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Nutrition: Busy Moms
Nutrition for Busy Moms - healthy eating for moms who don't have a lot of time!
Did you know that having 26 teaspoons of sugar per person per day is the norm these days? Where do we get all that sugar from? From food and drinks. And did you know that women should have less than 9...? Unfortunately eating that way slowly but surely makes us sick.
So yes, as mothers we do need to make sure we eat well even if we have very little time. Because we definitely don't have time to be sick, that's for sure. For the sake of our children we NEED to stay healthy and strong both physically and mentally.
And of course we need to feed our kids well also (that's why I started this Nutrition for Kids website in the first place!), but if we don't eat well ourselves we might also not have the energy to think as much about planning their diet as we should.
And on top of that, if our diet is off, we probably won't even have the energy or motivation to spend all that important quality time with our kids - because our body is so busy processing all that heavy and complicated food so we are tired quite often.
A few years ago, I was not taking care of my eating
habits the way I should have. I almost had no time (or so I thought) to eat anything
during the day when my son was in school.
Instead I focused on making a very nice dinner for us when he got home. But the lack of nutrients during the day eventually made me weak and I easily got irritated. And that is not how it's supposed to be.
We do need to have enough energy to be the happy parents we naturally are. That way we have more patience to listen to our children's stories, help them with homework and have fun with them!
Food and Nutrition Busy Moms
One thing I do as a health coach every week is I go shopping and make healthy snacks and cook dinners for one family. I make all their food for the following two days. This takes me about four hours, sometimes a little less.
I do understand that not every mother can spend four hours several times per week planning and preparing food. So instead you could take some shortcuts. Like for example getting your salads from a salad bar. Then you save a lot of time washing and cutting veggies.
If I would have to mention one food that is the most important to eat every day as a mother...
Buy some often and keep them in the fridge. Take a handful several times a day if you are too busy to make a salad or juice out of it. It will really help you to stay healthy, to keep your iron levels up and mood up.
When my sister is visiting, she buys baby spinach and arugula every day and puts them in a bowl with a little bit of water and leaves them in the kitchen. By the end of each day the bowl is empty because she has eaten it all.
She says she can't eat much salads in Bangkok where she lives, because its not safe, unless she wants to get a stomach bug :(
So she has come to appreciate the availability and safety of greens over here much more now, and she has also studied up on how good it is for us. For example the folate and the chlorophyll in it is so good for women.
Other
foods to focus on would be broccoli, all kinds of vegetables, fruits
like pomegranates and blueberries and also ginger is great. And all kinds
of organic herbs and spices! Bon appetite!
New Mothers
A diet for new moms should not look very different from a mom that has older children.
The best would always be to eat clean whole foods and a lot of plant based meals.
Even if you are not breastfeeding, this way of eating is still best - it will help you feel better (even with the little sleep that you are getting) than if you would be eating a more "heavy" diet.
Eating for Beauty
Oh an by the way! I have noticed that most of us are very conscious of how we look... including myself of course! Even if we are moms, that doesn't stop!
We want to have beautiful clear skin, have shiny hair and often if possible lose some weight too...
A good thing to remember is that before we can achieve all this, we
need to be clean on the inside - by eating organic, antioxidant-rich
food. All the rest will come naturally when we have made that change!
When we are healthy on the inside, we are also healthy on the outside! Let me know if you need some help or more advice on how to start a total diet makeover :)
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