Maintaining Weight During Pregnancy

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The biggest tension I used to have while I was pregnant was the weight. My body tends to gain weight fast and lose weight slow due to the low metabolism rate. For me personally "LOSING PREGNANCY WEIGHT IS NOT EASY".

Also, When I got pregnant and did some check-ups, I found that I have BMI 20, which means I am overweight. As a result, my doctor told me to maintain my weight. At first, I was too much in stress, but then my doc said: "MAINTAINING WEIGHT IS EASY". I listened to my doctor's advice & my weight gain was only 5 kg in 9 months. The best part was 3.2 kg was my baby's weight.

Here I am going to share How I maintained my weight just by maintaining diet and doing exercises for 9 months:

My doctor shared with me the ground rule, which I followed for the entire 9 months, which is:- I do not have to eat for 2. I have to eat according to my hunger!!!. Secondly, I have to make sure that I do not have to remain empty stomach; otherwise, it can impact the nutrition which is going to the baby from me.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:-

Let me share my personal experience. Most of my relatives & friends used to

ask me "What craving do you have Sweet/Sour?". To their surprise, my answer used to be "I do not have any cravings". I asked my doctor "Why don't I have cravings?". He said, "Since I am eating healthy and also I am eating at regular intervals, therefore, the glucose level is maintained, my tummy is full, and this can be the reason for me not having cravings". 

The routine which I religiously followed for 9 months as advised by my doctor worked for me. Here was my routine:-

MY MORNING ROUTINE:-

• WARM WATER WITH LEMON & HONEY :- this drink used to be my favourite. I used to take this golden drink first thing in the morning. It melts fat and removes toxins from the body.

• WALK FOR 30 MINUTES, SUKSHM VYAYAM FOR 15 MINUTES- Only food or only exercise alone doesn't work alone. Doing exercise is equally important. So I used to go for evening and morning walks in my society terrace for sure as I not able to do any other activity because of lockdown. 

• BREAKFAST:- As far as I know the intake of protein, iron, calcium & fibre is essential during pregnancy. Therefore.
  • I used to have PANEER or 1 full boiled egg/omelette ( as the doctor did not recommend half-cooked).
  • Also, I never used to miss eating fruits.

MY MID-MORNING ROUTINE:-

• MID-DAY MEAL:- I used to take my Mid-day meal around 11am. I used to take either of the following depending on my mood.
  • JUICE
  • FRUIT
  • BUTTERMILK
  • ROASTED DRY FRUITS
  • SWEET MILK DALIA
  • DRY FRUIT MILK

I had to make sure that my body is hydrated. For that, I used to take at least 2-3 litres of water a day.

MY LUNCH TIME:-

I used to have a complete meal—Roti, Sabji, Dal, Dahi, Salad & chawal.My doctor told me that it is essential that I do not have constipation during my pregnancy; therefore, I used to take full plate salad before a meal so that I can avoid constipation.       

MID-AFTERNOON ROUTINE:-

2 hours after having a heavy lunch, I used to eat/drink something light. I used to have either of the following:

• SALTED MAKHANA
• 2-3 OATS BISCUITS
• 1 LADOO
• A handful of groundnuts etc. 

EVENING ROUTINE:-

One thing my husband did not let me miss was my walks. No matter what but I used to walk for at least 45 minutes non-stop. I kept a target of completing a minimum of 3000 steps a day. After coming from a long walk, my husband used to prepare ginger tea/ coffee for me. 

NIGHT ROUTINE:- 

I used to have very light dinners like sprout sabzi and roti, doodh roti, namkeen dalia and many more but yes light—one thing which I used to love having after dinner was my masala doodh. My mother was on duty to check in the night whether I am having milk at night or not. We also kept our mobiles and tablets away from bed and started sleeping early.

 Here are some of the healthy tips to follow during pregnancy

One thing which I maintained for the complete 9 months was a balance on sugar intake and also on tea and coffee intake, which really helped me in managing my weight. I avoided taking tea / extra coffee. At max, I used to take 1 cup of tea or coffee that too before evening 6pm,after that I used to avoid taking tea/coffee. And special thanks to #LOCKDOWN that I did not eat anything from outside during my pregnancy. Also, I used to do my household work till the one day before my delivery. Since I love cooking, my husband and I used to cook together by learning recipes from Youtube. 

Another mantra which I discovered was:- BE HAPPY ALWAYS!!!, DON'T CRIB AND BE IN GUILTY and "LISTEN TO THE DOCTOR".

After managing all, I managed to have a healthy pregnancy with only 5 kg of weight gain. I got the answer to my question “MAINTAINING WEIGHT IN PREGNANCY IS EASY?"

 In my previous blog,  I have shared how I maintained my weight during pregnancy.

Anshima Kolatkar is a passionate content writer and heads her firm "Writingwalkthrough". She pursued engineering in Electronics and telecom and PGDMA in embedded systems. In the year 2017, she quit her job to follow her passion of being a content writer. She is now a successful mompreneur. As a mom in working, she wants to share her journey into parenthood. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mom Store.