Interview with Lily Nichols
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Lily Nichols, RDN about prenatal nutrition and gestational diabetes. She is a wealth of knowledge about the current evidence in prenatal nutrition and I really enjoyed the chance to chat with her.
This topic isn’t directly related to weight loss but I know there are a lot of you who might be planning a pregnancy in the future or are breastfeeding.
Lily is a dietician who has developed an interest in prenatal nutrition and gestational diabetes. She focusses on a whole, complete food approach as the best way of getting all the micronutrients that are needed for a healthy pregnancy. She is an author of two books: Real Food for Pregnancy and Real Food for Gestational Diabetes.
I wish I knew then…
When I was having my kids, I was following the food guide (to the best of my abilities). This was before I started eating a lower carb approach or had even really entertained that as an option. I had gestational diabetes in both of my pregnancies and tried to follow the guidelines. It didn’t go all that well. I ended up on insulin and got to experience the entirety of the insulin experience- highs and lows. Looking back, I wish I had some of the knowledge I have now. I think I probably would have still had the gestational diabetes but would have been able to control it better. Maybe would have fewer swings with the lows.
A funny story related to my experience with insulin is; one night about a week before I had my son, I woke up with a low. Now if you have never experienced this, there is a certain amount of panic that you feel when you wake up and can tell your sugars are dropping. I needed to get something to eat quickly!
On my way down the stairs, I remembered some jelly doughnuts I had put in our freezer. They were from my favourite bakery and I had put them in the freezer until I was finished being pregnant and able to eat sugar without worry (like I said, this was before my low carb days!).
I needed some sugar, may as well enjoy a doughnut while I was at it….. So I took a doughnut out of the freezer. Frozen rock hard- couldn’t bite it. Needed to get something into my system quick. So I put the doughnut into the microwave for 15 seconds. I came out slightly warm, still a little bit frozen. I took a bite. And a river of molten hot lava jelly fell out of the doughnut on to my face!
Lessons of this story are: 1) Never microwave a jelly doughnut and 2) Hot jelly burns quite quickly.
All of my baby photos with my son have a healing jelly doughnut burn on my chin….not my finest moment!
To find out more
You can find Lily at her website lilynicholsrdn.com and her books, Real Food for Pregnancy and Real Food for Gestational Diabetes are available on Amazon.
This information is meant for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please contact your physician with any questions you may have related to your own health and pregnancy care.
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