FREEBIE!
I want to let you know that I made you a freebie I really selfishly needed it for myself, I want to organize my thoughts about things that I know that when I do them, they increase my productivity. They keep me focused, they keep me on track, but I don’t always remember about them, or I’m not consistent with them. So I want to put them in one place, and use it visually, which is what I recommend you do, whether you’re gonna screenshot it or download it and print it out, put it somewhere. So I created a list of 10 productivity hacks for stay at home moms. I reviewed this list even though I titled it that and I really think that every mom could benefit from it. And especially just if you’re not staying at home during the week, these are tips you could employ on the weekends as well. So you can check that out by visiting the description of this podcast episode. If you’re listening on Apple podcast, or you can just go over to the link in my Instagram bio. It also is a pop up on my website this month over at healthy Catholic moms.com. So again, you can go just grab that little download 10 productivity hacks for the stay at home mom.
Welcome to The Healthy Catholic moms podcast where we make moving and nourishing our bodies the priority so that we not only fulfill our vocations, but excel in our callings. I’m Brittany Pearson, a Catholic white mom, personal trainer, and I’m here to help you build healthy habits that actually fit your life. I am here to teach you how to get the results that you want and maintain the results that you want without spending hours at the gym, or meal prepping all weekend long. I understand I am right here with you getting my workouts done in the nooks and crannies of time, looking up recipes, while nursing babies and trying to prioritize my own health amidst everything else going on. But I have really good news for you, you can get the results you want. In less time without doing hours of cardio and restrictive dieting. I’m going to teach you how to use strength training and eating in a macro balanced way to get you feeling so good in your skin full of energy, and strong to carry out your life. Okay, on this podcast, we’ll delve into how to lose fat in a simple, sustainable way. What your workouts and nutrition should look like during different seasons of life like during pregnancy and postpartum times. We’ll also discuss healthy quick meals and how to get them on the table make foods that kids will actually want to eat. Mom hacks for making your day run more smoothly and so much more. All the while with continuous encouragement to stay the course and live with discipline. This is a place where we’re striving to steward our bodies well in order to joyfully serve. I am so happy you’re here. Let’s dive in.
Hey, friends, I hope you are loving today’s episode. And I just want to interrupt quickly to let you know if you are not satisfied in your current workouts. If you are kind of just pulling up random YouTube videos to do them or you’re not really seeing progress or you’re not in a great groove. Currently, I want to invite you to come try out our chasing greatness group. This you can try it out totally free. So get that out there first you can come check out everything about it, it’s going to take care of you’re not really following a plan problem. Okay, you’ll get a whole plan every single month a brand new plan that focuses a little bit on a different area of fitness. So some months we’re more focused on getting stronger. Some months, we’re focused on getting lean, some months, we’re more focused on getting flexible, okay, so every single month we prioritize strength training, there’s hit usually involved, you have all these pre recorded videos, you just press play and go or you can do the PDS if that’s more your style, but it’s more than that. So together because it is a community of women, we communicate on Slack we communicate on Facebook, we I have little challenges here and there where I you know pose something to you like hitting your water targets and then having a winter having drawing. So we really try to keep it fresh and keep you motivated all year long. And not just focusing on one thing all your long or pulling up the same video we’ve got all the exercise modalities represented. So you’ll get your full body work, you’ll get your single sided work, all of that and more and the best part is it’s all like minded women. So we also have a religious component every single month. This month we’re focusing on the Holy Family, talking about ways that we can enhance that in our own homes and sharing the litany of the Holy Family, those kinds of things. There’s recipe inspiration, just so much that I can’t even really do it justice in this little clip so if you’d like to try it out, again it’s the chasing greatness group over unhealthy Catholic moms.com You can go to with the work with me page or you can use the link in my Instagram bio, try it absolutely free for two weeks. Now one caveat I want to let you know about is if you are looking for really in depth nutrition
and coaching, save that for the simple, sustainable fat loss program. All right, you’re gonna want to start there. If you’re needing a little bit more hand holding through the nutrition piece in the Jason greenness group, we assume that you have already gone through that and or just have a really great background in nutrition already. Alright ladies, I would love to see you in there.
