Alice - Motherhood Journey
Next on our Motherhood Journey Q&A series is Alice! In this Q&A, Alice discusses nutrition and facets of training that helped her through pregnancy.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your profession and how pregnancy impacted that (all the good, bad and everything in between.
My name is Alice! I’m a bodybuilding mumma of one. I'm also a personal trainer and a nutritionist. I’ve always been into health and fitness from a young age after suffering with an auto immune disease (Psoriasis).
I was knowledgeable on gut health from a very young age and natural self-healing. Since I’ve been bodybuilding and eating natural foods, I haven’t had a problem with my skin for years.
Being fit during my pregnancy definitely had many positives. After birth I had 4 weeks rest postpartum. After I got cleared earlier than expected from my pelvic floor physio, I started my postpartum recovery with a certified postpartum coach Emily King.
I had no issues during my pregnancy, I trained right up until I was 38 weeks pregnant and felt great! My birth was all natural and absolutely amazing. It was nice to give birth naturally without any interventions.
How are you finding your journey to motherhood?
Absolutely loving it, it still seems surreal that I have a little human to look after. She’s absolutely gorgeous and sleeps so well so I am very lucky! I fell into it naturally, having an amazing muma showed me the path of being a mum myself.
What are you finding the most difficult to adapt to and what is your postpartum fitness routine?
What are you finding the most difficult to adapt to and what is your postpartum fitness routine?
The hardest part is dealing with fatigue. Losing my strength was hard, but I’m slowly getting it back!
I did light pelvic floor and core work for 8 weeks. As I trained during my whole pregnancy, my abdominal separation was less than 1cm at 4 weeks postpartum so I was able to recover quicker than I expected and get back into training.
Can you tell us a bit about how you designed your nutrition plan when you were pregnant and post birth?
During my pregnancy I made sure I stuck to my high protein diet. I ate a whole foods diet with plenty of colourful veggies and fruit. I didn’t want to take any unnatural supplements like processed folate and iron so I did some research and found an amazing natural mother’s blend powder with fermented liver, kelp, camu camu, beetroot, chlorella and broccoli. I was on the edge of going out to buy similar ingredients and mix them myself then I found a brand I liked.
Postpartum I haven’t changed much, just eating more… Lots of fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi for gut health. Lots of veggies and fruits for polyphenols - feeding my gut bacteria the good stuff!
What’s one thing you wish you knew or figured out a little earlier (maybe something surprising and less discussed)?
Breastfeeding!!!!!
This is a story!
My baby got jaundice in hospital and went on formula straight away on day 5 as my milk hadn’t come in. I expressed well, she had a good latch but I thought I didn’t have much milk.
When we got home I was worried the jaundice would come back, so we continued to give her formula after being on my boob. After 2/3 mins she would crack it and we’d give her the bottle and she’d skull it like she was sooo thirsty!! I thought she wasn’t getting enough so I continued to give her formula.
At her 6-week checkup my doctor said she had tongue tie and hip dysplasia.
We got the tie cut and the following week she went into a brace for her hips and I found it really hard to breastfeed. After she got her tongue tie cut, she fed so much better but the brace made it hard so I ended up just giving up because my milk was nearly gone.
After some research I found an amazing formula “little oak” it’s the first palm oil free, soy free and maltodextrin free formula with coconut and flaxseed oil instead. This put me at ease! I really wanted to breastfeed exclusively but after everything happening it just didn’t work out for us.
What did you pack in your hospital bag?
One amazing thing I packed was “partumpanties” these were created by a midwife and are sooo comfy! Huge nappies and made it so much easier during and after birth. The Noonie padiscles were amazing too, I popped these in my partum panties and helped so much with my swollen episiotomy.
I also used the Noonie perineal spray which was nice and soothing.
For labour
Shakes
Coconut water
Banana
Watermelon / grapes / strawberries
Do you have tips on how to support other women going through similar challenges?
Education! Education is everything when going into labour. Know most outcomes that can happen so you are prepared.
I watched 7 prenatal classes online by B core+floor which she has on YouTube.
The Grow My Baby podcasts are also so educational and informative! You wouldn’t turn up to a marathon unprepared so why do it to your labour?
What are you MOST excited for in the next six months?
My baby girl is having surgery for her hip dysplasia and will have a cast on from 6 months till she’s 9 months old. I’m excited for her hips to be in place and I can start doing some fun things with her. She’s been in a pelvic harness for a while so it’ll be nice for her legs to be free!
Personal goals - I’m currently “shredding” but super excited to do another bulk, regrow my muscle and change my physique again! Possibly do a comp next year… we’ll see.
You can follow Alice's journey on her Instagram.
