KILO CONTROL
Zelda Ackerman, a registered dietician, gives 10 tips for healthy weight gain – for you and your unborn baby IF YOU’RE PREGNANT, it’s wise to stop and think before you tuck in. With a little one in your belly, your body needs to be in tip-top shape, because if you’re healthy, baby’s also healthy. Besides, it’s not good to be overweight, and if you’re pregnant on top of that, both of you will be unhealthy. The best advice is to be at your ideal weight even before you fall pregnant. If you battle to fall pregnant, it can help to shed a couple of kilos, because being overweight can cause infertility. But if you’re pregnant already and want to gain weight wisely, follow our advice. AM I HEALTHY? You can easily determine if you weigh too much with the body mass index (BMI). Work out your BMI like so: divide your weight (kg) by your length squared (m2) to see which category you fall in. DO IT THE HEALTHY WAY Perhaps you tried your best to shed the extra kilos before your pregnancy, but didn’t succeed. Don’t lose heart now. If you follow the guidelines set out here, you should pick up less weight and have a healthy pregnancy and baby. 1 LISTEN TO YOUR BABY If you’re hungry, have something healthy, and stop eating the moment you feel you’re full. Eat slowly, put your fork or spoon down between bites to allow yourself to chew, and only pick up the next forkful once you’ve swallowed. Eat veggies, fruit or salad first before tucking into the rest of your meal.
2 A BALANCED DIET Every meal should comprise three food groups: a protective food (veggies or fruit), a building food (meat, chicken, fish, milk, beans, nuts) and an energy food (carbohydrate such as pap, wholewheat bread or pasta, brown rice, potato and sweet potato). Eat a variety of vegetables and fruit, choose low-fat meat and dairy products and wholewheat starches with a low glycaemic index. Eat small amounts of healthy fats such as nuts, avocado, olives, canola margarine and olive oil. 3 STAY ACTIVE Exercise and an active lifestyle are necessary to keep your weight under control. Check with your doctor that it’s safe to exercise before you get started. Choose forms of exercise that won’t put you at risk of falling easily or overheating. Try swimming, vigorous walking, cycling on an exercise bike, or special pregnancy aerobics. If your doctor recommends you stay away from exercise, you can still have an active lifestyle. Take the stairs instead of the lift or escalator, park furthest away from the shops, do some chores around the house or garden, or go for a stroll around the block. You can even play ball with the kids and dogs. 4 HEALTHY SNACKING If you’re snacking all day long, you eat more than you realise. Rather have set snack times in the morning and afternoon. If you only go to bed three hours after dinner, you can add a late-night snack also. Make sure your baby gets all the nutrients she needs by choosing nutrient-rich foods to eat in between meals. Fresh fruit, raw salad veggies such as tomatoes, cucumbers and carrot sticks, or fat-free milk or yoghurt are wise choices. Keep starchy foods such as bread and rusks for meals. Put your snack in a bowl rather than eating from a big box or packet, to ensure you eat just enough. 5 DON’T DIET Fads and crash diets can be very bad for your baby. Ketones, which are formed in your body during low carb/high fat diets, are harmful to your unborn baby’s brain and organs. The same process also takes place when you fast, and for this reason you shouldn’t go 12 hours at a time without eating. 6 CHANGE YOUR PLATE With a smaller bowl and plate you grow used to eating smaller portions. A small plate that’s packed looks better than a big one with only a couple of spoonfuls. A small bowl also helps you not to inadvertently dish up too much. 7 HEALTHY DRINKS You can easily misjudge what you drink, and while you think you’re taking in liquids to quench your thirst, you’re also taking in a lot of sugary energy. Fruit juice, soft drinks and even tea and coffee with sugar pack the pounds. Rather opt for water, three glasses of fat-free milk per day and rooibos tea without sugar. 8 GET YOUR FIVE A DAY Vegetables and fruit are packed with important nutrients and contain relatively little energy. They contain a large amount of fibre that helps to fill you up. If you eat half a plate of veggies, salad or fruit with every meal, you can eat enough to be full without taking in too much energy. Go for raw foods whenever you can, or cook them without adding sugar, butter or oil. Remember that dishes such as potato, pasta and rice salads aren’t really salads but starch. 9 CURB THE MUNCHIES That insatiable craving for peanut butter, chocolate or mango will take hold at same point, but you can still be in control of what you put into your mouth. If you crave something specific, have some, but in small portions as part of meals or snacks. Don’t just give in to every weird craving you might have. 10 STAY AWAY FROM UNHEALTHY FOOD Chips, ice cream, milkshakes, chocolate, sweets, biscuits and cake are some of the things you should rather avoid. There’s more energy in a portion of these treats than in a whole plate filled with healthy food, and the sugary stuff doesn’t contribute any good nutrients. Avoid them if possible, and if you can’t, have a small portion. When you’re bone tired, takeaways are a much easier option, but they’re packed with fat and thus unnecessary sugary energy. Rather cook ahead and freeze, so that you can just grab something from the freezer if you don’t feel up to slaving away in front of the stove. YP WHY SHED THE KILOS? If you’re overweight while you’re pregnant, you have an increased risk of gestational diabetes, which could in turn result in a baby with a very high birth weight. Your blood pressure can rise, you can get pre-eclampsia, and being overweight also raises the chances of having a miscarriage and even a stillbirth. If you’re overweight, baby has a bigger chance of having birth defects such as spina bifida, dying shortly after birth, becoming overweight themselves or developing heart problems.