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.

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Are High Heels Really That Bad in Pregnancy?

I think I echo most women's sentiments when I say that one of the worst things about pregnancy is the point where your bump gets too big for you to comfortably wear your gorgeous collection of high heels or when your feet swell so much that you can't get those shoes on anyway, even if you tried!

The thing is though, no matter how uncomfortable they can be, sometimes heels are the only way to make an outfit work. When you've found that perfect dress for a night out with the girls, your hair is gleaming and your makeup looks amazing, you can just hear those strappy, sexy sandals calling you from the back of the closet.

But hey, if you wear heels out once a week can it really be that bad for you? Surely not!

Well let me tell you the facts and you make up your mind for yourself...

First of all you need to understand what heels do to the body. When you put on a pair of heels you tip your weight forward so that your centre of gravity shifts. This means that you have to adjust your posture or alignment so that you don't fall flat on your face.

To enable you to balance, your pelvis has to tilt anteriorly which increases the arch in your lower back. This in turn compresses the discs in your lower spine and crushes the nerves leading out from the spinal cord.

Your abs become stretched giving you a protruding belly and your hip flexors shorten.

On the top half your shoulders will round forward to balance out the lower body and your head will migrate forward putting enormous strain on your neck.

Now, consider this. All of the postural problems above are also prevalent in pregnancy. The weight of your bump and boobs will cause the exact same things to happen. Not only that, but because you are pregnant you will also be producing a lot of the hormones relaxin and oestrogen which make ligaments and muscles relax and joints become extremely unstable.

So when you add heels to a pregnant posture you are increasing the damage to your back, shoulders and neck to the point of overload. And this is when your body tells you enough is enough and gives up. Hence you end up with severe back pain and possibly serious long-term damage.

So although you may think that wearing heels on the odd night out can't hurt too much, just remember that your body is already stretched to the limit carrying your baby.

Is it really worth it for one night out?