The Top 10 Changes You MUST Make To Your Diet Now That You Are Pregnant!

Finding out that you are pregnant can be one of the most exciting moments of a woman's life. Just the thought of carrying and nurturing a little baby in your belly brings warm fuzzy feelings to those of us with maternal instincts! However, once the initial excitement subsides there are a LOT of things you need to think about.

Now that you are pregnant, you'll need to think about a specific pregnancy diet, your exercise during pregnancy routine, your working hours, sleep patterns, your social life.... In fact, there's so many things to think about when it comes to pregnancy health and fitness, it can be hard to know where to start!

So to make it a little easier for you, this series of articles is going to break it all down into the top 10 of everything you need to know to make your pregnancy fitness a breeze!

One of the first things you will need to do is look at what you can and cannot eat for great pregnancy nutrition:

1. Stop ALL caffeine - yes there are loads of sites that tell you a couple of cups of coffee a day won't kill you, but that doesn't mean that it will do you any good. Caffeine overstresses the adrenal glands and sends LOTS of stress hormones into your bloodstream, which keeps you in permanent fight or flight mode and disrupts your circadian rythym (sleep cycles). This is exhausting for your poor body which is already dealing with extreme fatigue from all the changes happening with your pregnancy and can have a big impact on the welfare of you and your baby.

Some studies show that caffeine can lead to miscarriage, (although there is not enough research in this area) so play it safe and stay well clear!

2. Say goodbye to runny eggs! You MUST cook your eggs all the way through so that the yolk is solid to prevent salmonella.

3. Avoid peanuts and go careful with other nuts if you or your partner have allergies including asthma, eczema or hayfever. It is also thought that peanuts can lead to your baby developping a peanut allergy. So my advice - if in doubt, leave it out! It's really not worth the risk for the sake of a bag of nuts - surely!

4. Load up on leafy green vegetables like spinach which contain lots of folic acid. You should also be taking a folic acid supplement as this is essential in the first trimester of pregnancy to prevent neural tube defects. Taken daily whilst trying to get pregnant and in the 1st trimester of pregnancy folic acid can reduce the risks of neural tube defects by up to 70%

5. Drink MORE WATER! This may seem like a contradiction in terms when you're running to the loo every 2 minutes, but most pregnant women don't drink enough BECAUSE of this! Hydration is essential for pregnancy health.

6. Don't eat undercooked meat - You may love a tender cut of ribeye steak that is pink in the middle, but you won't love the coliform bacteria, salmonella or toxoplasmosis that may be hiding in it.

7. Try to eat a different coloured vegetable with every meal. Each vegetable contains different macronutrients so by eating from the whole spectrum, you can be certain that you are getting everything you need to grow a healthy baby and stay in great shape through your pregnancy!

8. Stay well clear of raw shellfish as it could well cause food poisoning. Cooking shellfish will eradicate some infection, but it won't destroy the algae related infection associated with red tides.

9. Give tuna, swordfish, shark and king mackerel a miss as the contain high levels of mercury.

10. Eat protein with EVERY meal. Protein is the building blocks of life and your baby needs a LOT of this to grow, so never skip out on your protein!

Protein also takes longer to digest so making you feel fuller for longer - great news for those of you suffering morning sickness!

So that's it! This list is by no means exhaustive but it gives you a great place to start. As always, with any major change in your diet you should consult with your pregnancy health care team before starting a new programme or radically changing your diet.

If you want one-step pregnancy health & fitness, with NO brainpower required, visit http://www.the9monthclub.com and find out how you can go from feeling fat and a frump to fit with a fabulous bump in just 30 days!

The Perfect Pregnancy Diet Plan - Get It Here!

It wasn't too long ago that it was a common misconception that if you were pregnant you should be eating for two. It was also pretty common that pregnant women tended to eat whatever they felt like regardless of it's nutritional value, hence most women struggled to lose their mummy belly after giving birth.

