INTERVIEW ‘Born to be Beautiful’ author Donna Kennedy

Beauty with bump and beyond


Interview
Ciara Moynihan

‘Born to be Beautiful: How to look and feel amazing during and after pregnancy’, by Westport woman Donna Kennedy, has just hit the shelves. In the book, Donna, who has overcome severe anorexia and gone on to carve out a successful career as an author and motivational speaker, shares her advice on how to healthily maintain the body you want, both during and after pregnancy. Her ‘Born to be Beautiful’ pregnancy plan, developed during her own pregnancy, includes a nutrition guide, an exercise plan, goal templates tailored for the reader and her own recipes.   
A qualified psychologist, Donna Kennedy (34) grew up at The Quay, Westport, later moving to Carrabawn, just outside the town. She now lives and works in Lanzarote, but she is planning to return to Ireland. Here, she talks about what motivated her to write the book, and she shares some of her tips.

CM When did you decide to write this book?
DK I have epilepsy, so my pregnancy was planned. I started to write the book whilst I was pregnant with Ashton, so all the strategies in the book are those that I found to be effective myself and that mothers worldwide found to be most effective, in real life, not just in theory.
I researched everything for about six months, as I wanted to avoid all the negative side-effects of pregnancy, such as low confidence, stretch marks, excessive weight gain, hormone fluctuations and so on. I figured that if I could learn how other women (both in Ireland and across cultures and countries) were getting good results, I could do the same. And I have.

What motivated you?
I wrote this book because there was none of its kind available. I couldn’t believe it, considering the mother is the life-line to the child. All the books on pregnancy are baby-related, such as books about foetal development, baby development and so on. It’s like the mom gets forgotten, yet her happiness and health is fundamental to a happy healthy child.
I often work with women and the same two issues come up: low confidence and difficulties with getting a good physique. It made no sense to me that there was nobody actually showing the how-to. Sure, there is loads of information available to everyone, but people want to know what to do with it. They want to know ‘how’ to get results.
My book shows women exactly what they need to do to get the results they want. And there are five chapters that are applicable to all women, not just mothers.

You were just 23 when you started out as a motivational speaker. How did that career come about?
Yes. I had what you might call a few challenges in life. I guess people saw how I became successful despite those challenges and I was asked to speak for groups (business groups, forums, organisations etc.), to inspire others to achieve what they wanted in life. It went from there. Now I speak for thousands of people.

Your book is wide ranging, dealing with everything from diet to exercise, to coping with the physical changes associated with pregnancy. Which of these aspects did you find most challenging during your pregnancy?  
I overcame several challenges in my own life so at that stage my confidence was solid. I knew what to do to keep it that way. The part I was nervous about was the physical changes. I was worried I would have seizures (I had two when I was pregnant), that my baby would be okay, that I would get stretchmarks (I didn’t want them) or find it difficult to lose weight post pregnancy (it’s important to put on weight for your baby during pregnancy).
To deal with it, I simply learned the natural strategies other women all over the world were using to ensure they looked and felt amazing during and after pregnancy, whilst ensuring a healthy happy baby.

When you were pregnant, did your background as a psychologist help you cope? If so,  how?
To be honest, not really. Having an academic qualification is great for people who look for it in a professional setting but it doesn’t necessarily make you good at living life well or showing others how to. I didn’t get my most effective strategies from universities, I got them from having to deal with challenges myself and from learning to sink or swim.
In addition to that, I spend a lot of time with high achievers and I have learned a lot from them, people who have become super successful despite everything being stacked against them. If I want to learn anything well, I always look for someone who has got the result I want. That’s not necessarily someone who is well-qualified academically. I’m results driven, not theory driven.

What sort of advice does the book contain that is applicable to everyone, not just pregnant women?
We (women and men!) are born with confidence and the world is wide open to us as children, but as time goes on that confidence can get beaten out of us, by our environment, experiences, things that didn’t work out as planned etc. We tend to just accept life as we know it and not even question how it might be better. ‘I’m not good enough so I could fail’, ‘I’m not intelligent enough’, ‘I’m not young enough’, ‘What will people say?’ ‘Will I be laughed at?’ etc. These are all things all of us have said to ourselves at some point.
The problem is people say these kinds of things far too often, not because they want to settle for what they believe they can be, do or have, but because they don’t know how to make it better, and they worry about it not working out.
In the book, I show people how to go beyond those fears, embrace life full on and live it as though they were living life on purpose. The techniques I show are techniques we can all use to get great results. Throughout the book, I ask the reader to fill in exercises that will not only empower them, they give clear direction and focus to achieve any goal.
Let’s face it, we’ve all read books with great intentions of implementing the information, but never do. I make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone reading my book. I outline some of the exact things I did in my own life to get to where I am. And at one point I was given only a week to live so that gives you an idea of how powerful the information is. It’s real-life stuff that works.

In your experience, what is the most common mistake women make when they’re pregnant?
They compare themselves to other women and as a result try to be Supermom! There is no such thing as a woman who can be all things to all people, even if it seems that way. Every woman, including me, has off days, cries for no apparent reason, and messes up sometimes, but so what? If you are true to yourself, it’s just as matter of enhancing that.

When it comes to nutrition, how would you motivate a pregnant woman who loves junk food and has never before thought about eating healthily?
I would look at what the junk-food type is and why she might like to eat so much of it. It might surprise you to know that not all cravings or desires for certain food are eye or tummy driven. It may be the body’s way of balancing a mineral deficiency, an addiction to sugar, a hormone imbalance, thirst or an emotional crutch. It could be one or more of a number of things.
The aim is to identify why someone is eating so much junk and then work out a strategy to combat it, so that the person actually doesn’t want to eat  junk. The important thing is that women understand that they should never engage in fad diets. Dieting is not good - ever! Sure, you can lose weight temporarily but you will pile the lot back on when you stop the diet, making you feel miserable. The human brain does not like dieting and so it will fight against us if we try to go against what it needs, i.e. food.
My book does not promote dieting whatsoever, in fact it promotes eating. It’s important that you are healthy and feel good. It’s about working with your body, not against it, and if you do that (I show you how in the book) results are maintainable long term.
Taking that a step further I would help them enhance every asset they have by identifying their body structure, face shape and colour-type. This allows a woman to look drop-dead-gorgeous and is motivating in itself. I devote a chapter to this in the book. It’s a fun chapter with diagrams so it makes it really easy for any woman to identify what will make her look her best. Every woman should read this chapter!

What’s your favourite recipe in the book?
The Beauty Smoothie is my daily favourite because it’s so easy to make yet gives you all the nutrients needed for health, but I love also love Spanish omelettes and samosas!

Finally, if you had just one piece of advice to give women during pregnancy what would it be?
Be a first-class you, not a second rate somebody else! You can feel and look amazing by being the best version of yourself and including your baby in that.

‘Born to be Beautiful: How to look and feel amazing during and after pregnancy’ is available in bookstores and through Donna Kennedy’s website www.donnakennedy.com.