I was not getting enough protein, turns out my body was trying to tell me something else.
I also believe in and recommend a ‘paleo’ (for want of a better word) based diet with personalisations and it was starting to get ridiculous that I wasn’t eating that way myself.
Fast forward to my 1st trimester of pregnancy and all I could stomach was CARBS. Oh the irony.
The second trimester was better thank goodness and I was able to eat pretty well for the remainder of my pregnancy.
Now I’m almost 6 months post-partum and exclusively breast feeding.
Here’s what my diet looks like over a standard few days, keeping in mind a few things
- Breastfeeding is hungry work!
- It can be hard to make breakfast and lunch most days so I don’t always have a proper meal and
- We don’t have a coffee machine at home hence the instant (we probably should get a coffee machine)…
Day 1
Instant coffee
Cafe Coffee with full fat milk + banana
Chicken Caesar salad with leftover chicken breast, bacon, cos lettuce, hard boiled egg and mayonnaise
Almonds
3 gourmet cumberland sausages with mash potato and steamed greens
Tea + chocolate biscuits
Day 2
Instant coffee
Sourdough with butter and peanut butter
Coffee full fat milk
Natural protein bar
Tin salmon, mixed nuts, banana
Beef mince nachos with cheese and avocado – (two serves)
Glass full fat organic milk
Day 3
Porridge with nuts and sultanas
Cafe Coffee full fat milk
Bacon and eggs with sourdough and mushrooms
Whole punnet blueberries
Smoked cod in parsley sauce with potato and onions
Cup of tea and some plain chocolate
I still try to take the following supplements when I remember – cod liver oil, probiotics, vitamin C + zinc, iron.
A lot of of these recipes are from my 28 day program and I stick to my 5 simple rules to help me with my diet and keep my feeling good – one of those rules is listening to your body.
And when you’re feeding another human, that body can get pretty hungry and want some chocolate. And I’m not saying no. Not every day anyway 😉
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Kelly Moriarty is an online health & nutrition coach and founder of The Green Body Plan.
After 5 years as a veterinarian Kelly was unhealthy, stressed out and generally dissatisfied.
She now helps professional women make the same changes she did to beat burn out, lose weight, recover their energy and take back control of their health naturally.
kellyannmoriarty.com 