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In an ideal world, the after-school snacks you set out for your kids would fit the following criteria: your kids look forward to eating them, and you feel good about serving them. I’m here to tell you that it’s totally possible to achieve this. Here are my five simple tips to make it happen.
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Soup night is one of my favorites. About once a week in cooler months, I rummage through my freezer for little nuggets of gold that I can quickly turn into soup. Soup is so forgiving and can be made with the smallest bits of different things. Paired with a loaded bread basket, soup night is a winner.
Here are 10 foods to stash in your freezer for quick and easy soup suppers.
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(Image credit: Susanna Hopler)
Name: Lillian Perry
Location: Bellingham, WA
Age: 23
Occupation: Events Coordination Assistant
Number of people in household: Just me and my fluffy cat, Miss Charlotte.
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I can’t remember when I first discovered potstickers, but I know that as a busy mom with many young and eternally hungry children, having a stash of frozen dumplings in my freezer was a godsend.
It still is. I used to be the one who started the rice cooker, steamed some vegetables, and cooked up a pan of potstickers, but it’s now my teens who can handle the task with style. As long as they don’t really let them stick to my pot. Ahem.
Potstickers serve as an easy, quick-fix dinner. And while rice and steamed veggies make it a meal, there are lots of easy ways to make delicious dinners starring potstickers.
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From Apartment Therapy → Sorry, Parents: Nobody Wants the Family “Heirlooms”
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During pregnancy, as the baby is developing and the belly grows, what many pregnant women don’t realize is that, to accommodate that growth, changes are occurring not only in the uterus and skin, but all also in the abdominal muscles.
Toward the later stages of pregnancy, continued expansion of the uterus is possible thanks to the linea alba — a line of connective tissue that runs from under the sternum to the pubic bone, and connects the two sides of the rectus abdominis muscles. The linea alba stretches, allowing the baby to have more room than it would otherwise.
It’s really quite phenomenal that a woman’s body is able to do this! However, this increased length in the linea alba can cause a separation between the abdominal muscles that can stick around long after pregnancy. This common separation is termed diastasis recti abdominis. A 2016 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that about one-third of postpartum women still have diastasis recti 12 months after giving birth.
When the linea alba is lengthened, it can lose it’s ability to generate tension and, therefore, its ability to support the abdomen. The connective tissue stretches loses much of its density and thickness, which leads to a very measurable separation between the two sides of the abdominal muscles.
That gap can extend all of the way from the sternum to the pubic bone, or just somewhere along that line. Typically, the largest gap will be around the belly. In fact, diastasis recti is often the cause of what some women refer to as a “stubborn” post-baby belly. If your client suffers from diastasis recti, she might think that she looks bloated all of the time, or that she looks “four months pregnant” when she’s really two years postpartum, and despite her best efforts, hasn’t been able to slim her midsection.
Beyond aesthetics, it’s important to note that diastasis recti can result in the lower back and pelvis not being as stable and secure as they once were. As the connective tissue of the linea alba becomes stretched, widened, and thinned, it can impair the ability of the abdominal muscles (and entire core system) to do their best work.
With a loss of support for the core, spine, and potentially, abdominal, and pelvic organs, a postpartum woman will definitely feel weaker, and often may not feel that she can’t generate as much force as she used to.
If you or your client are unsure if she has diastasis recti, you might find this article on the signs of diastasis recti helpful for starting a conversation with her. Before you both stress… don’t stress! Diastasis recti is a very common occurrence with pregnancy and it can heal, and in most women it does heal naturally. More important than trying to “heal” it by having the two sides meet back up is to strive to return function to the linea alba.
Here are three things you can do to help your client heal her diastasis recti:
Think of alignment as how the body’s joints and bones “stack up” to create posture. That posture can either be strong, supported, and encourage proper movement patterns, or it can be weak and lead to losses in core strength. For example, if your client is in a chronic “rib thrust” position (in which the bottom of the ribcage is positioned forward and upward, ahead of the torso), the linea alba could be constantly overstretched. With good alignment, the muscles and connective tissues have the right amount of length and tension.
Helping your client get her body into good alignment is like the tale of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” You don’t want her spine too straight or too curved. You want it to be just right. That “just right” alignment is called the “neutral spine position.” This alignment gets the diaphragm stacked over the pelvic floor muscles to allow for the core stability system to work optimally.
