Your baby stole your brain (and other hard truths)
Pregnancy and postpartum changes our bodies, and so many of us are eating out of alignment with their post-pregnancy needs. If you’re having trouble with weight, hormones, and fatigue then read on…
10/22/2021
Ok mama. Real talk. You’re probably not eating right. Even if you think you are.
A lot of my new patients and Mother Recover members come to me with this complaint:
I eat really healthy and try to exercise, but I still…. (fill in the blank)
Can’t lose the babyweight
Have constant cravings
Have no energy
Can’t stop feeling anxious
Bite my husband’s head off
Feel super hormonal
Don’t feel like myself
Constantly am running on empty
Feel… off
Or I hear - I know what to do, I just need some accountability to do it.
Here’s the thing. It’s an important thing. So I hope you’re listening.
Your nutrient needs have DRAMATICALLY changed since having kids. Like, a lot a lot. And if you’re still eating in a way that feeds pre-baby you, your postpartum diet is out of alignment with your needs. And when you aren’t eating in the way that your body needs you get…
Cravings, fatigue, hormonal mayhem, trouble with weight.
Yes, we’ve all been told that as long as we eat a ton of veggies then everything else will fall in line. Pre-baby you may have effortlessly felt great and maintained a healthy weight with lots of salads, limiting the carbs and sweets and hitting up the cardio.
But post-baby you is seriously depleted in nutrients, has an increased demand for calories, and hormonal changes that shift the way you metabolize food and calories.
Remember when you were pregnant and everyone was asking you if you were eating enough, there was abundant information on foods to include for healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby, and you were concentrating on eating more nutrient dense calories? Well guess what - your needs are actually HIGHER after the baby arrives, especially if you’re nursing - but even if you’re not. Unfortunately most of us definitely aren’t eating to support these changes, and most of us don’t even know we should be!
So it’s no wonder that you feel unwell despite “eating a really healthy diet” - you’re eating in a way that is perfect for someone else, and not you!
Let’s go over the main reasons why your needs have changed, and why post-baby you needs a different way of eating.
Hormone Fluctuations
This is almost always something we have to look at with any of my female clients with complaints of fatigue, weight gain, insomnia, anxiety etc. Multiply that times a thousand if you are in the postpartum period (that’s up to 4 years post-birth).
What happens: Sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone peak at the end of pregnancy, and come down to menopausal levels within a week after delivery. Cue the chaos! This is the largest and fastest hormone fluctuation any human can experience. Thyroid hormones often are shifting for the first year postpartum and can take a bit to come back to equilibrium. You know all that lack of sleep, skipping meals and feelings of stress since having babies? All of that elevates cortisol your stress hormone, and when cortisol is high it slows down hormonal healing.
What this means: When these hormones are wonky, we get symptoms of anxiety, insomnia, low stress tolerance, fatigue and holding onto extra weight (we call this postpartum weight retention). But in nature’s cruel twist, skipping meals, skipping carbs or generally eating on the “lighter side” to lose weight will have a negative impact on your hormones, each and every time. I’ve even seen many new patients come to me because they’ve actually gained weight by doing this despite eating 1200 calories and exercising for an hour daily.
What you need: Supporting, balancing and healing these hormones takes a lot of nutrients! We need extra B vitamins, minerals like magnesium and zinc, slow carbohydrates, protein and fat. This is non-negotiable for hormone balance. Some functional foods can also support the fluctuating postpartum hormones - some of my favorites for this time period are flax seed, maca and oats. Time can start to heal some hormonal imbalances, but if we are perpetually running on goldfish crackers and caffeine, not sleeping and über stressed then the hormone imbalance will linger for years. Years! Hormone testing using urinary markers is very helpful at directing a treatment and supplement plan. Taking my postpartum hormone quiz here can give you some insight on what to work on first.
Nutrient Depletions
Did you know it takes years to build back up the nutrients lost during pregnancy and delivery? Ok "lost" isn't quite the word. Stolen is more like it.
What’s happening: Baby making is a very nutrient-expensive activity, from fertility through the first year postpartum. Baby needs a TON of vitamins, minerals and macronutrients to support growth and development and much of it comes from mom’s body storage. Yep, that child is a thieving genius because he or she knew exactly what was needed, and where to find it. So while it feels like pregnancy is this time of abundance because we eat more and grow physically larger - it’s 100% guaranteed that we come out of pregnancy at a net loss of nutrients. Cue the deficiency symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, brain fog, brittle hair and nails, constantly getting sick, cravings, hormone dysregulation… the list goes on!
