Little Tweaks, Big Gains
How we spend our day is important for all aspects of our wellbeing. This includes what we are eating, how we are physically moving, what our sleep is like, and how connected we feel to those around us. At any stage from your prenatal to postnatal journey you may start to notice how these impact how you feel.
We do not need to change what we do but look at how we can do it differently and better. Here are some ways to help make those small changes.
Me and My Team: It can sometimes feel lonely making these changes particularly if people around us aren’t aware of why we are choosing to make different lifestyle choices. Communicating to our closest network of why it is important to us and how they can help practically with this can make this a little bit easier.
You might discuss how they might help free up some of your time or energy by helping free up your time and energy.
Alternatively, if you know of any friends or family members who are also looking keep up some of their healthy lifestyle behaviours - consider working with an ‘accountability buddy’. This could be your partner, a friend, another parent help keep the focus on the changes we feel capable of making.
Efficient Preps with Less Steps: Time, money, and energy – we’re constantly low on these important resources which can be another hurdle to jump.
Putting in place simple routines can help organise your meals and nutrition. Having set times and days to do the grocery shop, whether that is in person or online can also be helpful.
If you’re not sure about recipes – that’s okay, we’ve put together a few recipes to get you started. See our next blog on how to make small swaps in your diet to meet those big nutritional gains.
Hurdles not Hills: Trying to fit in some physical movement can be especially hard when we’re tired and low on energy. Hills can be difficult to climb and some of the big ones we may face are thoughts like me must go to the gym, or have specific equipment, or have the time to dedicate to physical activity. In reality we can get moving with very little and more importantly involve our bubs with us (if they are here already). Going for walks with bub can be a great way to keep moving. You might even look at joining in on some free mum and bub classes running in your area. You don’t need to move hills to exercise, just doing small and consistent hurdle jumps is enough.
The Wellbeing Maze: While we’ve focused on reducing your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes with the above lifestyle changes, these broad actions have broad implications. What we mean by this is nutritious meals and daily physical activity helps with our mood, keeps us fit, helps manage stressful events – all of these things which can sometimes become a little unbalanced with a new bub.
Of course, talk to your medical professional before engaging in physical activity. See our next blog post ‘Nadia’s Nutrition Nibbles’ for some helpful diet swaps and recipes! If you feel like you want some extra support following you GD diabetes