Month: December 2020

This is my last post for a while. I’m having my baby any day and I’m spending a bit of time relaxing and chilling out before I do so I officially stopped working on December 4th.

What a strange year it’s been! Full of ups and downs and surprises, heart ache, pain, grief and loss. It’s also been a year where we’ve slowed down, reflected and appreciated the important things in life. As we are now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine on the horizon it does feel as though 2021 will be a more positive year for many of us. 

It’s been a challenging year for me as I’ve worked to get my new business off the ground under very difficult circumstances. I’ve gained a huge amount but also found it very difficult at times. See my previous post on what we’ve gained in 2020 here. 

In amongst it all I’ve experienced a miraculous pregnancy, which I never thought would ever happen, and we are now preparing for the arrival of our little baby. This is my last blog post for a while as I take some time off for maternity leave but I’ll be back sometime in 2021 with more learnings on how to feel your best self. 

Staying active in pregnancy

As my final piece for 2020 I thought I’d reflect on how staying active in pregnancy is so important. It’s also helped me so much with my physical and mental health. I’ve been studying for my pre and post-natal exercise and nutrition specialism qualification and have therefore learnt a great deal about why exercise and nutrition is vital during pregnancy and in the post-natal period. 

It’s completely safe and advisable to stay active in pregnancy

There are lots of myths surrounding exercise and pregnancy with many still believing that women should put their feet up and rest for the entire 9 months. 

What’s best for you and your baby is actually the opposite. Unless you are experiencing any complications with your pregnancy then it is absolutely safe and advisable to continue to exercise throughout pregnancy. Particularly if you were active pre-pregnancy. For women who didn’t do any regular exercise before becoming pregnant it is still safe to start moving now if precautions are followed. 

Benefits to staying active during pregnancy

There are so many benefits to staying active during pregnancy including: 

• Helping to reduce maternal weight gain 
• Maintaining general fitness
• Reducing the risk of high blood pressure 
• Improving sleep and mood
• Improving posture and reducing back pain
• Easing of constipation 
• Reducing the risk of gestational diabetes, preeclampsia and the need to have a caesarean section 
• Helping to maintain and increase body awareness and improved self-image.

In her book Roar: how to match your food and fitness to your female physiology for optimum performance, great health, and a strong, lean body for life Dr Stacey T. Sims includes a chapter on exercise and pregnancy. She talks about how exercise is good for the pregnant mother and baby on so many levels. She even refers to a study showing how keeping active in pregnancy actually improved fitness levels and performance significantly post-natally.

Guidelines state that pregnant women should aim for 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week.  

Exercise is good for the growing fetus

Sims notes that exercise is good for the baby in terms of: 

• Reducing future risk of developing cardiovascular disease
• Improving metabolism later in the life: the child is less likely to suffer from childhood obestity and develop diabetes
• Being more likely to lead to a healthier birth weight. 

She says

“Exercising in early pregnancy has a profoundly positive effect on your developing baby, as it stimulates placenta growth and function as well as the organs and systems of the baby. Staying active through the later stages of pregnancy keeps your baby’s growth and development on track. All this good stuff happens with just 30 to 45 minutes of exercise a day.” 

Stacey T. Sims Roar: how to match your food and fitness to your female physiology for optimum performance, great health, and a strong, lean body for life

Exercise is essential in the post-natal phase

Exercise in the post natal period (once signed off from the doctor) also has lots of benefits including: 

• Aiding faster post-natal recovery 
• Helping to reduce the risk of developing post-natal depression 
• Aids the return to pre-pregnancy weight
• Relieves stress 
• Improves sleep and energy levels
• Strengthens and builds muscles. Particularly the abdominals (the  rectus abdominis) which are weakened during pregnancy
• Helps build bone growth important if women are breastfeeding
• Provides functional fitness for a new life as a parent 

Adaptations needed in pregnancy 

Adaptations will need to be made for each trimester and it’s advisable for pre and post-natal women to work with a specialist personal trainer to start with to ensure adaptations are correct and safe.

