While feeling a human being inside you can be the most wonderful feeling, expecting a child can turn into an unpleasant experience if you don’t have a healthy pregnancy diet plan.
It is a well-known fact that most of us are mostly bothered by our weight and we do everything we can to avoid looking fat.
Some of us believe we are overweight even if everybody tells us that we are in great shape.
Therefore, expecting a child is a challenge and a blessing at the same time.
A blessing, because that fetus growing inside you will have your blood, your traits and pieces of you and your heart and a challenge because, during those nine months or less, you’ll do whatever you can to maintain your weight, something hard to do without a pregnancy diet plan.
Healthy Pregnancy Diet Plan
Of course, having a pregnancy diet plan doesn’t mean that you won’t put on any weight at all, since this is an impossible feat, but it will help you to control your food “impulses”.
A pregnant woman has cravings, A lot. She wants ice cream. She wants chocolate. She wants pudding.
She wants all sorts of things she doesn’t normally eat, because now, with the baby in her womb, she’ll have to eat for two and all of a sudden, she has these weird meal requests.
This can degenerate to something like: “I can’t stop eating, because my baby needs all that food” and before they even know it, they’ll weight 20 pounds more. Then 30 and so on…
A good pregnancy diet plan doesn’t only give you tips on the aliments you should eat, but it also helps you stay within the boundaries regarding the recommended number of calories per day.
A pregnant woman shouldn’t normally get more than 2000 calories per day and in order to achieve that, she should follow a pregnancy diet plan consisting of milk, yogurt, cheese, fruits, vegetables, oils, grains, and meat and beans, which are the six main food groups of the Food Guide Pyramid.
The whole grains give precious fiber, nutrients and of course, vitamins; this is why instead of the white bread and rice you normally eat, you should opt for the whole wheat bread or brown rice.
Fruits, as we all know, are a rich source of vitamins and it’s always recommended to choose fresh fruits because they don’t consist of the sugary liquid needed to preserve the canned ones since the sugar is the thing we need the least and no pregnancy diet plan will ever recommend the sugar intake.
The vegetables are, just like the fruits, highly recommended – not just for pregnant women, but also for everybody who wants to follow a healthy diet. In order to get the best out of your nutrition, make sure you alternate the colors of the vegetables you eat, since the variety offers maximum nutrition, thus making the best out of your pregnancy diet plan.
As for the meat and beans, pregnant women should eat them in small quantities and opt for lean meat which doesn’t contain too much fat.
Eating fish has to be cautious; those who are expecting a child shouldn’t eat more than 12 ounces of fish per week, since the mercury you intake can reach a dangerous level, thus harming your child and obviously you want to avoid that.
There isn’t a single pregnancy diet plan which doesn’t recommend dairy products.
Milk, yogurt, and cheese should be eaten daily because they represent a great source of proteins and calcium.
You don’t need too much knowledge to realize their benefits even without finding them listed in the pregnancy diet plan since the milk is one of the first things that your newborn gets to taste.
Because there are so many low-fat products available on the market, you won’t need to worry about gaining weight.
Last, but not least, oils play also a big part in your pregnancy diet plan. All kinds of oils can be consumed, the best being the olive oil, avocado, nuts and olives; 6 to 8 teaspoons should be taken daily.
Never stress out because of your pregnancy diet plan. It might get frustrating for some to realize that they don’t quite respect the recommended quantities all the time, but rather than hitting that lucky number 2000, which is the number of calories you need every day, try to fit into a certain range.
As the pregnancy progresses, you’ll need to eat more, but if you combine the healthy food from your pregnancy diet plan with some 30 minutes of daily exercises, then your weight won’t suffer too serious modifications.
After all, it’s not about not eating this and that; it’s about not eating too much of this and that.
Apart from the folate and calcium found in vegetables like broccoli, for example, those women who are expecting should also consume about 400 micrograms of the B vitamin folic acid daily before and while they are pregnant since researches showed that it considerably reduces the risk that your baby might be brain or spine damaged at birth.
Depending on your body type and on how many babies you are expecting, you might need to eat less or more.
For those who are overweight, the number of calories should be reduced. For those who are underweight, the number of calories should be bigger – the same applies if you’ll give birth to twins or triplets or even more children.
Since each person is different, the pregnancy diet plan should be adjusted accordingly. The practitioner is the best person to speak about the pregnancy diet plan which you should follow.
Healthy Pregnancy Diet Plan – The Conclusion
While you might get obsessed with the idea of keeping your weight in control, don’t be too strict about it and avoid the temptation of sweets, since they aren’t good for neither of you.
What matters the most is what you eat and how much. Always choose the healthiest meals, even if those aliments aren’t really your cup of tea and you would prefer something more tasteful.
In the end, your child’s safety is the most important thing. That life you’re carrying inside you needs to be protected while there and after you give birth.
When that little human being finally sees the light of the day, make sure that you take care of his diet too during his entire upbringing, because you want to see him grow strong and healthy.
Therefore, your own pregnancy diet plan can be applied in general also, because it consists of healthy aliments, rich in vitamins, proteins, fibers, and calcium.
