Many pregnant women have been trained by society to fear even the natural weight gain associated with nourishing a human life.  Concern about gestational diabetes, too-big babies, and high blood pressure only add to the problem. Many women take maintaining a healthy diet during pregnancy to an unsafe level. This can be harmful to both the woman and her baby. It can lead to malnourishment and developmental issues in the fetus.

The reason for this is simple. How will your baby get enough of the proper nutrients if you aren’t giving your body the food it needs to extract them? A healthy pregnancy requires a higher level of calories and a vitamin-dense diet. Without adequate nutrition, labor is often more difficult. Furthermore, the growing baby’s development can be forestalled.

Eating enough during pregnancy, and throughout life in general, is, according to the book Healing Our Children, an essential part of having a healthy pregnancy diet. This book presents a simple pregnancy diet plan that involves focusing on the right foods, eating according to your desires, and, of course, ensuring that you’re eating enough every day!

The author of Healing Our Children notes,

“From childhood, many of us have learned food habits based on the belief system of deprivation, or ‘not enough to go around.’ We stopped giving ourselves enough of what we really wanted, and as a result had to give ourselves other filler foods (usually processed) to make up for our hunger.”

This mainstream diet is a big problem. It not only reduces calories and healthy fats, but restricts a lot of the wholesome, natural foods that are necessary for proper nutrition and bodily function.  So how do you overcome this propensity towards restriction in order to create and maintain a healthy pregnancy diet for you and your baby? Here are some suggestions:

Maintain a positive self-image

Many of our dietary flaws come from the fact that we believe we are not enough. Many of us have such a profoundly negative self-image, that we never feel comfortable in our own skin. We feel that we need to lose weight or eat a restricted diet in order to live up to a cultural standard. Practicing self-affirmation and surrounding yourself with people who believe that you are enough is a great first step in learning to treat your body right by giving it enough of what it needs on a daily basis.

Stop counting calories

The focus of most modern diets is counting calories. Though eating in moderation is smart, monitoring one’s daily caloric intake is far from enough to maintain adequate health. The best pregnancy diet – and the best diet in general – isn’t one that counts calories. Instead, it’s a good, healthy diet packed with natural, organic foods. When you’re only eating unprocessed, whole foods that are  nourishing, you don’t need to count calories. Instead, you can just eat when you’re hungry and stop when you feel satisfied.

Your body knows what it needs if you’ll just listen to it! Some days you’ll end up eating more than others, especially when your baby is going through a growth spurt, but once you let go of your false  ideas of what your pregnancy diet “should” look like, you’ll be able to eat healthily even on days like these!

Find other solutions for emotional problems

Often times, poor food choices are linked to emotional problems. We self-medicate ourselves with stimulating foods that are made with flour or sugar, since these ingredients can temporarily boost our levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin. However, self-medicating in this way will always lead you to a greater emotional crash. It’s better to find another outlet for your emotional problems – whether it’s in being creative, seeking out therapy, or simply talking with a friend. In this way, you don’t have to let your emotions wreck your healthy pregnancy diet.

If you’re ready to find out more about how to eat enough of all the essential nutrients you need during your natural pregnancy, read Healing Our Children. This book is full of information on how to eat enough during pregnancy and how to give your body and your baby exactly what they need.