In fact, most exercises are actually safe to continue throughout pregnancy as long as you feel comfortable. The main adaptations needed are:  

• Working out at a moderate intensity and avoiding interval training or HIIT sessions which may lead to overheating or breathlessness 
• Avoiding lying on the back in the supine position, and on the front in the prone position, in the second and third trimesters
• Being careful to avoid exercises which put strain on the abdominal muscles (the  rectus abdominis) such as crunches, planks and press ups. However it is important to continue to work other parts of the deep core (for example, transversus abdominus and the obliques) 
• Pelvic floor exercises are very important during the pre and post-natal phases and should be incorporated into any training programme
• Avoiding high impact workouts in second and third trimesters 
• Staying away from contact sports or activities where there could be a risk of falling 
• Adapting stretches so they are less intense than usual 
• Being aware of exercises which require balance

There are lots of other things to think about here which is why working with a specialist trainer during pregnancy is always a good idea (I’m soon to be qualified!).

Pregnancy is not a time to increase fitness levels or attempt any personal challenges. It’s all about staying active and maintaining fitness levels where possible. 

I had to make adjustments to my own training 

People who know me know I’m always running, swimming, cycling, doing yoga and pushing my body in my training sessions. I’m usually training for some sort of endurance event.

When I found out I was pregnant I had to really adapt my thinking around my training and make sure I was really listening to my body and taking the pace down considerably. I’ve managed to keep active throughout the entire pregnancy but I had to stop running at around 18 weeks as it didn’t feel comfortable anymore. 

Swimming on the other hand, has been possible throughout and I kept it up as much as I could around the swimming pool closures in lockdown. There’s nothing nicer than floating in the water when you have a heavy bump to carry. I couldn’t do breaststroke as I suffered pelvic pain but front crawl has been fine and I was still able to do over 50 lengths after 38 weeks which I was very happy about.

Pre natal yoga has also been amazing and I’ve been doing classes at my local studio East of Eden and through a trainer based in York. I’ve also been following some specialist online yoga and found some strength workouts suitable in pregnancy which have been really great. 

My plans for 2021

Who knows what 2021 holds for us all! It’s all a big uncertain adventure at the moment. What i’m hoping is that i’ll be able to get my fitness classes back up and running sometime in March/April and also add in some specialist pre and post natal sessions. I will keep you all posted and encourage you to sign up to my emails so you get the latest updates on when I’m back. 

Until then I’ll sign off and say goodbye for now! 

Louisa xx

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There’s some really good evidence to show that eating mindfully can assist with improved dietary behaviour as well as be a successful mechanism for weight loss. It is also an effective and free way to develop a healthier, happier and more positive relationship with food. It can assist towards weight loss by encouraging healthier food choices and discourage overeating. 

What is mindful eating? 

Essentially mindful eating is paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, to what we are eating and our overall eating experience. It’s mindfulness but in relation to food! See my earlier post for more on general mindfulness principles here. 

How often do you actually sit down and really give your full attention to the sensations and tastes in your mouth as you eat? We are usually too busy and end up eating on the go, in front of the TV or our desks as we do something else. 

In their book What to Eat When: A Strategic Plan to Improve Your Health and Life

Michael Roizen, Michael Crupain and Ted Spiker talk about how we have lost touch with food as a sensory experience. We tend to shovel food down without taking the time to really appreciate and savour it. It means we are probably overeating without really realising. We are also missing out on the joy food brings. Think about how many people continue working whilst mindlessly eating their lunch without even properly registering what they are doing. I am sure we’ve all done this. 