What this means: Even if you ate perfectly and took your prenatal, it's nearly impossible to avoid some kind of nutrient depletion. Add that to the fact that nobody -- and I mean nobody-- goes into pregnancy with a fully topped off set of nutrients, and we have a recipe for Postpartum Depletion. The more babies you have, the more likely this is to be the case. This is a huge reason why I see a lot of women feeling like crap even if they are *years* postpartum. This compounds with each pregnancy, so we tend to show more and more depletion symptoms with each subsequent birth.
What you need: A super nutrient dense diet, and likely a personalized supplement protocol. A great place to start is with designing your plate with equal portions cooked vegetables, protein (animal preferred), and nutrient dense starch. Which supplements do you need? Well that depends on which nutrients are depleted, but to start everyone should continue to take a prenatal or switch to a multivitamin for a minimum of a year. Beyond that we need a personalized analysis of your symptoms + diet, or some specific nutrient testing that can look at how each vitamin and mineral is functioning inside your body. I do this with both my Mother Recover members and my 1:1 clients (any myself!) and this often reveals surprising deficiencies that we can correct quickly.
Healing and Recovering from Birth
If you are newly postpartum (in the fourth trimester or first 3 months), your calorie and healing nutrient needs are sky high. Much higher than during pregnancy! If you are also breastfeeding than this is an even bigger deal.
What happens: Healing from birth takes a lot of energy, protein, vitamins and minerals. More so if you are recovering from a C-section or had significant tearing, but even if you had an uneventful vaginal delivery, your body still is healing from the marathon of labor and a dinner plate size wound from your placenta. If you are nursing, you are giving more vitamins, minerals, proteins and fats and fluid to your baby - if you are not getting enough of these nutrients through your food you will quickly become even more depleted.
What this means: The combination of increased demands from healing and/or nursing and eating less (calories, macro or micronutrients) almost always equals cravings, fatigue and an increased risk for postpartum mood disorders, particularly anxiety. A typical scenario that I see super often can exacerbate this: skipping or skimping on lunch! (skimping can even mean having a seemingly healthy but light meal like a salad with meat) - by the time late afternoon rolls around, cravings for cookies or chips plus a wall of fatigue happens making you feel like you lack will power or motivation for eating well. When in fact, your body is just screaming at you for more nutrients!
What you need: Regular meals throughout the day - no skipping! Focusing on grass fed animal protein, loads of healthy fats and nutrient dense carbs like sweet potato and winter squashes is a great base to every meal. Adding in healing foods like bone broth, clams and cooked vegetables help provide healing collagen, protein and minerals.
Lack of sleep + stress
Raise your hand if motherhood’s got you feelin’ tired and more stressed than ever before 🙋🏻♀️
What’s happening: Interrupted nights, juggling it all, the mental load of motherhood, feeling stressed and overwhelmed, PANDEMIC, and burning the candle at both ends is the perfect recipe for elevated cortisol levels. Cortisol is our stress hormone, and can become unbalanced very easily with any kind of physical or emotional stressor. When we are already at a tapped out cortisol state and add in calorie restriction and extra exercise - oh boy your body gets mad.
What this means: When cortisol is chronically elevated (which is almost universal in this over-connected and under-rested day and age) - it messes with other hormones and systems. For example, cortisol interacts with progesterone and when both are off we have higher rates of anxiety and insomnia. High cortisol inhibits proper thyroid function, so we’re at higher risk for hypothyroid symptoms like hair loss and weight gain. High cortisol also means our energy levels will be inconsistent during the day (ie an energy slump at 3pm and a second wind at 9pm). And when cortisol is high, we store more fat around our bellies and have a (much) harder time losing it. Oh and sugar cravings! So. Many. Cookies.
What you need: Sleep, rest, and stress reduction. I KNOW. Eyeroll. These are things we all know we need but don’t get, but to put it bluntly your healing, mental health and confidence as a new mom absolutely depend on it. Ask for help, go to bed earlier, chillax during naptime... take time to fill your leaking cup Every. Single. Day. Add yourself back to your to-do list, because I know that you are so far down the list of things and people to take care of that you’re not even on it anymore.
Whew! That was a lot. Now it’s pretty clear why so many of us mamas are wandering around feeling totally depleted, exhausted, unbalanced and unwell and are like WTF happened to me?! It’s not just you! Every single person I work with has no idea that such a big shift needs to happen in their diet and supplement routine in order to fully recover and rebalance from birth. Now that you know, you can start concentrating on healing, balancing and replenishing your body. The great news? You can feel better really fast once you know where to focus.
