Maintaining a healthy eating routine after having children

People are often wondering how to lose weight and look good after having children.  I think what we need to do is stop aiming to look like supermodels! Some are lucky enough to look good, but most of us aren't going to look like Angelina Jolie after having a baby.  Some may even put on heaps of weight during pregnancy and find it difficult to lose the weight.  Others, like myself, actually lost weight through pregnancy and had to fight to put it on again due to severe sickness.

What we need to aim for is being healthy.  A healthy weight differs depending on our own body shape, our height, and our bone structure.  For me a healthy weight is anywhere from 50kgs to 65 kgs.  Under 50kgs is underweight, over 65kgs is overweight.  For others, a healthy weight can be as little as 45kgs or as much as 80kgs. Instead of focusing so much on how much we eat each day, it's better to focus on what we eat each day.

Smaller portions more often through the day is better than 3 main meals each day.  A main meal at lunch time is better than a main meal in the evening.  This one is difficult, because people work or kids are at school through the day so it's more convenient to have the main meal in the evening and make this family time.  We've worked out how to have a main meal for lunch and still keep family time in the evening.  Ok, so I'm still trying to work on a routine lol but we still get the family time.  Studies have proven that it's better for people to have smaller portions often.

We start the day by having breakfast together at around 7am.  We are up before that but we don't eat unitl then.  We have a choice of Weet Bix, porridge (not the packet stuff), Special K, or muesli.  We then have a choice of toast or English muffins with vegemite or egg.  DD has a cup of milk with hers sometimes, but mostly water.  I have coffee - of course! Breakfast time finishes at 7:30 each morning so the dishes get done before we leave the house for the day.  Morning tea is at around 8:45/9am and we have a selection of freshly cut fruit and raw veges. 

This is the routine at her childcare so I work in with them to keep meal times the same time each day.  I do it at work too.  At first people thought I was nuts, but now most of them are trying it to in an attempt to get healthy.  Lunch is 11:30 each day and it's the main meal of the day.  Again, people at work laughed at me at first but now some of them do it too.  Afternoon tea is at 2:30pm.  This can be fruit and veg, but can also be a selection other things such as yoghurts or cheese.  This is for DD anyway I tend to have a packet of biscuits on hand such as Apero.  We then have something small like an apple or banana at 4:30pm.  At 6:30pm we get home and have our dinner which is still made up of veges, but very small portions.  Last night we had a small amount of vege curry on bread.  We sit down at the table together to have this.  Even though it's only something light, we stretch it out by talking about our day together.  After this it's time for a bath, then we have a cup of milk (I have a cup of tea) before story time.

So our meal times are as follows:
7am breakfast
8:45am morning tea
11:30 lunch
2:30 afternoon tea
4:30 late afternoon snack
6:30 dinner
7:30 a cup of milk.

 Of course a good exercise programme would also help.  For us this is something simple.  We go for a walk only on weekends, as we simply don't have time through the week.  We go swimming at the pool once a week.  DD's childcare centre have lots of outdoor activities, and just recently they've developed for the Kindy and Preschool kids that a lady comes out once a week and does actual sports with them, such as a game of basketball or soccer with all the kids in those ages.  They have it on seperate days to keep the groups apart.  DD is in the 3 to 4 year group and I was amazed that kids of that age could follow instructions well enough to play a game of cricket successfully but they can do it!  I'm a sports coach but don't get much of a chance myself to do anything. I hope this helps someone in their quest to find a healthier eating pattern for their family.