Rujuta Diwekar - Pregnancy Notes: Before, During & After

Pregnancy Notes

Before, During & After

Pregnancy Notes

Before, During & After

Rujuta Diwekar

westland publications ltd

61, II Floor, Silverline Building, Alapakkam Main Road, Maduravoyal, Chennai 600095
93, I Floor, Shamlal Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002

First published by westland publications ltd 2017

Copyright Rujuta Diwekar 2017
Personal Note by Kareena Kapoor Khan Kareena Kapoor Khan 2017
Author photograph on back cover: Dabboo Ratnani

All rights reserved

978-93-86224-89-7

Typeset by Ram Das Lal, New Delhi, NCR

Due care and diligence has been taken while editing and printing the book, neither the Publisher nor the Printer of the book hold any responsibility for any content that may have crept in inadvertently. Westland Publications Ltd, the Publisher and the printers will be free from any liability for damages and losses of any nature arising from or related to the content. All disputes are subject to the jurisdiction of competent courts in Chennai.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, circulated, and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made without written permission of the publishers.

Contents

by Kareena Kapoor Khan

The big DEAL

Diet, Exercise, Activity and Lifestyle

Eat food that:

Is easy to cook and digest

Hydrates and works as a natural antacid

Provides easy-to-assimilate amino acids

Is rich in micronutrients like iron and vitamins

For each trimester:

FAQs

Top three foods

Meal plan

Important notes

Heritage recipes

FAQs

Top nine foods

Meal plan

Important notes

Heritage recipes

FAQs

Weekly training calendar and exercise plans for pregnancy

When someone recently commented on a picture of mine post a yoga class and said I looked fat, I realized how insensitive people can be even if a woman has just delivered.

It got me thinking about how women must feel about (and deal with) changes in their body post delivery. Maybe their world shatters, maybe they feel so under-confident that getting back into fab shape starts feeling like a faraway dream.

And so I prodded Rujuta to write a book, this time on pregnancy and how to stay healthy before, during and post it.

Rujuta has written a beautiful book. But before you get around to reading it, I just want to share with you what I learned during my pregnancy and post-delivery, my personal notes you can call them:

Work on getting fit even before you get fat. Since 2007, I have made a conscious effort to eat correctly, exercise and generally lead a more disciplined life. When Rujuta and I started on this journey, marriage was not even on the cards, and pregnancy wasnt even a faint idea in my heart; it started with getting in shape for a role and evolved into a lifestyle.

So, for you, if it starts with getting in shape for a wedding, job, holiday, choose your diet plan cautiously and ask yourself the big questiondoes it have the potential to evolve into a lifestyle? And if it cannot and is something thats just a two-day or a two-month affair, drop it. If I could shoot during pregnancy, walk the ramp and travel the world, its only because my body was healthy. Healthy enough to do some heavy lifting and not feel tired just because I was pregnant. Getting back into shape post pregnancy was the work of my commitment to eating right for the last ten years. I look the way I do because I have been at it for a decade, and not because of what I did or didnt do in the last two weeks or immediately post my delivery.

Pregnancy is a physiological milestone, dont confuse it with a sicknessand surely dont let the people around you, including your doctor, treat it like one. Do you have to be careful of hydration, meal timings or calcium intake? Yes. But do you have to give up on living your life and make it all about the pregnancy and the growing stomach? No. And this is exactly why a history of staying healthy helps.

The one time when heaps of advice gets loaded on you is during pregnancy. Eat this, dont eat that. Dont drink this. Dont take up that role, etc. Emotionally also, its the most vulnerable stage a woman can go through. Its the one time that you may actually consider every random advice coming your way and worse, implement it. A friend of mine went on doodhi juice, another stopped exercising, and we all know many who quit their careers due to their pregnancy. Its not the time to start or stop anything, its the time to take everything in your stride, to go on. So keep up with eating wholesome food, dont let some random fool tell you that it has too much carbs or fat or whatever. Wear the clothes you want and dont limit yourself to mommys section or whatever. You are alive, with another life inside you, so if anything, live every moment twice, dont fret, you are doing just fine.

Mother Nature has your back. Just like pregnancy gives you a specific shape, albeit a round one, post delivery too, you are in a specific shape. Dont be in a rush to get rid of it. The extra fat is required for many important tasks such as lactation and protection of both the baby and the mom from infections and illnesses. If you have been doing it right, have a long history of fitness and ate right through the pregnancy, then just like the body grew, it will also shrink back naturally. The key here is patience and compassion. Eating very little, or nothing, in a bid to lose that weight is just silly.

In that sense, I am really fortunate to be surrounded by women who truly care about me. I remember specifically the conversation between me and Rujuta post my delivery when I told her to put me on the Tashan diet. She said no, we have to be careful, compassionate, feed the body well or risk hormonal imbalances later. Lolo was in agreement with Rujuta. She had knocked off some 25 kgs post her second delivery and famously done it eating rice and fish curry, and she in my eyes is the fittest mom out there. And Saif, on his part, told me women are inherently beautiful so they really shouldnt bother with losing weight, its the men who really need to get their act together. Very sweet he is, I know.

Dont forget yourself after you deliver. Give your body some recuperation time. Pregnancy is tough, delivery is tougher and the toughest job of your life, motherhood, is just about to start. It takes a village to raise a child, goes a famous African proverb. So surely allow your family to help you with the babythe husband, maasi, older cousins, let them spend some time with the baby while you get some peace and time to yourself. Having your own life, staying healthy, keeping up with your worklife are all important for the baby. A baby who grows up around a healthy and happy mom can build a good life for herself and contribute towards society much more meaningfully. We even have science now backing this up: sons of working mothers are kinder and daughters are smarter. Not having a life of our own doesnt automatically turn us into great mothers, nor does being skinny. So be kind to yourself.

Pregnancy and motherhood are fun, if you are ready to enjoy every change in the body, every milestone with your baby. Mother and child is a bond that transcends waistlines, religious lines, borders and beliefs. Heres to all of us, the women of today and the children of tomorrow.

Kareena Kapoor Khan
Mumbai
April 2017

THE BIG DEAL

Not very long ago, young married women would visit a gynaecologist to get advice on how to not get pregnant before they were ready. Now we visit them to know how to get pregnant before its too late. Women, somehow, now more than ever, feel that they are on some kind of deadline, and that if they dont pop a baby now, it may be never.