Please help inspire me to eat more - I need lunch & snack ideas.

[CherryChoc]

I know this is an odd request, but I really need to eat more and put some weight on. I haven't weighed myself in months, but I think I've been losing weight since DS was born. He is 7 months now. I was a size 10 pre pregnancy and now even size 8 clothes are baggy on me. I am still breastfeeding him and would like to continue. (I feel my weight would still be an issue if I stopped bf).

When he turned 6 months and I started using cow's milk in food for him I switched to drinking whole milk instead of semi-skimmed. I craved milk when I was pregnant and still drink quite a lot of it, and I feel it's helped but it hasn't solved the real problem, which is that I'm not very good at remembering to eat.

DH works odd hours and can sometimes get home very late. So we quite often end up having a takeaway or eating processed foods. I get annoyed about this because I'm trying to avoid that kind of food for DS - I decided to do BLW in the hope it'd improve our diets, but I end up making something separate for him or trying to put him to bed before we eat. I know I could make freezer meals etc to reheat, which doesn't seem to happen.

Anyway

Make breakfast a priority - porridge with sugar/honey/fruit. Maybe wholemeal toast after?

Eat full-fat products - ie butter not marge, whole not semi-skimmed milk, full fat yogurt

I would try to have a couple of biscuits mid-morning or a piece of fruitcake or something

Always have lunch. Have a full-fat yogurt after

A snack mid-pm

A proper dinner. Make sure it includes carbs, protein and veg (do this for lunch too)

Having milky drinks is a good way of getting extra calories too. Hot choc, or coffe with milk rather than water

It's good you've recognised the need to look after yourself. I do think it's quite common to lose a lot post-birth. I know I did (went from 14-16 pre-pg to 10-12 when dc were about 6m - I bf too)

Sorry, my laptop went funny and I had to post what I'd written, then got distracted.

All I had left to add was I am allergic to cheese (but can have yoghurt & other dairy) and even if I am hungry I have to be really tempted to eat something - I find it hard to force things down.

Thanks for the suggestions - fruit cake sounds good And yoghurts are always a nice easy thing to eat.

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I had this problem - sounds like you've got quite a lot of pressure on you and you're probably quite tired as well.

Make big batches of sauces to lash over pasta for lunch - good and slippery so they slip down easily. A good one is tuna and tomatoes and butter beans with penne. Or really nutritious soups full of potato, beans, chicken, veg. Minestrone is a good one.

Have hummous and other savoury dips as part of your elevensies.

Agree with hot chocolate or milky drinks. if you're not feel ing ungry for big meals try and eat little and often.

treat yourself to things you really fancy even if they're cream cakes, etc, just to get your appetite going.

Eat with your ds (this was the big change for me, really really help;ed) and then again with your dh (sometimes with us that was five hours later.) Try and make a big thing for ds that can be heated up later for dh.

I think if you're petit and tend to be slim anyway, breastfeeding and caring for a young child can really eat up your reserves and it can be difficult to create time to look after yourself, so I do sympathise. I feel i've cracked it now (my scrawniness is subsiding) but it does take effort and properly ring fencing calm times to eat throughout the day. Eating with your ds is really important and great for him too.

good luck

Fo

ps you can make milkshakes with banana and sunflower seeds blended up and almonds etc as a mid-morning drink. I do think you have to be quite disciplined though about the remembering to eat and always make sure you have snacks with you when out and also think ahead abou ttimetabling good food into your day.

oh, jacket potato with baked beans is a good one too - shame you can't eat the cheese though!