Why Now is THE Most Important Time of Your Life to be Healthy

Why does Laura believe that now, as a new (or newish) mama, is THE most important time in your life to have top notch health? Tune in to today’s episode to find out how to be healthy!

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Links Mentioned

The New Mama Nutrition Manual

Transcript

You’re listening to The Love & Lettuce Podcast, episode number 23. Today we’re going to talk about why now is the most important time, I believe, of our lives, to focus on our health and our nutrition. And I’m going to go over why we tend not to even think about our health at this point, but why it’s so darn important to be healthy. Stay tuned.

Hey, this is Laura Lima, holistic nutritionist and founder of New Mama Nation and host of The Love & Lettuce Podcast. I am here to help mamas know what to eat to give them energy and help them feel fantastic so they can better enjoy life with their littles. And remember, this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not replace medical advice from your healthcare provider, and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition. As always, please consult your healthcare provider to find out what is right for you. With that said, let’s get to the show!

I believe this to be the most important time of our lives, as new and newish mamas, to take care of our health. I believe that if we are not focusing on being healthy, things will slide down uncontrollably.

And you know this is true.

Now, there are some reasons why we don’t even take notice of our health at this time, and we’ll go over that. But I want to talk about why it’s so important to do that. And what I mean by “things can slide down uncontrollably” is when we don’t pay attention to our health, not only does our physical health take a toll, or not only does it take a toll on our physical health, but our mental and emotional health as well.

And hello, we need physical energy! But we also need mental energy, we need emotional balance. We are moms. This is a huge time in our lives where we need to be as nourished as possible in our bodies, so that we can enjoy our life as a mom.

Because we have no choice but to be healthy.

We have to go through this time, we have to get up when the baby calls us, we have to feed the baby, we have to play with the toddlers, like we have no choice as moms so often. And if we feel like crap, but we still have to do something, that feels, like, awful.

But I want you to enjoy your time as a new mom. And obviously, we’re going to have times, because we all do, where it just feels crap, everything feels crap, and we just can’t seem to get ourselves out of it. That’s going to happen, we’re going to have those days, and that’s totally normal. The bad days just make the good ones better. They do! They just make the good ones feel better.

So it’s definitely a balance, but what I’m talking about is overall, we need to be healthy so that we can better take care of our kids, number one, but better enjoy this time, because yeah, everyone says it, but it’s true: We’re never gonna get this time back. And I want, personally, to look back on this time for myself as a time where I had patience, where I enjoyed playing with the kids, where I was able to take time out from whatever else I was working on without getting so frustrated… because I felt good. I had a sense of calm, I had patience, I didn’t have so much stress in my brain and on my mind.

I want to look back at this time and feel wow, I was able to play with those kids, I was able to run around because I had physical energy, because ultimately, I was nourishing my body well. 

So why do I feel, besides what I’ve said already, why do I feel like this is the most important time, literally, of our lives, to be fueling our body?

Number 1: It sets us up for the next phase of life.

So this next phase, these next four years, you just had a baby… until the baby goes to school, toddler goes to school, preschooler goes to goes to school… those four years, and then if you have another child, it’s now going to be, you know, six years away or whatever from now.

These next years are going to be very challenging, amazing, rewarding, the best of our lives perhaps, but also very challenging. And there’s going to be lots of transition for us as moms, as people, as wives, partners, workers, business owners, if that’s you… and there’s a lot to balance.

There’s a lot of transition and there’s a lot to literally balance in our lives. So it’s so important to have our nutrition handled and taken care of, so that we can go through this time more smoothly.

Because either way, we have to go through this time. And if it were up to me, which for my body, it is, for your body, it’s up to you… I would absolutely choose to go through this time feeling as good as I can. And I know nutrition is the way to get me there.

There are lots of things at play when it comes to being healthy.

Proper sleep is one of them. I know, as a new mom, you’re like, what’s that? It comes back, it comes and goes, yes. But sleep is huge whenever we can get it. Also moving our body. Also doing relaxation exercises, or relaxation techniques, perhaps deep breathing, yoga, if that’s your thing. And getting outside is so important. Supplements are so helpful to add to our diet to make sure we’re getting enough depending on our symptoms and all of that. But our food is primary; it is of the utmost importance, like I can’t even, like, get it out because it’s just so important.

