How to Get More Energy During Pregnancy
Low energy, fatigue, lethargy are common complaints in pregnancy, especially in the first trimester. In the face of changing hormones and the effort needed to build a small human being, this is hardly surprising.
However, what we eat and how we behave can have an impact too, and can improve or worsen our energy levels. Sustainable energy and mood depends on four factors - how you eat, how you move, how you sleep and how you think. All four of these criteria are intimately intertwined with each other and so often we don’t even know what we’re eating, doing or thinking that might be working against our energy levels.
Take note
Developing an awareness of daily behaviours can give us a clue into our regular activity and how it affects us. You can keep a food and mood diary for a few days or a week, making a note of how you feel when you wake up, what time you eat your meals and snacks and how it affects your energy, what the food on your plate looks like, how long you spend eating, and whether you eat your food at a table or on the go.
Using your diary, pinpoint habits that you didn’t realise you had - how often and what sort of snacks do you eat? How satisfied does your food make you? What’s your energy like an hour after eating?
Eat fat and protein
There’s been a lot of media attention lately about whether we’re eating too much protein, and perhaps globally as a whole we are over-consuming meat protein. But most women I talk to don’t eat enough protein in the day, or focus their protein intake in one meal rather than spreading it out over the day. At the same time, there is often a phobia about eating fat. In pregnancy, fat is especially important for your baby’s brain and nerve development. As a result, many women over-consume carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates, which are easily digested and quickly used for energy - possibly resulting in a sudden energy crash a few hours later.
Adding a source of fat and protein into all meals and snacks, as well as focusing on complex carbohydrates - starchy vegetables and whole grains for example, slows down the digestion of these carbs and keeps energy steady for longer.
Drink water
It seems basic, but hydration is a commonly overlooked factor in low energy, and this is especially important in pregnancy (and later when breastfeeding), when your need for enough water is increased.
Being under-hydrated can affect nutrient absorption, especially the water-soluble B-vitamins which are particularly needed for energy. With the increased demand for these vitamins from your baby, this reduced absorption could mean low energy is felt more in pregnancy. Further, nutrient and oxygen movement could be impaired, as well as cell fluidity to allow nutrients into the cells and by-products out of them again. Again, this could affect energy levels quite strongly.