To help your client get into a neutral spine position and proper alignment use these cues:
When your client is healing her diastasis recti, she should use this alignment in all exercises and in daily life where possible, but especially when under load such as when carrying her baby. The photo on the right shows what this alignment looks like when I am standing.
(For guidance on how to teach your client to assess her own diastasis recti, check out this video.)
For your client to support her core in daily life and when exercising, it is extremely important for her to understand how to gain and release tension (contract and relax) her core and pelvic floor muscles.
When the ribs are positioned over the hips, the diaphragm is stacked over the pelvic floor. This helps the pressure system in the core to function optimally. When she inhales, the diaphragm moves downward slightly and the pelvic floor stretches to allow this change in pressure. When she exhales, both the diaphragm ascends and the pelvic floor contracts upward, too.
To help your client improve her core and floor connection, use these cues:
Note: The contraction is very gentle. Your client should think of it as only about 30 percent of her maximum ability of contraction.
Now that you’ve helped your client learn how to do the core and floor connection, it’s important that she use that connection to promote healing of her diastasis recti. We want to encourage exercises in which your client can create good tension in the linea alba but can avoid any bulging, and exercises that are going to challenge her to strengthen her core musculature, but will not cause any harm to her abdominals and pelvic floor. These exercises help to create tension, density, and strength in the linea alba.
For instance, while healing the diastasis, I recommend avoiding exercises that involve facing the belly to the floor (front-loaded positions) such as the push-up, front plank, and bear crawl. The core may not be able to properly handle the pressure and intensity created by these exercises. What’s more, sometimes women feel that they can’t control their abdominals during these exercise, since require a high level of core coordination. . Without the requisite core strength and coordination, the belly can easily bulge forward during these front-loaded exercises.Your client may also complain of feeling uncomfortable downward pressure on the pelvic floor.
In addition, exercises such as the crunch, sit-up, v-up, and double-leg raise may also create a bulging belly. The bulging can occur when the core isn’t able to properly control the intra-abdominal pressure. The pressure from the “load” has to go somewhere and it usually goes outward. This can happen to anyone who doesn’t have proper intra-abdominal control, not just women with diastasis recti.
Below are some of my favorite “tummy safe” core exercises for women completing diastasis recti rehab. Remember to emphasize for your clients the core and floor connection in all of these exercises, exhaling through the toughest part of each exercise. Additionally, with the client’s permission to touch her, you can feel the linea alba and monitor for bulging when adding new abdominal exercises to the program.
Exhale, squeeze the glutes, and lift the hips upwards until the body is in a straight line from shoulders to knees.
For more examples of effective core exercises your client can do to heal diastasis recti, see these two articles on diastasis recti and no-crunch core exercises.
Remember, you don’t need her to close the gap to be functional. Emphasis is on tension not on the width of the gap. If your client can generate good tension and maintain it through the exercise, then that is fine. However, if your client has a wide or deep gap, it is wise to work with a physical therapist. Support your client and be patient with her — and remind her to be patient with herself and stay consistent! By prioritizing proper alignment as well as the core and floor connection in all of her exercises and in daily life, she’ll go a long way toward healing her diastasis recti and improving her core health.
The post How to Help Your Postpartum Clients Heal Diastasis Recti appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.
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So pork chops are on the menu for dinner tonight, but you still need some inspiration for what to serve with them. Look no further than one of these 15 delicious side dishes, all chosen for how well they pair with pork. With plenty of options you can make in the microwave, and a few classic favorites thrown into the mix, these dishes aren’t too complicated or time-consuming. Most of them can be prepared while your pork chops cook. And speaking of pork chops, if you need to brush up on the different preparation methods, check out our complete guide to cooking pork chops.
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European supermarket giant Lidl, who just recently launched in the United States, is already tugging at our heart strings: The grocery store is collaborating with a nonprofit on a project to rescue puppies. The partnership is with Operation Paws for Homes, also called OPH, and the collective goal is to benefit adoptable dog shelters across the nation. Called the “Retail to the Rescue Project,” the initiative will take place this week, reports Progressive Grocer.
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