So we have to make sure we’re fueling our bodies, and we’re eating the most nourishing foods possible, for the most part, of course, to set ourselves up for the next four plus years. These really challenging, huge transitional years, feeling great, feeling great during those years, because either way we’re going through it. So let’s feel great as we go.

Number 2: Energy

Here’s the second most important reason I would say why it’s so important to eat well right now for us new and newish mamas. Because we want energy. We want focus, a clear mind, a balanced mood. We want those things. And yet, it’s not happening because we’re not nourishing our bodies properly. 

Because here’s the thing: We don’t even think about our own health once baby comes, am I right? Or am I right? You might say no, I do! Well, you’re one of the few, I hate to say it.

So many of us moms, it’s just, it’s just so natural to only think about the baby, when baby arrives to only think about the well-being of our kids. Make sure they’re fed, make sure that they’ve got the best lunches, the best snacks, they’re eating regularly, they’re not going hungry, making sure they’re hydrated.

Do they have enough milk? Do they have enough water? What should I do?

They have this symptom; I have to get on it right away. But what do we do for ourselves? I got these headaches all the time, but you know what? I’m fine. I’ll just pop an Advil, pop a Tylenol, keep going through my day, not try to figure out why I have these headaches.

Maybe I’m dehydrated. Not even going there. We don’t think about our own health or being healthy. Like, how many times do you feed your kids lunch and you eat the scraps? Maybe you’re chopping up the carrot, and maybe you’ll have some of the carrot as you’re chopping.

But you don’t properly feed your body. So you’ve gone through the whole morning probably the same way; you haven’t eaten proper breakfast, now you’re just kind of eating scraps of lunch. You feed them a healthy dinner, you do the whole bath + bedtime routine.

Now at 7:00, 8:00, whatever, you’re ready for your night. And how do you feel? You drop, usually you just drop on the couch, your head drops down, eyes close. That’s it for the rest of the night. Right? Either that or you feel ravenous, so you go to your pantry, you’re like, Where are the cookies?? Get out of my way!  And you go to that couch and eat the cookies… and then you fall asleep.

All because you didn’t take care of yourself, because you’re not focused on you being healthy.

But let me tell you, if you aren’t healthy, you will not be as good of a mom as you want to be. Because you will not be able to be as good of a mom as you want to be. You won’t be able to do it all the time. Nobody can have patience all the time, but you won’t be able to have the kind of patience you want most of the time. And you won’t have that proper physical energy to really play with the kids and really enjoy it and get into it.

Not everyone likes to play with the kids, I get it. But if you want to have that energy for it, it’s going to be hard to find, and it’s going to be a hard thing every day… What am I going to have for dinner? I don’t know. What am I going to make for dinner, because you just don’t have that clear head, that focused mind that’s able to make these kinds of should-be-simple decisions, but they end up just taking up so much of your mental space.

And by the way, a lot of that has to do with lack of planning. And I talk about meal planning a lot when I help my clients. So we want to have energy, focus, a balanced mood, less stress in our lives. But we’re just not able to properly accomplish that, because we’re not taking care of our health. It is so so hugely important.

Number 3: The littles are watching

And here’s my third reason why this is the most important time in your life to be healthy: Because your littles are watching you.

When they’re babies, no, they have no clue. But as they get older, as they become toddlers and preschoolers and little kids and big kids, they watch you. And they watch when you do take care of yourself, when you do eat the right foods (for the most part), and they watch when you’re not. When you’re like you know what? Mom’s fine, I have a headache, I’m okay, don’t worry about it. Oh, I’m just so tired today, oh my gosh, I don’t know why, but I’m so tired, honey, I’m sorry.

Again, these are normal things normal for us to have these times and have these days. And really good for our kids to see this because it is normal, it is real life. But again, I’m talking about the every day kind of thing. Like if this is your normal all the time, then I don’t think that’s a good thing. Our littles are watching us, they’re watching how we take care of our bodies, they’re watching the importance that we place on being healthy. And that, in turn, will likely be the importance that they put on their own health in the future. So it’s so darn important.

