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Singer and actor Liv Austen has turned a health issue into a passion for cooking, by taking control of every ingredient that goes in to her meals. Every week she shares something she has learned from cooking from scratch, and goes through a recipe she loves, so you can cook alongside the podcast. Cook from scratch - your body will thank you.
TW: mention of pregnancy, birth and newborn baby.
It’s been a minute, as the Americans say! If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you will have seen some updates in the last few months - after getting married to the love of my life in August last year, we returned from our honeymoon discovering that I was pregnant! I had a wonderful pregnancy, really enjoyed the experience, stayed fit and balanced with the help of the amazing YouTube channel Pregnancy and Postpartum TV (which I am now using for postpartum workouts) - I connected with the awesome Jessica Pumple who runs the channel and actually ended up appearing in what turned out to be a hugely popular reel that she created to demonstrate the movement of “hugging your baby in”, a crucial move when working out - or generally moving your body - while pregnant. I dreamed of a natural, positive birth at the maternity led unit at our local hospital, and practised hypnobirthing from early on.
My due date was May 24, and just over a month before that we moved into our new house - we knew we were cutting it fine, but definitely needed a bigger space. Thinking I’d still have weeks, I was so excited to nest and get the house ready, do lots of batch cooking and make myself food I could eat with one hand (like everyone recommends you do!) for when the baby arrived. Well, I didn’t even get a chance to unpack all the boxes we’d moved before a routine visit to the hospital made them admit me, my blood pressure was through the roof and I was eventually diagnosed with preeclampsia. I had high blood pressure throughout the pregnancy, and I also suspect I have chronic high blood pressure - something we will look at much more in the future, as it’s very much something I want to delve into more in the sense of nutrition and how we can help ourselves regulate our blood pressure with our diet.
Anyway, a long story short - after 6 days in the hospital and a lot of back and forth we decided, upon medical advice, to induce when I was only 37 weeks pregnant. I ended up having exactly the birth I had wanted to avoid, but I sure I am glad I practised hypnobirthing as it helped me stay positive through a very long labour which ended in an emergency c-section. The c-section was actually the most beautiful experience, and I will never forget hearing my little boy’s cry before I’d even seen him, and the incredible doctors holding him up when the curtain was lowered.
I still cannot believe I am a mum, it genuinely took me ages to truly grasp that I am his mother and I’m not just babysitting him for someone else! My husband and I love him so dearly and are very happy.
Now, those of you who have any experience with babies, your own or others’, will know that they completely take over your life. That may sound like a completely obvious thing to say - but I really cannot stress this enough - they completely take over your life. There is no planning. No getting bits and bobs done. Not only do you have your arms full, your brain is full too. With no sleep there is very little capacity for anything other than surviving and making sure the little creature does too! People who have bigger children keep reassuring me it gets easier, and I feel I am just about getting to a period now where things are …I wouldn’t say easy, but a bit more manageable.
I won’t make TFSB a baby themed outlet from now on, I promise that, but with everything I have learned and continue to learn, I certainly will be touching on topics like how to stay healthy during pregnancy (when all food is repulsive), how crucial nutrition is postpartum as well, and how to actually manage eating well when you have no time or energy. I have definitely been humbled by the lack of opportunity to cook in the last few weeks and have newfound empathy for parents who struggle with this. But don’t worry! It has not made me give up on from-scratch cooking, but rather get even more motivated to help you find easy ways to do it. We all need real, minimally processed food as this helps with sleep, energy and brain function!
This is a long-winded way of explaining the break in podcast episodes, YouTube videos and weekly newsletters, and to share a bit about what’s going on for me. New topics and recipes will now be starting to make a comeback, so do look out for them - make sure you are subscribed to my YouTube channel and my podcast, and signed up to my newsletter. Also follow me on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook if you haven’t already.
As always, do get in touch with any questions, or any tips you want to share with me and the community!