Thankfully, times and science move pretty quickly and we now know that you really don't have to eat that much more than normal to support a healthy pregnancy. We also know that rather than being able to eat whatever you want during pregnancy, you should be MORE focussed on eating good clean healthy food than before you fell pregnant if you want to keep your

Isn't it funny though how that voice in the back of your head still keeps saying to you, "Oh go on, you're pregnant, one little chocolate brownie won't hurt!"?

You know what - you're absolutely right! One little brownie won't hurt but if that one little brownie keeps shouting at you most days, (and don't kid yourself that it won't!), then you'll soon be putting on a lot more weight than you bargained for!

So one of the first things I do with my pregnant clients is get them on the right nutrition to guarantee that they'll stay trim, shapely and sexy throughout their pregnancy and ensure that they are giving their baby everything he/she needs to grow healthy and strong.

The rules I use are simple:

1) Eat ONLY from clean, wholesome, nutritionally supportive food that is as close to it's natural state as possible (ie. not tampered with by manufacturing or processing)

2) BAN all food that is toxic, harmful or that has been denatured by manufacturing or processing

This should leave you with foods that are nutritionally complete and that are jam-packed full of nutrients.

To make it easy for you here's a sample meal planner you can use to plan your own pregnancy diet. This is a shortened version of what I use with my personal clients.

Pregnancy Nutrition - Sample Planner

5 Reasons You NEED to GET FAT This Pregnancy!

If I was to ask you what your biggest concern is about being pregnant, what would you say?

I'd hazard a guess that complications with your baby would be top of your list, right?

Then, coming a very close second I bet that you're also worried about how much weight you've put on / how fat you're getting, and how difficult it's going to be to lose it after you've had your baby?

Am I pretty close to the mark?

Well, if you're anything like the majority of pregnant women I know then you're not alone! So if I tell you that GETTING FAT is actually a good thing during pregnancy, you're probably thinking that I've finally lost it and the sleep deprivation of having a new baby has finally got to me, right?

...Not yet! Hear me out on this one...

Getting fat during pregnancy can have seriously big results when used correctly and has several major benefits for you and your little one...

1. If, like most of us, you have big plans for your little one and you can see her running for president, discovering life on Mars, or finding a cure for the common cold, then you should know that getting fat is ESSENTIAL in building her brain...

2. Do you wear contact lenses or glasses? Were you one of the unlucky ones that had to wear glasses to school as a kid? (that was me BTW!). Well, you definitely want to make sure you pay attention to this one then, because getting fat is responsible for forming your baby's retinas...

3. Maybe sports is your thing? The nervous system determines hand, eye co-ordination, reflexes and quick decision making. Without getting fat your baby's nervous system will not develop properly

4. (Look out for this one - if you thought I'd lost it earlier this may well have you sending me straight to the men in white coats...)

Getting fat can actually reduce your chances of suffering with post-natal depression - that's right I said REDUCE!

5. And last but definitely not least, getting fat will help you lose your baby weight and get a sexy post-baby body in rapid succession!

Confused?

OK, I'll 'fess up! I'm talking about GOOD FATS! In particular, Omega 3. Omega 3 fatty acids should be a primary ingredient in your pregnancy diet for all the reasons listed above.

Omega 3 fatty acids comprise:

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA): EPA is found primarily in fish and fish oil.

Docosahexanoic Acid (DHA): DHA is especially important to your body, and is also found primarily in fish.

Alpha-Linolenic Acid (ALA): ALA is found mostly in seeds, vegetable oils, and leafy green vegetables. It is converted into EPA and then into DHA in your body.

They are also available to take as a supplement, but beware of the quality of some cheaper brands, as they can be polluted with contaminants such as mercury and PCBs. It's definitely worth paying more for pharmaceutical grade products so you can be sure that you and your baby are getting a pure ingredient.

So you see, getting fat during pregnancy is a good thing after all!

For one to one advice on your pregnancy health and for more information on the safest and most effetive way to stay fit and healthy this pregnancy join my free pregnancy community