Mindset Training When You're "Eating For Two"
If you’re a not great eater but you want to be, for you and your baby, this post is especially for you. Eating healthy without feeling deprived can be tricky and nothing exposes the struggle more than pregnancy.
I wanted to be the pregnant lady who could balance a bowl of ice cream on my belly and eat whatever I wanted. After all, everyone said “eating for two”! But, I also wanted to have a “cute belly” and then not look like I just had a baby months later…. I know now that neither end of that spectrum is ideal. I realized early on in pregnancy that my usual (not healthy) cycle of deprive myself to eat “healthy” then cave and eat junk food on repeat is not something you can do during pregnancy so I had to figure some things out. The answer wasn’t in a specific diet or meal plan. It was all in my mindset- learning to be in charge of my choices- that I HAD a choice about what I ate! In order to do that, I formulated a few questions that I turned to whenever I was tempted to slip into my old ways.
I’m sharing them with you to try out and modify to make them your own. The cool part is that I can STILL use them when I am feeling stressed or in a season of a lot of change and life gets topsy turvy. Use them when you feel like you are eating just to eat, or not keeping hold of your own power to make good choices. Note: it is perfectly okay to have treats - so long as they are treats, AKA something s p e c i a l.
Am I really hungry? (if outside of a meal time) -Or am I feeling bored/tired/anxious/angry? Sometimes we eat in attempt to make feelings like these go away. If you are truly hungry by all means EAT!!!! But if you’re not really hungry, what if you called a friend, wrote in a journal or went for a walk to sort your feelings out first?
Is this my brain or my stomach wanting me to eat that? -Sometimes we just think we need chocolate, but do we? Does chocolate really fill us up? Don’t ignore real hunger especially while pregnant, but we can learn to recognize our brains habitually telling us to eat or eat certain foods. There’s a difference!
What would it look like if I saw a baby eating this?- This question helped me choose healthier foods because I imagined my baby eating what I was eating and when it was junk food, I thought, “I can do better than this!” I didn’t want my baby getting junk food!
Does this help my baby develop optimally? - We all want healthy babies, and making sure we take in enough vitamins and minerals from healthy foods can go a long way in not only healthy birth weight, but there’s research out there showing correlations from a healthy diet during pregnancy to favorable gene expression related to immune systems and body composition. Our stomachs can be full of food, but empty in nutrition.
Is there a better option that would work right now? Example: Ice cream vs fun cereal or fruit with whipped cream and a few sprinkles? Cereal as a dessert was new for me but walk down the cereal aisle these days and it seems like every dessert now comes in cereal form! Cereal can be a tasty dessert with fewer calories and less saturated fat, and even more protein depending on milk and still feel like a treat!
Am I going to regret taking this eating opportunity post-partum when I want to fit in my pants? Call me vain, but I did care a lot about how I was going to look post-partum and this question was almost always enough to end the wrestling thoughts about eating when I wasn’t hungry, and minimizing the junk food to a treat portion and frequency.
Learning to step into your power around food and choices takes time and work but it’s worth it! It’s not an all or nothing. Start with these questions, or pick a favorite to focus on.
Celebrate the little wins because each one strengthens you and once you’re strong in your mindset it’s hard to shake it! I’ll end with one of my favorite phrases, “You can eat anything, but it’s not always wise to eat everything”.
If you find this helpful, you might also be interested in my free Pre-Natal Myths Guide.
Check it out and learn more about how to stay fit and healthy during your pregnancy so you can have your best delivery, best recovery and best feeling as a new mom!
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