Main Episode:
Hey there friends, welcome to today’s episode, thank you so much for being here. And I cannot wait to dive into this with you. This is so fresh for me because I am currently at the time of recording this just three weeks postpartum. And if you’re listening to this, you might be pregnant and getting ready to be postpartum. You might be postpartum right along with me very freshly postpartum, or a couple months into it, etc. I know the span technically, for postpartum my thing extends into like two years maybe. So we all could probably a lot of us can be considered postpartum. But anyways, I’m excited about this, because I started my fourth baby. And prior to this, I really did not deep dive into what specific nutritional needs a postpartum woman has. And it’s kind of crazy that I didn’t, I’ve focused more on when I was pregnant with my first, I focused a lot on the exercises that were best for pregnancy, the exercises I should avoid in pregnancy. And then in postpartum, same thing, the best way to go about rebuilding your core and all of that, once you know you’re able to, and I focused much more on the physical rebuilding in the sense of exercise, and again, what to do and avoid. And I did not focus as much on nutrition in the way that I did not make, like any special exceptions or special add ons, that kind of thing. So I think, you know, in general, this is kind of a good note for anyone in general to if you are eating a well balanced, macro, balanced, nutrient rich and diversified diet, okay, by diet, I just mean the foods you’re eating, you’re gonna be eating well for consumption, for pregnancy and for postpartum. That’s kind of a general note. And that’s kind of what has gotten me through I think, pretty well, the first three kids, it was like, I used to get that question. I know this is very much a nuanced discussion. But when you’re talking about best foods to be eating, when you’re trying to conceive, gotten a question for a research that question before. Again, I know there’s a lot of different
issues and thyroid and all kinds of things surrounding fertility, and PCOS and all these things. So I’m not claiming to be an expert on a PCOS style of eating, you know, these kinds of things on you know, the best diet for women struggling with PCOS, I should specify, I am not an expert on any of those things. I do know that when I have researched kind of these different arenas, or just in general, if you Google, like best foods to fertility, usually, like my diet is pretty nail on the head there where I haven’t been trying to eat that way. But eating you know, a good amount of protein, healthy fats, all that these things tend to make the list for those who are trying to conceive those who are pregnant and those who are postpartum. So I do want to say that too, if that’s you, and you’ve just kind of been overall quote, unquote, eating healthy that can get you like 80% of the way isn’t my point to all of that. So that’s kind of what I’ve done just the first three kids. And just because I never really researched, specific postpartum needs or what foods would be great, I will say So today, I’m going to give you some resources and some lists off websites that I was looking up. So and again, I’m a trainer, I have a prenatal and postpartum Specialist certification. I have a sports nutrition certificate. I don’t have any specific postpartum food or pregnancy nutrition related certificates. So I just went right to the sources for today. But so my first three this is me speaking from experience, then I just say overall healthy during pregnancy and postpartum but then for this fourth baby again, pretty much eight standard throughout the pregnancy. And then I don’t know what it was, I think because somewhere along the way, I had stumbled upon bone broth and some of you are probably laughing like ready we’re so late to the game on this. I have a podcast episode you can go back and listen to is from last year or the year before where I talked about bone broth and all its benefits I think it’s called Get Glowing with bone broth or bone broth and its benefits. And I had heard a podcast on bone broth and was super sold on like why am I not doing bone broth? Why I’ve never heard of this. It is something that I just didn’t grow up with my mom made soups and things with chicken stock or chicken broth knots, specifically bone broth, and she did not make ours
So I didn’t see it be done any of that stuff. So I had heard this podcast somewhere after I believe baby number three, and was like wow. And something was mentioned about how it’s really good for postpartum women as well because of the collagen. So the only thing I’ve really done differently with this baby is prioritize bone broth, so like, and the third trimester, and then these initial weeks of postpartum, I’ve been shooting to drink, at least like a serving a bone broth a day and what I’ve been doing, because I didn’t think I’d be able to keep up with that and turn around making it myself. And I didn’t really want to put that on myself. Right now, I just bought the bare bones brand packets, and I dumped it into hot water and drink one of those a day, I’ve only missed a couple days postpartum. I know that I’ve think I was pretty even more regular with it. And last couple weeks of the last trimester or third trimester, and then again, in these past three weeks, I’ve maybe missed two or three days. So I’m seeing this and like, oh, shoot, I have to do it today, though I haven’t done today it. So we’ll talk about bone broth in here. That’s pretty much the one difference that I’ve done this time around. But then again, when I look at this list, so I looked up for you all specific foods that are great for postpartum women. And I’m like, Yep, I pretty much do all the rest. So again, back to my initial point of overall, eating macro balanced and nutrient dense, usually gets you through most seasons well, but in this postpartum time, where extra healing is needed, whether you had a C section, or a vaginal delivery, we all had the placenta attached to us, we all have a wound left there. And we need to treat it like that I focused a lot more on that this time around.
