As I’m sure you all know, prenatal nutrition lays the foundation for a healthy pregnancy and it’s never too early to start eating better to help prepare your body for this stage of life. As such, I’m doing my best to start eating the cleanest and most nutritionally dense foods possible in order to provide my body with the micronutrients it will need to develop a healthy child when I become pregnant in the near future.
Over the course of the last few years, I’ve started to consume mostly organic foods as well as protein sources that are grass-fed, humanely raised, or wild-caught. I’ve also started to reduce both my exposure and use of plastics whenever possible, thus I found my local farmers market in downtown Winter Haven and began to purchase the majority of my fruits, vegetables, meats, and seafood there.
The following businesses are 3 of the main vendors I shop from on a weekly basis:
- Red Rooster’s Produce – fruits, vegetables, eggs
- Baxter’s Quality Meats, LLC – meat and seafood
- Home Remedy Winter Haven – teas and seasonings
Here’s a quick look at what I purchased from the farmers market earlier this morning:
I generally purchase a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to cover most of my micronutrient requirements from my diet primarily, that way my prenatal multivitamin serves more as insurance and not as my sole source of nutrients. I also make sure to purchase eggs to meet my choline needs and consume some form of seafood to consume enough omega-3 fats, iodine, and selenium as well.
While I haven’t been the strictest with my diet and meal timing recently, this is certainly a part of my life that I plan to take control of again ASAP. I can’t say that I’ll always remain perfect to adhering to set macronutrient goals and premade meals, but I plan to consume as well balanced of a diet as I can.
In order to do so, here are some rough macronutrient MINIMUMS I’ve set for myself that will allow me to remain satiated, fuel my training and the future energy demands of pregnancy, as well as enhance recovery. I’ve set minimums and not maximums as pregnancy is not at all a time to be worried about losing weight or cutting calories, rather, it’s a stage of life that needs to be thoroughly nourished and supported by adequate food intake, especially that of what’s found in nature.
- Protein: 135g
- Fat: 90g
- Carbs: 225g
Note: I will eventually provide you all with my micronutrient goals once I’ve finalized them, so stay tuned!
Additionally, here are some examples of meals I will most likely include within my diet on a regular basis:
- 4.5-5.0 oz of grilled chicken cooked in 1tbsp of olive oil served with 6-8oz of baked sweet potato wedges and 2 cups of air-fried okra
- 4.5-5.0 oz of grilled salmon or shrimp cooked in 1tbsp of olive oil served with 1 cup of cooked jasmine rice and 2 cups of spinach tossed in avocado oil and balsamic vinegar
- 3/4C of oats (measured uncooked) with 1 tsp of honey and 1/2 tbsp of almond butter served with 2-3 eggs cooked with 1 tbsp of ghee or grass-fed butter
What are your favorite foods for improving prenatal or postnatal health? Feel free to share your favorite foods with me at katgiuff@gmail.com or comment below! 🙂
