Listening to your body
One benefit of pregnancy is that your body is really, really good at telling you what it needs.
When pregnant, you’re not just hungry, you are absolutely famished. And you must eat NOW!
And when pregnant, you’re not just tired, you are utterly exhausted. And you must rest NOW!
Your body tells you what it needs to grow a healthy baby, and you must listen.
When you’re not pregnant, your body is still good at telling you what it needs but you have to listen more carefully. It doesn’t yell as loud.
It says, hello there I’m hungry. I’m thirsty. Can you please feed me, please? But when you’re busy doing other things you can easily overlook hunger and thirst, and just keep going.
It also says, hello there I’m tired. Can I please go to bed? But you can easily ignore the signs and keep going until you get your second wind.
I’m guilty not so much of forgetting to eat(!) but definitely of forgetting to drink lots of water, and get to bed early enough.
Your body can cope with such neglect for awhile but then it gets seriously annoyed. And you start to feel run down or you get sick.
My naturopath gave me a simple formula for listening to my body, and looking after myself.
It is as simple as:
Eating healthy nutritious food when you are hungry.
Drinking water when you are thirsty.
Going to the toilet when your body tells you to.
And going to bed when you are tired.
Simple. So simple we can sometimes forget how important it is to heed our body’s call.
How often do you listen to your body?