The first three I kind of was I wasn’t ignorant of it, but it was kind of like I feel good. So let’s just do things. And like my third I had in the middle of summer, so I strapped him to me and went right to the creek or whatever. And now I you know, really gearing up for this baby was like no, there is a internal wound, we don’t see him even if I feel great. I want to make sure I have that time to rest and recover. So today, these are the foods that are supposed to help you rest recover. And I will just speak from my experience of just these past couple of weeks that I know every pregnancy is different. I know everybody is different. How we were in our pregnancies can affect things. This has been a really good recovery physically, mentally all of it were even my third I just thought that each baby I was going to kind of need longer to recover and I’ve heard that be the case before I might have talked about this before I had this fourth baby like hypothesizing this on the podcast but my third I hadn’t you know diastasis recti or dialysis or how are we gonna say it your abs split right everybody has 100% 100% of women at delivery at the time of delivery have a separation their abdominals because we need to let that baby to have room for the baby. So
with my third I have with okay, we’ll backtrack to my pregnancies but with my third the ABS separation lasted a really long time they weren’t even fully back together until about a year and it took a really long time for them to get about two fingers apart which two fingers or less is considered like healed Dr. So I was just expecting like a this fourth baby it’s going to be a long time like it’s going to be at least a year I don’t know what it’s gonna be and for whatever reason I decided to check it around a week postpartum and I wouldn’t even bother doing it before that because before that it’s like okay I just did a week postpartum because like the my uterus are like going down if everything kind of was starting to
go back where it’s supposed to be and I was like you know what, let me just check this out. Maybe it was two weeks maybe it’s after two weeks and I did check and was like wow, they’re already almost back together so I think because even we use our core doing things like going up and down stairs and I was very serious the first couple of weeks about not going up and down stairs a million times a day there were things I purposely left on done because I get that you might be hearing this being like well great Brittany but I have no help I get it my first three my husband back to work two days later I had nobody like I never anybody staying with me helping with the baby none of that stuff. We have a multi level house I get it but there were things even this time I didn’t my husband for longer but that I was like nope I’m just not doing that. Nope the laundry is just gonna wait till he comes home like this is not going to happen cuz I’m not going downstairs. I already went up and down stairs once today and I really tried to only go up and down stairs once for like the first week and just give my court time. So hopefully I was just saying all this to encourage you take it slow. Focus on the rest of recovery. And it’s gonna pay off in dividends later because I know I get it I’m right here right now. Recording this with you being like I really would love my body to be the body fat that I’m comfortable with. I’d love to be back in my normal jeans.
Sighs all those things still apply. But me rushing something right now me hopping on the treadmill doing sprints or me doing a hit video or doing anything crazy or doing fad diets is not going to be beneficial to me long term right now I need to rest recover ease back into things and it will pay off later. Okay to the foods. This one is from high country doulas.com And I did look through a couple other places like WebMD and I have two different sources for us tap nutrition coaching.com and high country doulas.com And this first one is high country doulas.com had a cute little infographic of different vitamins and minerals that our body specifically needs postpartum and the first group is iron because it produces hemoglobin which stores and carries oxygen into your red blood cells so that’s gonna look like I think they have a list after this of things that have iron but we know red meats keen wa some citrus I believe maybe made up the citrus there’s a there’s a picture I think it looks like clementines.