And you know, our kids are also watching us when we try new foods.

And when we eat those vegetables, or even that piece of meat… maybe they don’t like steak right now, but they watch us eat it and say, oh, you know what, this is pretty darn good. And this is going to make me strong and make me grow and make me have energy. And I’m going to feel really good tomorrow, because I had all this good protein, for example.

So they watch us, they watch us for our experimentation with food, and our openness to try new things if we don’t like something great. And I think that they should know that too, because again, real life, right, this is normal. But I think that they should see us eating healthy foods, period, feeding our bodies with the foods that we know will nourish us, will actually give us lasting energy and satisfaction. And not just grabbing that granola bar on the way out the door, not just eating up the scraps of their meals, but putting a good meal in front of us while they are eating their foods. Oh, mom eats too! Oh, mom’s feeding herself because that’s super important too, for mom to take care of herself.

I just think this is, like, paramount. I don’t know if you’re with me. But man do I think it’s so important. So I want you to start thinking about this. If this is the first time you’ve even thought about this, it very well could be, then I hope that I’ve opened your eyes to the fact that it’s not just about baby right now.

Because if you want to be that mom who has energy and is generally calm and patient and enjoys spending time with her kids, or her baby, then you’ve got to put the focus on yourself first.

If you are pouring from an empty cup, no one wins. You just lost, and now your baby is not winning either, because mom is depleted, and depleted mom cannot give as much of herself as she wants to give to her kids. Because we want to give our kids everything, we want to give our kids all of us. It’s important to know that there’s a balance, yes, and I don’t mean that, but we want to give our kids as much as we can. But we can’t do that if we are empty. We cannot do that if we’re not filling our cup first.

And that first comes from nourishing our body, taking care of our well-being. Drinking enough water, eating healthy, nourishing foods, not skipping meals, like not skipping food… eating, period, just eating period is so huge. Getting rest when we can, getting proper sleep as much as we can, and doing things that we love. I read part of my book every single night. I read my book every night before bed, no matter what time it is, even if it’s two pages, because that fills my cup right there, and it just makes me feel happy before I go to sleep. So doing things that just make us happy is so important for our health and our well-being.

So I hope that I’ve opened your eyes to this, I hope that I’ve reminded you of this, and that you’ll do something about it, that you will start to pay attention to being healthy, to your symptoms, to what your body is telling you. Maybe your body is dehydrated, so you’ve got headaches all the time. Drink more water, mama, drink more water. Always have that water bottle or glass of water with you at all times; you will automatically drink more water.

So yeah, I hope that you’ve gotten a lot from this, and I will leave it there for now. But there’s like so much more to come on this topic because I just love it and I can’t stop talking about it and you won’t stop me! I’m just going to.

Have an amazing day, my friends, I will talk to you soon.

Hey, mama, I see you. I know you’re busy, and I know you’re juggling all the things. And I also know that you would love to experience awesome health, you’d love to have a little (or a lot) more energy. You’d like to feel stressed less often. And you’d love to have things go a little more smoothly in the kitchen.

Well, that’s where I come in. My online course called The New Mama Nutrition Manual walks you through what to eat, what not to eat (while being realistic because this is real life… hello, cupcakes!), and how to make it happen in your busy life. We get into cravings and how to tackle those, as well as the power of habits and mindset… two huge factors when it comes to keeping up your motivation eating healthy.

In the bonus section of the course, there is a one-week done-for-you meal plan, as well as recipes to go along with it, plus a shopping list so you know exactly what to buy.

Get the manual now for only $97.

The regular price is $197 and it will go back up on Saturday June 4, 2022. So get it now during this awesome deal. Go to bit.ly/nmnmanual and use coupon code healthymama (all one word) at checkout. 

I can’t wait to hear how you feel once you start following the manual. If you have questions, send me a DM on Instagram @lauraannlima. Talk to you soon, mama.

Thanks for listening to The Love & Lettuce Podcast. To find out how to work with me and for more great info, check out newmamanation.com. This is Laura! Until next time, love and lettuce.