Bona Fide Blonde: Postpartum Fitness Part 2 (And Lazy Jambalaya)

Hey you guys, remember about a thousand weeks ago when I said I was going to do a 3-part series on postpartum diet and fitness? And I did that first part and then never mentioned it again? Yeah...Two things: I'm sorry I never have my act together, and well I've finally gotten around to it. SOOOOO here's the second part (finally) all about my thoughts on food and diet post bambini.

As I mentioned in Part 1, I have really had to adjust my thinking around food and how I eat since having Wee Plum. In fact, my thinking about food has changed and evolved quite a lot over the past 10 years or so. I've been that girl that does all the crazy fad diets (here's some news: they're all crap, get out now while you still can), I've been the girl that ate nothing at all, as well as the girl that ate everything in front of her. I have learned a lot about nutrition and how to effectively work out over the last few years, and just before I got pregnant I feel like I was in a nice comfy zone of knowing exactly what works for me.

Since having Eli, I just have not been able to put in the same amount of effort into my eating and exercising as before. I don't have the time or energy to put into meal prep/just eating broccoli and chicken breast anymore. That crazy loon of mine demands all (and I mean all) of my attention, and I eventually learned that trying to eat and exercise the same way I did before made me do things like snap at Eli because I had so little energy to entertain him or deal with the demands of a young baby. It was really frustrating not having the time or energy to do things the way I used to. However, that kiddo deserves a mom that is mentally and emotionally present, and I am not those things when I am putting all my spare time and energy into intense exercise and meals consisting of chicken breast and asparagus. I know it IS possible, and I know a lot of moms do compete successfully, but as of right now I'm not able for it. So I had to re-evaluate everything I had learned in order to stay under a certain weight while maintaining some muscle, and be able to the best mammy I could be. (Um, as well as wife. 99% of fights I have with the husband are when I'm hungry and have no energy. Also, very few men want to eat only broccoli and tilapia every night, and there's no way I'm cooking two different dinners every night!)

There are two, major things that I have learned that I do want to share with you guys. Number one is:

The less I think about food and the less power I give it, the less I actually weigh.

I know that sounds really strange, but it is completely and utterly true. The less I deprive myself, the less 'bad' food I actually eat. The more I tell myself "eat what you want", the less food I actually take in. It sounds bizarre, but it is without a doubt the thing that has worked best for me and eating.

So all those thoughts you have in your head about certain foods being 'naughty' or 'off limits' etc, please erase them. Because food is good, for your mind, body and soul, and I want you to eat it. Yes? Good.

BUT....this leads us to number 2:

The key is balance.

Before pregnancy, I was not, NOT about balance. I was all about training 6 days a week, heavy lifting, lots of oats, eggs, and protein shakes. That worked pretty well for me...then. It wouldn't now. I

If you are overweight and want to do something drastic to lose those initial pounds, cut out carbs if you wish, or go on a juice cleanse or whatever else works for you for those FIRST FEW POUNDS OR SO. After that though, stop and start using balance. Because if you continue eating carb-free, or only pureed vegetables or whatever else is the thing these days, I guarantee you you will reach a point where you can't maintain it, and I guarantee you you will put all that weight back on and then some.

Soooo....here is an example of my current diet in a day. This is how I started eating about 6 months postpartum. Up until then it was a lot of long hours inbetween meals, no breakfast, etc.

Breakfast: Porridge (made with almond milk) with chopped apple, teaspoon of honey and cinnamon, and one very large, very strong coffee
Snack: Banana and avocado muffin (they are amazing...recipe here), OR banana with tablespoon of organic peanut butter
Lunch: 2 slices of half and half bread (with butter), one or two slices of cheese, two slices of turkey breast, handful of spinach leaves, onion. Square of dark chocolate.
Snack: Greek yogurt with fruit, OR scrambled eggs with 1 slice of toast. Another coffee.
Dinner: about 1/2 cup of meat, 1/2 cup of carbs (brown rice/pasta/cous cous/potatoes etc) and 1 cup of fibrous veggies.
Snack: 3 cookies and a hot chocolate, or 3 squares of dark chocolate

Now, the above is just an average. I might have a Snickers instead of 3 biscuits, or a slice of cake or something. But, I always always ALWAYS have at least one treat every day. It's usually chocolate.

I also have a general rule of: If I wouldn't allow my son to eat it, then I don't eat it. Except for chocolate. Eli's never tasted it, but I have it daily (sorry kid). What I'm really talking about here is processed meats (e.g. deli ham), sugary yogurts (petit filous for example) etc. The less ingredients in your food the better.

Sometimes it is hard to make that transition from thinking about food a lot, to not thinking about it at all. Where do you start? What kind of grocery list should I have? Etc. This book really and truly helped me change the way I thought about food. I would definitely recommend it. Also... I thought I would include a recipe for a balanced, healthy, tasty meal that our entire family actually enjoys (doesn't happen often in the Cronin household).

When it comes to cooking, I do like to try something complex and time consuming every once in a blue moon, but for the most part, I'm all about maximum taste and nutrition for minimum cost and time/effort. Gone are the days where I can spend the whole evening having a glass or two of wine while sauntering about, cooking something super fancy. Like maximizing the efficiency of my workouts, I've had to maximize the efficiency of my recipes. Enter...the Lazy Girl's Jambalaya.

Colm, like the rest of the male species, likes to eat a lot of meat (shock! gasp!). The way he puts it is, "no meat no meal." Nice. I, on the other hand, don't. It starts to get expensive and wasteful to cook two different types of meat for the both of us, because I only really like to eat salmon or chicken, and red meat once a week at best. Colm will eat all meat all day. That's one of the reasons I love Jambalaya - I can throw in some sausage, chicken, prawns, whatever, and just eat the chicken or prawns myself and Colm can go crazy with everything else. It's also relatively clean, and Eli will eat it too. Woo!

Now, I know traditional Jambalaya is quite different and very spicy, but Eli isn't very into spicy yet so we just add some hot sauce into our own servings after dishing up. Also, Jambalaya even SOUNDS complicated in itself...so I've kind of simplified it (um, a lot) for those of you who are like me and don't like spending hours over the cooker (or a lot of money on the ingredients).

Hope you guys like it as much as we do!

Lazy Jambalaya

Ingredients: *

Diced chicken (about 500g)
5 large sausages of your choice. We use Aldi's Specially Selected range...very affordable, tasty, and you get a lot for a small price.
Prawns (pre-cooked, about 200g)
3 Bell peppers (one yellow, one red, one green)
3 cloves of garlic
2 celery stalks
1/2 an onion
1 Can of tomatoes in sauce
3 cups of chicken stock (We use Boots Baby Organic since Eli is eating it too. No sodium or MSG, which is really important to avoid at this age. It's currently on offer at only 1.49...total steal. Click here to buy while you can!)
1.5 cups of wholegrain rice
2 Tbs coconut oil (for frying)
Hot sauce (to add to your own serving)

Directions:
Chop your peppers, garlic, celery and onion into small but chunky pieces. Fry in a large frying pan using 1 tablespoon of the coconut oil for about 5 minutes, until soft (but not browned).

In the meantime, chop your sausages into nice chunky pieces. Fry your sausage with the chicken in a separate pan using 1 tablespoon of oil until cooked through but not browned.

In a large pot, boil the rice and tomatoes in the chicken stock, stirring continuously until cooked. Once cooked, throw in the veg, then your sausage and chicken and finally your prawns. Give the whole thing a big stir, and voila. Done!

* This recipe yields about 5-6 servings.