I should just share this infographic with you but definitely read read me is always my go to for iron as well spinach leafy greens. Vitamin A is important for vision growth, cell division, reproduction and immunity. They’ve got carrots more leafy greens sweet potatoes. Vitamin C is vital to your body’s healing process and helps absorb and store iron. So that’s peppers, kiwi strawberries, pineapple brussel sprouts, vitamin B 12. You can get from a lot of dairy sources. They have pictures here of yogurt and cheese and milks as well as meat because it’s going to help proper red blood cell development energy production and former DNA. Vitamin D is going to help absorb the right amount of calcium and phosphate. And it says that it helps protect your child against rickets and improve their bone health. I’m assuming that is if you are breastfeeding and vitamin D you can get from eggs I believe from obviously we know the sun as well but cheese is in this picture too. And then lastly, folate is responsible for cell renewal heart health red blood cells and helps the baby’s brain develop while breastfeeding. So that’s leafy greens and broccoli, peanuts avocados looks like whole grains as well. So they have a big ol list best foods to eat postpartum and number one at their list. This is a commonality between this high country doulas and the top nutrition whatever the other one was top nutrition coaching.com. At the top of both lists is fluids, water and some electrolyte containing drinks, protein rich soups, healthy fats like nuts, avocados, olive oil, fatty fish, lean or low fat protein, fish, poultry, etc. Fruits aim for a variety of colors because you’re gonna get all those different. That’s something I didn’t focus on as much. And I just really I think because time of year it’s December I was not craving fresh fruits and citrus citrus is in season now in some places but
you can grow it inside and everything but I was not craving any fruit this time. I was definitely more than like the soups. The hardier kind of all the vegetables, but not really fruits this time. Vegetables variety of colors, especially leafy greens. So nutrient dense, whole grains like oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat bread,
deer dairy, like yogurt, milk, cheese, or eggs. It does say low fat or fat free dairy and I would say old fat is fine as well. Beans, lagoons, canned black beans, chickpeas, and your pre or postnatal vitamin. And then the last on their list is collagen. And it says it’s a superfood for rebuilding tissues, and helps with postpartum hair loss. So you’re gonna get collagen from having meat, especially red meat, okay, then that is the benefit of bone broth because bone broth and a lot of you already know this, but if you don’t, bone broth is helping you get more collagen, because you’re getting what’s like close to the bone that you you know, where you would have stopped eating if you were eating the meat. So I’m doing both I eat meat. I’m you know, drinking the bone broth. I’m not right now taking a collagen supplement. Honestly, just because I didn’t want to add another thing right now we are we go back and forth. My husband and I between buying whey protein buying greens powder. And we pretty much always have some kind of whey protein in the house. It’s usually just if I’m using it a lot or if he’s using a lot. It just depends right now we’re both pretty much this whole time we’ve both been starting our day with a shake just because it’s easy to grab and go. And we’ve been making sure we’re getting protein and so we’ve been prioritizing just as just as inside
Did you know and inside our grocery budget here, why I explain to you why we do or do not get the collagen. Because I did get collagen just once recently, I think it was some point in the pregnancy, I was doing a little bit of collagen too, in addition to the whey protein, but right now we’re prioritizing, buying moneywise, the whey protein, greens powder that we both have been putting in our shake every day. So we put the whey isolate and the greens in our shake, and then the bone broth packets were more important to me, and they do have the collagen in them, I would like to get another thing of just collagen, and put that in my coffee are mixed into my shake or whatever to just for even a little bit more. But right now, you know, I’m getting it in the bone broth, so might be overkill, but something to think about. If you’re super reverse the bone broth of the idea, maybe then just do the collagen separately. And then over on top nutrition coaching.com. They shared their eight best foods for postpartum it says our top picks and number one is water. Like I said, it just mentioned some of the reasons why water is essential for all bodily functions including healing after childbirth, it can help you reduce swelling, speed up recovery time and prevent constipation. And it’s not this article, I don’t think but one of the articles said that you should be shooting for at least 96 ounces. And that’s perfect. I always recommend 80 to 100 ounces even for people who are not breastfeeding and then all the more when you’re breastfeeding. Number two on this list from top nutrition coaching comm number two is protein rich foods. So they just put it all in a nice category