Mental healthParentingWellnessPremiumBloss

1. Now’s the time for nourishment, not deprivation

If your car runs out of fuel, you take it to the petrol station and fill its tank up because it can’t run on fumes. Neither can you, no matter how hard you try.

One of the only ways to get more energy is through the calories you eat. And not just any calories. These are keeping you fuller for longer, nutrient-dense, va-va-voom-inducing calories.

Carbohydrates are usually the first to go. They’re the tantrumming toddlers of the food world – misunderstood. They’re your body’s and brain’s preferred energy source.

Post tiny human, your body immediately goes into repair mode and protein is the lego of your body.

It makes hormones, builds and repairs muscle, supports detox, makes hair, keeps you feeling fuller for longer after you eat and it’s the leg clinging toddler that latches onto sugar and slows down your body’s insulin spike when we’ve eaten something with any kind of sugar.

Fat gets a bad reputation. More misunderstood than a toddler mid-tantrum and restricted more than international travel was in 2020. We need fat on our plates and in our bodies. It lubricates joints, gives you energy (calorie for calorie provides more energy than protein or fat), it’s anti-inflammatory, supports blood sugar (vital for va-va-voom energy) and feeds your brain. 

THE best source of vitamins, minerals and fibre that your body knows what to do with is fruit and vegetables.

The fibre in the veggies keeps your gut happy and free-flowing. If the poops ain’t free-flowing, then we are definitely not going to have va-va-voom energy. Instead we’ll have PMS, hormonal breakouts, bloated stomachs and brain fog.

The vitamins and minerals repair, protect and keep your body functioning like the mind-blowing elite wonder that it is – one that grew humans and now needs to recover.

The aim is to get you eating a variety of rainbow coloured veggies cooked in lots of different ways that you like enough to eat more.

Learning how to eat so that you’ve got va-va-voom energy that doesn’t hit the floor at 3pm isn’t a 30-day challenge or a diet that you go on, it’s a way of eating that gives your body what it needs and takes some of the ‘wtf do I eat now?’ guessing away from you.

2. Eat breakfast before you caffeinate

Drink your tea/coffee between 9 -11am and never on an empty stomach.  By delaying it a few hours after your feet have hit the floor and having some food in your stomach, you’re not disrupting your body’s natural waking mechanism and releasing cortisol that’s strapping you into the blood sugar rollercoaster for the rest of the day.

Blood sugar is always low in the morning – we don’t want it crashing anymore. Plus, that breakfast needs to have some protein, fats, fibre & carbs. This will keep you full and balance those blood sugars. The aim is that the breakfast you eat will keep you full till lunchtime

3. Drink up

  • Constipation
  • Cravings
  • Crabbiness.

Potentially all signs of parenting, but also signs of dehydration.

Drink some water, preferably around 2 litres a day. Yes, it’s a lot and yes, it’ll probably make you pee more (which is the point).

Got a headache? Drink a glass of water

Haven’t pooped yet today? Drink a glass of water to soften up those stools and get them flowing.

Skin feeling grimy and looking irritated? Drink a glass of water to plump it up from the inside

Brain feeling like it’s shrunk and operating at sold-out capacity? Drink a glass of water as your brain is 73% water and needs its stores filled up. 

Wow. Sounds like water can solve all our health issues. Not really, but it’s a good place to start and get comfy checking the colour of your pee. The darker it is, the more water you need to chug down.

4. Focus on the quality of sleep instead of quantity

“If I go to sleep in the next 5 mins and he doesn’t wake up, then I’ll get 6 hours, 15 mins and 12 seconds sleep”.  Anyone else do that? Instead of going to sleep, we get deep into an insta scroll comparing pink tiled utility rooms and wondering if everyone is doing a garden makeover apart from you.

Get yourself a bedtime routine, loose enough that it allows for catching up with Stanley Tucci as he eats his way around Italy, but strict enough that your body (and brain) knows that it’s time to snuggle down and get some quality sleep. 

  • Ditch blue light devices 90 minutes before bed
  • Aim to slip under your duvet at the same time each night
  • Wind down with a bonk buster instead of a thriller
  • Brain dump into a journal so you don’t wake at 3am wondering if you’ve paid enough into your pension pot
  • Keep your bedroom cool and dark
  • No caffeine after midday – that includes those afternoon diet coke breaks

The aim is to reset your body’s natural sleep/wake cycle that gets disrupted when tiny humans make their way into your world and bedroom. For tonight, let’s start with one thing….put your phone far enough away that if you wake up in the night and stretch your arms out, you can’t reach it.

5. Keep it simple

  • 30 different vegetables a week
  • An hour of exercise every day
  • 10 minutes of mediation at 5:30am
  • 2 litres of water a day
  • 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night
  • Split your macros, count your peas, weigh your butter, lose the will

I could go on. It’s A LOT. Add some tiny humans into the mix and it’s no wonder you don’t know where to start or have the energy to find out.

Strip it back, way back……. further than that. Make it so small that you wonder if you’ve done anything.

  • Eat an extra portion of green vegetables
  • Meditate for 2 minutes
  • Drink one extra glass of water
  • Chase your toddler down the street
  • Go to bed 15 minutes earlier tonight
  • Read a page of your bonk buster before bed

Choose one of these and do it over and over again until it becomes a habit. It’s the small things we do repeatedly that build up to make a big difference.

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