'what I eat in a day' inspo as a breastfeeding mama
Pregnancy gets a lot of attention in the health and wellness space in terms of preparation, self-care and nutrition, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that the postpartum period is actually even more nutritionally demanding—especially for those who plan on breastfeeding. Lactation increases the demand for more than half of the essential micronutrients compared to pregnancy and other life stages. Every meal and every snack is an opportunity to support you - postnatal depletion is something 50% of women struggle with after giving birth - and to support your babe.
Here’s some inspo as to what I eat in a day as a new breastfeeding mama to pack in quality nutrients, vitamins and minerals and foods that give me the energy to power through what-can-feel-like marathon-long days.
BREAKFAST: Sourdough toast with avocado, heirloom tomatoes and runny yolk eggs
Eggs are almost always on the menu. They are a good source of protein, which is a standard in every meal, plus egg yolks are packed with choline. Breastfeeding mothers need extra choline to meet the demands of their bodies and those of their growing baby and their developing tissues. It is important to know too that many prenatal multivitamin supplements usually contain little or no choline, so your best sources are in pasture-raised egg yolks and beef liver.
Avocados and sourdough toast is always a winning combo, and avocados are full of fiber and healthy omega-3 fats - a fat that helps you and your baby absorb fat-soluble vitamins and can also be beneficial to your baby's developing brain health.
Lunch: crispy Salmon and roasted vegetable salad
I am a big salad girl. They are a vehicle for shoveling forks full of nutrient-dense foods into your mouth. The darker the leafy greens are where you wanna start - they have a significant amount of folate, a B vitamin that promotes heart health and helps prevent certain birth defects.
Then, go with your favorite veggies - but bake or sauté those babies. Eating plain steamed vegetables may sound like the best way to go nutritionally, but you’re actually better off eating vegetables with some fat. Many nutrients, like beta carotene, vitamin D, and vitamin K are fat soluble, so they can only pass from our intestine into our blood stream with some fat to carry them across. Avocado oil and ghee are my favorite healthy fats to cook with for their high smoke point.
I like to go with a citrus dressing tossed in my salads, something simple like olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper - as it will help your body absorb the iron in veggies like spinach, broccoli, and kale. Those veggies contain good amounts of iron, but it’s in a form that’s difficult for our bodies to use, so most of it passes through undigested. Vitamin C, which citrus fruits provide, reacts with iron chemically, changing it into a form that’s more easily absorbed by our bodies.
I crave salmon regularly, and love knowing it’s a great source of DHA, a type of fat important for the development of a baby's nervous system. It’s also helpful in increasing milk production. Pan-sear that baby or air fry your piece of salmon to give it a crispy skin, which contains the highest concentration of omega-3 fatty acids on the fish. Worth noting too that salmon is low in mercury and high in selenium, a mineral that readily binds with mercury and prevents it from exerting toxic effects in your body.
mid-day pick-me-up: iced matcha with coconut milk
Pregnancy is draining, but life with a newborn is even more exhausting. I look forward to an early afternoon iced organic matcha, giving me just enough caffeine without the crash. That’s because matcha contains L-theanine, an amino acid that improves focus, learning, sleep and stress and counterbalances the crash you can get from caffeine sources like coffee.
Dinner: Chicken drumsticks with broccolini, brussels sprouts and halloumi cheese
Like lunch, dinner is lots of veggies and quality protein - and I am all about the skin-on chicken. Meat is an incredibly important source of nutrition - it contains complete protein, minerals, B-vitamins, fat-soluble vitamins, but beyond that, skin-on poultry provides a rich source of gelatin and collagen (much more than skinless chicken breasts, for example). Both gelatin and collagen are beneficial in improving bone health, relieving stretch marks and helping to counteract postpartum hair issues and loss.
Dessert: yogurt-cottage cheese bowl with berries, gonanas banana bread and peanut butter
I have a sweet tooth, but when honoring that it is not void of nutrition. I love a big bowl of full-fat greek yogurt mixed with cottage cheese and protein powder as the base to a nightcap dessert bowl. Healthy fats along with calcium from quality dairy can help with milk supply. Plus, studies have shown that women often lose 3-5 percent of their bone mass during breastfeeding, so getting in the extra calcium is key. A nightcap treat packed with protein will also help your body repair and fuel your body through nightime feedings with a newborn. Cottage cheese also has a high concentration of casein, the protein found in milk. Casein is made up of nine essential amino acids and is unique in that when it combines with the enzymes in the stomach, it clots and becomes a gel-like substance that is digested at a very slow pace. This slow digestion in a nighttime snack helps your body maintain muscle mass, because when you go to sleep, your metabolism slows down, and you enter a fasting mode in which your body is not given any food to use as fuel. Your body still must maintain its vital functions, such as breathing and blood circulation and this requires energy, and typically, the body pulls that energy from the muscles in a process called catabolism. Catabolism can therefore break down muscle mass and a snack rich in casein can help to counterbalance that.
I love to top my yogurt-cottage cheese protein bowls with berries, as they are low on the glycemic index and thus are more slowly digested and absorbed, and won’t dramatically spike your blood sugar.
The best part of my yogurt-cottage cheese protein bowls is the sweet treat on top. Sweet, but not too sweet. I am a sucker for any and all of GoNana’s banana breads - especially the blueberry crumble banana bread. It’s made with dried blueberries and white chocolate and tastes like a frosted blueberry muffin meets banana bread. All of GoNanas banana bread mixes are vegan, gluten free, and nut free.
Aside from the package, what you need when whipping this up is: 3 bananas, maple syrup or honey, oil or yogurt, and the milk of choice.
Here’s a list of the ingredients in the GoNana’s Blueberry Crumble banana bread: gluten free oat flour, brown sugar, white chocolate chips (sugar, palm kernel oil, tapioca starch, soy lecithin, vanillin, salt), freeze dried blueberries, cinnamon, flaxseed meal, baking soda, baking powder, sea salt, natural blueberry flavor.
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