it says Protein is essential for the healing and repair of tissues and can be found in things like beans, nuts, meats, etc. I just paraphrase them a little bit because they said beans tofu and nuts and I favor animal protein number one. Number two, I do not occur to things like tofu, and soy that are there that tofu has so I don’t encourage those products. I don’t have them myself. That’s a whole nother rabbit hole to bill under so I just had to make sure I told you that I was actually editing their article as I was reading it. So definitely protein rich foods. I’m just gonna disagree a little bit with the article about which one’s number three is iron rich foods Okay. Iron helps transport oxygen in the blood and is essential for energy production during pregnancy and breastfeeding iron needs increase which is very funny because I have been craving red meats. The other day I asked my husband I was like Can you please just go get some steaks or get several steaks. So and it says here iron rich foods. Our healthy energy production and offset iron reduction due to blood loss iron can help lower your odds of suffering cognitive issues like postpartum depression and is essential to combating anemia. So very cool. Number four is vegetables. Vegetables contain vitamins, minerals, and fiber which all postpartum moms need. This has been really great for me like extended soups, but just very best way to get the veggies and if it’s not soup season maybe or having your baby in summer and you want to have a bunch of salads, you’re craving sales. I’ve had pregnancies where I’ve absolutely craved salads. And so carry that into your postpartum just check the vegetables in soups, salads wherever raw. With yummy dips, roasted find the best way that you can get them in. Number five is actually soup. Soup is another easy to digest food that’s perfect for postpartum moms. It’s packed with nutrients and can be easily made in advance. This has been super nice because I have I did not do a ton of freezer prep I literally had like two other meals that I tossed in the freezer one was turkey meatloaf and I don’t remember what the other one was. But I did prep like five or so soups, because as I was making soup before, just as meals for us, I froze like half of it flat in a put in a freezer bag. And then just like stacked them vertically once they were frozen, and that was super nice. Um, number six is kind of funny because it’s very specific subject these big categories of protein rich foods, peanut butter, toast, and number six. Their reasoning for this is that this food is quick and simple to make. It is a good way to get complex carbs and protein in your diet. So there you go. Number seven is nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds are great, excellent sources of protein, healthy fats and fiber really nice too, because they’re really grab and go. A lot of times people talk about stocking, you know, like a little nursing station where you’re gonna be sitting with snacks, and sometimes I’ve seen these like on reels or people share them. And it’s like
carb and high processed foods Central. It’s like, prepped by postpartum snacks and I am not judging because I’ve also been there every single time. My first three kids I was obsessed
Sweet, those little like, I think they’re Nature Valley brand. They’re like cinnamon squares or something. They’re soft baked. They’re not those Nature Valley bars that you eat and go everywhere, that would be a terrible nursing snack, your baby would be covered in that like dry cereal. But they’re these like soft big bars anyways, they’re just highly processed food, they had like two grams of protein, a lot of carbs, I’m sure added sugars as well, and I every single kid I put them in my little nursing station basket and this baby, I was like, I’m not doing that I will eat more nutrient dense food than that. So nuts and seeds would be a great grab and go. And then lastly, according to top nutrition coaching.com fruit is another quick and easy snack packed with vitamins and minerals. And then I would add to that and they do actually say it here. Choose foods that are lower in sugar like berries. And it says or pair them I would say still and pair them with nuts or yogurt for a balanced snack or breakfast because you don’t want your blood sugar to just skyrocket up and then crash but it is good for keeping your energy up. just pair it with a fat or protein as well. All right, I hope that’s really helpful for all of you and that you can kind of jot some things down as you get ready for baby coming or baby’s already here to help you out to recover and rest and heal your body so that you know you can be feeling your best after this big endeavor. The pregnancy and childbirth is All right my friends. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Next episode we are going to talk about Korea teen so we’re still going to stay in the nutrition world a little bit and talk about a supplement called creatine so I hope that you tune in for that. And if you found any value in this episode, if you’d share it with a friend who maybe is postpartum as well are going to be postpartum or reading review the podcast. I would really appreciate it. All right, I’ll talk to you next time. Have a great rest of your day.
