When you are on a healthy eating plan and trying to lose pregnancy weight, there are certain foods that you should avoid.
Yes, of course, you should avoid things like donuts, ice cream, chocolate bars, cakes, muffins and the like – but there are some less obvious foods that you should be aware of too.
In general, the closer to nature the better when you are trying to lose pregnancy weight.
So the less packaging and human intervention the better. That means that the bulk of your shop should come from fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and lean meat.
From there, some foods to try and keep out of the trolley include:
Salad Dressings
Commercially prepared dressings are often laden with more oil and sugar than you would believe. It is much healthier (and truly, much tastier) to master a couple of great home made dressings.
Click here for our tips on making a fresh and flavoursome dressing, plus a recipe for a Honey Mustard Dressing that is totally delicious.
Sweetened Yoghurts
You might think that tucking into a low fat strawberry yoghurt for your morning tea would be considered healthy, but in fact many of the yoghurts on the shelves are not.
When a product is labelled as low fat, non fat, or 99% fat free it is very often pumped up with sugar in order to make it taste better.
So a better bet would be to grab a natural or Greek yoghurt and add your own fresh fruit to it (we love passionfruit or chopped strawberries).
Stir Fry Sauce
These seem like a busy mum’s best friend, but those little sachets or jars should be left at the supermarket.
In a similar way to salad dressings, the stir fry sauces are often very high in sugar – an ingredient you wouldn’t naturally add if you were making your own stir fry at home.
They also contain many additives and preservatives, and are a world away from a home made sauce.
Once you get the hang of the key ingredients for a stir fry – such as garlic, ginger, chilli, soy sauce – you will wonder why you ever bothered buying them in the first place.
Why not try this simple stir fry sauce recipe to start with and then expand your flavour range from there.
Breakfast Drinks
These might seem like a great option to keep on hand for busy mornings, but those off-the-shelf drinks are anything but healthy.
A 250ml carton of Sanitarium Up & Go contains around 5 teaspoons of sugar. Kicking off your day with a sugar hit leaves you on a slippery slope for the rest of the day.
You feel good after consuming it (that’s the sugar high), and then it’s not long before you feel hungry again and are searching for your next sugar hit (that’s the sugar slump).
Instead, start your day with a Healthy Mummy Smoothie. They take no time at all to prepare (especially if you use our 12 Time Saving Smoothie tips here) and are packed with 25 vitamins and minerals and are a natural, whole food, high fibre, high protein, low sugar and artificial sweetener and caffeine free product – you can see all the ingredients here too.
Muesli Bars
Those wholesome looking bars are actually less of a convenient snack food and more of a combination of calories, fat and sugar.
Instead of reaching for these, reach for this healthier recipe instead that you can make at home.
Pasta Sauce
Here is another convenience product that conveniently packs in loads of added sugar, salt and additives.
We’ve got loads of healthier options for pasta sauce here that won’t undo all your hard work.
So remember, it’s not just what you put into your trolley but also what you leave out of it that will help you when it comes to losing pregnancy weight. Happy shopping!
GET YOUR 10% DISCOUNT
If you are ready to lose weight then the Lose Baby Weight plans offer a healthy and safe exercise and diet routine and you can get a 10% discount by using code LOYALTY at the checkout
PLUS our BEST SELLING 28 Day Diet & Exercise Plan is available as a 200pg Printed Book and you can get your copy here
Plus our NEW CALORIE BIBLE is now available – get your copy today! Only $19.95 and a must have in your handbag!
Click HERE to see our shop