The science of mindful eating for successful weight loss

Roizen, Crupaina and Spiker refer to a 2018 analysis in the Journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity. This study assessed 19 other studies on mindful eating and concluded that it successfully produced effective weight loss and improved dietary behaviour. Other studies have shown that participants who ate mindfully lost more weight than those who ate normally. A literature review published in 2018 in the journal Nutritional Research Reviews, which assessed 68 studies on weight loss interventions, found that “Mindfulness-based approaches appear most effective in addressing binge eating, emotional eating and eating in response to external cues” and “Encouraging a mindful eating approach would seem to be a positive message to be included in general weight management advice to the public.”

Studies have also shown that mindful eating can also aid digestion and help encourage a healthy gut. 

Why does mindful eating work? 

There are several reasons: 

• By specifically focusing on each bite it naturally encourages slower eating. This helps avoid weight gain as it gives the body time to register whether it is actually full or not. The hormone leptin is released which signals to the brain that the body is full but this usually takes up to 20 minutes. It’s not surprising that eating slowly aids this. As Brian Wansink notes in Mindless Eating: Why we eat more than we think, a lot of extra cookies or portions of ice cream can be consumed in 20 minutes. 
• Eating more slowly encourages us to eat smaller portions as we are more likely to avoid second helpings as we have already registered feeling full.
• It also makes it less likely we’ll be craving sweet food after our main dish as we will be more satisfied and fuller. 
• By focusing on the food we are eating it more likely encourages healthier choices as we become more conscious of what we are putting in our bodies. Eating becomes an act of self-care. By starting to eat mindfully you are more likely to begin to retrain your brain to be much more in tune with your food choices. You may opt for a balanced meal based on fresh, wholegrain food ensuring you are getting the right amount of protein to nourish your body. 
• It also encourages us to have a more ethical outlook to food and to really think about where the food has come from and how it is connected to the world.  
• In Mindless Eating Brian Wansink discusses how we rely on social cues to tell us to stop eating rather than listening to our bodies. Finishing what’s on our plates may be drummed into as from an early age so starting with a smaller plate may be a good idea. When you are eating with a group of friends how often do you keep eating until the last person has finished? 

“When practiced to its fullest, mindful eating turns a simple meal into a spiritual experience, giving us a deep appreciation of all that went into the meal’s creation as well a deep understanding of the relationship between the food on our table, our own health, and our planet’s health”.

Thich Nhat Hanh Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life

How to try mindful eating? 

Here are eight simple ways you can try to embrace mindful eating in your every day life: 

1. Plan your food ahead of time

Spend time looking for recipes and bring in mindfulness techniques when you are shopping for your food and preparing it. Take time to notice how you are preparing the food – carefully paying attention to each chop of the knife and how the food feels in your hands. 

2. Start with a smaller plate…

3. Put your fork or spoon down between each bite

This will encourage slowing down and enable your body to properly digest the food. 

4. Eat your meals without distraction

Sit at a table without the TV on or your phone and see what difference that makes. If you focus your full attention on the food you are eating you will find that you naturally develop gratitude towards the food on your plate.  You will appreciate the amazing textures, smells and feelings food evokes in each mouthful. 

5. Really listen to your body

Before you eat concentrate on how you really feel. Are you genuinely hungry? Once you have eaten then concentrate on how it feels. Do you really need that second helping or snack a few hours after?

6. Reflect on your thoughts

Before your meal think about how you feel so you can start to recognise your emotions and what might be driving you to eat when you might not be hungry. We all do this and it is completely normal. It’s good practice to start recognising this so you can learn how your body and mind are interacting. After your meal try not to rush to get up and do the dishes or move on to your next chore really savour the feelings the food has evoked.

7. Chew your food for longer than you normally do

We often do not chew our food properly which can result in damaging consequences for our jaws. It’s also a lot better for the digestive system to chew food properly. 

8. Try the eating a raisin mindfulness exercise

If your mind starts to wander this is completely normal. You simply bring yourself back to the exercise. There’s a script on this website here which is useful for this exercise. 

Note, if you are suffering from an eating disorder mindful eating may not be appropriate for you. Please seek advice from a health professional.